The Dragon Prince's Warrior

Victory of defeat?

Silence... that was the only thing Prince Yun could hear, albeit with difficulty, possibly because his inner ears had ruptured due to the blows from those two dragons.

There was no rustling of leaves, no sound of insects, no sound of the nearby river flowing. There, kneeling with his body aching and screaming for rest, he implored in his mind for the Fenghuang to appear, that they needed its help, but the stone monument remained motionless and had, in fact, dropped the pendant that he knew belonged to the convalescent Siu.

Why was it there? He had no answer to that. Yun's eyes welled up, and two streams of tears ran down his cheeks, falling onto Siu's pale face, as she lay unconscious.

"I have come from afar to invoke you. Along the way, I lost all my belongings, and... I also met wonderful people. I still don't know if it was you who gave me this armor and sword, but I thank you anyway. You're here; I beg you for a sign, please... A miracle for our family and for all those who perished because of these evil dragons," he pleaded, and sobs welled up. "My mother is dying, and so is my friend. My father and my brothers are devastated. We have no one to turn to for a solution. A miracle... just a miracle."

Yun continued to pray before the Fenghuang monument until the sky turned with those strokes of orange, blue, and white. The prince did not move from there, even though his knees ached, and his feet grew numb. Carefully, he laid the girl on the grass beside him, which seemed to serve as a carpet for the statue.

After many minutes of pleading, he finally made one last bow, touching his forehead to the ground, and remained immersed in the meditation of his prayers. The sky began to darken, and in the distance, Yun could hear the sound of crickets.

As he realized that it was more than useless, the pain in the center of his chest became evident. He didn't even know how his mother was, if his journey had served any purpose, or if he had failed. With that thought lingering in his mind, a final session of sobs and lamentations overwhelmed the young Yun's body. Besides all that, he felt defeat settling in placidly; his intuition told him the worst.

If he didn't have the riddle and his prayers didn't work either, what was he going to do to survive on the journey back with a girl who needed immediate medical attention? It was true that he needed it too, but she had lost too much blood.

"I'll have to make it to the Yumai village on my own, I have no other choice."

Still with a defeated feeling, he took one more look at the monument. The cold was increasing as nightfall approached; he could feel it caressing his face, chilling his nose and cheekbones. He didn't know how much they could both endure without medical attention. At the very least, he would struggle to find another cave to spend the night and, hopefully, something edible in that desolate place.

With his body bruised and his ears affected, Yun once again lifted the girl into his arms. He staggered to one side because he really felt her weight; perhaps his arms were too weak, but he ignored it and began to move away from that mountainous place, which, from that moment on, would be the site of his nightmares.

"It reassures me to have this armor and sword. With these, I can defend myself in case the enemies want to harm Siu," thought Yun, who, no matter how much he looked around, found no trace of Mei and Gao's henchmen. Although along the way, he came across clusters of scales, similar to those left behind by those two after their transformation. "Could it be that they were all dragons? I had never seen them in my life, and now it turns out that in two days, I've come across many of them... and with ill intentions! If I survive, I'll question my father about this."

Yun paused for a moment to check that Siu was still alive. He scrutinized her delicate, dirty, and bruised face. Her hair seemed lifeless, and the blood was beginning to dry in the multiple cuts inflicted on her by those women to torture her.

"Siu..." he whispered as he looked down at her. "I need you to hold on, okay? I'll take you home. You'll be fine; you just have to hang on a little longer."

Walking wounded in the dim light had been a crazy idea, especially when one wasn't alone, and that life depended on good decisions. Yun wasn't ready to give up, but at times, he felt his vision blur, mixed with the drowsiness that seemed to make him nod off now and then.

"For the gods... If only I could find another one of those caves, everything would be fine," Yun thought as he leaned against a tree, panting from exhaustion.

Suddenly, the young man spotted something illuminated by the moonlight: it was a cave, not as large as the one they had spent the night in the first time, but it would at least provide shelter from the elements.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you again," he said to the universe, as it always seemed to grant some of his heart's desires.

Yun hoped that his prayers at the monument had been heard and wished with all his might to reach his mother, father, and brothers. He longed for everything to be resolved once and for all, and for them to live prosperously, carefree, and happy, as they did before.

(...)

In the central park of Forbidden City, young Jin and his squad of soldiers had battled against that colossal beast, which had caused multiple injuries to most of them, leaving the prince practically alone in that fight.

Just when it seemed like a hopeless labyrinth, a red armor had enveloped Jin, in front of his squad, who were left astonished by this incredible event. A few injured warriors had spread the word about what happened, and a significant number of citizens, especially men, had come out to witness such extraordinary events, which seemed like a legendary tale. Although the guards prevented them from getting closer, they couldn't stop people from desiring to witness such a sight.

Lin had slipped into the small crowd and ran as fast as she could among the people to get as close to Jin as possible. Her eyes widened; she couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was her friend, wearing crimson armor and wielding a sword with which he had already wounded his enemy. He was face to face with that gigantic beast, which was enormous compared to him, but that didn't seem to intimidate him; on the contrary, he seemed to want to challenge it with every move.

"By the whiskers of the legendary Dragon..." said a blacksmith with amazement in his voice. "I never thought I would live to see this, but I don't understand why it's attacking us. We have always paid tribute to the dragon. Have we done something to anger it?"

"I have no idea, but this dragon is nothing like the one we pay tribute to," replied a lumberjack, straining his eyes to get a better look at the creature since night had fallen.

Lin was right in the middle of the two men, but as always, she was nearly invisible to many people, so she just listened to the conversation, as it was about Jin. She alternated her gaze between the gentlemen and her friend to not miss any details.

"Darn it, Prince Jin is taking too many risks," commented the lumberjack. "Let's hope the Fenghuang and the true Sacred Dragon protect him, or he won't come out of this alive."

The conversation couldn't be concluded because the sound of a sword strike, followed by a heavy blow, drew everyone's attention to that bloody scene. Jin had been thrown against a wall, and the black dragon approached him rapidly. However, the prince regained consciousness and pierced the creature's front paw.

The screech it emitted was deafening, so everyone had to cover their ears, although Lin had to admit it didn't affect her too much.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the dragon let out one more scream as it looked toward the sky. A similar cry was heard from the distance. Lin thought it might be an echo because nothing more was heard.

Jin took advantage of the dragon's distraction to jump to head level and then pierce its neck with a sword strike, eliciting exclamations from everyone. The creature couldn't emit another cry and fell to the ground along with the prince.

The crowd shouted in shock and victory at the same time. Everyone rushed to help the prince, who had saved the City, but no one noticed how Shun, the crown prince, had fought hand to hand with a much larger and stronger dragon.

No one noticed how that dragon had vanished like lightning, in a sort of teleportation, leaving the crown prince more injured than ever and with no one coming to his aid.

Something else was happening within the four walls of the palace: a scream of pain from the Emperor echoed in the room, repeatedly calling out the name of his beloved wife.