They flew out over the edge of the world, above the desert sands below. Though the sun had set, the earth was still warm, and they caught a column of air that rose from the ground towards the heavens. Kethro spiraled up, and she spiraled up next to him, each of them on the same level but opposite the other. As they rose Serali began to feel... something. An urge, a compulsion, a kind of wordless knowledge, and she automatically adjusted her flight to keep her level with Kethro.

They rose together, circling endlessly up, until the air was thin and cold around them and the thermal had vanished. They began to beat their wings, still circling, still spiraling up in a double-stranded spiral, rising until the air was so thin that Serali could hardly breathe. But that was high enough. Kethro folded his wings for just an instant, and she did the same, and his hand reached out and caught hers as they began to fall. He pulled her to him, put his arms around her, and spread his wings again, though now she could not. But she felt no desire to, and no fear either.

They continued to fall, though slowly, Kethro's spread wings catching at the air, but she was hardly aware of it, for he pulled her closer, and his muzzle rubbed against hers and he said, intensely, "One heart, one mind, one soul, one body, joined to the end of time," and as he said it he pulled her tightly against him, joining them as one, and his tail twined with hers, and she felt something she had never felt before, incredible and intense.

"Yes!" she said joyously, knowing that this was the only response needed in words, though she felt her body responding in other ways. They fell for what seemed like forever, joined together, and the incredible feeling she had felt built up in her, grew until she thought that she would explode from it, and then it was almost as though she had, it swept through her like fire, like nothing she had ever felt in her life. For an instant she couldn't feel the air rushing around her, she couldn't feel anything else but that explosion of sensation, and she cried out, the sound a roar that echoed over the desert. She heard Kethro, her mate, her husband, her love, roar with her in the same instant and she knew, with a deep, wordless knowledge, that they were now one, bound together in every way.

And then the moment was over, and they were nearly level with the upper edge of the Great Escarpment, and there were only seconds remaining. She knew what to do as they broke apart and her wings snapped open. She wheeled around to the left even as Kethro was wheeling around to the right and they both flew on, together, wings nearly touching as they glided down to land gently on the warm desert sand.

She sat down next to him and leaned against his warm, scaled side. He nuzzled her, and she sighed blissfully. "You were right. About both things. I knew what to do, and I didn't find it unpleasant at all. Though... do dragons always mate on the wing like that?"

He laughed softly. "No love. The first, yes, always. And sometimes we may again, but the first mating is just that, a mating, to become mates. Mating to have eggs and dragonlings generally happens on the ground."

"Oh good. That was... very intense, but I'm not sure I'd want to do that all the time."

"But you would want to mate all the time, hmm?" His deep voice was amused.

She laughed. "Well, not all the time, but it is our wedding night. It's very traditional among humans to spend the first night without sleeping, or so I've heard tell."

"I think I rather like that tradition," he said, and nuzzled her again, pulling her close.