Page 6 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
After a glance in her basket, she knew she didn’t have enough flowers yet. Those would be quickly used, and she didn’t want to have to make this trip again. Hopefully, she could collect enough flowers that by the time they’d need it again, they would have regrown in the other spots.
Alezya was running out of ideas of places to look though. Because the clans were so fiercely territorial and mistrustful of one another, risking herself on a mountain other than their own was twice as dangerous, so that option was out. Her only other way was to get closer to the top...
It was a dangerous climb, but not impossible.
Without hesitating much more, she kept climbing up. The main risk was running out of places to hide. She wasn’t as familiar with the higher regions of the mountain as she was with the middle ones. It was the most treacherous part, constantly covered in snow, with almost no proper trail. No inexperienced climber would be able to take that route, and even for Alezya, it was a challenge requiring all of her focus. She knew not a single rock could be trusted, and she had to double-check every corner she stepped or pulled on. Her fingers sometimes had to dig deep until she could find the rocky surface underneath. She had to move carefully and slowly to not trigger an avalanche that could bury her in seconds, yet be fast enough to not let the cold bite her to death. Chills were already spreading through her body as her outfit wasn’t warm enough for this height. She kept going, thinking of how Lumie and the other children would need that flower. She had lived through worse challenges, but always knew the risks taken. While she was willing to sacrifice herself for her baby girl, she was also well aware she needed to survive for her sake.
This way, Alezya kept herself focused and determined, gritting her teeth through the cold and continuing her uphill climb. She was high enough that her father’s men were of no concern anymore, only finding more of that flower as quickly and safely as possible. She kept an eye out for her surroundings, but the growls of the beast would be heard long before it would be seen. Or so she hoped.
Finally, after a few more minutes of climbing, she found what she had been looking for: a little plateau, a spot where she could stop and inspect. That flower liked to grow under little areas protected from the wind and snow like these, and sure enough, after pushing some of the snow out of the way, Alezya spotted some of that familiar purple shade.
She smiled in relief, and as she could sit and take a break, she carefully unveiled more flowers. Luckily, they had just been covered by snow not too long ago, so they were still perfectly fine. There were plenty of them too. That dangerous trip had been worth the risks...
Alezya quickly collected them, making sure to leave what it needed for it to regrow some more later as she’d keep that place in mind for emergencies. Now, her basket was full enough. Those flowers grew in patches and were of medium size too, luckily for her. The Healer would be able to get enough medicine from all of these.
In a way, Alezya was doing this more for the children of the clan than for her cousin. She may have been resentful toward the adults, but as a mother, she couldn’t bring herself to make the children suffer for their parents’ mistakes. She didn’t care about her cousin’s hypocrisy or the Healer being cruel; she was able to find a good reason to do this despite them. Hence, with her basket full, Alezya came down that plateau, feeling genuinely glad. She had found the flowers quicker than she’d feared, and it wasn’t late either. All that was left was going back down. She didn’t even try to rush, instead making sure to have a smooth and safe descent.
Except that she didn’t have as much time as she thought.
While she was changing rocks to step on, a faint spot of color appeared in her peripheral vision. She would have mistaken it for the setting sun, or one of its glowing streaks, if she hadn’t already watched it fall behind the horizon.
At first, Alezya thought she’d dreamed it.
However, it flashed a second time, this time out of the corner of her eye, and a chill immediately ran down her spine. She turned her head, worried already. She had never seen anything orange flying in the skies, but her gut feeling told her it was no bird, no star. She could tell. That thing was far, but it was big... monstrously big. It was like a burning fire in the dark skies, both beautiful and terrifying. After forcing herself to look for a couple of seconds, just to be really sure, she felt her stomach drop.
It was a dragon.
Rather than staying frozen by fear, she moved quickly, her head full of questions.
What was going on? She’d never seen that creature as orange before, was it the same dragon? Or a new one?
She was trembling at the idea of another dragon flying in those skies. One giant beast was already terrifying enough! The one she had dared to peek at a few times was definitely black as coal, so what was happening? Had her clan seen that thing too? It was like a bright fire illuminating the night sky, her father’s sentinels wouldn’t have missed it...
Right now, she had to focus on her own safety and hide as quickly as possible. From the size of it, she hoped that thing was far away, but she was still hanging on the side of a mountain, vulnerable and exposed.
It was the worst situation possible.
Alezya accelerated her descent, trying to stay careful while getting back down as fast as she could. It would mean nothing to escape a dragon if she was to break her neck...
When the growl suddenly thundered, she froze, stifling a scream.
She had been out once or twice when the dragon had appeared, but never this close! This was all because she had to go out so late and so far. She couldn’t even believe she was in this situation; It was like her worst nightmare had come true.
Fighting back tears, thinking of her daughter, she hurried down, trying to calm herself by breathing steadily.
With a bit of chance, that thing hadn’t seen her, or it was too far away. She was wearing light-colored clothes in the midst of a lot of snow, perhaps that would be enough to hide her from that creature.
Another growl suddenly filled the skies, and Alezya stopped, closing her eyes hard to suppress the tears and fear. She wasn’t going to die now. She had a daughter to care for. She waited, listening. The dragon sounded… different. She’d heard it plenty of times before, and this time, the growls were higher-pitched, stretched longer. It was a little like thunder compared to the sharp crack of lightning.
Maybe it was just her fear making everything worse, but something about it felt new. And somehow, more terrifying.
When her feet reached another plateau, she stopped to catch her breath. She had gone down faster than usual and was a bit lost, not on the same path she had climbed up. Her palms hurt, but that was a minor detail. She tried to figure out which area of the mountain she was on, where the closest opening was. She knew she’d reached the area her clan lived in, but she had to find an entrance to the inside of the mountain, quick... She tried to brush away some of the snow around her to find a familiar spot. She was trying not to think about how close the dragon could be by now, or how scary it was when she couldn’t hear its position...
There! She recognized her clan’s markings on the rocks, telling her exactly where she was. The closest opening was only seconds away, she just had to get down to the next plateau andmake her way down on the left. With a gleam of hope, Alezya forced herself not to look back and quickly moved. She was so close to safety!
She took one step down, and then she heard it.
A flap of some very, very large wings that couldn’t belong to a bird. Alezya’s blood went colder than the ice around her. It was close.
