Ablaze

Chapter 1

                                                                                             Kalai

“Are you sure about this, Kal?” Davroz’s deep voice was hushed but firm, following me as my protector.

I walked purposely toward the throne room. The wide open hall was bright from the early morning sun that rose in the east, which was on our left. I noticed the white ground covered by ice. It made the surroundings too bright indeed. I glanced up and noted on a dozen Red Dragons flying above our castle and fortress.

Way up above was the bluish lavender sky that looked so lovely. It just meant that we would have a great today. Storms though would come and go like a thief. Sometimes they were even dragon-made as magic could also influence the weather and some powerful dragon shifters used it for their own advantage. Some would use it to hover stealthily and to spy on others.

At present, I didn’t know what was going on with Inadi—what I call my Queen Mother—but I sure thought the security was still lax as before, after what happened. Like it was all normal.

“I can no longer just sit around, eat and sleep while Nystru is being held against his will in Draggan Queendom, Davroz!” I snapped at him, golden eyes blazing when I gave him a glance, noting the not-so bushy eyebrows of his come together. I didn’t slow down. Nonetheless, my flat white, glittery strappy shoes were quiet on the shiny red marble floor, while the golden satin silk sexy gown that covered my upper torso and from the waist down made a gentle swish. Despite the constant icy weather we had, everyone of my kind was oblivious to it.

A couple of castle maids in their bright crimson robes with their long blond hair braided atop of their head with gem-studded hair clips greeted and bowed to me before they continued to walk away. However, I caught their flirty glances thrown at my handsome keeper. Who wouldn’t? Davroz was too gorgeous to hold such a position. If it weren’t for his keeper’s green uniform, he would certainly pass as a dashing dragon shifter prince! The cape swayed as he strode like he owned the place. His straight corn-like long mane reached up to his wide shoulders, which he swept by his hand. His muscles bulged in his long-sleeved uniform in all the right places. And the gold-obsidian sword was safely hanging at his side. The muscular thighs were evident in his tight stretchable pants.

Okay, I wasn’t checking him out but I did admire his male beauty. His straight long nose was perfect; he had beautiful thick lashes that framed those alluring green eyes that could smolder a woman’s clothing if he chose to; his red lips were plump and looked juicy. I always wondered how many women he kissed without my knowledge. Or how they would taste. Wait, what? I didn’t really fancy him. He was just a friend and my keeper for over a century now. We were both over a hundred years old. He was older like… maybe twenty-five years. But that was like new adults for our kind. We were adults nonetheless.

My beautiful and intimidating mother was already a thousand years old and her lovers’ ages ranged from around my age to hers, or maybe even more. It didn’t matter as long as the male dragon shifter was gorgeous and could keep her satiated in bed.

“Yeah, it’s been more than a couple days now,” Haalash, my pet, butted in to our conversation. Her voice was cute but hus-sss-ky.

I glanced down at the jade-colored snake that wrapped around my left wrist. That was her favorite spot. Her head was as big as my two thumbs in a diamond shape and her elongated body was shiny green and as perhaps the size of my thumb. Her red fork-like tongue was in and out, while her reddish green eyes squinted at my keeper.

“Your brother is safe, I’m sure of it, Kal,” Davroz said. Yes, he didn’t address me as Princess Kalai. I didn’t want him to. I always wanted to keep it casual between us. Not that I had a little teeny bit crush on him the first time I saw him. That was a long time ago. I just wanted us to be like friends in spite of the different status we held in the Doragon Queendom.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of it, Davroz. Gaemeris is an unstable queen. She’s sick in the head. You know that. Who knows what she’s going to do with the one and only Prince of Doragon? He’s my only brother.” I stopped and looked at my protector in the eye. I tried to keep my dignity, not to cry in front of him.

Nystru was both a brother and a father to me. He was five hundred years old when I hatched from my eggshell. He taught me everything, from walking to flying and fighting. He taught me a lot of things. After all, I was his favorite sister. I was the youngest of us four sisters.

Davroz just sighed as he stopped and looked at my beautiful oval face. His eyes roved over my high-cheekboned face, wavy thick-lashed golden eyes, long-bridged straight nose and red thin lips. I wasn’t the most beautiful princess in our queendom but beautiful all the same.

All of us five siblings had different fathers. My mother only chose those lucky shifters to be our fathers before she cast them aside in the consort castle. Maybe she did sleep with them from time to time but after being given a child by each of them, she didn’t want additional ones from the same line. I had no idea what her reasons are. Maybe one of them was to be fair to all of them. After all, I heard and believed she loved them all.

I took a deep breath and resumed walking toward the throne room. I knew my Queen Mother was already there at this hour, before we would share our mid-day meal.

Dragon shifters eat a couple times a day. They are usually huge meals, enough for us to live by normally. Nonetheless, we also eat small snacks or whatever strikes us since we also have our own cravings in between meals. Most of us are carnivores but I am one of the few who are omnivores. That means I eat fruits and other non-meaty food. I usually enjoy the taste of food and how it satisfies me.

Now, I saw the two dragon soldiers stand guard the wide and massive doors to the throne room, which was to our right. Upon seeing me, they pushed the doors open quietly with their dark and fierce-looking claws. Davroz and I went into another wide hall and followed it. This time, it was dimmer. Only a few stained glass roofs let the light stream in. Occasional sconces on the walls were lit magically, giving off blue light.

