*2.5 years later*

Elric awoke to a loud tapping noise at the edge of his loft. When he rolled over he saw the silvery eyes and raised comb of Sottises, the creature looked at him and huffed impatiently.

“Go back to sleep. It's too early…” and he rolled back to face the wall. Elric heard Sottises growl unhappily as he ignored him. Then he suddenly felt a shoe be pummeled into his back and he shot up angrily. He turned in time to see Sottises’ face disappear from the ledge then he chucked the boot over the edge. He heard a low *thump* as the boot thwacked the animal on his back, then the boot came hurtling back at him.

Elric heard the irritated Sabina let out a scolding growl at the boys as they tossed the boot back and forth. Elric stood and peered over the edge of the loft and saw Sabina growling at Sottises, he hung his head low and shifted his eyes in a guilty manner.

“That's what you get for being such a pain…” Elric sang triumphantly.

The large stable doors began to open and Elric watched his father step in and look up to him. “Good morning El…” he groaned, Elric could see from his loft that his father had reddened cheeks and struggled to hold himself up straight.

“Good morning Father…” He responded. He watched his father give Sottises a gentle pat as he walked past him. Then he scratched his fingers into Sabinas neck as she leaned into it.

“Did you hear the news?” He asked, “The princess is set to return in the next month…”

“She is?” Elric asked, trying to hide his excitement. His father nodded.

“No word on when exactly, she only has a few days of schooling left then once she is signed off by the scholars there she will be readying to return, once we know a party will be thrown for her return.”

Elric nodded, his skin tingling slightly with excitement, “That's wonderful news!”

“Queen Elizabeth has asked if you can take Sottises to the spring to be cleaned so that he may be shown to the visitors.”

“Of course!”

“Good.” His father nodded. Then he let out a quick whistle. Sabina stood and stretched like a giant feline before she followed Augustin out of the stable. Elric looked to Sottises who gave him a puzzled look with a tilted head, his curious eyes gazing into him.

Elric smiled, “Did you hear that So?” He asked, “The Princess should return any day now!” The beast cocked his head to the other side and let out a simple chirping noise in response. Elric shook his head, amused as he turned back to begin dressing himself. He heard Sottises set his chin on the edge of the loft and he watched Elric as he pulled on a white tunic, brown pants and black boots, he turned back to him and sighed “you’re getting way too big for that, you’re going to break the floor, you cow!” He scolded.

Sottises gave him a simple chirp as a response. At 8 years old the juvenile tarragon stood as big as his mother Sabina. With Elric being just over 6 feet tall, the tarragon’s neck and head reached at least 3 feet above his height, he’d stand on his back legs and easily be able to peer over the edge of the loft. He was quite large for a dragon his age as it typically took 12 to 14 years for a dragon to reach its full height. Sabina was almost 45 years of age and she stopped growing years ago, making her juvenile offspring unusually large.

He had begun a habit of resting his chin just on the ledge of the loft where Elric stayed to annoy him. Now that he was too big to climb into the loft with him he would toss toys and shoes at him to get attention or sit and call to him noisily until Elric acknowledged him.

Sottises let out a long, low croon as he stared at him and shifted his head back and forth, scratching his chin against the wood floor which had been slowly worn away with him doing it over and over again on a daily basis for the last year and a half.

“Stop So…” Elric said softly as he knelt to the animal's face. Sottises peered sad silvery eyes up to him and gave a whine then slipped from the loft and walked to the now wearing picture of the princess painted on canvas on the wall. Elric had debated fixing the paint where Sottises rubbed against the wall when he slept but now that the princess was set to return home, he wouldn’t waste the time on it. “Sottises…” He called, the animal looked back up to him with saddened eyes as he curled himself beneath the painting, clearly not understanding that she would return any day now “Stop worrying, little boy… She will be home soon. I promise.” but he let out a long whine and shifted uncomfortably. “How silly you will feel when she returns home and you have been whining your nonsense all day!” Elric turned and climbed down the ladder to the stable below and grabbed a scrub brush from his pile of cleaning supplies on the table. “C’mon Sottises, lets go bathe…”

Sottises pouted for a moment and let out another whine.

“You love baths. Let's go take a bath.”

He finally stirred from his spot and gave an excited chirp, even a sad Sottises couldn’t resist the call of a bath. It was his favorite activity just behind hide and seek with the palace staff. He was getting too big to wash by hand in the stable any more, and with how often he loved to roll around and dig in the dirt Elric had begun taking him to the spring just beyond the palace walls every few weeks.

They left the stable and Elric pulled the doors closed, he took in a deep breath of the early fall weather, the air was crisp and leaves had begun falling but the weather was still warm and fairly beautiful. Sottises took a long sniff of the air then leaned down to his keeper and waited patiently. Elric shook his head, “We could both stand for a walk So.” he gave him a wave to follow him and the animal shook his head before taking a running start toward the back of the palace and spreading his wings to leap over the tall stone walls surrounding the palace. Elric sighed as he watched Sottises soar to the left and lost sight of him behind the looming castle. “You impatient jerk!” Elric called after him with a scowl.

Elric shook his head and began his walk to the palace gates and followed the path behind the palace where the spring started, as he walked the spring widened into a large pool of water fed by a small waterfall. He could see Sottises bent over sipping water from the pool of water happily.

“I’m going to tell the princess how awful you’ve been in her absence.” Elric warned him as he set the bag of stuff down but Sottises ignored him and kept drinking. “Get in the water.” he ordered.

