Page 68 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

“You’ve had a grammar lesson?” said Iahir.

“I hate you,” said Gathren to him. “I despise you. You have no idea how desperately I feel this.”

Iahir cleared his throat.

“As I was saying,” said the dragon, “we dragons are not this way. So, when we decide to take a companion, it is one of another species.”

“It seems to me that all you do is take things,” said Gathren, gesturing around at the lair. “None of this is yours. And companions are not things one takes. If a person wishes to be a companion to someone else, they choose it. If you lock up my mother, you take away her choice.”

“Well, see, this is exactly what I was saying,” said Iahir. “Though the, erm, the chaining up bit, I think that’s… well, that’s rather a common practice.”

Gathren rounded on him. “You’re being disgusting. He’s a dragon. That’s… impossible.”

Iahir shrugged. “Impossible? One thing I know is that when it comes to… that, people are very, very creative and innovative.”

“Oh, you—”

“Now, I know it’s your mother, so—”

“Yes, let’s leave this,” spoke up her mother. “Really, the truth is, whatever the case, I have lived a long life all on my own with no one, and… Tafnir and I…” There was a sigh. “Well, you do not need me anymore, Gathren, you know?”

“So, I’m to leave you here, chained up with this monster?” said Gathren.

“I would prefer it if he would let me free,” said her mother. “I have been saying to you, Tafnir, again and again, that I will not leave. And this, you see, this would be the ultimate test. Because if you let me go, and I stayed here with you, while my own daughter left, that would prove it, would it not?”

Tafnir made a noise in the back of his throat, but he didn’t answer.

“He’s insecure, you see,” said her mother. “He’s been rejected a number of times in his very long life.” There was a tenderness, a familiarity, in her voice. “So, it is difficult for him to trust. He is not cruel. He is only frightened.”

Gathren scoffed. “He is selfish.”

“Perhaps,” said Tafnir. “But one does not hold a hoard of riches without understanding that all creatures are full of selfish greed.”

“That is what love is,” said her mother. “It is a possessiveness. Love isn’t about being fair, it’s about belonging to someone, belonging in a way you do not belong to others. Why, Gathren, you must see that I don’t love you because of what you do or how you behave or anything like that. I love you because you are mine. That is why a mother loves a child. And it does not matter what sort of child the child is, the mother loves that child regardless. Now, of course, I am lucky to have you as my daughter, and you are so very, very extraordinary.” Her mother’s voice softened in the way it softened when she spoke of her love for her.

Gathren felt herself responding to it. Truly, she supposed she’d never thought of it that way before, but she supposed her mother was right. A good mother did not withhold love from her child for any reason. A good mother just loved.

“Well,” spoke up Iahir, “it’s clearly different when it comes to a romantic love, though, because that’s a choice. You don’t choose your child, but you do choose who you make one with.”

“Oh, spoken like a man,” muttered Gathren.

Iahir winced. “All right, I shall give you that,” he said in a different voice.

“Well, I certainly wasn’t forced to lie with your father, Gathren,” said her mother, sighing. “He was the High Chieftain of Arzakh. I was hardly displeased at the notion.”

Iahir smirked.

“Well, you couldn’t have said no to a man like that,” said Gathren. “I have seen how these things go.”

“At any rate, love is not required to make a child,” said her mother softly. “Love, however, is required to stay.” She looked at Tafnir. “I would stay, love. If you never trust me, this can never be real between us.”

Tafnir huffed again. “Thou wilt wish to go away. Thou wilt wish to visit thy offspring.”

“Perhaps, but then I could come back. Or she could come and visit us,” said her mother, smiling at Gathren. “You’ll come to like Tafnir, I think, if you but give it some time.”

“You can’t just…” Gathren crossed her arms over her chest. “You can’t just act as if this is my new stepfather or something, Mam. This is unnatural. He is a dragon. He is a monster, as I have said.”

“They think we orcs are monsters,” countered her mother.