<div class="floatright">(https://img00.deviantart.net/9350/i/2013/067/7/5/prince_ivan_wolf_by_mad_sama-d5xbtav.jpg)</div>Auren continued to leer mockingly at his brother while Serena twisted the knife.  He usually felt like he held his own against his brother's biting tongue, but to catch him in a flanking attack like this was a rare treat.  Plus the joint teasing was a welcome distraction from the coldness he felt from his sister.  He sighed inwardly as he saw the light reflecting off her pale, smooth face and reminded himself that he was holding up an entire nation by dallying.<br/><br/>"Yes, sadly we must all be parted for a moment."  He smiled and bowed to the two ladies (or rather, to his sister and then the shadows where Serana disappeared) and began walking alone to the far end of the great chambers, to where he'd find his own bathhouse separate from the women's.  Already a small batallion of servants stood in white garments outside the entryway waiting for him.  It did seem kind of eerie how he never heard the foreign lady leave the room.  For a brief moment, he wondered childishly if she had more voyeuristic plans... oh well, he thought as he was flanked by the bathing servants and they began to pull off his garments, she'd be one of  the more welcome pairs of eyes and hands in the room as far as he was concerned.<br/><br/>The ritual bath was a rather boring and melancholy affair.  For one thing, none were present who had the rank or courage to speak to him other than for requests to hold out his arms or something similar.  And his mind was too full of concerns present and future to enjoy the incense and warm water.<br/><br/>Suddenly the water rippled and the room seemed to shake with a distant roar.  Then another, louder one, that shook dust off the ceiling into the water while the marble groaned.  There could only be one source--<em>dragons.</em>Auren's eyebrow arched and he tilted his head, listening intently.<br/><br/>Allaran burst into the room a moment later.  "The damned flying lizards are being unreasonable!" he sputtered, throwing his hands out.<br/><br/>"What's going on?" demanded Auren, keeping his cool more than the other, letting a servant scrub behind his neck as he stood waist deep in the water.<br/><br/>"First we agree to let them go first.  Which, fine, they haven't gotten into the royal family yet, it's overdue.  But now they're refusing to let the lady kneel.  The other races don't have to bend a knee, they're saying, so neither should Odell.  But the other races aren't twice your bloody size!"<br/><br/>"It's not like you to be flustered," Auren said bemused.<br/><br/>"Well I'm not normally ROARED at by a creature that eats whole cows!"  Allaran huffed, then took a moment to compose himself.  "You should have smelled his breath," he chuckled finally.<br/><br/>"It's been a long wait to this point now for them to be beyond reason," Auren continued.<br/><br/>"Well, the one that roared, before he lost his temper, was suggesting we erect some kind of staircase for you."<br/><br/>Auren winced, instantly seeing why Allaran objected to the idea and displeased the flying elder.  Some clownish display of the Crown Prince climbing a ladder to kiss his bride was utterly out of the question.  But he had no intention of fighting a dragon today either.  Something had to be done.<br/><br/>"Bring him back this suggestion," Auren said, climbing out of the water and instantly being bombarded with towels.  "We'll clean a horse and I'll start the ceremony mounted, then I can dismount once I we've been through Odell and the rest I'll do standing as planned.  That way I'll be on closer to even footing, even though she'll still have head, shoulders, and chest on me."<br/><br/>The suggestion appeared to work.  No further roars followed after Allaran's departure, and the prince was dressed in peace.  Inwardly, Auren wondered if the dragons were actually just taking the chance to test him as his servants--the last to bathe and dress him (fortunately in his opinion), as from hence it would be considered part of the duties of his wives, along with guarding and tasting his food for poison--bound him up in splended raiments of blue and sparkling gold.<br/><br/>Trumpets blared.  He gathered himself and emerged from the temple.  All across the city people were craning necks over the roofs of buildings to try to see the royal wedding, and he became aware of their bated breath as an eerie silence accompanied the freshly dressed horse that was presented to him.  The forum, something like a collieseum where the immense royal family could hold functions as well as assemble for political reasons, was decked out for the occasion and all his distant and soon to be relatives were lining the walls.  Dragons circled and perched the grandest roofs.   Trumpets blared again and he trotted his mount to the center and turned, waiting for the first of many brides to come and take her place alongside him.<br/><br/>