The Dragon King's Obsession

THIRTEEN

They brought in my dress for the day. Females who I did not know and who looked like they had never and would never smile in their lives. They wrinkled their noses at my state, with my hair dishevelled and my clothes rumpled.

“You must take a bath,” The woman snapped, trying to pull me up. I let her grip my hand, waiting for her to develop a strength that would allow her weak limbs to pull me out of the bed I sat.

“Where is Adela?” I asked, yanking my hands out of hers. She pulled and pulled and rather than pull my weight up, it felt as though she was trying to dislocate my arm.

She sniffed at the mention of Adela. Her large nose wrinkled like horse turd had been passed underneath it. Pushing her face into the air with an air of disdain, she finally replied. “That one. She thinks befriending the princess makes her a royal dragon.” She laughed, an ugly sound with a loud snort, mocking Adela. “She crossed a line and has been dealt with.”

The air in my lungs jumped out with a whoosh. Adela was not the most pleasant of persons. In fact, her reaction to me had been hostile. Yet, I had developed a liking towards her. Unlike these wrinkly ladies with their brown servant dresses and thin hair, there was never any malice from her.

“Has he killed her?” I demanded. I would not put it past him to be so cruel. I had watched him pull out a man’s innards without a question. He had washed his hands of his victim's blood and moved on with life as though he had not taken another’s.

“Not yet.” She sniffed. “It is not like she would not deserve to be beheaded in the public square.” She turned her head to the other servant in secret communication and the other rushed forward. Together, they gripped my hands and because I was not expecting it, they managed to haul me out of bed, almost throwing me into the wardrobe.

“Are you mad!?” My right hand whipped out and caught the other girl in a reflexing blow. She crumbled to the ground.

“A fit for the king.” The leader of the two sniffed. “You must take a bath.” She said.

“I shall bath myself you lunatic.” I gripped the supplies off the table and stalked off. Naturally, they followed behind me.

“The king has ordered you be washed and powdered. I mean no offence to say you stink, absolutely reek. Like a skunk sprayed you,” She judged. “You need someone to wash off your abhorrent stench.” She shuddered dramatically.

“You can try. Maybe then I would hold your head under this water and watch how long it takes for you to breathe it in.” I yanked the curtain closed, taking off my clothes. She pushed open the curtain.

“I shall die either way. Disobeying the king means certain death so I do not mind calling your a bluff.”

For the millionth time since I was captured by the foolish red dragon, I found my will overturned, coerced to let the woman scrub me. I ended up with skin the colour of my hair, scrubbed with more force than needed to wash off horse turd from boots. My skin felt raw and tender as she roughly massaged warm oil on my body.

She unwrapped the dresses while I sat at the corner, expecting to be coerced into more tight dresses that left no space for me to exhale. Instead, she pulled out dark leather pants, very similar to the ones I had been wearing right from my days at as a trainee hunter. It was not just pant though. It was a full suit.

I let her help me into it even if there was no need. She groaned and sneered at the outfit but I chose to ignore her. For the first time since this dratted situation of me being held by the beasts, I would be wearing something I was comfortable in.

She slid the zipper shut from behind and I paused to admire myself in the mirror. She had parted my hair in the middle and gathered it all to the back for a braid. The outfit clung to my skin, a sleeveless bodysuit.

Then I noticed an emblem. My gaze had been drawn irrevocably to the new outfit, its difference from the others and the promise of a form of comfort in this godforsaken place but I never noticed the badge sewn into the left breast. Gold thread interwove to form a crown, red thread sewn to form a lick of flame beneath it.

The women rushed out and without turning, the aura of power sucking up the air made me know he had walked in.

He said nothing as I stood before the mirror, glaring at him. He watched me from my back, holding my gaze in the mirror with a form of smug superiority that made my blood boil.

It is only an emblem, Missy. I whispered to myself, trying to stop my temper from raging but it was no use because emblems were so much more than being emblems. I wore the emblem of a Hunter, with the wings of a dragon cut off and arrows forming an X above it to show who I was and what I belonged to. This one showed what I belonged to.

He said nothing, allowing his gaze sweep over my body and I kept mute too. Attempting anything would mean doing something stupid.

“You are coming with me today,” He said after the fifth time of running his eyes all over my body.

“Where?”

“Flight training.” The word flight alone caused a spasm in my body. The previous day had been a near enough disaster. I could not think to go through with it again. The look in his eyes gave me no option. I knew I would have to do it regardless of what I thought.

“Why?”

