Page 127 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Yes,” Lorey nodded. “But dragons... Dragons are dragons. Dragons aren’t men. They do dragons. A dragon wants to hunt, it hunts. If a dragon is unhappy, it doesn’t listen.”
“Kein is a good dragon,” Alezya said, scratching Kein’s scales and getting a growl of appreciation.
Lorey gave her a strange look.
“Kein likes Alezya,” she just said, eyeing the dragon with a mixed expression.
Alezya wasn’t sure how to respond. Was Kein really giving her special treatment, then?
She had noticed everyone around was wary of the dragon, and after she’d witnessed it eat actual humans, she could understand why, but now, Lorey made it sound like she was even more of an exception than she thought. She glanced back at the orange dragon. Was it too risky to bet on that dragon, then?
Strangely, she felt like she hardly feared the dragon anymore at all. It was still this humongous creature with claws and thick, sharp fangs that could eat a whole man in the blink of an eye, and yet Alezya felt safer by Kein’s side than she did next to any man besides Kassein. She had seen how horrible men could be; at least the dragon’s violence bore no evil to it.
They arrived at the place with all the herbs, and like last time, Alezya felt a bit excited to see so many of them cultivated in the same place. They had left the dragons outside as they were too big to enter, but they could hear them playing outside, probably causing mayhem in the snow.
“Do you like medicinal herbs?”Lorey asked. They had been roaming for a while, Alezya looking for an opportunity to snatch the ones she needed.
“Yes. I pick herbs in the mountain.”
“The medicinal herbs here are Kiera and Kassein’s mother’s herbs. In Kalat Unshreik too. She likes medicinal herbs.”
Kalat Unshreik.That was what he called that black mountain of theirs, the place Kassein and his siblings had grown up in.
Alezya was surprised. Their mom was some healer, then? She felt slightly impressed. It mustn’t have been easy to make so many herbs grow in the same place in such a complex climate.
They kept examining, and Lorey began explaining what each herb was used for, using words and gestures to describe body parts and conditions so Alezya would understand.
When they reached the herb, Lorey said it was used for blood illnesses, and Alezya wondered if she knew this could stop one’s bleeding. Still, she asked about a herb on the other side, and as soon as Lorey turned her back, she ripped some more leaves off and hid them.
When they left the leather dwelling a while later, she was certain she’d picked more than enough until she’d returned to her clan… which would be soon now. Every time she thought about returning to the mountain, her heart was torn between leaving Kassein and returning to Lumie.
She knew it couldn’t be avoided, and yet, she was in pain just thinking about leaving him again. This would be the second time. How would he react? He would think she was insane...
“Alezya?”
Lorey called her out of her thoughts; they had stepped outside, reuniting with the two dragons, both wet from playing in the snow.
“What do we do?”Lorey asked, leaving her the choice.
“I want to see Kassein,” Alezya said, without hesitating.
Lorey smiled, and they resumed walking together, the rowdy pair of dragons following them once again. These two acted particularly excited this morning, as they kept pouncing on each other, playing in the snow and causing waves of snow in their wake. It was effective at keeping any of the Dragon Clan’s warriors away, but both women also got splattered with snow a couple of times despite the sky being clear blue that day.
“Kiki,tawa!” Lorey suddenly called the dark gray dragon after they got splattered a third time.
Alezya was getting slightly fed up with their antics too.
The weather might have been fine, but now she was getting wet through her coat. At Lorey’s angry voice, Kiki immediately jumped away from Kein and seemingly calmed down, but Kein didn’t seem to care. The giant orange dragon once again pounced on its sibling, trying to resume their game, although Kiki wasn’t interested anymore.
Lorey turned to Alezya.
“Alezya tell Kein,” she said.
“Tell Kein what?”
“Tawa.”
Did that mean to stop or calm down?
