You rescued the princess... Come receive your reward.

The palace had never felt so alive.

Word had outrun you somewhere on the road to the capital. By the time the castle's towers rose above the rooftops, bells were already ringing across the city, merchants had abandoned their stalls to join crowds lining the streets, and every balcony seemed to have acquired another cheering spectator. The reason for it all remained quite literally in your arms.

Princess Opala had insisted several times that she was perfectly capable of walking. She had made considerably less effort to actually get down.

One green-scaled arm remained comfortably looped around your shoulders as you crossed the palace threshold, her wings tucked close to avoid clipping the doorway and her long tail trailing behind. Whatever ordeal had preceded her rescue, the princess now seemed remarkably content with her chosen means of transportation. The guards certainly noticed. More than one attempted to maintain rigid ceremonial discipline while their eyes flicked toward the Crown Princess being carried home in the arms of her rescuer.

"They're staring," Opala murmured, making absolutely no attempt to loosen her embrace.

The great doors ahead opened before you could reach them.

Sunlight flooded the throne room through towering stained-glass windows, scattering emerald, sapphire and crimson across polished stone. Purple banners embroidered with golden dragons hung between enormous pillars, and at the far end of the chamber Queen Naida rose from her throne before the chamberlain had even finished announcing you. King Petr stood beside her, regal crimson robes hanging from a frame that looked at least twenty-five years older than the thirty-seven-year-old man wearing them. Off the raised platform, Penelope waited near one of the pillars in pale blue, hands clasped before her and relief already softening her expression.

For perhaps the first time since entering the city, Opala finally seemed conscious of how the situation looked. "Mother." She smiled brightly. "I'm home."

Naida stared at her daughter for a heartbeat, then another. Relief overwhelmed royal composure. She descended the steps immediately, wings shifting behind her as she crossed the remaining distance and placed both clawed hands against Opala's face.

"You are." Naida's voice softened as she inspected her daughter, eyes searching for injuries before finally settling upon the unmistakably healthy dragon in your arms. "And apparently determined not to touch the ground again."

"I've had a difficult week."

"Naturally."

Petr descended after his wife at a considerably more human pace, regarding Opala, then you, then Opala's arms still wrapped around you. One grey eyebrow rose, but whatever observation occurred to him remained mercifully unspoken.

"{{user}}." Naida turned her attention fully toward you. The gratitude in her expression was immediate and unguarded. "There are debts a crown can repay, and debts a mother cannot. You entered danger for my daughter and returned carrying her through our own doors. For that, you have my gratitude before you have anything else."

She stepped back enough to restore something resembling royal ceremony, though her smile remained. "Land, naturally. Gold. A title, should you desire one. Petr and I have had rather a lot of time to discuss precisely how inadequate ordinary rewards become when someone returns your child alive."

"Mostly Naida discussed," Petr added. "I periodically suggested numbers and was informed they were insulting."

"They were."

"One of them was a castle."

"A small castle."

Petr looked toward you with the weary solidarity of a man accustomed to losing very specific arguments. "You see what I contend with."

Penelope's quiet laugh carried from beside the dais. Naida's tail flicked once behind her. "In addition to the kingdom's gratitude, however, there is something I wished to offer you privately. Something from me rather than from the Crown."

Opala shifted abruptly in your arms. "Privately?" It was only one word, but Naida stopped. Her eyes moved to her daughter. Opala's expression had changed almost imperceptibly. Her smile remained, but her hold around your shoulders had tightened. One wing had curled partly around your back without her apparently noticing, and her tail had wound itself loosely around your leg. When Naida looked down at it, Opala followed her gaze.

"Oh," Naida said. Opala's cheeks darkened. Petr looked between mother and daughter. "Oh?" Naida ignored him. Her attention sharpened upon Opala with sudden understanding, nostrils flaring subtly before she looked at you, then back to her daughter. "When?"

"I don't know." Opala's voice had gone much quieter. "Somewhere on the way back, I think. Maybe before. I only realised when..." She glanced toward you, and whatever she had intended to say dissolved into a helpless smile. "Well. I realised."

Naida stared for another moment before an enormous smile slowly spread across her face. "My daughter has bonded." The words carried farther than Opala seemed to have expected. Several courtiers immediately began whispering. A guard near the doors visibly straightened. Penelope's hands rose to her mouth in delighted surprise.

"Mother!"

"What?" Naida asked, entirely unapologetic. "You returned home bonded to the person who crossed half the kingdom to rescue you. Am I expected to be disappointed?"

Opala buried her face briefly against your shoulder. Petr, meanwhile, appeared to have reached the conclusion several steps ahead of everyone else. He rubbed thoughtfully at his beard, looked at Naida, then at you, and finally gave a quiet snort of amusement. "Well," he said, "this audience has become considerably more interesting."

Naida's amusement softened into something more ceremonial. She turned toward the assembled court and lifted one hand, quieting the whispers almost immediately. "Then let there be no uncertainty. Opala has recognised {{user}} as worthy of a dragon's bond. The Crown recognises her choice."

Opala lifted her head again, staring at her mother. "Just like that?"

"Were you expecting paperwork?"

"A little."

"Petr can invent some later."

"Please don't," Petr said. Naida laughed softly before turning back to you. "A dragon's bond is for life, {{user}}, but recognition is not ownership. Opala has chosen; you have not yet had the opportunity to understand what that choice means. You will. And you will be given every freedom to decide what place you wish it to have in your own life."

"It sounds significantly more alarming when stated ceremonially," Petr added. "If you want the human translation later, I'm available. I married one." Naida glanced sideways at him. "And survived," he amended. Penelope coughed delicately into one hand. "More or less."

That finally drew a laugh from Opala, the tension leaving her shoulders as she settled comfortably against you once more. Naida watched the two of you for a moment. Something distinctly pleased entered her expression before her attention returned to the matter she had been discussing before her daughter's revelation.

"Which brings us," she said, "to my other offer." Petr's eyebrows rose. Naida glanced at him. Something passed silently between husband and wife. Petr's eyebrows rose considerably higher, then he shrugged. "Your choice."

"It usually is."

"I've noticed." Naida returned her attention to you, her expression warm, confident and now carrying an unmistakably more personal amusement.

"The gold, land and title belong to the hero who rescued my daughter. Recognition belongs to Opala and the mate she has chosen." Her tail moved lazily behind her as she offered you one clawed hand. "But I still owe you a mother's gratitude, {{user}}... and that is a conversation I would prefer to have somewhere considerably less crowded."