The Dragon Prince's Warrior

Analyzing Feelings

In dreams, all he could hear was a babble of voices he couldn't quite recognize. At times, he felt his chest burning, as if he were giving everything he had to stay alive; then calmness would prevail. Despite remaining in that limbo of darkness, someone was in his mind as if they had almost completely taken it over.

—Siu... —he repeated insistently, not knowing what had become of her. Had her father allowed her to heal in the palace? Had he sent her somewhere of which he had no knowledge?

So many doubts crowded ethereal in his mind, one after another, and desperation consumed him in those few moments of lucidity. When would this torment end?

He tried to move, but it was a practically futile struggle. This situation forced him to wait patiently for it to end on its own.

From the shadows, once again, the peaceful face of his mother presented itself, smiling sweetly at him. Soon, he felt hands cradling his face; they were her smooth hands, holding him in her lap. For a moment, he felt like a fragile child and just wanted to stay with her like that, forever.

As expected, that moment wasn't eternal. She had disappeared as if by magic, and the shadows were his companions, if one could call the feeling of unease and disquiet "company."

"Mother, don't go," he pleaded in a frail voice, but she had long stopped listening. She only came to him when it pleased her.

After so much struggle against that immobility and uncertainty, he was finally able to move his hand. He raised it as if emerging from a bottomless pit in which he had been drowning for an endless time.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he could only feel the light filtering through the curtains caressing his face, as if welcoming him. Initially, the structure of the grand room, with its creamy, golden, and red colors, didn't seem recognizable to him.

"Where am I?" Yun wondered as he turned slowly to look to the side.

There, almost next to him, on another comfortable bed, lay his brother. And how could he not recognize his face? They had practically grown up together, which was why the extreme pallor on his face and the bandages around his head did not prevent him from knowing who it was. A smile appeared on the prince's face as he noticed that his brother was still breathing.

"Shun..." he whispered, but received no response from his brother, who seemed to be fighting a battle between life and death. "But... what happened to you, brother?" he questioned more to himself than to his brother, knowing he wouldn't get an answer, not in that deplorable state.

Yun tried to stretch his arm to touch his brother, but it was too far away, so he huffed and, with a furrowed brow, gave up, returning to his initial position. Since his eyes couldn't remain still, he quickly turned to the other side, and his heart leaped with an inexplicable emotion.

There was Siu, as battered as his brother. It hurt him deeply to think about everything the young girl had gone through since they met. She deserved to be at peace, living her life in the place where she was born and alongside her parents. Undoubtedly, the fact that she had suffered for following him to the mountain was something he might never overcome in life, and a tremendous sense of guilt devoured him from within.

When he scrutinized her serene face and his gaze wandered over all the beautiful features he could appreciate on her complexion, his mind took him back to that moment when both had contributed equal energies to end that creature with their swords.

Both together, side by side, facing the adversity that loomed over their lives. When they triumphed, he could still feel how they both fell to the ground, surrounded by that dust cloud that seemed to cover them but not suffocate them. Their gazes had connected as if they were opposite poles, and he simply couldn't and didn't want to look away.

For the first time since he met her, he was looking directly into her eyes, and it was something he had enjoyed. Her bright eyes had the power to make him not want to stop staring into them, as if they were two lagoons in which he wished to remain indefinitely.

But Yun was sure that was just the beginning because when his dilated pupils shifted to her prominent and exquisite lips, which looked like two rose petals, a bit battered due to her health condition, but that didn't stop the desire to close the distance from overcoming him. For the first time, he allowed himself to be carried away by his impulses to satisfy the feeling that called to him, which he mostly wanted to ignore.

"If there hadn't been interruptions, would we... have kissed?"

Yun snapped out of it as he turned to look in another direction. Staring at her for so long had resurrected those desires from his chest, and he longed to get closer to her, to shower her with caresses, and to attempt to awaken her with that first kiss he had yearned for so much. It seemed like this feeling wasn't fleeting.

What intrigued him the most was knowing if she had felt the same way, or if she had acted purely on impulse and obedience, knowing he was a prince.

"I feel so ridiculous thinking these things I've never felt before, not even when my father tried to convince us to court maidens at the Dragon celebration," Yun said to himself as he tried to calm his racing heart. "She and I... I don't think this is possible or right, what I'm feeling. The only thing that should prevail is the feeling of gratitude and friendship, like my brother Jin and his friend from the village, the one he talks about so much."

Yun abruptly snapped out of his reverie because a group of people opened the door with an indiscreet creak and entered the room. The first to enter was his beloved father, followed by his brother Jin. Yun's eyes widened with indescribable emotion. It felt like years since he had last seen his family.

"Today has to be the definitive day," Heng emphasized without turning towards the beds, lost in his speeches as usual. "We need to find a way to expedite the recoveries. I don't know... There has to be some solution. This desperation is killing me."

While his father was demanding things that didn't seem possible or logical in Prince Jin's eyes, he had been going crazy since An's passing, Jin frowned in disapproval. But at the same time, he looked around, and a movement caught his attention. His brother was awake!

"Yun!" Jin ran towards the bed where his brother lay, and Heng couldn't continue speaking because upon hearing this, he forgot about everything and went to meet his younger son.