The Dragon King's Obsession

ELEVEN

The villagers grew restless. They stood from their seats, discarding their drinks and sweets, abandoning their potions at the sound of rage that rent the air. The girls huddled together with their eyes widened. People started to flee the shops, others murmured in hushed voices as they packed up.

We froze there with our hearts in our throat and our eyes double its size. My skin burned, my intestines were set ablaze from within. The man who had served me the substance shuffled with unease. The surrounding mountains seemed to vibrate and heave.

Without warning, something huge, ginormous, hurtled out of the sky and landed before us. Dust and dirt rained down, causing us to raise our hands as a shield against the onslaught.

When we lowered it, we were staring at a furious beast. His gaze slid from me to Lucille to Adela and to the man who was to be my shadow. Adela kept pouring water into my mouth, going through the motion in a dazed fear. She swallowed when his eyes passed over her. I did too.

He had been enraged when I refused his gift. Furious when I taunted him but never had I seen such rage. He was murderous as he stalked forward, ignoring everyone else, he strode to the tea man.

His eyes bulged to twice their original size, his throat worked, his breath paused.

“My – my –“ He never completed his salutation. Those who had not fled the arena at the explosion of his anger gasped collectively. Adela splashed the water on my face. My dragon shadow took a discrete step away from the tea man.

Unnaturally dark red blood gurgled out of his mouth as the king reached into his stomach, clawing away his flesh. Horror painted our faces at the disgusting, mind-boggling scene playing out before us. He reached into the man’s stomach, pushing and digging until more than half his hands disappeared into his body.

Blood rushed down both sides of the victim’s mouth, pouring like a waterfall as he pulled out his hands. His life's essence dripped from them. The tea man fell to the floor with a final thud.

All the watchers let out a soundless gasp; mouth falling open in what would have been a sound of horror but the fear held so strong, so powerful, that even our hearts were scared to beat. Our mouths did not dare make a sound else unwanted attention be drawn to us.

I burned still. The fire ate away at my stomach, roaring inside me. I was the first to utter a sound. The pain made me gasp and the spell was broken. The king washed off the tea man’s from his hands using the boiling tea water.

Then he turned to who was supposed to be my shadow. His hands wrapped around his neck, pulling him from the ground. My shadow clutched the hands around his throat managing to look unruffled as the life was squeezed out of him.

“I ordered you to guard her,” He growled, voice like fire. The other dragon was starting to look blue.

“As I am,” He gasped out, gripping the hands around his throat.

“You let her leave. You were to guard her in the castle and now –“

I gasped again.

Burning gold eyes flashed to me. Someone in a nearby shop approached with a gallon of milk but I was still on fire. The king dropped his victim and yanked me out of my seat.

I jerked when his hand grazed me, startled by rage that shot up through my spine. A rage that was his. “What did he give to her?” He asked whilst pulling me against himself. He tucked me into his side in a protective gesture.

“Dragon tea,” Lucille whispered. He tensed up, coiling like a great serpent about to strike. He pursed his lips before exploding into an inhuman language in what must have been a shower of curses.

Almost at once, I felt his skin begin to break out in scales, I wrestled to be free from his grip but it was not the first time I tried to break away from him and it was not the time I won such a fight.

“She is dreadfully terrified of heights, Nico,” His sister said softly. She moved forward as though to approach him and although I could not see his face, I could feel his wrath.

“I do not wish to hear your voice, Lucille. I do not wish to be vexed anymore than I already am.” He hissed at his sister. “Only the mist of the clouds can take away this dreadful pain from her kind.”

“Let – let go of me.” I pushed at his arms around me. All the times I had been in the sky, it had resulted in an almost near-death experience for me. I shivered to think of rehashing the experience for even a second.

“Shut up!” He roared. Everyone flinched.

“Please, brother. She could have a heart attack and then she would die. You would not want to risk her so.”

The people around gasped, enjoying the show the king was putting on. They gasped and in a second I knew why. He still held me close to him so I did not see but I felt it. I felt his torso move like a snake slithering about, I felt the drop in his temperature. He gripped me to his side and I felt it as though it was happening to me. I felt the unnerving sensation of something leaving me.

It was not any less terrifying to witness the second time around. One second there was a man and in the next, there was a smoky outline of a beast. In less than two minutes, the outline became a full dragon. It roared, spreading its great wings and jumping into the air.

