Chapter 8 Crafts and gold mine

Today is a special day, or at least it is to me. Brenton and I have been married for a whole month. It has been so amazing! None of my relationships have ever lasted this long before! I wanted to do something special for Brenton today. But I am not sure if I should. Is it appropriate to celebrate one month of a marriage? I suppose I should ask Brenton. But that would also ruin any surprise!

I turned over in our bed and looked at my beloved husband. I have grown so fond of him. It is safe to say that I truly love him. He is such an amazing person. Get back on track Joy! He is sleeping soundly.

I got up and began my chores for the day. I was told that, being lady of the house, I did not ever have to lift a finger again. But that is just not how I do things. How boring would it be if all I did all day was laze about. I would not enjoy it! So, from my first day to now I made up my own chore list.

Every day I would pick up any of our hurriedly discarded clothing, and lay them on the chair by the entrance to our room. I never wanted anyone to find my dirty underwear in, on, or under anything in our room. But I let the servants clean the room other than that.

Next I would go to the bathroom. I made sure I always put everything back where I got it from. I would wipe everything down too. You could not tell I had ever been in there, save for a dirty towel now and then.

At breakfast, Brenton would eat with me every day, I picked up all the dirty dishes. I took them to the kitchen. But the kitchen staff would never let me help with cleaning them.

The servants did not like me doing as much as I did. They would constantly tell me, "You are a dragons wife now. That means you live in a life of leisure and convenience." But that is just not how I was raised! The servants have been trying to get me into knitting, crocheting, beading, even music amongst other things. The only thing that really got my attention was crafting.

I was learning how to make all sorts of things out of dragon scales. From jewelry, to lamp shades, to clothing. It was interesting all the different ideas I was coming up with. Where did I get all those dragon scales you might ask. Well pretty quickly after we were married. I found that with nearly each transformation, from dragon to human, a dragon sheds his old scales.

Brenton is very neat at this. He leaves neat piles of his scales. Each scale is different and of different sizes too. They range from the size of a mustard seed to the size of a large man's thumb nail. Brenton says that the big scales are shed once a month, and those scales can be up to the size of a man's head. I do not know what I am going to do with those scales but I will figure out something soon.

Something else I have learned from my new craft; everyone wants the items I make. Brenton has these beautiful, near translucent, fire red scales. Everything I make looks like it is covered in glitter or sequence. A few of the other dragon wife's have begun to bring their husbands scales to my house and they are crafting with it as well. We are calling ourselves the scale crafters. The other husbands like our ideas as well.

Right now, there are only five of us. Brenton's mother and sister, and two friends of theirs. But several husbands want us to try to market our wares. We just want to do this for fun right now. But later we may change our minds. We have started a craft box that is beginning to get full of the crafts we have made.

Brenton has told me several times how proud he is of my progress. I was being excepted by the entire family. I have begun a crafting group and made friends. He was glad things were working out. I have to admit I was a little worried at first. But now it seems just like swimming. Once you learn how to move in the water, swimming is a breeze.

As Brenton lay there sleeping, I got up to start my day. I did my usual chores. However today I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to go for a walk. I could have walked through the cave system. I knew it connected to the others homes.

However, I wanted to go outside. I needed to see the trees. I wanted to pick some flowers. I mean after all I had not been told I could not go outside. When I got to the main cave entrance, I froze. I was not so sure that walking outside was the best idea. Not after Emmanuel!

What am I beating myself up for! Emmanuel was not my fault! Besides I need fresh air now and then. This is ridiculous! I am afraid to set foot outside of my own home! What is wrong with me!

I did not know it but I was thinking out loud. Brenton had walked up behind me quietly. Which is more impressive when you think about him being in his dragon form, which he was. He leaned down and gently nuzzled me in the back, "There is nothing wrong with you my dear. Emmanuel wronged you. Your body remembers. Walking out of our home cave is perfectly safe for you though. Remember this valley is surrounded by the dwellings of our clan. Our valley is watched from all angles including the sky, and beneath the ground. Feel free to walk the river if you so desire. Though I will ask you to not leave the safety of our valley. Our valley is five miles wide and fifteen miles long. That should give you roughly seventy-five miles to do as you wish. Some of the wife's have started gardens. Some like to gather herb's. Yet still some just like to hike the area and climb the mountains. However, you wish to spend your time is fine. All I ask is that you stay safe." He leaned up and stretched to his full length, in an enormous stretch, then shook it off. "I am going to the gold mine's today. It is my day to watch the work being done. It will be my first time as a married dragon. Would you like to come?"

I smiled and shook my head. He helped me to climb on his back and away we flew. I absolutely loved the feel of the wind through my hair. I leaned back on my husband's scales and enjoyed the feel of him. His scales were so soft, and I found I could hear his heart beat through his neck where I sat. I hugged him and listened closely. He chuckled, "Hay now! I am on my way to work. You will get us started if you keep petting me that way." I laughed, "I bet you were already started before we left the cave."

