Equal time for the opposite sex. Here’s Rolf from BLOOD WILL TELL, in his own words:
My name is Hrolf Golden-Wing. Away from the Dragon Cliffs, I usually go by Rolf and I use Golding as a last name on your side of the portals. I have to use dragon magic to mask my true appearance, of course. Humans tend to be uncomfortable looking into golden, slit-pupiled eyes. And any hint of scales only makes it worse. You can’t help it, it’s instinct bred into you millions of years ago.
As anyone knowledgeable in such things would know from my name, I’m a gold dragon. I am the second born and second son of the Matriarch of the dragons. Although I’m the second son, my father’s title of Protector passed to me on my two-hundredth birthday, because my older brother, Drake, is an undragon.
That may take a little explaining. Dragons can be born in either human or dragon form. We begin to come into our dragon magic at about twenty years old, but those born in human form sometimes fail to gain full control of their magic. Some of them never learn to make the change to dragon form. They are undragons. Drake is the first undragon to be born among the gold dragons in almost five thousand years.
Of course, the role of Protector is mostly ceremonial, now. The dragons have not taken part in the politics of Chimeria for almost two hundred years. But once, I would have led my Companions to defend and preserve the peace of Chimeria. From what I’ve seen, both in Chimeria and on your side of the portals, we may well be needed again.
Sometimes, I travel around Chimeria as a finder of magical antiquities. It’s not all show. Mother often sends me after specific objects. You see, the dragons made all of the magical artifacts thousands of years ago, so humans wouldn’t be at a disadvantage in Chimeria. Now, the elders have decided that some of those objects are too dangerous for humans, so Mother sends me to retrieve them. In fact, I’m supposed to be finding a couple of artifacts right now.
Mother sends me on these little quests because she thinks I need something to make me be more serious. She thinks that mostly because, although I passed my two-hundredth birthday some time ago, I still haven’t chosen a formal mate and settled down to produce another heir for my title. I enjoy the company of females–all sorts of females, so long as they’re strong. And there’s so much variety out there. I believe in the sacredness of a vow. Once I take a vow to one female, I will keep it, so I have to sample as much of that variety as I can, first.
Come to think of it, in all my two hundred and forty-five years, I’ve never been with a werewolf. That could be interesting for both of us. They’re said to be very passionate, especially at the full moon. And, with roughly two hundred and twenty five years of experience, I’ve learned a few tricks myself.
Don’t look at me like that. Of course I’m still looking for those artifacts, but all work and no play . . .
I like Rolf already.
The undragon situation is interesting. I wonder how Rolf and Drake get along.
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Rolf and Drake get along pretty well. They’re not in any kind of competition with each other, after all. Rolf sometimes annoys Drake by trying to persuade him to keep trying. Drake occasionally reminds Rolf that he’s allowing his attention to wander away from his mission. Then. too, they don’t see that much of each other. Drake stays almost exclusively on this side of the portals, where being an undragon doesn’t matter, and Rolf spends most of his time in Chimeria. But they’d go through fire for each other, if the need arose. Of course, being dragons (or undragons) fire isn’t all that frightening to them.
I really should do a character sketch of their baby sister, Kamara. But she won’t be important until the sequel.
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