The numerous people who had not fled at the change fled then. They scattered, scrambling about and falling into chairs. Meanwhile, the beast had done nothing but circle the perimeter and jump back down.

I planted my feet on the ground, refusing to move an inch. I dragged them, fought his hold, but he easily carried me and dumped me on to the back of his dragon. I squealed like a cold knife had been pressed to my throat before making to slide back off the beast but then it rose to its full height. Oh by Saint Peter, my stomach lurched from worse things than the fire still burning inside me. I was now a long way away from the ground and it had not taken flight yet.

The beast lowered yet again. I quickly pushed myself off its slippery scales but before I could land back on the ground, it extended its wings, trapping me. The man easily climbed onto his beast and pulled me back to his arms.

Almost as soon as he was seated, the beast jumped into the air. I screamed, throwing my hands around him.

“Shut up. This is to make you feel better.” He grumbled. His words got lost in the slap of the wind against my face. He held on to the dragon’s neck, my legs on either side of him. I buried my face into his chest as the beast flew.

Corded muscles flexed beneath me, scales fluttered and the wind, I was sure, was going to blow us off the dragon and then we would die. All for what? All for nothing.

I made the absolute dreadful mistake of peeking out of his chest. The absolute worst mistake, an ill-thought-out plan, considering my deep fear of heights. The clouds were fluffy and beautiful. With a little courage, I could reach out and I may touch the clouds. How many humans could say the ever got so high up in the sky to touch it?

Everything below us was tiny dots, small and insignificant but I knew a lot of them were the castles of dragons that were not blessed with a big hoard. My lips froze to an icy blue. I found it hard to breathe so high up in the sky.

I pushed my face back into his chest with my eyes squeezed shut and my hands gripping his neck, tight enough to cut off his air supply.

“We are almost there.” He murmured into my ear. Even the wind recognised his authority. It knew that he would not speak above a whisper so it shut up for the king to speak. The earlier sensation of being burned was replaced by the sensation of freezing. My teeth ground against each other in a dreadful manner.

Big hands unlatched my death grip o his neck, preventing possible strangulation. He pulled me away from his body but fear kept my eyes squeezed shut. He was saying something but I could hear nothing but the screams of death playing in my ear.

“You can only see the top of my castle from this altitude, Kayda. Before we fly past,” He murmured. Fear made no room for humour yet, it was laughable that I would want to see the top of any castle at that point!

Only a crazy person would look and I was past the stage of being crazy. I still held his hand in a death grip as he lifted my chin. Then I felt the brush of lips as he kissed me. His lips were equally as cold as mine and the shock wrenched open my eyes. Just in time too!

At the top of the only castle that stood this high was a dragon. It was only a tiny thing, no bigger than the cross at the top of the local cathedral, but a lot of details had gone into the sculpting. Nothing else stood above the clouds but the dragon. It was not real but I knew it was the exact one at the market.

“My father,” He said against my lips. “This was his home.”

I closed my eyes against the dreadful sight and stilled my heart against the agony in his words.

“I am sorry,” I said. It was wretched, from the cords of his muscle to the catch in his voice. I felt it in the harshness of his lips. I knew that whoever his father had been, he had been precious to him.

In place of a reply, he instead pressed his lips firmly against mine, continuing to kiss me in a manner that tipped my world on its axis. Blood pumped harder through my veins causing euphoria. It was as though I was speeding head first to something new. The intensity dropped as he kissed me soft and sweet and although I ached for him to push his tongue into my mouth, thrust it roughly like he always did and get me hot again, I moaned at the soft glide of his lips against mine.

My lips parted of their own accord but his tongue did not sweep in. I almost growled in frustration but I was jolted by a new sensation. My eyes flew open without thought as I felt it; what caused such a frightful jostle.

We had landed.

The dragon had halted without my notice. It jumped on the ground causing a shock. We almost fell off him. Thank goodness he had a tight grip on his dragon and me.

It refused to put down its wings for a while, spreading it out as though sunbathing even though there was no sun. Then it folded them, tucking them into its sides before lowering in a crouch, letting us slide off.

The dragon took off once we alighted. Uniformed men rushed to greet us but he strode past them into the castle.

“You should be.” He murmured. “Hunters killed him.” I paused to stare, at a loss. Then I remembered and I remembered a lot of things. His father had been killed during the outbreak of the second war but so had a whole lot of people.