Blood of Dragons

Perhaps once one realised how deeply one could bond with a creature as foreign as a dragon, all forms of human love seemed more acceptable.

Humans could never accept the world as it was and live in it. They were always breaking it and living amongst the shattered pieces.

Axes bit wood into pieces and hammers nailed it back together. Humans could never accept the world as it was and live in it. They were always breaking it and living amongst the shattered pieces.

He thought perhaps it was a woman's way, to come out of such a storm of emotion and pain as if she were a ship emerging onto calm seas. She had seemed, not at peace, but emptied of sorrow. As if she had run out of that particular emotion and no other one arose to take its place.

A man’s deep friendships were the most important thing he could possess. Things can be broken, or lost. All a man can keep for certain are the things in his mind and heart.

Dragons. A sky full of dragons.

Dawn," Thymara scoffed. "I think the dragons meant, "After we wake up and when we feel like it.

It is hard for loneliness to gaze on happiness.

There can be much more to a decision than you can know at this stage of your life.

But worst of all is, while you are swimming in memories, what are you not doing here? What experiences are you missing, what chances pass you by? A year from now, what will you say about these seasons, what will you remember?

Sometimes it seems worrying is something I feel like I have to do, that maybe worrying about them actually keeps them alive and real

She closed her mouth. The abruptness of the kiss and Tats’s assumption that something had just changed between them took her breath away. She should have pushed him away.

They do as we do, my dear. They take what joy they may find in life as they can. As you well know that Skelly has run off to do tonight, also. The shadows of harsh times creep over us. For in a battle between dragons and men, my love, it is not only the Elderlings who must decide where they stand, but you and me as well.

He has had his wish. He will not bow his head.

The stones were hard beneath them. Malta had her husband and her firstborn son at her side and the dragon who had shaped all their lives. Life and death merged at this spot, an untidy tangle of endings.

Words came in a whisper. ‘Now is all we really have, isn’t it?

Tears were running down her cheeks but a smile trembled on her lips. 'We will still die together." With a shaking hand, she reached for the teapot. 'Will you have a last cup of tea with me?' He turned his gaze on her. An odd calmness was welling up in him. 'I would rather have a kiss. My first and last, I think.' 'Your first kiss?' He laughed shakily. 'My circumstances have not lent themselves to the giving or receiving of kisses.' She blinked and the tears spilled faster. 'For me, also.' She leaned a little closer to him and then stopped. He looked at her. She had closed her eyes. Her hair was sleek, her skin like cream, her lips pink. Her first kiss would come from a scaled dragon-man. He leaned in and found her mouth with his. He kissed her softly, unsure of how it was done, expecting her to pull away in revulsion. Instead, when he leaned back, she was smiling through her tears. 'To be touched by a man, with gentleness,' she said, as if that wonder were so great, it dispelled the circling dragons.

He said that the longer life is, the more important it is to keep your friends, to not have quarrels that can be avoided.” His smile faded a bit, and for a time he looked troubled. “He said that, as a soldier, he had learned that a man’s deep friendships were the most important thing he could possess. Things can be broken, or lost. All a man can keep for certain are the things in his mind and heart.

They were petty and selfish." "They were miserable and hungry and helpless. I don't think I've ever met anyone who was miserable, hungry and helpless who was not also petty and selfish. The situation brings out the worst in everyone.

For a moment, she teetered on accepting that. A man who loved her: what more did a woman need from life? Then she gritted her teeth as if she were going to tear a bandage from a partially healed wound. No, It wasn't enough. Not for her. It was time to put an end to all pretences. Time to be done with that life. Time to stop telling herself that if and when Leftrin returned and said he loved her, all would be well. What of her could he love? When all was stripped away, what part of her was real and worthy of his love? What of person would cling to the hope that someone else would return to give meaning to her life? What sort of quivering parasite needed someone else to validate her existence?

a man who bears himself with authority will often have authority ceded to him.

She could change. She wasn’t chained to her past. She could become someone who wasn’t merely a product of what others had done to her. It wasn’t too late.

We are marching toward death as soon as we are born. The only hope a man has is that his family line will remain, that his sons will go forward to father more sons, and that his name will be remembered by them.

The man’s arrogance knows no bounds. No matter what anyone says or does to him, he sees the world only as it relates to him and what he wants. You haven’t truly seen how he is. Any situation, he always finds a way to turn to his advantage. He will find some sort of profit from this. Some advantage for himself. Nothing else has ever mattered to him.

He spoke so quickly, built his logic so fast that by the time she’d seen the fault of his reasoning in one thought, he was ten thoughts away from it. His voice was low and reasonable, but she felt battered by his words.