Rhiannon frowned. Today, was the day she would see her parents again. Although she was happy to see them, she felt extremely unsure about how they would react. Yes, she had told them, what she had become. Miriam, Merlin and Morgan had had videocalls with them, too. But still seeing was much different from being hearing about it and a video couldn’t convey the feeling of standing in front of a huge dragon.

The young woman looked at the old clock in the edge of Merlin’s library. 10.30. Right now, they should be boarding their last flight, that would finally bring them to the city the university was in. Miriam’s driver would fetch them there and then take them to the city mansion. There they would meet. Everything was planned. Up to the point of which of the knights would be honoured by carrying them. Rhiannon had proposed to do it herself, but as future-queen she had been told to avoid such things that were frowned upon. For her to do it would be seen as brutish, if a knight to did it in her stead, it would be seen as an honour for the knight.

Politics. She abhorred those silly rules and obligations, but to no avail. As Morgan’s bride and as a royal dragon, she was royalty, now. Strings and machinations would always belong to her future-life. That was exactly why she had always declined when one of her friends had asked her if she wanted to be a princess, even as a child she had never wanted that kind of attention. But here she was. Ironic, wasn’t it? She smirked at her own gallows humour.

Thinking of her task again, she sighed and tried to concentrate on the article Merlin had given her to read. It had been written by the Council’s official spokesperson. On any other day she would have been fascinated, for it was about the consequences of the two interplanar wars, IPW I and II, and the Ley-Line-Sealing, which was part of the second sealing.

Ley-Lines. Magical veins, that once connected the Mortal realms to the Immortal realms. Their sealing had ended the era of magic affluence. Something that had affected the whole development of society. The belief in magic was declared to be superstitious, with a little help of the clans, that felt their powers being drained to a mere shadow of what they had been.

Substitutes were found and invented. Technology and such had made their way out of the shadows into the light. Without the sealing, who knows, if there would have ever been the internet and modern medicine? Merlin, who had a strong believe in the inevitability of progress, always argued those things would have been developed anyway. Morgan on the other hand always argued, they wouldn’t. Rhiannon, herself wasn’t sure. She didn’t like to give the clans as much power over humanities’ development, it didn’t feel right to her. Normal people were powerful on their own right. Saying anything else was haughty in her eyes.

An arrogance the clans and especially the council surely possessed. But what could one expect of a bunch of mighty creatures who had lived centuries? Their education, though it never stopped, had been majorly influenced by norms and ethics of their time. Merlin was over 1000 years old. A fact she tended to forget. He had spent his youth at Camelot when the clans had been at their prime. But that wasn’t the case now. Maybe because of the lack magic, maybe because of other things, they sure had lost the power to overthrow nations easily. She even doubted they ever had such power. It felt more like old geezers ranting about their glory days and how it all had been better in the past.

Sure, the clans and their magic had dominated quite a bit of society, but this domination had already been on decline, ever since the eradication of the fifth major clan, the druids. Having only a human form, they hadn’t been as alien as the other clans in the eyes of normal humans. They had been a link, one that was missing, even now. They had left a gap, one that the vampires tried to fill with all their might, even though they were the only clan, that actually fed on humans for their survival. The monsters, how they framed the other clans, had in reality no such interest. Merlin who had fought humans in the middle-ages always joked his only prey amongst humans were women. For other uses that was… developing a taste for human flesh didn’t occur to them, there was much tastier game.

Aside from such gorier topics, that still created a sense of insecurity in her, she really loved reading the clans’ version of historical events. It tended to differ in many aspects from the version that was taught as true in normal schools. Especially in the chain of events. Cause and effect. But today her mind wandered off, every time she tried to concentrate on the sheet before her.

It strongly reminded her of her studies. Though she still loved animals and veterinary medicine her reality with being a future leader of a major clan, at Morgan’s side, naturally, tended to fill her mind to the brim. Subjects, she would have loved otherwise, were becoming a mere nuisance to her. Only her improved intellect allowed her to keep up with the class, despite her lack of studying.

Her friends at university had often sighed over her absentmindedness. They understood, but that didn’t mean they welcomed the change in priorities. It had gotten better, since she had had her coming out as a dragon. For now, they knew what occupied her mind that completely.

It had been quite an incident, telling them. Rhiannon had had to ask Miriam, who had allowed it almost immediately, but had set the condition for them to sign a magic contract. It was written in runes and made the signing party forget the information given, if ever forced to spill it otherwise. The contract was designed to save both parties, one from discovery and the other from being tortured or anything. Her friends had signed it without much fuss. Later she was even allowed to take them into the mountain to show them around. They had loved riding on a dragon. Rhia smiled at the memory. She could only hope, that her parents would be half as enthusiastic.