Sottises looked back at Elric then turned back to the water continuing to drink. Elric sighed as he stripped off his tunic and his boots and set them beside the water. He stepped up to Sottises and patted his side, “Go on.” but he didn’t move, “C’mon you cow, get in there.” he leaned into his body and pushed on him and the animal refused. “This isn’t fair.” He complained, “You’re huge, get into the water so I can clean you…” he sighed as the animal refused still, “You are so awful… would you do this to Mae!?”

Elric sighed and shook his head before stepping into the water himself and splashing water at the tarragon. The dragon lifted his head and crouched in a pouncing position, shaking his tail behind him. Elric ducked below the water and pushed himself into a deeper pool of water away from where he knew Sottises would jump. He lept into the water, a huge splash rippling beneath him and pushing waves around him as he searched for Elric beneath the water.

Elric Surfaced a few feet away, being pushed from the wave of water. “See, you like the water…” Sottises let out a chirping noise as he walked into a deeper part of the pool and sank down on his belly, then he rolled into the water, dipping his entire body beneath the water then he sat up and rolled himself the other way. Then he brought his body up and sat back in the water, shaking his head and neck and all the way down to his wings into his tail. Water splashed onto Elric as he waited for the animal to stop rolling and shaking.

Once he stopped Elric took the brush and began scrubbing the scales of the dragon, pulling off caked on dirt and grime from his time playing in the mud. As he worked Sottises basked in the shining sunlight. Elric climbed onto the dragon's back and scrubbed down his withers, moving to his croup. Then got down and carefully scrubbed his outstretched wings. “Okay, Rinse.” On command he rolled into the water washing away the wet dirt. “Come here…” Elric said, waving his hand down, and Sottises lowered his face and purred as Elric scrubbed a brush across his face and massaged dirt from his comb and from the grooves of his horns and inside his ear holes. Elric laughed as the animal huffed water from his nose and sprayed him, he wiped the water from his face and splashed water at the dragon. Then he stretched out his hand expectantly and the dragon lifted each foot one by one so he could scrub out dirt from his claws.

“Elric?” A soft voice sang, he turned and saw 2 women with gentle smiles, they were two young maids from the palace, they both blushed as he turned and smiled at them.

“Good morning Ladies.”

“Good Morning Elric…” They sang together as they smiled back at him. They both held folded towels.

“How are you two lovely women today?” He asked as he stepped from the water onto the bank of the pool.

“We are wonderful.” One said with a charming smile.

“That's wonderful Cassandra.” he said with a smile back, “I was just getting ready to leave, the spring is all yours…”

“Oh you can stay if you’d like…” The other said suggestively.

“Oh, no. I have work to do to prepare for the Princess to return.” He shook his head, “I appreciate the offer Wilma.”

“Do you need a towel?” Cassandra asked.

“Oh no, I’m okay, I will dry as I walk.” He said as he picked up his boots from the ground, “Thank you though.” he passed by the women as they stood and pouted. “Sottises. Come!” he gave a short, high whistle and Sottises followed behind him as he shook water from himself over the women. Elric could hear the women giggle as he walked away, whispering suggestive things under their breath about him. He shook his head amused.

A new wave of young maids and butlers had recently been brought into the palace and the now 22 year old Elric had begun experiencing an odd amount of attention from the young female maids. They would often sit outside and watch him and Sottises training during the day, and wait around the stable for him to come back from his mid-day run, or wait for him to leave with Sottises to the spring so they could follow along and get a glimpse of him shirtless while bathing the reptile. Some days they would even come to the stables at night to offer him food and treats.

Though he appreciated the sudden attention, and there was an abundance of beautiful, young, kind women around the palace he still found himself distancing himself from their advances. He would kindly smile and talk with them before finding some excuse to escape from them. Ever since he had come to the palace he had always felt alone and looked over, even his father seemed to avoid spending time with him as he came up as a keeper, but even now with the attention from the women it seemed to not fill the void he always felt he had.

He would go from laughing and joking with the maids while he was out and about to a lonely state at night when he would sit up and listen to Sottises whine miserably in his sleep. More often than not he found himself climbing down into the stable and staying beside Sottises. Not only for Sottises’ peace of mind, but for his own. He felt better sharing his loneliness with the tarragon and some nights sitting beside the dragon while he slept was the only way it'd be quiet enough in the stable for him to rest himself. He had gotten better after he hung up the painting of the princess, but some nights he seemed to have horrible dreams that made him toss and turn as well as cry out in his sleep.

Tonight was no different from those nights. When they retired for the night Elric spent a while upstairs before Sottises’ whining caused him to climb down and wrap himself in a blanket beside him. Sottises moved so his head was pressed against Elric's leg and he gently massaged the comb on his head.

“Just a bit longer Sottises…”

Need help With easy pronunciation, Lost on who is who? Wondering what a word is meant to mean? (No unusual names have been introduced in this chapter so here is a small Q&A)

Q: What purpose does a comb serve on a male Tarragon? A: The comb of the Tarragon is used for a multitude of purposes, the most functional use is thermoregulation, the ability for a creature to keep its own body temperature within certain boundaries. The comb of male tarragon is filled with blood vessels, allowing for the animal to maintain ideal bodily temperature despite the surrounding temperatures . A Males health can be easily diagnosed from the combs appearance, a bright, strong, and active comb will point to a happy, healthy Tarragon. Much like peacocks, female tarragon will often use a combs appearance to determine a mates suitability. The combs on males are also filled with nerve endings, that is why you will often notice characters petting and massaging combs of tarragon in the story. They are also as mobile as a dragons wing, meaning the comb can be flexed and adjusted at will and are often used to convey emotions much like a dogs tail.