Promised to the Dragon King

Chapter 7

“Your Highness!!” Grub pulled back the moment he saw the golden dragon swooping down on him.

“Get away from her!” King Brenton growled, only thinking about stopping his warrior from tearing Vanora to pieces, before he could get her to the castle.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”

The King bit his wing and dragged him through the air, throwing him into the distance.

“That is my mate!!” He shouted, flying after him.

Landing on the ground next to him, his weight made the ground shake underneath Grub.

“Your Highness, wait, please. I have news. I was on my way to look for you! I didn’t know she was still in her dragon form. I thought the Fairy King was playing tricks on me to stop me from reaching you!” Grub tried to defend himself before the King killed him.

“What? What does he have to do with you attacking the Princess?!” He took two steps back, giving Grub space to get up.

Grub gave him a bow, slightly cringing with the pain shooting through his torn wing.

“Your Highness, the Fairy King has claimed the Princess's land. He petitioned the council, saying that since she and her entire family has been wiped out, and he would have won the battle if you didn’t interfere, he claims ownership of the land.”

“That bastard! He just waited until I took her away from there!” Brenton turned around, stomping two steps away.

“The council has sent me to find you and the princess, Your Highness. You have to meet with them, or the Fairy King will be given the land.”

Brenton growled.

“Thank you, Grub, and sorry about the wing. Come, Beeswax is watching over her. He will fix your wing.” They walked to where he left Kaida with Bees, because Grub was in no condition to fly.

***

She should have listened to that little voice telling her not to come here. Phillipe came walking up the path in a jolly mood, making her moan. That’s all she needed, a drunk, chatty Phillipe.

“Hi, Kaida, how are you feeling? I see you met your saviour, Beeswax. That smells delicious, buddy.”

She opened one eye to see what he was doing. He patted the funny little green man on his shoulder who looked at him with irritation. He was walking straight up, not swaying. No bottle in his hand…

“I have some news that will surely make you happy, Kaida.”

Well, he knew she was awake. She sighed.

“It’s your fault I’m in a world of pain, there is no news you can bring me that is happy news, unless it is to tell me we are going home.”

“No. I found Emerald’s family. Three generations of them. She had three children, a son, and two daughters. The oldest of her two daughters is said to have never married and left town after her mother’s death. The others stayed behind and had children and grandchildren and some of their great, great, great-grandchildren still live in town.”

“Great.”

She rolled her eyes.

“This is not proof enough of a living black rose. If you think that you are going to use this as your proof, I will find some way to fight you on it.”

“The family gave me a book with their family tree written in it.”

“Gave it to you?”

“Well, okay, fine, not willingly.”

“Great… Now we have to run… And I’m still injured. I can just see myself trotting along the forest like a show pony on our way back to our town… The image is too disturbing, and my head hurts.”

He decided it’s time to come clean before his ridiculous story became too much for even him to bear.

Golden dust started swirling around his legs, and within seconds his dragon form was standing in front of her.

“I knew it!!” She tried to get up.

“I knew this was some kind of lie to get me away from my castle!!”

“Vanora, please listen.” He calmly tried to explain, but Kaida was furious and still tried to get up.

“Who the hell is Vanora?! Who are you? What did you do to Phillipe??” She shouted.

“Kaida, please. Let me explain.” He flopped down on the ground, making it shake, and Beeswax looked at him when his perfectly cooked pig almost dropped into the fire.

“Sorry, Bees. Grub needs help if you don’t mind.” He shrugged, and Beeswax walked in the direction he came from, mumbling.

“Fine! I’m your captive audience!” She was frustrated that her wings wouldn’t move without causing her terrible pain.

He explained what Grub told him about the Fairy King. Then he explained what his original plan was, and how he really just wanted them to spend some time away from the castle.

“My intentions were never to hurt you in any way.”

“Just tell me where we are going next, that bastard is not getting my castle! I want to get out of here as soon as… Beeswax says I’m healed enough to leave.” She couldn’t even wave without cringing in pain. How the hell was she going to run away!!?

“You can stop worrying Kaida. You will be fully healed in the morning. All you need now is rest.” Beeswax shouted from the back of the red dragon, and she looked confused.

“Yes, what he said. Kaida, please meet Grub, one of my warriors. Grub, this is princess Vanora.”

“You keep calling me that awful name, why? You can’t still believe that I’m the princess you read about in those books!” She was so angry at him that she could eat him, but now it would be kind of difficult.

He grinned at her, shifting back into his human form, and opened the latest book. The pages were loose and only bound together inside a leather pouch. Some of them didn’t look as old as others, and it seemed the family kept them up to date. Black Rose must have been taught how to read and write by the Queen, and taught her daughter and so on. Not a lot of people knew how.

“Have you got your things together yet?”

“No, not yet. She is still lying on my house, remember.”

“Oh yes, there is that problem.”

"Things? What things? What for?”

What did I miss?

“Beeswax is coming with us, of course.”

WHAT?!

“When was I consulted on this matter? Besides, I thought we had to go and see this magical council of yours?!”

“The moment you smashed through my house. Now keep quiet and rest.”

For some odd reason, she couldn’t fight him and laid back. Why couldn’t she fight against this creature? What the hell was he that he could order her around and she had to listen?

