Page 50 of Brutal Dragon King

Chapter 17 - Althea

I feel light on my feet, lighter than I’ve ever been, considering my size. I’ve always been bigger than everyone around me, and I never imagined I’d feel as lightweight as I do now.

I’d constantly been belittled for my size when I was in the village of The Emberlands. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t go back there and began running in the opposite direction.

The trees on either side of me become a blur with my speed, my ability to run as fast as I can stemming from the child growing inside me.

Haidën’s child…

The thought crosses my mind and compels me to stop running. Somehow, I’m not even out of breath.

This power is amazing!

But what will I do with it now that I’ve left the kingdom? Left King Haidën?

Will I keep running for the rest of my life, even when the child growing inside me is born? The question in my mind prompts me to cradle my belly, which is still plumpy from my weight.

It’s as if the child won’t allow me to let my insecurities get the best of me, and serves as a reminder that its father was the only one who ever made me feel beautiful about the way I am, and made me feel wanted, and desired.

Did I just run away from my only chance of living a normal life? After all, the king didn’t throw me into the dungeon with the other slaves and had me stay inside the palace.

It was the closest thing to being accepted that I’ve ever felt, yet I couldn’t look past my resentment for him.

He did kill my parents.

But what if he could redeem himself?

All these thoughts race through my mind while I stand between unfamiliar trees and flowers in a forest I don’t recognize.

I’d been so caught up in the liberating feeling of running freely away from Haidën’s palace, that I found myself in unfamiliar territory.

A hiss in the distance startles me, a gasp escaping my lips when my heart skips a beat. The darkness of the night casts eerie shadows from the trees all around me, and when I spot some movement out of the corner of my eye, I realize that this place isn’t safe.

Perhaps the king’s child growing inside me strengthens my intuition, signaling alarm bells to ring in my eardrums as goosebumps of fear pebble the flesh of my arms. My head snaps in every direction\, trying to figure out where the hissing comes from.

What did I get myself in?

The hissing continues, something moving on the ground between the sharp blades of grass. I’m frozen on the spot from fear even though my mind is telling me to run. I could run if I wanted to, but by the time I work up the courage to do just that, I feel something slither around my ankle.

I let out a frightened scream, the cold feeling around my ankle feeling like a metal shackle. I find enough momentum to turn and start running, but in my panic, I don’t see the stump of a cut-down tree in time.

I fall over in a pathetic pile, my face connecting with the grassy floor and palms braced on either side of my head. The adrenaline that pulses through me charges up my will to survive, to keep myself and my baby alive, and I’m able to pick myself up to my feet.

What I thought was a snake turns out to be a lively vine that somehow magically slithers across the ground toward me, its root reaching so far behind it that I can’t even see where it begins.

I’ve never seen a planting racing at such high speed, and seeing it now has me gulping from fear, forgetting that I can run faster than it. Panicked, I watch in horror as it slithers closer while the sounds of howling and hooting in the distance serve as the backdrop of my fearful situation. I feel the warmth of the blood trickling down my arm and realize I must have gotten injured when I fell.

But there’s no time to inspect myself when the vine curls around my ankle and stops the blood flow to my foot. I try moving it, but the vine tightens like a noose around my foot with so much force that I can’t believe that it’s just a plant.

Something else that’s unbelievable happens when, through the canopy of trees, a familiar figure emerges in its magnificent dragon form. Gasping in awe and appreciation, knowing that I won’t die at the roots of a vein, I murmur, “Haidën” in relief as I watch him shift into human form and land on his feet.

He’s about to grab the vein off the floor when I see another one darting through the air behind him.

“Haidën! Watch out!” I yell, and when he meets my eyes, it’s like he’s seen the reflection of the vine creeping toward him.

Without turning, he grabs the lively vine midair and then knocks it to the ground, crushing the leafy tip under his booted foot. He’s still wearing his shirt with the buttons undone, every exposed muscle flexing as he runs toward the vine that attacked me, reaching down in one swift motion to grab it by the thick stem. He lifts it off the ground and holds it at his chest, then with both hands, he snaps the vine in half and disgustedly throws the two ends on the ground.

Immediately, the piece of the vine around my ankle loosens up when it’s dead, and I can finally catch my breath. But it’s that breath that’s snatched when Haidën approaches me, appearing very much like my hero instead of the cruel dragon king I hated so much. There’s a glint in his dark eyes that I haven’t seen before, and I can’t place what it is.

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