Four dragons were in each corner. Just like the first two, they were gigantic in size. Once we shifted, we grow like twelve or fifteen times over with wings spanning fully to sixteen or more meters, depending on the individual.

One of the guards opened the door, and there I was at last. In front of me was an elevated part of the throne room, at the far end of this vast rectangular room. Behind the throne were two ceiling-to-floor glass windows with a Doragon crest that had a dragon curling its body and tail, wings stretched fully and breathed red fire. The throne was at the center, making the occupant “shine” like a goddess. She looked so ethereal with a tiara that had a flame design, which was made of the most precious dragon stone called lapiarta. Her sexy dress was made of flaming red and flowing fabric, which sported her ripe curves and creamy skin. She was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting in orange robes, as well as protectors in their normal human form. The latter had the same uniform as my keeper. The only difference was that they had no capes.

My keeper bent his left knee with his left arm resting on it and bowed his head as a sign of respect and stayed like that a step behind me, a little to the right. My mother just glanced at him before her golden eyes settled on me.

“My Princess Kalai, you’re too early to grace me with your presence.” Queen Tymistra, who was seated stiffly on her big throne, eyed me and said it coldly. “Never have I seen you too early to visit me and pay your daily greeting.”

I winced upon hearing it. “I’ve had enough, Inadi! I don’t want to wait until Nystru is returned to our home!”

Her cold eyes regarded me. Her red hair was curly, which I inherited from her, and it was elegantly brushed and laid on one side, over her left shoulder where it cascaded down to her left breast. She was like a statue seated there but she was pure and all woman. Seductive one at that. No wonder many of the Doragon male shifters flocked to the palace to get her attention day by day. Well, night by night, rather. She always opened the fortress in the afternoon for noble shifters to check them out—of course, after they were identified by her loyal keepers. As the Queen of Doragon, she was supposed to breed lots and lots of offspring. However, she was picky. Was it because she was also looking for her fated mate? Until now, she had never found the ultimate one.

Well, Nystru told me it was rare for us to find our fated mate. Like it was one in a million years.

“How would I know I met my fated mate?” I remember asking my brother when I was just twenty-five. I was already a grown female shifter at the time, but still too young to marry or mate. Well, according to my brother, that is.

We were at the palace garden. It was near the consort castle, which had imposing red conical roofs that seemed to reach the sky. The garden was huge and in a form of a maze in a myriad of colors. We were in the center of it, and the snow covered the ground white. The plants and trees, however, weren’t as they permeated their own heat, which immediately melted the flakes. It made the contrast beautiful, as shiny green leaves glistened under the sun.

I put some magical flowers in a white marble vase, while my brother watched me contentedly. The flowers bloomed in different colors and shapes. I picked them right from their stems.

“They say you’ll see yourself with a laughing offspring with him. Others say you will find him and yourself in an… uh… intimate… moment.”

I raised a beautifully arched eyebrow. The color of my eyebrows was almost the same shade as my red hair. “Intimate moment? Like what is that?”

My brother chuckled and ruffled my long curly hair that was way past my waist. I let it down since I was not in a training mode. Whenever my brother and I were in the arena, my hair was caught in a tight high bun or in a high ponytail, depending on my mood.

“You’ll know when you’re in that moment.” He smiled like it was a promise.

I momentarily shook my head as I looked at my Queen Mother, dragging myself to the present. She looked at me with eyes in mere slits while she seemed to find words to hurl at me.

“Your brother can take care of himself. Being taken by those White Dragons is the least of your worries, Kalai.”

My frown deepened as she pointed it out. She was partly right. I couldn’t open my mouth.

“Your Queen Mother is right,” Haalash whispered, hissing though.

I gave her a deadly stare, which made her look down and went still.

“If it is any consolation to you, I already sent six of my elite warriors to get your brother back. Meanwhile, we need to keep his predicament under wraps just between us in Doragon, lest it will reach to the Black Ice Dragons in Drakkon Kingdom. You know damn well what it’d mean, Kalai!”

When the new Drakkon King came to power, after his father died of an unknown disease that no magic or any dragon healers could do about, the politics and rules changed. Others speculated that the successor killed his own father, which was quite horrible.

“Is that why there’s no change in the sky patrol?” I blinked. “Inadi, you know a dozen of guards up in the air is not enough!”

She sat back on her throne and put her elbow on the armrest to rest the side of her head with her slender fingers on the temple. She gritted her white teeth. Yes, she was intimidating but I was never intimidated by her. I was like my brother. We were the only ones who had the courage to banter with our mother, unlike our sisters. To me and my brother, we always had our reason to. This time, it was very important, too.

 “They’re never enough since we got the threat from the Drakkon King a few months ago!” I added, nostrils flaring. The dragon inside me stirred. Sometimes when I am too emotional, she would stir and sometimes emerge, taking over me.

“Don’t think that I am not worried about your safety, Kalai. All my children are important to me. But I don’t need your nagging as if I am not doing anything!” Her eyes blazed, literally. It seemed that my mother’s dragon was also pissed at me.

I didn’t flinch though. I looked at her straight in the eye. “It’s not me that I’m worried about, Inadi. It’s my other sisters who know nothing about fighting. What if that crazy Drakkon King just attacks us? They will be like small and vulnerable sitting hatchlings for him to take!”

Inadi laughed. It was a chilling one that could make anyone quiver. “They’re dragon shifters and they’re older than you, Kalai. Don’t worry about your sisters and do not underestimate them. You, on the other hand, must worry about your own safety because it’s you who that new Drakkon King wants!”