Page 32 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Report the dragon’s every movement. And make sure the men stop going to see it like it’s some attraction. Anyone caughtnear the Commander in Chief’s tent without a good reason will be put on night patrol. I don’t care if one of you gets bitten; that might be a good warning.”
“Yes, sir!”
Tievin poured himself a second bowl of food, forgetting all about how he’d protested about the prisoner getting another helping too, and left the food distribution area to eat inside his tent as usual.
On the way, he chose to walk by the Prince’s tent... and just like everyone else, he saw Kein. Even for someone who’d grown close to the Imperial Family and their dragons, that was a spectacular sight. The large orange dragon was simply lying there, sleeping.
It was still early, and that beast had been out most of the night hunting. It was now peacefully snoring, like a dog happy with a full belly. Except that the dog was a scaled dragon taking up an awful lot of space... There already weren’t many souls brave enough to put their tents near the Prince’s, but now, thanks to the dragon, a large area had been cleared around Kassein’s, and some tents had been promptly relocated for safety measures, and common sense.
That dragon was huge. The Imperial Family possessed a total of seven dragons, if one excluded the dragons of Queen Cessilia, Prince Darsan, and their children, who all lived in the Eastern Kingdom.
Out of those seven dragons, Kein was now undoubtedly the largest. The dragon had grown bigger than its own progenitor, the War God’s legendary black dragon, and bigger than its sibling, Kian, the Emperor’s silver dragon. The difference in size was mostly due to the fact that Kein was an Earth Dragon, and Kian a Water Dragon.
No one exactly understood why a dragon was born either way, but Earth Dragons had been the only ones known inthe Empire until the War God and his wife, Imperial Princess Cassandra, had children, and six out of those eight children had been born with Water Dragons by their side.
Those Water Dragons were different than their peers; they had longer and slimmer bodies and were faster. By contrast, the Earth Dragons had thicker bodies and were stronger than their peers, but slower. Prince Darsan and Prince Kassein were the only ones who had been born with Earth Dragons, and theirs were the biggest ones once they’d grown to their adult size.
Despite knowing all this and having grown by the Imperial Family’s side for a long time, Tievin could never not be afraid of dragons.
Those things were as temperamental as their owners, which was a way to say completely unpredictable and dangerous. Kein was the worst of all. The fire-colored dragon’s humongous size only matched its horrible and indecipherable temper.
A few years back, when the Prince and his dragon were still young, their raging battles could somewhat be contained, but as Prince Kassein had become an adult and his dragon had reached its adult size, they’d gone on to cause an incredible amount of damage wherever they fought.
Seeing a beast that was akin to a natural disaster on its own sleeping peacefully was not giving Tievin the slightest bit of relief. Instead, he felt like he was simply watching the calm before yet another storm...
As if the dragon had felt him watching, it suddenly opened its eyes, prompting Tievin to jump back, almost spilling his food.
He froze, watching out for the dragon’s movements. But Kein simply stared with its silver eyes as big as a man’s shield. The dragon was three times the size of its owner’s tent, but it had its body curled in a half-circle around it, like it was guarding it. Upon clearly spotting Tievin, it growled faintly, half-closed itseyes, and puffed out a cloud of hot steam his way. The hot air reached Tievin, making his body shiver.
...Was that beast just acknowledging his presence? Right, he was probably just another potential snack walking by.
With that thought in mind, Tievin resumed walking, although since he didn’t dare not watch out for the dragon, he walked away weirdly, sideways. Any soldier passing by would find the Grand Intendant’s strange crab-like walk funny, but he didn’t care. His life was more important than his pride.
Kein waited until Tievin was out of sight, and then let out another bored growl. The soldiers kept walking by, thinking the dragon didn’t see them, or it clearly didn’t care. They were right about the last part. Kein directed its silver eyes toward the tent, and after another growl, closed them again, going back to that nice nap.
Inside the tent, Kassein stood still and darted his eyes toward the tent’s entrance at the growl. Whatever had agitated his dragon, he knew for a fact it wouldn’t move yet. For the first time in a long time, he and his dragon were capable of enduring the other’s presence... and their thoughts were focused on Alezya.
Right now, that woman was finishing her bowl of porridge in silence. Kassein had been worried she’d refuse to eat, but she was clearly satisfied with the camp’s food. She carefully ate every spoonful of the porridge, despite that injury on her lip.
Every time he looked at her, the sight of her injuries made his blood boil. Outside the tent, Kein growled faintly, startling her. Alezya glanced toward the side of the tent the noise had come from, before glancing at him. He didn’t say anything and simply sat down on the tent’s floor.
If anything, he had to prove to her she didn’t have anything to be afraid of here. When he had first brought her to camp, shewas clearly terrified, but she hadn’t been scared like he expected one to be. In fact, her first reaction to him was solidly engraved in his mind. She had retreated to the edge of the bed like a cornered animal, but instead of shivering in fear and crying or begging, she’d shown her fangs.
That look in her eyes... She’d looked like a snow leopard ready to defend itself. Despite her injuries and the incredible amount of pain every movement must have put her through, she had still been strong enough to protect herself and try to get away from him. The defiance in her dark eyes spoke volumes... She was used to this. That kind of resilience didn’t happen overnight. Not only was she feeling threatened by him, but she had felt this way many times before. Every movement he made put her on edge, and even now, he could tell she was watching him from the corner of her eye, if not glancing at him every once in a while.
It was incredible to witness such a slender woman, who had already been able to withstand this amount of injuries, still have the strength in her to defy him. Although the thought hadn’t crossed his mind at all, if he were to try and harm her, Kassein was certain she wouldn’t let him have his way without a fight. She had that amazing fire in her dark, doe-like eyes. That woman had the heart of a warrior.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said.
Once again, she gave him that confused expression, like she did every time he spoke in his language. It was somewhat amusing to see her get frustrated every time he said anything.
Thinking about it, Kassein had probably spoken more with that woman in a couple of days than he did with anyone else in a week, with maybe the exception of Tievin. It didn’t really matter that she couldn’t understand; it was more about his willfulness to establish some kind of dialogue between them… any kind, really.
Like many times before, he couldn’t understand himself, but he was curious about that woman, her actions, her reactions, and what she was hiding behind that strong facade.
It wasn’t like she was as strong as she was pretending to be. He’d seen her crying. A lot.
Alezya cried in her sleep, and he heard her sobbing when she was alone in the tent. Her eyes had turned red, shiny, and puffy from all the crying. He didn’t know if she realized how much she cried in her sleep.
