Sold To The Dragon Kingdom

FOUR

“I cannot believe they’re sending me away like this without any royal guard to keep me safe. It feels like I’m still the one at loss even though I have agreed to be their pawn.” I huffed, glaring down at the long white dress that constricted my body movement. Wearing the attire of a priestess was not as great as I had imagined after all.

“My mission is to keep you safe. I’m more than enough for this job. We’ve done a lot together, and at least you can fight, if the need to do so arises.” Milan talked back from where he was busy fastening the saddles on the two horses we were going to ride on.

“I can’t have more blood on my hands. That brute I killed on the mountain, I still remember the way he looked at me before he died. And even after so many years has passed, I can’t get over the fact that I killed a person.”

“You did what you had to.” He said as he staggered back a little when the white mare neighed at him after he attempted to pat her muzzle. The mare was extremely huge and she looked quite aggressive, unlike Aslan who was easy going with strangers. Now that I recalled, a warrior from Oryes had said something about taking Aslan back to the mountain, and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to them because I was occupied with the preparations to leave for the journey.

A priestess was supposed to ride on the royal carriage, but Milan thought the weight of the carriage might slow the horses down and we might not be able to make it on time before the coronation ceremony of the crown prince, which was to going to take place by tomorrow's sunrise in Winterland.  And beside, we thought riding a carriage might sought for an unnecessary attention from those scoundrels that lurk around in the woodlands, looking for the slightest opportunity to attack fancy carriages. We figured we’d rather keep everything as minimal as we could.

“Are you ready to ride on my Lady?” Milan asked, smirking at me teasingly. My attire probably looked ridiculous which was why his eyes could not stop scrutinizing my appearance. “You know the dress look good on you. You look like a different person.”

“Keep your thoughts to yourself.” I said, trying not to show any interest in what he said. I wasn’t expecting him to compliment me, and didn’t want to deal with the awkwardness at the moment. Because there were important issues to deal with, such as thinking of the best way to make my Father believe that I am Elysie.

“As you wish, my Lady.” Milan smirked again before he mounted onto the white mare.

I struggled to lift my dress up and found my legs as I carefully climbed onto the saddle and sat comfortably on the smaller horse. The weight of the responsibilities on my shoulders were heavy. Which was beginning to scare me even before we could start the journey.

Something lingered in my mind as though a voice in my head was telling me that my mission was already bound to be doomed from the start.

We rode silently to the castle gate where we waited for the guards to push the tall bronze gate opened. They bowed their heads and greeted as we rode pass them, Milan’s horse trotting faster than mine. The rucksack of our supplies was hanging on his back, and the old cape he wore around him to protect his fancy tunic made him looked like a real deserter. Something about his appearance brought a smile to my lips, and I shook my head and continued riding and keeping my head down as we approached the town market.

While we were passing through the market square, a young girl threw some flower petals on me, drawing the other’s attentions. I heard a woman’s voice invoking the blessings of the goddess Arasmo and chanting some spells for the protection of the high priestess. More people began to pop their heads out of their shops to wave at me, while I plastered a fake smile on my face and waved back awkwardly.

It was the first time people showed me love, thinking I was the real priestess even though I knew very well that their love was just for the title, not the person holding the title. If a donkey were to become the high priestess, they’d show the same amount of love and respect for that donkey for as long as it held the title.

The sun was getting hotter and hotter as we progressed farther away from the city. The farmlands passed by us in a blur due to the speed we rode at or more like raced ourselves at. I had underestimated the power of my horse which was small but incredibly mighty, daring to compete with the speed of the white mare. We soon reached the end of the lands and cut through the forests as the sounds of hooves began clattering and digging into the grounds.

We did not stopped for almost half an hour until we had gone deep into the wilderness and reached a small river where travelers would usually stop by to have their horses drink from the river.

As expected, we met with a few men and horses at the bank of the flowing river. A fresh water kept spewing out from the points where two large rocks collided. The river was a beautiful sight to behold, so serene and peaceful that I wished I could have a home somewhere around there.

Milan stepped down from the horse and before he could arrive to help me down, the sound of my dress tearing apart as it got caught up in the saddle brought a wave of laughter from a group of three men squatting by the river bank. I regretted attempting to dismount by myself knowing well that I was wearing a stupid and embarrassing piece of fabric.

