The Dragon’s Bride

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“So where are we heading now?” I asked as he took a few strides forward towards the bushes of trees in the forest in front of us.

“We are almost there, just a few walks then we can---look that way!” He said as he pointed his finger towards a hut just a few steps ahead of us. The hut seems old and abandoned full of dust and cobwebs all over the corners. Its roof is made from hay that is put together in tact, its window pane covered in dust making it seemingly impossible to look inside the hut for a check.

“Well—Uhm it’s nice at least we have a place to stay for a night right?” I said quivering from the thought of spiders flaunting all over the corners.

‘I hate spiders’

“After you,” Draco said as he gestured for me to step forward first on the entrance steps of the hut. As I get closer to the door I pushed the door to open it but to no avail, the door didn’t even budge a slight. Exerting more force in pushing it, my knuckles turned white as I tightly clutch the knob. “Why won’t this door budge even a slight?” I said in an exasperated tone as I felt my energy draining away opening the door. Hearing a low chuckle behind me I turned my gaze and found Draco laughing at my dire state. Irritated by his reaction, my brows furrowed as I stared immensely at him, like a lioness ready to devour her prey. “You know something, that I should know, right?

“Here give me away,” He said as he step closer to the door and spoke some incantations that I can’t understand when doing so the knob lit and dazzling light came shined followed by the sound of a click then the opening of the door.

“You knew that is how you should open it and you haven’t said a word about it?!”

“Well, it is quite fun looking at you struggling on something”. Saying that Draco’s face reddened as he received a stomp on his feet by me in a loud thud.

“Well ain’t your foot felt damn good from my stomp?” I asked playfully, responding to his playfulness with a smirk. “Red face suits you better, your majesty”. And with that last thing I said, I quickly entered the hut consuming myself within the dark corners.

I watched as the fire cackled, burying myself within the cozy blanket to keep myself warm as the surroundings became colder while the rain is pouring heavily outside. Draco tossed more firewood to the furnace to make the hut as warmer as possible he can, his chest glistening from the fire’s light as he took off his tunic drenched by the rain while he was gathering some firewood. He idly sat beside me and joined me to watch the fire.

“How do we know once the carriage is fixed?” I asked, breaking the overwhelming silence between us just a while ago. “We have traveled far long from where the carriage is, do you think the coachman could find us?”

“Once the carriage is fixed, the coachman will notify me immediately, through this,” He replied as he showed me a delicate and small purple crystal ball in his palm. Trying to reach his hands to examine the magical crystal my eyes gleamed with excitement as I stared at it. Seeing the amazement in my eyes, Draco chuckled lowly as he continued talking. “This purple crystal is a magical communication tool, which you can contact anyone even from a very far distant”.

“That sounds cool,”

“Yes,”

“Uhm---Draco?”

“Yes?”

“Do you perhaps know something about a sword plunged on a boulder?”. Just as asking that question Draco’s face soured, his eyes full of hatred as he continued watching the firewood burning.

“Why have you asked?”

“It’s just that, one of the maids has mentioned it before, and I think that the story behind it is interesting.”—Of course I lied, I didn’t hear it from anyone. I’ve dreamt about it, and more so who’s Reshka and what connections do I have of her?

“Well that was a tale of the villagers--” He replied in a low tone then pause as he looked at me intensely.

“Go on, I’m listening”. I said curiously as I move closer to him and stared at his face motioning him to continue his story.

“It is said that the sword was passed down from generation to generation from the hunter’s ancestors to their descendants as their heirloom. But the family of hunters began to disappear one by one after the peace treaty between the king and the dragons were proclaimed---Are you sure you want to know about this thing?” As a reply, I stared at him boringly in response and took a deep sigh. Knowingly that he can’t change my mind, Draco continued his story.

“—To seal the deal made by both parties the dragons proposed to the king that the kingdom must sacrifice young ladies who come of age as sacrificial lamb for the dragons, called the “Dragon’s Bride” but it was not just a simple sacrificial, the young ladies who were sacrificed are the descendants of the hunters and huntresses—The king who was known for its greed of power had agreed of the dragon’s proposal thus one by one.”

“But why do they only kill the ladies how about the men?”

“Because the men do not possess the power to wield the sword but only the women---And according to the old tales there was a strange man on one of his advisories who was the one who encourages the king and influences him to be greedy of power. They said he was a God, the God who was cursed of his insolence and the driven hatred on his heart, a demon in disguise of a beautiful face but for the first time over his hundred thousand years he lived the demon fell in love with the huntress, but the huntress does not love him the way he loves her instead, her heart was owned by an ordinary man who’s his way of living is within the palm of his cold hands to grow crops in the village but thus love to do conquers all----but only as they thought”. As I continued to keep listening to Draco’s story his tone felt like he was grieving.

His eyes stared blankly as he crossed his arms as if hugging himself for comfort. I moved closer to him and drape the other side of the blanket, squeezing his shoulder slightly shaking off his tense feeling, and gave him a warm smile. “Not until one day the couple didn’t know what was after them, the man was framed by the demon by stealing and for his punishment he took away his wife and force himself right in front of the woman’s husband who’s struggling under the holds of the soldiers, along the villagers who saw that horrible sight”.

“That’s so cruel…”

“The demon was not yet satisfied just like that, every day in his cell the demon visits him along with his wife and forces himself on her numerous times. There were no wounds or physical injuries on him, but seeing his wife being forced right in front of his sight, the man’s physical and mental gave up. Soon the man went crazy, and committed a grave mistake”.

“What mistake?”

“It is best if you don’t know Kassandra”.

After that night, Draco seems to keep avoiding my gaze, keeping deliberately an arm’s length apart from me. The welcoming of the villagers are pretty warm, the capital is the place where all kinds of creature gathered and reside here. After Draco introduces me to the villagers the feast follows, the festival creates a buzz around the capital, children are playing with other children, there are also plays in the capital stalls that sell foods, and a circus in the center of the capital. Draco left me for a while as he told me there was some business he need to attend to and left me under the guard of the Iliad. Iliad assist me in everything while keeping me in check for some possible dangers that I might encounter.

After a visit from a stall, as we continued our stroll in the buzzing street, a hooded figure bumped into me, making me out balanced and about ready to fall to the ground but luckily its arm automatically wrap its way on my waist supporting my body from falling. Before Iliad could approach us I stopped his tracks and signaled that I am alright. IIliadunderstood what I meant and halted, composing myself to stand still while regaining my mind back to the situation I was in.

“My apologies for bumping, a beautiful lady like you…” A baritone voice said as he reached for my hand and bowed his head heading to my hand to kiss it. His lips contacted my gloved hands with a peck. As soon he raised his gaze onto me, the hood that covered his face fell off and revealed a man with golden blonde hair. His familiar eyes shimmered like ocean blue ones as they stared at me intensely that I felt a sudden wave of nervousness out of the blue, a feeling of an invisible fear within me….that screams in the back of my mind the word ‘danger’.

Retrieving my hand from his grasp, I clutch my hand tightly using my other hand as I watched him compose himself. “It’s alright, it might be my mistake since I wasn’t paying enough attention to where I am heading. So please if I may, I’ll excuse myself---It was nice meeting you”. And with that thing, I said I passed by that man and continued my way, but pause as he said that name that confusedly shook my entire being. The name that I feared for no reason.

“Rezef. The name is Rezef, my lady”.