“You have to ask?” He stepped close enough for me to feel his body’s heat against my back. “All the times I leave you alone, you wander off.”

He intertwined our fingers, his big hands covering mine as he pulled me out of the room.

“My lord you have –“ A man ran at us from nowhere while I was being dragged out of the castle. “A Hunter.” He hissed upon seeing me.

It was not often that I was recognised as my father’s daughter. Having my mum’s hair and skin meant my heritage was not easily known to outsiders but this man knew me and he hated me. His eyes shuttered off, he bristled like a bird ruffling its feathers before a flight.

“What did you want, Abram?” His voice was cold as he spoke.

“My lord, this is the hunter that killed my brother. It was just last week we held a ceremony for his first death anniversary.”

His brother had been my first kill. He had fuelled a lot of anger in me towards dragons. I had not been aware of his shifting abilities when I stumbled upon him savagely taking a slave girl in Darkened Alley. The girl had seemed half dead when I approached and she had fled before I was done fighting off the beast, leaving behind her virgin blood.

Putting an arrow in him as he shifted to his menacing form had filled me with pleasure, and the urge to kill more of his kind. There was no doubt in my mind from then on what I wanted to do. It had all been about stories before but watching that man brutalize that girl, my mission had been solidified. I had no regrets.

“What did you want, Abram?” The king growled again.

“M – my Lord! Surely you should be enraged at that! My brother was a member of your upper guard!”

“Are you to teach me how to feel?”

“Of course not, my Lord! I just thought – I just thought you should know.”

“Now I know. What did you want? He asked for the third time.

“A letter arrived from your brother – Do you not feel even a bit – a bit of rage for my brother!?” The man asked incredulously, stepping back to stare at his king. It was as though he had never seen him before.

“I would have killed him if she had not.” He said. “Perhaps it would make you feel better if you had a go at her? Would it make you feel better if I let you have a swipe at her, Abram?” The king asked in a dangerously cold voice.

“Y – yes, my Lord!” The man exclaimed, turning to me with a malicious glare. His hands zeroed in on the king’s grip on mine, fingers intertwined. I watched his Adam apple bob. “B – but only if it pleases my king.” He whispered.

“Very well. Arrange a date this week. You fight Mystique Hunter for the right to live on any day you please.”

My jaw dropped to the ground. He pulled me away before I could gauge the man’s reaction.

“What did you just do?” I hissed. The guards at the door bowed, foreheads almost touching the floor as we exited the castle.

“I arranged a fight to the death for you.” He said. Stopping just outside the castle. “It is time to confront your irrational fear of flying.”

“Are you crazy? You kept me all this while to have a random man kill me!?”

“Are you scared?”

Was I scared? I had killed dragons before. There was never any fear there. It was an incredible feeling, falling a being ten times your size. The sensation in the pit of my stomach was surprise. A bit of disappointment lingered too.

“Of course not,” I spat.

“Good.”

“Why though?” I whispered with a thick swallow.

“I do not want to return home one day to find my men standing over your lifeless body.” He shrugged. “Kill Abram and they will give you a wide berth.” I nodded. What a barbaric culture but was it any different from mine? It was either killed or be killed.

“What if I do not succeed?” I rubbed my arm from the cold of the outdoors and the horrid situation.

“You know how a fight to death works, Kayda.” I swallowed. “When I shift, you will climb up on me and hold on as tight as you can. Do you understand me?”

Oh no! He was going to shift? Who then would hold me and stop me from plummeting to my death!?

“And if I refuse?” I challenged.

“I can always carry you with my claws, Kayda. If you do not want that then do not think to refuse.” He snorted.

I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering that first day when I had been in the sky, how many times I had fallen out of the sky. How the beast's claw had sunk into my skin. It was too soon. The memory still too fresh to poke at.

“I could always run back into the castle.” I reminded but he snorted.

“You can try, my little dragon. Remember, Hunters do not run.”

The bastard! Using my fears against me! Reminding me of my heritage at such a time!?

“You pile of –“ His body started to change. In a few minutes, a black dragon was lowering itself before me, waiting for me to climb on.

The trip was terrible. The worst ever. I squeezed my arms around it with my legs frozen at its side. I had carried a fur coat but the cold from the fear was ten times worse. He took nose dives at unnecessary occasions then he soared up. By the time the beast started to drop down, I was desperately clutching on its tail, watching houses like ants on the ground.

As if life was not terrible enough, two black dragons raced each at me as soon as my quivering feet touched the ground.