“Oh, for goddess sake, stop calling me a creature! I’m a forest dwarf if you must know. I care for forest creatures.”

“That still doesn’t explain why…”

He interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.

“You choose the silence of the forest clearings to land, right?”

“It’s not as if I actually chose to end up here!” She angrily looked at Grub who had also been painted blue.

“Oh, just agree that you prefer nature.”

He sounded irritated…

“Fine!!”

“Forest creature… nature… Blah blah blah. Now rest, please.”

She looked at him with a little bit of shock, never seeing herself as a creature, never mind a forest creature. She was a snow dragon; how could she be a forest creature. Seeing him roll his eyes, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep to take her away. At least it would make time go faster. She luckily didn’t have to wait long before the darkness pulled her in.

Her dreams were filled with a battle and people dying. Then a golden dragon swooped in, and she could smell fire around them.

***

She woke up with a start, hearing Beeswax complaining about pots and pans.

“We aren’t going anywhere until she lifts her fat ass!”

“Kaida!!”

“You!” She looked at him standing there in his dragon form.

“You turned me into this! I remember now!”

“Yes,” Beeswax interrupted her: “And you are drooling all over my stuff. Is that the thanks I get for healing you!!”

“Oh, sorry.” She registered where she was, and what was happening underneath her, and stepped aside.

“Are you two ready, can we go?” She growled, testing her wings for any pain.

She remembered everything, and she was furious. She had no other choice but to go with him to prove she was princess Vanora, and to get this spell broken, so she could claim back what was left of her castle!

“May I remind you…”

“Yes, yes, I know you read my thoughts. Can we go already?”

“Almost. We just need to put his saddle up if you don’t mind lowering yourself… How else do you think Beeswax was going to come with us?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness?” She bowed, sarcastically.

“Princesses don’t carry people.”

“I’ll take him.” Grub noticed the tension interject.

Beeswax picked up a huge bag almost the same size as himself. Kaida’s jaw-dropped.

“Where the hell are we going this time?”

“To the east. If she were an assassin for hire, that is where she would have gone.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because there are a lot of men there that need to be taught lessons.”

“And the council is on the way.” King Brenton added, but she ignored him.

“Okay… To the east, we go. Who are we looking for?”

“Lilith. From the stories in town, she kept to herself. She wore a red cloak with a black rose embroidered on the back. She didn’t keep the fact that she was a well-trained fighter secret.”

“But aren’t they supposed to be a secret order?”

“Yes, and no. According to the legend, their identities should be secret, the order, however, not. Maybe we will find out more about her in the next town.”

“You never told me if Emerald left a black rose?”

“That is the strange thing. She didn’t, but the town clerk who declared himself in charge of the town, received one after he was caught, uhm… You know… With some of the younger women.”

“Why would that be a problem?”

“Some of them didn’t always agree to it.”

“He was a real piece of work. Nasty as they come. I heard this story. A black rose was left on his bed, and the next night he was killed.” Beeswax told a part of the story he remembered.

“And after that night, Lilith was never seen again.”

“Holy moly… Are you saying she was the one who killed him? She was so kind to me and the forest. She wouldn’t harm a flea.”

“Fly.” Kaida corrected him.

“Isn’t that what you are doing?” Beeswax waved his hands in the air.

“Don’t forget! We have to stop at my cousin's house, Phillipe.”

What?! What now?

“Kaida, we have to stop at Bees’ cousin's house.”

“Why?” She asked feeling really confused: “At this rate, we are never going to meet with the council!”

“I haven’t seen them in years. It’s part of the p*****t for squashing my house.”

“Phillipe!! I told you we shouldn’t have gone to that ocean town!!” Her anger flared up again.

“If you didn’t drag me off my mountain, none of this would have happened, and I would have been blissfully unaware!”

“But then we wouldn’t have met Bees over there.”

“I think I should fly back home and just kill the fairy king.”

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“The council will send me to kill you, and I really don’t want to do that.”

“Then I will just kill you…”

“No, you won’t.” He laughed.

“Why not?”

He looked at her.

“You aren’t getting out of this that easily, Kaida. We are still on our quest to find a living descendant. I am going to get your land back, if it takes my entire life to search for this girl.”

“Yes, and I’m part of the team now because you need a healer.”

Oh, goddess, why are you punishing me like this?! Now there are two of them!! A town came into view and Beeswax started shrieking like a girl!

“Ow!! Big ears!! Pain!!”

“Sorry, Kaida, I just haven’t seen my family in a long time.”

She guessed they had reached their first destination. Looking for somewhere to land, and the only place they could find was a mountain top with a cave. Bees grabbed his stuff, said a quick goodbye, and hit the trail down the mountain to go see his family. Phillipe shifted to human form, unpacking his bag that Grub was carrying for him, and she found a spot to lie down.

Grub flew out into the open to hunt for something to eat.

“What the hell, Phillipe? Now we are a passenger service?”

“If it weren’t for him, you would be dead right now, you know.”

“I’m sure I would have healed in time.”

“No, you wouldn’t, Kaida. I’ve told you; you aren’t just any old dragon.”

She looked at him.

“You know, it’s really unfair that you can shift like that. One minute a dragon and the next a drunk!”

She turned her back on him, flopping down on the ground making it shake underneath him.