Whispers Of A Dragon

Govalon's Legacy

"Stop her!"

Kaida was jolted awake by that loud voice and she sprang up in a flash ready to flee.

She was sure she was being pursued when memories from the battle came rushing in like a flood, leaving her heart hammering in her chest and her in total panic.

With her bearings still hazy in her head, her legs carried her to the other end of the carriage, hoping to hide herself from whoever was searching for her.

But after a couple of seconds with no one budging into the carriage, she relaxed a little and figured she was safe for now. The familiar inside of the carriage helped relax her too. She recognized it from the brief moment she spent awake back in Taedel.

"Taedel...where am I now?" She wondered, knowing very well that Taedel was nothing but a memory.

The carriage had stopped but she could not tell where she was exactly. And being by herself in the compact room, she had no one to ask of her whereabouts. She instead listened in on her surroundings.

The many voices that filled the air outside the carriage made her think she was in some kind of city. A busy city. She would have thought it was some kind of camp but all the yelling from people that sounded like merchants made her think otherwise.

She took a deep breath and decided to take a peek, her hands nervously fumbling with two tiny handles that held the tiny opening to the carriage in place.

"Nerea!" She stared out of the tiny window in awe. They were here. She may have not been here before, but the two huge dragon statues standing tall, guarding the gates to the capital of Govalon was enough to know where she was exactly.

"Stop her!" That voice came again. And thinking that she was not the subject of that order, she opened the window to the carriage wider to get a clearer view of what was going on. She was met with a massive crowd of people thronging each other as they headed in all directions. And in all that confusion she could not see anyone being chased either.

She frowned and sat back. Confirming that she was indeed not the one being pursued, she took a deep breath trying to calm her heart down.

"Oh dear child, it's so good to have you back."

"Britha?" Kaida's eyes instantly filled with tears when she laid her eyes on the older woman's face. Her heart was filled with a deep sense of relief too knowing the woman had survived the attack.

"You are here?" She flung herself into Britha's arms like a little girl and the older woman caught her with ease.

"Of course I am. I told you not to worry about me." The woman patted her back and only then did Kaida realize that she was no longer in pain.

"Wait." Kaida moved back from Britha and looked down at herself.

"My wounds? My clothes?" Her tattered clothes from the battle had obviously been replaced because she was now putting on a gown that she definitely didn't own.

"One of mine." Britha nodded at the gown and Kaida wondered how she even fit into it because she wasn't exactly Britha's size. The court lady was much more on the round side while Kaida couldn't very well boast of a full figure.

"What happened to me?" She moved away the piece of cloth that covered her legs and she gasped.

Her legs that were ripped in so many places when she was dragged on the forest floor stared back at her in perfect shape. Not even a scratch remained to tell the story of her attack.

"How is that even possible?" She looked up at Britha. "The attack was yesterday right?"

"Oh my dear, we are in Nerea now." The woman smiled at her knowingly but Kaida just frowned, confusion on her face. Britha didn't exactly answer her question.

"You've been sleeping for quite a while."

"How long?" Kaida panicked, afraid to hear how long it had been.

"Wait, Nerea." She looked out of the carriage before turning back to Britha. They were in the capital of Govalon, which meant…

"It's a fortnight journey on foot and faster on a horse." Her eyes widened at the realization.

"Did we just get here?"

"Yes, it has barely been an hour." Britha answered.

"You mean I have been sleeping…"

"For almost a week my dear." Britha looked at her with worry.

"A week?" Kaida exclaimed. She wasn't that much of a heavy sleeper, so a week was way too long.

"You were hurt." Britha stated, but it didn't explain why she would need to sleep for that long. And as if the woman noticed her confusion, she explained further.

"Your wounds were quite severe and you were in so much pain your body couldn't handle staying awake."

"We would have been in Nerea earlier than today, but we couldn't exactly move fast enough with the state you were in. I couldn't risk your injuries getting worse." Britha explained, but it still didn't explain how quickly she had healed either. The cuts on her legs especially, should have taken a couple of weeks to heal and even then she would have ugly scars for a while.

"It still doesn't explain my quick healing." Kaida peeked at her legs once more, still in disbelief.

"A potion." Britha said.

"A potion?"

"It was the only way I could think of to get you out of your deep sleep and it was the only way to quickly heal your body too."

"Wait, deep sleep? You mean I would have slept longer than a week?" Kaida frowned, trying to make sense of what Britha was saying.

"It seemed after the attack, and your ordeal at the hands of the attackers, your body decided to just sleep. Deeply if I might add."

"Are you saying I almost died?"

"Almost, and I'm so glad you are awake because we have to leave here." Britha answered as she gathered some items she walked in with into a mid sized pouch.

Kaida watched her thoughtfully. Somehow, she thought the woman was not telling her the whole story. In the few moments she had spent with Britha, that seemed to be one of her traits. Leaving out things on purpose.

Kaida just sighed knowing she wasn't getting any more. She instead decided to let it be.

"We should get going." Britha turned to her once she was done and as if on cue a knock sounded on the door to the carriage.

"We don't have all day." A familiar impatient voice announced and Britha tugged on her hand.

"Leave? Are we to walk all the way to the palace from here?" Kaida didn't think they would have to proceed on foot.

"Of course not child. This is only for the security checks at the gates." Britha explained but it still didn't make sense to Kaida.

"Don't we get some form of special treatment, seeing that we are headed to the palace?"

"That is just the more reason we are to be searched. Only those who don't pose any danger or harm to the royal family will be let through into Nerea." Britha explained, but Kaida just rolled her eyes.