All of a sudden I was in a free fall! My dragon had disappeared! I screamed! Then a couple of strong arms wrapped themselves around my waist. I threw my arms around his neck hoping to be rescued. He whispered in my ear, "Darling, we are not falling anymore." I looked down and saw we were actually floating. I did not know he could do this in his human form.

He held me closely and tightly, "Now I need you to understand something. Throwing out truths at me like that will get you a result similar to this. One day we will join the air mating club. But that won't be today. It is just too likely we would be seen. It is just too clear of a day. If it weren't for that, I would enjoy playing our little game right now. I love our banter. Be for warned when you talk like this to me, this is what comes from me."

He was holding me so tightly I could feel exactly what he was talking about. I could not help but giggle. He kissed me sweetly. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on his dragon back and we were still flying through the air. I had tingles radiating up and down my body from his admission. It made me want to say more. I was so glad I had such a loving husband.

When we landed, Brenton changed back human before his feet hit the ground. We ended up floating down about twenty feet. He pulled me into his arms before we met with the ground. He loves holding me like a bride. We kissed and he put me down. He held my hands as he started walking towards the entrance of the cave.

As we had been landing I got a good glimpse of the miners camp. Their tents were all lined up in neat rows. It looked more like a military camp than a miners camp. We walked through the camp and I noticed several of the other dragon wife's tending to the sick or wounded. There were several more sewing clothing and fixing old clothes. There were a couple cooking. (Although the two cooking were so fast at their work, from cooking to serving, they would have put any fast food restaurant to shame) All of the women working extremely hard.

Do to all their work, the miners all looked, well groomed, well fed, and well dressed. None of them overweight mind you, but healthy, well paid, well built, and well managed. The men seemed happy in their work. Many of them jingled as they walked. Which meant they had plenty of money. It really surprised me.

The other part that surprised me was how they would mine the gold. The minors would dig until they found what they called a river of gold. They would place vats up against the walls, chisel off a piece and bring it to one of the dragon managers.

Today Brenton was the manager. We were pulled away the moment we stepped into the front cave of the mine. One of the men handed the sliver of gold to Brenton. First he smelled it. Then he tasted it and grinned. He pulled me close and kissed me, "Here's to my lovely bride and lucky charm. I do not believe it is fool's gold."

He threw the gold up in the air and transformed. He transformed just in time to catch the gold in his mouth. He chewed it like it was candy and swallowed. A few moments later the scales on his chest lit up a bright golden yellow, and liquid gold began dropping out of his mouth.

The miner's showed him the way to the river of gold. As they did they kept a vat under his mouth catching the dripping gold. When Brenton got to the vain he yelled, "DROGO FIRIEL!" All the miners backed away quickly and pulled me back as well. They were in awe! And several said dragon fire my lady.

Brenton let out a mighty burst of dragon flame. The vain of gold then turned into an actual flowing river of real liquid gold. It took no more digging at the moment. The gold flowed like water. As long as Brenton kept his flame on the gold vein it would keep flowing. Soon another Dragon came up and began blasting his flame on it as well. This made the flow more constant. When Brenton took a breath the other dragon would go. They did very well at timing it.

When the vats were full the dragons would push the vats onto a mine track. The minors would push up empty ones. This continued until the vein went dry. Then the miners would stop for the day. It took all day for this vein to stop. It must be the quickest way in history to mine for gold.

As Brenton was working, I went with the miners to see what they would do with the melted gold. They took it to a room off of the main entrance. In there they had molds they poured the gold into. From jewelry, to trinkets, to gold bars. They had a mold for everything. The miners would pick and choose what they wanted to mold. After that they would dip the gold out of the vats like melted cheese with a large or sometimes small ladle. Then they would fill the molds.

I watched this until I got bord. Then I went back to the camp. I tried to help some of the wife's there. But more or less I just got in the way. I tried to help with hair and beard cuts first. I had never cut hair before and I was told I was to slow but I did do a good job, and sent on my way. Then I tried sewing. I refused to fight over the scraps of cloth to repair clothing, and I was not fast enough at sewing in general to keep up with the other women. They told me I did nice work but to go on. I tried to help feed the men and literally got ran over by both cooks. They laughed and helped me get up and kicked me nicely out of the kitchen.

There was nothing I could see I could do at the moment. These women had it down to an art. So, I decided I had better get back to my Brenton. A couple of the wife's caught me at the edge of the camp and told me how much I was appreciated. Apparently they had all noticed how hard I had been trying. I had a smile when I went to go back. But after what would happen next. Well, let's just say, when I went to go back I wished I had never left Brenton's side.