Page 10 of The Lost Princess

He tore his gaze away from my lips to study my arm more. I wondered whether it would be worth trying to show him how to bandage. Without warning he bent down further, and something rough and wet ran along the length of the cut.

I gave a short scream of pain, trying to yank away, but it was futile. Dragon Man held me tight. Indignation welled in my veins as I took in the sight of his head and mouth bent low over my arm. He’d lickedme!

His tongue descended a second time, licking up and down the length of my arm. I tried in vain to jerk away, but I realized the second lick hadn’t hurt nearly as much as the first. In fact, it hadn’t hurt at all.

I stopped struggling, relaxing my muscles. Sensing I was done fighting, his grip loosened. I watched as he licked me a third time, his rough tongue tickling the skin on my arm.

My unblemished arm.

I stared at it, confused. There had just been a knife wound there. I was sure of it.

Dragon Man kept licking my arm, but there was no longer purpose to it. His tongue moved up and down frantically, as if my skin was the best thing he’d ever tasted.

It freaked me out a bit, mostly because father would have kittens over another man’s tongue on me, but it also felt kind of good.

“No.” I succeeded in pulling my arm away, keeping my voice firm but not shouting at him. He growled, his chest vibrating with displeasure.

Don’t show fear, like with Petra. You have to show him who is in charge.

I resisted the urge to rub my arm. This man was muchlarger than my tiny dog. I had to make sure he wasn’t going to chew my bones.

“Thank you, but it’s fine now. See?” I held up the healed arm, and tentatively reached my other hand out to pat his shoulder lightly. “Thank you.”

His eyes narrowed at me, and then he was right up in my face, sniffing and just… looking. I struggled not to flinch. If I had to guess, he simply seemed curious.

His nose wrinkled as if he’d smelled something disgusting. He glanced over at my ankle, which was purple and quickly growing in size. The manacle was getting tighter the more it swelled. With despair and a healthy helping of fear, I realized I needed it off immediately.

“Get it off! It hurts!” I pointed at the manacle on my ankle, my voice tinged with desperation.

He sniffed the iron and huffed, unimpressed. I twisted around and tried to pry around the edges of the manacle with my fingers, but there was barely any room left between the metal and my skin.

“Please. Ithurts!”

Dragon Man frowned, then studied the manacle intensely. He went to yank the ring off the metal stake, but as soon as he pulled on the manacle it jerked my ankle and I screamed in pain. He stopped immediately, his brow heavy.

He seized the stake itself in both hands, and with a mighty grunt, hefted it out of the ground. He threw it down where it clanked on top of the manacle, and I winced at the slight bolt of pain.

“Now what?” I asked. I still needed the manacle off. It hurt like hell with my swollen ankle crushed around the metal. I grabbed the canteen and meat pack, slinging them around my shoulders.

He stood, and reached down to me with his arms out. I flinched away, and he growled.

Taking a deep breath, I composed myself. “Ok, fine. I get it. We can’t stay here.” I acquiesced and lifted my arms up to show him I understood. I gathered the iron in my hands, not wanting to imagine the pain it would cause if I let it dangle. He eyed me warily, then bent down and picked me up in his arms, iron stake and all. For a brief moment I thought we’d fly away as I eyed his wings, but instead he started running, setting a breakneck pace toward the mountains.

I gripped his neck tightly with one hand, afraid of falling. The other hand held tightly to my iron manacles, curling them into my bosom. My ankle throbbed with every bounce and step. I buried my head against his chest as if that would hide me from the world. An odd, satisfied vibration surrounded me. I ignored it. Nothing mattered other than getting the pain to stop.

He ran for ages, the steady rhythm of his steps on the sand oddly soothing after a while as my pain faded in the wake of my sudden sleepiness. Exhausted and overstressed, my eyes grew heavy, his motions steady and predictable. Unbelievably, I fell asleep against him, and escaped the pain.

ChapterFour

UNKNOWN

Existence was full of pain and suffering, and the darkness was everywhere. The only thoughts I allowed through were the simple ones; the practical ones.Time to hunt. Now eat. Go sleep. Drink.

Keeping to such instinctual needs kept me sane. Or at least, mostly sane. For the longest time I survived without even leaving my cave. Instead, I relied on roots and bugs as well as scorpions and the other creatures that crawled through the cracks of my home when they thought I was sleeping.

Then the men came with the smell of hot blood coursing through their veins. It reminded me of something. I didn’t want to eatthem.Some part of my mind knew they weren’t for eating. But it had been so long since I’d had proper meat that I couldn’t help but follow them. Somehow I knew that wherever they lived, easy prey would also be had. I smelled cows and chickens. Yes! Good meat.

I opened my wings for the first time in ages, straining them as I flew high above that night, following their progress west. They disappeared into a city, which I had no interest in visiting.Stinking, awful, crowded place.

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