The Dragon's Apprentice (4)

“When is the bridal auction?” The dragon asked several hours later. Lynn didn’t even look up from the rings she was carefully sorting into several piles even though he knew how sensitive a subject it was for her.
Every five years in Lynn’s village every unmarried woman of marriageable age was collected and, for one day, offered up to the highest bidder be they slaver or single male looking for a wife as long as they could pay the asking price. Usually it was uneventful enough with only the single males from the town and maybe a few from the next town over making any kind of appearance, though Lynn knew from the older women that that wasn’t always the case. The year that Lynn’s own mother had been purchased by Lynn’s father a slaver from the capital had attended the auction and outbid everyone for her mother’s best childhood friend who had been taken away and never heard from again.
Only the oldest daughters were exempt from the auction as they were seen as the symbol of a family‘s wealth. The greater the dowry behind the eldest female child the higher the social standing of the family left behind after her marriage. In most cases the money gained by selling off any other daughters was added to the dowry of the eldest.
Lynn herself wouldn’t technically be old enough for the auction this year until five days past the auction’s date, but it had been decided for her that she would attend the auction anyway since she was so close to the correct age and the next auction wouldn’t be for five more years. By then the money raised by auctioning her off wouldn’t help her sister’s dowry as it would only be another year before her sister would be considered “past her prime” at the ripe old age of nine-teen. She therefore had to be married before that dreaded date.
Lynn sighed loudly and flicked another ring into a pile.
“The auction’s tomorrow,” She said and shook her head, “Though I don’t think it matters.”
“Oh? And why not?” He asked as he doodled absently in the ashes of the fire with one long, white claw.
She laughed almost bitterly. “Because no one who knows me is going to want me. I’m the ugly duckling, Vaden. Everyone knows that I’m eccentric. Odd. The best I’m ever going to be able to hope for is that eventually everyone will leave me alone or that I’ll somehow find the means to leave. Marriage is never going to be an option for me.”
He looked up at her with keen interest. “Do you actually want to get married?” He asked, scaly eyebrows raised.
Lynn shrugged. “Eventually. I’d like it to not be to a perfect stranger, but I have the feeling that the only way anyone is ever going to want me is if they don’t know me first.”
“Oh, come now, that’s not fair. You’re a very lovely, bright young woman with many valuable attributes. To add to that you’re a very bright young woman who has been taught magic by a dragon. That looks very good on a resume.”
Lynn laughed. “Maybe in the rest of the world, but not in Gold Spring nor in any of the towns surrounding it.” She tossed another ring into a pile.
Vaden snorted and a smoke ring traveled up to the ceiling where it disappeared into the dark. “My dear, it should not be you worrying about them liking you, but them worrying about you liking them. Don’t you want to say who you mate instead of having it chosen for you?” He asked.
“Of course, but such freedom to choose is a luxury for the eldest daughters,” She said as she tried one ring on, holding it up in the light as it sat on her finger to see how it shone. He watched it intently until she took it off and tossed it, too, aside. “Besides,” She added, “There is only one male I can think of wanting and I’m afraid that I’ll never be able to have him.”
“Oh? And why not?” The dragon asked again. His hands stilled in front of him.
The silence lengthened until all that could be heard was the crackling of the torches. "Lynn?" His tone was commanding and brooked no argument.
“Because he’s scaly and bad tempered,” She said to her lap and stood abruptly, scattering a handful of rings. “I need air. I’ll be back to finish this.”
With that she headed for the exit, but he beat her to it. Moving with inhuman speed he slapped his tail across the only easy way out and lowered his head to stare directly into her face when she pulled up short.
“Did you mean that?” He asked and tilted his head until one of his large eyes took up her entire field of vision.
She shrugged.
“Answer the question, Lynn. Did you mean that?” He asked again. She met her own eyes reflected back at her from the depth of his gaze.
“Yeah, not that anything can come of it, right?” He didn’t answer and stared at her so long that she fidgeted. “Right, Vaden?”
At last he just nodded slowly, sat up, and looked deliberately away from her. She sighed and looked away, too.
“Crushing on the teacher. Pretty pathetic, huh?” She said at last.
“No, Lynn,” He said and slithered back to the fireside where he curled up like a very large, scaly cat.
She sighed, looked from the exit then back to the dragon, then finally settled again to her seat amongst the rings where she resumed her careful sorting.