Humility
In his rooms, in the palace of Illian, the Dragon was sleeping and having very odd dreams. One in particular disturbed him.
It started with the Amyrlin yelling at him and saying she was going to smack him around. That wasn’t the disturbing part. Kathana was a foul-tempered little excuse for an Amyrlin Seat and tended towards violence when frustrated. The disturbing part was that she was starting to be...nice to him.
Instead of calling him "Tattoo-boy", she was smiling and calling him, "My Lord Dragon." Instead of threatening to beat him with a shovel, she asked if there was anything she could do to help him win Tar’mon Gaidon. Phoenix was beginning to be very, very afraid.
Suddenly he woke up. "I don’t think so, Kathana." He said, "I see what your trying to do and it won’t work. You have to do it for real."
"Fine! We’ll do it your way!"
The fantasy the Amyrlin had concocted to save her pride melted away, leaving him standing in the Hall of the Tower. Kathana marched in, standing as tall as she could, obviously not happy with him. Good, she was doing what she was supposed to for once.
"You know I’m going to have to kill you later for this."
"Ah, that’s not a good start, Mother." he said with a chuckle.
She glared up at him and muttered something unintelligible.
"Louder. I don’t think I heard you right."
"IlovebeingyourlittleAmyrlinpet."
"What was that?"
"I said, I love being your little Amyrlin pet! There! Are you satisfied?"
He shook his head, still chuckling. "You're not done yet, Mother."
She winced and took a deep steadying breath, and then she knelt and kissed his feet. "Are you happy now?" She demanded.
"Yes." He grinned at her.
"Good, because you really need to change your socks." She laughed and swept regally out of the Hall.
