Page 197 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
She wasn’t entirely sure, but it felt like the most likely explanation.
Kassein had definitely fought and sent men up the mountains to fight the clans before, but the timing was just too off. Why would he and Kein come back after she’d sent Lumie to them?
Alezya couldn’t help but believe it was for her, and it made her all the more hopeful.
“You’re sure it was the orange dragon?” she asked the sentinel.
“Certain,” he nodded. “It’s easy to recognize, even at night...”
Alezya let out a heavy sigh.
“You think they did some damage?” Ekata asked with a grin.
“Kein, I mean, the dragon is too big to get into the mountain, so they might have been sending him just to try and find me... but I can’t say for sure.”
“It had all the signs of some quick, punishing attack,” the sentinel noted. “I didn’t see the men, but I heard plenty of shouting, and the orange dragon was checking out anyone trying to leave the mountain from another way. It’s hard to know what happened inside from where we are though. We’re completely on the wrong side...”
They remained quiet for a few seconds, still glancing through the opening, but indeed, it looked like things were over.
Alezya let out a faint sigh. She really needed to get back to the Dragon Clan as quickly as possible. She was glad the Munsa Clan had rescued her because she was fairly certain she would have been dead by the time Kassein and Kein attacked her clan; they would have never found her in time.
At her feet, Niiru was also trying to peek through the opening, its tail swishing with curiosity before it turned its head toward her with a little growl.
“I know,” she whispered. “I miss them too.”
“We should go back down,” Ekata suggested. “See if the other sentinels caught anything else.”
Alezya agreed, and she followed her all the way back to the main cove, where, indeed, several adults of the Munsa Clan were standing and talking animatedly to Ekut.
They acknowledged their other leader with nods, but they had arrived right in the middle of what already seemed to be a very lively discussion. Alezya listened as several of the Munsa Clan sentinels repeated the same accounts from different points of view, although no one had seen much more.
Kein had attacked several flanks of the Deklaan Clan’s mountain, even making some rocks collapse, and they were sure there had been some fighting. Ekut had sent men to inquire with the nearby clans, but their end of the mountains was so far from the other that they probably wouldn’t get much more.
Ekata let her brother chat with their men, instead taking a step aside with Alezya. At their feet, Niiru let out a yawn, prompting her to lift the heavy dragon and carry it; the young dragon immediately nestled in her arms.
“If only that dragon had done some good damage to the Deklaan Clan,” Ekata hissed. “We’d be better off without those leeches...”
Alezya could understand that woman’s venom toward her clan, but she didn’t entirely agree.
No matter how corrupted her father was, the Deklaan Clan wasn’t just him. Even if many men followed his orders blindly, Alezya knew there were a few good people amongst them. She had seen very little of their goodness herself in the past, but still, she couldn’t condone an outright massacre.
She was almost surprised to find herself worried about what had happened and how angry Kein and Kassein had possibly been. Had something happened? Had her father done something to prompt an attack?
She sighed, petting Niiru. Maybe they’d been looking for the baby dragon? Niiru was more than capable of flying back on its own, but the young dragon was clearly unwilling to fly away from her.
“The dragon,” Ekata commented. “You called it by a different name before. Kain?”
“...Kein,” Alezya corrected. “That’s the orange dragon’s name.”
“Their dragons have names?” Ekata said, surprised. “Do you know many of them...?”
“No,” Alezya replied, wary. “Only a couple. I don’t even know this little one. He just appeared out of nowhere and is sticking to me.”
“So... It’s not your baby’s dragon, then?”
Alezya opened her eyes wide in disbelief, but Ekata shook her head.
“I knew it was probably nonsense, but after what your father said last night, and seeing that you have a miniature dragon stuck to you... I didn’t want to press the issue until you were ready to talk about it, but I can’t help but be curious. If you can really get your own dragon, it could change many things...”