“Don’t mind them.” Milan said, noticing my embarrassment as he used his body to obstruct their view of my thigh which was exposed through the torn dress. He held my waist firmly and helped me down from the horse, then he took off his cloak and wrapped it around my hips.

As he was tying the two edges of his cloak to conceal where the dress was torn, my eyes caught the movement of an arrow right before it hit the nape of a man who was sitting on a small rock. His body splashed into the river, contaminating it with his blood which alarmed everyone around.

Someone screamed “rogues” and the men began to ran helter-skelter for safety.

Milan pushed me down into the sand and unsheathed his sword, the metal glinted into the sunlight right before it turned red with the blood of our first attacker who had his throat slashed by Milan’s sword. His blood made a mess on my dress and I knew I had gotten some on my face too.

I took out my dagger and vaulted to my feet and attacked another rogue who was aiming to attack Milan with a cruel axe. I cut through the veins on his hand, making the axe to fall off as he screamed in pain and yelled at the others to catch us.

Before we knew it, twenty to thirty more men emerged from the forest. They each held a different kind of cruel weapon ranging from large crossbows to swords, to double edged spears and blunt axes.

“I believe we can take them all together.” I whispered to Milan, even though I was panicking on the inside and trying hard to control the aggressive hammering in my chest.

I was standing back to back with Milan, waiting for him to reply me but instead, I heard him groaning and making some rough movements that caused me to turn back quickly. Then I saw the arrow head that had pierced through his left thigh. He had broken a half of it, but the rest seemed to be stuck with his muscles.

“Keep your head clear and run into the forest as soon as I lunge at them.” He spoke back in a dead serious voice that made my knees went cold. It sounded as though he was planning to make a stupid move that would get him axed to death. I couldn’t even utter a word at the gross sight of his bloody tight. “Don’t even think about coming back here to find me. And use the trees to your advantage.”

“We’re sticking together no matter what. Just let me handle them.” I dropped my dagger to the ground and surrendered my hands in the air. “No one has to die here. We have gold coins and we will give them all to you along with the horses. You can have everything.” I informed, hoping they’d agree to take the deal and let us walk away.

“You think we can make a deal after you’ve killed one of ours?” A giant man from among the rogues emerged from the forest with a rusty cutlass in his hand. He had a black patch on his right eye like a pirate captain, and his left eye was bloodshot red and scary. His belly was so gigantic to the point of bouncing as he strode forward and nailed me with his scrutinizing glare. Then his eyes shifted down to where my dress had torn and he smirked devilishly, causing me to move backward wary of his movement. I hadn’t noticed that my thigh was out again after the cloak had fell off in the process of fighting.

I flinched at the contact of Milan’s hand swiftly shoving me away to his back. He managed to drag his feet to stand in front of the man. I could tell he was doing his best to hold out and not fall unconscious from the blood loss.

The one eyed man looked at Milan, his face instantly draining of its color. He kept silent and carefully observed Milan up and down in several glances. His brows knitted together in confusion. “Impossible…” He muttered.

“What do you want from us?” Milan asked, gritting his teeth and balling his fists. “Your men attacked first and left me with no choice but to retaliate. I’m the one who killed one of yours, the girl has nothing to do with this.”

“The hunter will be willing to pay a handsome price to see this.” He said to Milan and then turned away as he walked towards the forest. To his men, he issued an order saying; “Take the horses away and keep your eyes on the dragon, the poison in the arrow is enough to weaken him. And you, Brutus...” He pointed to another brute and added; “Bring me the girl to the cave.”

We exchanged a confused look with Milan. His eyes darkened and turned to the color of liquid fire as he gritted his teeth angrily. He looked so angry, his nose flaring to a point that I thought my eyes had seen something like a smoke coming out from his nostrils. In a split second, his skin cracked and turned red and he snapped his fingers and did something I had never seen him done before. His hands started emanating some kind of thick dark smoke, and then a raging fire quickly erupted out from the smoke. But the fire died almost as fast as it formed, and then his body violently shook before he collapsed onto the ground before me.

My ears began to ring all of a sudden. My whole body started vibrating due to the shock, and I doubted the authenticity of what my eyes had seen. Milan could never perform any magic, he was as powerless as I was. Or so I had thought.

Even as the brute held my arm and started to drag me away, I couldn't think of anything while my attention was on Milan. Precisely his face.

Why did the one eyed man called Milan a dragon?