After being kidnapped by King Jareth of Ravenwood, Princess Ariyona of Carillon was forced to marry him, uniting the two kingdoms. In the beginning, Ariyona was resistant to this union despite feeling the pull of a bond that would not be denied.
In time, Ariyona gave in to the pull and realized she did love Jareth very much. Shortly she was carrying Jareth’s child within her belly.
Since she had been a child, Ariyona had been plagued by dreams of dragons. They haunted her dreams and chased her in her nightmares. She did not understand why she had these dreams, as the dragons had been chased out of the kingdoms long ago. Yet they haunted her dreams nightly.
One glorious day Ariyona gave birth to twins—a boy, Jasson, and a girl, Arianda. When the babies were two weeks old, there was a commotion in the bailey. Everyone was looking toward the sky and pointing up. Flying overhead were several dragons circling a large meadow near the castle. Jareth and Ariyona rode off to the meadow.
Two of the circling dragons began to set down. They landed not far in front of the two royals. One dragon was huge with red scales and yellow eyes. He looked straight at Ariyona. The other dragon was a youngling with scales of green and ice-blue eyes. He stood beside his sire. Ariyona seemed drawn to them. She thought these were the dragons of her nightmares, and she took several steps forward.
At her approach, the dragons laid their heads upon the ground at her feet. Ariyona placed her hand gently upon the red dragon’s head. She felt no fear. In truth, she felt very much at ease.
A male voice sounded in her head, ‘My lady. We have returned to these lands we fled long ago. You shall soon have great need of us. We are your servants and shall protect you and yours henceforth.’
Ariyona smiled. She knew she would never again have a nightmare involving dragons. She was at peace at last. Yet peace never lasted.