"Danger?" Kaida scoffed. To her, the royal family were the danger for the people of Govalon. She kept those thoughts to herself however and just followed Britha out of the carriage quietly. The woman may have been friendly, but Kaida could sense her unquestionable loyalty to the crown too.

The crowds outside the carriage were even worse than Kaida had imagined. And from where she and Britha stood, she couldn't imagine how they were going to get through all the chaos that was going on at the city gates. Men were headed in all directions. Some were entering the city while others were leaving. While others seemed to be just stuck at the gates unmoving. Merchants with their goods waiting to be let through the large city gates.

The place was just too busy and too noisy for Kaida's liking and her head felt tired before taking even a single step.

It wasn't Taedel. Her heart hurt at the memory of what she had left behind. What she was forced to leave behind.

"You can have this back." Britha handed her cloak back. "You might want to put it back on." The woman said, but Kaida just stared at it as her own hands trembled. She didn't know if she even wanted to put it back on when memories of what happened in the forest surfaced again.

"You need it, so go on." Britha pushed her to put it on and Kaida took it with trembling hands, knowing Britha would only justify why she needed to if at all she protested.

"Come now." Britha held her by her hand after Kaida was perfectly concealed in the piece of clothing.

The royal guard walked in front of them while a few more guards flanked their sides. And only then did she notice that once more they had an abundance of soldiers for protection.

Kaida took a deep breath and readied herself to dive into the ocean of people ahead but just then a horn sounded in the distance. And before she realised what was happening, the sea of people parted and a whole clear road appeared before them like magic.

"So there are perks when you are headed to the palace after all." She let out a sigh of relief as she followed after Britha.

The walk was long and even though a path was cleared for them, they still ended up being stopped and questioned. But at each point the questions ended with a look at her by both Britha and whoever would be asking which made Kaida wonder.

"Please...save me. My family…"

Kaida looked on with horror when two wide eyes looked up at her while the person's hands clutched one of hers tightly.

"That should teach you lot trying to sneak past me a lesson." The voice of someone snapped Kaida out of her horror and only then did she notice a red liquid seeping through the person's clothes.

A soldier came round and retrieved a bloody sword from the body and wiped it carelessly on his uniform before proceeding to his post.

Kaida was frozen on her spot, her eyes staring wide at the old man that now lay in a pool of his own blood.

"More blood." Kaida couldn't breathe as she felt overwhelmed by emotions.

This was Govalon's legacy. The great dragon kingdom's past, present and future.

The bloody sight reminded her that with the royal family, no life mattered to them as much as theirs and it renewed her deep seated hatred for her owners.

"What threat was he to lose his life?" Kaida kept staring at the dead man.

"That is enough." Britha cupped Kaida's cheeks and forced her to look away from the dead body.

"We have to go." Britha grabbed hold of Kaida's hand and she followed quietly.

There was a tightness in her chest that threatened to consume her and her sanity.

"Did they know?" Kaida asked the question that had plagued her mind more than anything the moment they got back in the carriage. She looked at Britha as the horrific visions of the dead maiden triggered by the old man's death flashed before her eyes.

Britha only sighed.

"Please tell me Britha. Did they know?"

Tears pooled in Kaida's eyes as she begged the older woman for answers even when she knew the maidens were already dead and nothing would bring them back.

"It's a cruel world my dear." Britha breathed out. "But I would not be that cruel either." The woman said, her face regretting nothing. Almost as if her actions were more than justified.

"Do not waste your energies on things you cannot change."

"It's my fault." Kaida choked on her words. "All those people, their deaths are on my hands." She looked at her hands and saw all that blood that covered the battle ground seeping through her hands and dripping on the carriage's wooden floor.

"No it's not. What Wregon did is in no way your fault, Kaida. If you are looking for where to place blame, place it on that wretched dark kingdom and their greed for power." Britha said bitterly. It was the first time Britha let such an emotion show but even then it did little to comfort her.

The dark kingdom. Kaida had heard of Wregon and it's brutish acts but she didn't understand why they would want her to cause so much death.

"But why?" The words left her mouth with sadness.

"You know what you are." Britha stated.

"What a whis--"

"Hush child...You don't want to say that here." Britha looked around before turning back to her.

"What is done is done. No need to linger on those bloody memories." Britha tries to comfort her but she turns away from the woman. Nothing she could say would keep her head from wondering to that tragedy.

"How did you find me?" Kaida looked out in the distance. An attempt at keeping her mind from what she just witnessed.

"You were brought back after the fight ended." Britha smiled and Kaida could see the relief in the woman's eyes too.

"Brought back? I don't understand." She frowned, but memories of her saviour flashed before her eyes and she thought it might be him.

"The soldier from the battle?"

"Yes, thankfully." Britha smiled even more.

"Can I talk to him?"

"I'm afraid not." Britha looked at her apologetically.

"I just want to give him my gratitude. Surely that is allowed, is it not?"

"It's not that my dear child." The woman caressed her hair lovingly and it reminded Kaida of her own mother.

"Then what is it, why won't you let me see him?"

"The thing is, his highness is already back at the palace."

"His highness?"

"Yes. He's the one that rescued you from the hands of the soldiers of Wregon." Britha beamed proudly.

"That warrior was a prince?" Kaida's eyes widened at Britha's words. She could not believe her ears too but before Britha could answer her, the king's castle came into view.

Castle Telarion stood tall, It's dark majestic walls a deep reflection of its occupant's dark deeds.

Kaida shifted in her seat as she eyed her future home with fear, hate and awe.