Note: this is a work of fiction, all characters involved are over 18.
On a bright sunny day, Princess Laele stepped across the fields of the high hills north of Underhewn. Sun warmed her skin and the cooler spring wind teased her sundress as she held a hand to her brow, surveying the landscape and mountains ahead.
"Princess Laele," with a loud clanking an overarmored squire trotted to her side, gasping a bit at the weighted exertion. "Princess Laele, the king has requested we turn back immediately-"
"I don't need much more than a few cloves of harpy's kiss, and I can see them from here."
"-Princess Laele, but the merchants saw a-"
"Dragon? Hardly. Dragons nest in volcanoes and deep fissures in the earth. We have neither here. Father should worry less about tall tales, especially ill as he is."
"But-" as the squire blustered, Laele strode forward to a little clearing humming to herself. She sat before a red blossom, smiling at the pair of pursed lips as she used a small knife to dig up the root.
As she sang she could hear the lighter sound of a heartbeat deep in the blue of the sky. The sound drew a smile at the corners of her lips, and she busied herself with cutting the bulb from the little plant.
The heartbeat grew stronger, the horses uneasy. The stout squire tried his best to wrangle them but his own legs could only carry himself so quickly. The heartbeat grew even stronger. She could feel the sensation in the earth as she placed a hand on the loose dirt, feel the sensation through her chest.
"DRAGON!"
In a burst of gleaming light a dragon clad in the sun dove from clouds above, great jaws open with a powerful roar that shook Laele to her core. She rose, a knowing smile atop her lips as she looked up to him and sang "Gallerus" to herself. Her eyes met the dragons, then she allowed herself a practiced, terrified scream.
The dragon's wings pinned to his back, letting him pitch forward in a dive. The melody was back, it guided him through the clouds to the green world below. She stood atop flowered hills, adorned so sweetly. Even from so far he could detect the fragrance of her skin, the feelings it stirred roiling in his chest as he loosed a fearsome roar as he dove from the heavens.
With a harder beat of his wings the dragon slowed his dive, powerful claws outstretched, he cut his momentum enough to take the princess into his claws. His grasp drew a gasp from her as his muscles tensed and drew her to him tight, pinned against the soft, heated scales of his dull gold underbelly. He loosed another roar that sent tremors through the earth, the sensation drawn against the princess pinned to his chest as he kicked from the ground climbing high into the air with each beat of his wings.
____________________________________
The dragon's powerful snarls and roars soon became laced with the princess's laughter, so elated and carefree, she nestled in his arms as his familiar saffron scent came over her. She relaxed into his hold, traced over the divides and plates of his tougher scales.
"Gal? GAL! They get the picture. You can stop now."
The dragon let a roar trail into a trill, banked lazily above the mountains. "Not all of those roars were for them."
"No? Who were they for? I'm sure the birds make for fierce competition but I promise I won't let them carry me away."
Gallerus snorted a wisp of smoke. "It is not yet the twenty third day."
"Well. Obviously it's been some time. Your piano has likely lost another wire to your zeal. If not I shudder to think what you've done to your poor harp."
The dragon angled his wings into a winding dive and descended down towards a grassy valley between snowy peaks.
"My "poor harp" is not only in excellent condition, but finely tuned." He spoke allowing his amusement to show.
"I'll believe it when I see it. Why else would I call for you before the twenty third day?"
Claws touched down with ease, letting his weight settle before letting the princess's feet reach the grass. Gallerus allowed his front legs to come down sending a tremor beneath Laele's feet as she stepped forward towards the arching mouth of Gallerus's lair.
____________________________________
Always awed by the array of instruments that the dragon meticulously arranged within his lair, Laele entered the amphitheater of an entrance hall. As the dragon followed her, her head just coming up to his chest, his tail flicked and a few violins rose to play, a little quartet forming their own well rehearsed tune.
"I've found something new Laele, I'm not sure I should tell you what it's called." The dragon trotted ahead, head dipped down to a compartment in the floor.
"So you're keeping something from me. Something wonderful and it will eat at me forever and ever because you chose to keep it from me," she teased, her eyes lifted up along the glint of his golden scales in the dimmer light of his lair. As Gallerus leaned in she couldn't help but notice the sway of his tail, eyes following the motion up to his muscular thighs, tenser as he leaned into the compartment. She could feel her face flush and she forced herself to be distracted.
"I don't know if you can handle talking about this instrument by its name, you haven't convinced me." He rose with an instrument case in his jaws, stepped around her and lay on his side setting it before them both. "Open it."
Laele relaxed into his belly as he curled around her, his warmth so familiar. Her hands met the sandy soft scales of his underbelly before turning her attention to the case.
She opened it, revealing a kind of violin with moving parts to it, a wheel beneath the strings. "Where did you find something like this?" Laele found her words to be more skeptical than she expected.
With a wave of his claw Gallerus dismissed the quartet, and a crank on the instrument turned winding it. It released , drawing a haunting, dry melody from the instrument. It quickly turned upbeat, more jaunty, playful, and Laele recognized the tune.
