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If Adeline hadn't known any better, she would have assumed her child had been the dragon of kingdom legends.
A streak or red fire(or rather, red hair) gliding like a comet through the kingdom. Carrying with her a passion, a fury, for her work. Stubborn to a fault, but always proud of such a flaw. Her ways kept guarded like a horde of precious cold. Not at all unlike a true dragon-
Like the one she had formed such a brothership with. And was it any wonder that the two were so drawn together? So alike and yet a perfect foil for one another. Keeping the other balanced.
And the kingdom on its toes. Whether the two were there or not…
Pulling her shawl tightly about her shoulders, Adeline stepped toward the window, squinting toward the growing sunrise in hopes of catching a glimpse of the pair as they prepared for their next adventure. A blanket of snow had fallen the night before, making it easy to spot anything that had disturbed its perfection… Or perhaps “disturb” wasn't the right word.
It was an understatement. That's what it was. Too soft of a term for the storm that was Jane and her dragon, especially in the quiet of the morning. The pair were as they lived. Loud. When they entered a space, they made sure that everyone knew.
In a flash, the duo broke through the one tranquil skyline, hooping and hollering happily as the green creature dipped and tumbled circles that had his rider red in the face from both cold and laughter. Her fingers were just as red, having foregone gloves in her rush to get ready for their morning flight.
Adeline felt a twinge in her heart at the sight. The mother wanted to rush to her child and loudly berate her for not dressing appropriately enough for the weather- to remind Jane that a threadbare jacket and scarf wasn't going to protect her from the elements, but she thought better of it.
Jane wouldn't listen in the slightest. Oh what a fight it had been just to get her to take the scarf. It wasn't until Adeline explained that the scarf had been an heirloom of sorts to another knight in the family did Jane wear it proudly…
That knight had been John D'Ark
A knight sworn in long before Jane had even been a consideration; Most called him Sir John. As great a man as he was a fighter and twice as loyal to the crown. Braver and more stubborn than most but humble all the same…Adeline knew him as ‘Father’.
She thought back fondly to days such as this, wrapped in her shawl. A woman- No, a mere teenager at the time, gazing out at the snow(or any weather for that matter) for any sign of her father before his departure. Sir John was much like his granddaughter in the sense he was never hard to find; Though he would have been much easier to spot had he also had a dragon companion.
Back in those days, Sir John D'Ark wasn't visible from the back of a green dragon, rather, he could be picked out from a crowd by a green scarf draped across his back. It would trail behind him like the tail of the comet. He used to toss it around his shoulders on colder days, like a blanket, or around the shoulders of his daughter had he thought her too chilled to be outside.
“Adeline. You'll catch your death out here!” He'd say as he set the fabric about her.
“But father! I want to see you off.” Adeline would pout, “I'm not fragile. A little cold won't harm me. It's *you* I'm worried about!”
The knight let out a roaring laugh, “Worried for me? Darling, I'm a knight. Forged from Iron and just as strong. A bit of snow and wind is nothing.” He smiled and ruffled his child's hair. “Now go run in before the chill sets in your bones. I'll be back in a week's time.”
The young girl chuckled and handed her father back his scarf. She knew better than to insist otherwise. Her father then bowed and she wrapped the fabric tightly about his neck (which he joked would kill him faster than the weather!) And pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“Fine, but I'm going to knit you a better scarf while you're away! Something warmer. And when you return, I'm throwing that one away!”
John rolled his dark eyes, proudly tossed the tail of his scarf over his shoulder and was off with the other's.
As promised, he had returned in a week's time. Unlike her own promise, Adeline never did toss the scarf, though she had knitted others like it. Instead she had washed it and mended any holes it came back with. As she did every time until her father had retired and hung up both his sword and scarf for good.
It remained on a hook in a large chest that sat in Adeline's room for many years until it was needed again when Jane was sworn in as a squire. When they eventually had their aforementioned argument about the dang thing!
Adeline chuckled at the memory. Had she been anywhere near as stubborn as her daughter that day, perhaps she would have ended up as the near freezing rider of a dragon! Or a knight dressed in a green scarf! But no. She was reasonable…
Yes, that was the word. Reasonable to a fault.
“If only my father had left behind some gloves.” Adeline mused, turning in from the cold to go and search for a pair. “It would save Jane and myself another argument.”
From behind her, she could still hear the duo's laughter and couldn't help but chuckle to herself. She would let them have a bit more fun first. Take a bit more time than she usually would to find warmer clothes for Jane, and maybe some for Dragon too. Perhaps she'd sew the bedding together into a scarf all his own.
Her father's deep, roaring laughter echoed in her head at the thought.