The coming out and showing her true form to them had served her as a final rehearsal, before showing herself to her parents. They knew and said they had no problem with it. Having her friends react as positive, as they had, had helped calming the young dragoness’ worries quite a bit. Because, sure it would have had sucked, if her friends would have renounced their friendship, due to her being a dragon, but she would have been able to handle it. If her parents rejected her, it would be much harder on her.

Morgan, who knew her worries, always said ‘Don’t worry, darling. They would never think of rejecting you. You are their child, plus you are adorable, in any form.’ Her arguing, about him being biased, he only waved off and said ‘So are they.’ Rhia smiled at the memory of his totally sincere eyes. But her anxiety remained.

Then her phone rang and freed her of her struggle to concentrate. Merlin, who had observed her futile tries, smirked at her relief. Rhiannon rolled her eyes at this. Her over a 1000-year-old master made fun of her like a peer.

‘Hello?’ she answered the call. It was an unknown number, her first guess as always, was her mother calling, for she had blocked her phone number from being displayed since ages.

‘Hello, darling, we have landed. Your driver has already got our luggage and we are now heading towards your clan’s city mansion.’ Her mother answered.

Rhia’s heartrate rose immediately. She could feel it in her throat. A rollercoaster in her stomach. They had arrived. Clearing her throat, she said ‘Okay I will get over there, now. I am really looking forward to see you in person.’

‘We can’t wait to see, too, honey.’ Her mother replied and Rhiannon could hear the smile in her voice. They hang up and the young dragon turned towards the old wizard, who smiled knowingly at his fidgeting student.

‘They are on their way.’ Rhia stated the obvious.

‘Let’s get ready, hatchling.’ Merlin smiled, using a term he had not used since the cave. Rhia shot him a questioning look.

‘All I want to say is, that there is nothing to fidget about. No need to fear anything, they are your parents and if they love you, they won’t change that, if not they don’t deserve you. We will be always there for you. You will outlive them by centuries, anyway. No one that breaks your heart deserves you, you are like a daughter to me.’ Merlin answered with a stern expression.

Rhiannon knew he meant every word he said and the steel in her voice made her fear for anyone who dared to cross her. Including Morgan, who seemed to feel the same, as he shrunk back to his place awkwardly.

‘Thank you.’ Rhiannon said and smiled shyly.

******************************************************************************

Morgan, Merlin and Rhia went down to the hangar. Already in dragon form they hurriedly flew over to the mansion- Rhiannon wanted to arrive before her parents arrived.

She didn’t want to greet them in dragon form. It felt awkward to even think about this possibility, even though she knew her two worlds were about to collide and it was to be seen how that would end.

Changing back into her human form she was entirely happy, that her clothes changed with her, for she felt she would have struggled dressing with her hands shaking like that.

Then she heard the sound of tires on the gravel drive. They had arrived.

Looking over to Morgan, she saw she was not the only one fidgeting about the upcoming meeting. Well, she thought that was normal, since, dragon-prince or not, he was meeting his in-laws for the first time. She gulped. Another topic, she had yet to talk about. Miriam had asked her not to talk about it early, since she wanted to propose the engagement in the proper way. Another thing about royalty…

The doorbell rang and the mansion’s keeper went to the door. She had been told to wait for them in the living room, with Morgan and Merlin. Miriam herself would be meeting them in the throne-room. Proper etiquette and all. That made her feel like they wanted to put her parents in their place, even before meeting her, like she was not their daughter, but some higher-ranking person. She would have never agreed to it, if she didn’t know it was for their safety. Meeting them on the lawn before the house would send the wrong message to their subjects. The other dragons of the clan. Once they were officially acknowledged by Miriam they would be treated like state-guests. But right now, they were fair game in the eyes of some of the more feral among the clans’ people. Dragons and others alike. They were druid-blood, not human. That made the situation worse. Then she saw them. Her father tall and handsome for his years, streaks of grey framing his temples. His green eyes contrasting his black hair, he looked like the prototype of a middle-aged Celtic man. Her mother, young for her years with a light tan, that would never fade even in the longest of winters. Sharp grey eyes and shoulder-long dark brown locks made her look stern until she spotted her daughter and a smile divided her face like the sun clouds in the sky.

Then she hugged them and cried as the tension of the last months disappeared. Suddenly she knew everything was going to be alright.