Page 221 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
She barely managed to roll onto her stomach, various areas of her body protesting in atrocious pain.
When she blinked the tears away and glanced up, all she could see were limbs moving fast, weapons crashing together, and a chaos of shadows. Someone stepped on her, and she cried out, curling up on her flank.
As she tried to pull herself up, her body slid down, and pain radiated through her hand and wrist, making her wince. Alezya let out a frustrated grunt, but her survival instincts were fighting to take over; she had to move or she would be killed. It was too dark, but she knew everyone was either trying to kill her orprotect her, or they were part of the silhouettes she could see darting through the trees, running away from the fight.
“There! She’s there! Grab her!”
Alezya managed to get on her elbows and drag her body up, but something was wrong, and she couldn’t pull her own body far. She couldn’t pinpoint where the pain came from, but it was too much to move, and waves of pain kept crashing, making her cry and her head spin. When someone grabbed her wrist, she let out another scream of pain.
“Here! I got—”
The pressure on her wrist disappeared, and another high-pitched scream echoed, one that wasn’t hers this time. Alezya glanced up, and much to her shock, Niiru must have jumped out of the bag at some point, because the small dragon was fangs deep into the forearm of the man who had grabbed her, and growling furiously. She didn’t have time to feel an ounce of relief: the wounded man started trying to punch the young dragon’s head, and after a couple of hits, Niiru let go with an angry growl, jumping down to Alezya’s side.
“Niiru!” she shouted. “Go away! Fly! Go to Kein! Niiru, fly to Kein!”
But the young dragon either didn’t understand or didn’t want to. It remained stuck on the ground, its tail furiously swishing left and right, its body arched like an angry feline, standing all of its two feet tall between her and the man.
“Niiru, go!” she begged the dragon through her tears.
She wouldn’t forgive herself if the young dragon got any more hurt here. Somewhere past her feet, she could hear the fight going on, grunts, shouts, and the furious clashing of weapons, but Alezya was in a position where she could only see upward of the valley, not toward the fight. It didn’t matter; all she could focus on was the baby dragon defending her with all its tiny might.
“Niiru, please!” she cried.
“Alezya!”
She heard Ekata’s voice, and the next second, someone was jumping over her and swinging a long fishing spear at the man, forcing him to step back. It took her a second to recognize Ekut’s back just as his twin sister appeared at her side.
“Alezya! Oh, thank the gods, you’re alive. Are you alright?”
“No,” Alezya groaned. “I can’t... I can’t get up.”
“Let me help you— Easy, baby dragon, I’m helping her!”
Niiru stopped growling at Ekata, instead turning back to Ekut, who was fighting the man, to growl in support. It gave Ekata a second to help Alezya sit up, despite the atrocious pain. The fighting was nearing its end already; the men who hadn’t fled were dead or bleeding, and much to her dismay, Ekata’s arm was covered in blood too, and two of the Munsa Clan’s men were lying lifeless. Alezya gasped in shock.
“I’m so sorry,” she cried. “This is my—”
“Oh, no,” Ekata grunted. “If anyone, it’s my dumb brother’s fault for inviting that old stubborn fuck!”
“I told you the others insisted he come too!” Ekut groaned between two jabs of his spear. “And can we please have this fight later?! Seriously!”
“What are we going to do,” Alezya muttered, her eyes still riveted on the dead men lying by the river.
“We got our message across,” Ekata muttered. “Now we can only hope some of the men who fled understood and–”
She didn’t get to finish her sentence; a deafening growl shook the skies.
All their heads whipped toward the skies just as a large shadow covered them. The others gasped, but a wave of hope and relief submerged Alezya, her heart making a violent leap in her chest. Orange scales flew and disappeared, another growl echoing loudly somewhere above. A few steps away from her,Niiru sat and tilted its head toward the sky, its tail swishing again curiously before it took off.
“No!” Ekata said, trying to reach the baby dragon before it flew out of hand.
But Alezya grabbed her coat, shaking her head.
“No! No, let... let Niiru go.”
She wasn’t sure about the connection between Niiru and Kein, but she wasn’t worried. Instead, she was more frustrated by the configuration of the land they were on, which made it impossible for Kein to land. It was too steep, too narrow, and too full of trees. She knew the Munsa Clan and their allies had probably picked this spot for this very reason, and sadly, it was working; Kein couldn’t land.
The relief of seeing the dragon had been so high she felt all the more disappointed, her hopes shattered after existing for a second. The dragon couldn’t land and save her this time.
