𝗦𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 | Rayla x Fem. OC |

❧𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓☙

The king fell. The citizens of the kingdom were engulfed in sorrow and mourning. His royal body was covered by an obsidian-colored blanket with little gold lines, full-on splattered with red and dark pink roses around it, one of them very being on the man's head. Viren was leading while a woman with long caramel hair and grey eyes was dressed in some sleeveless white robe over a burgundy tunic, both of which were accented with gold outlines, and the former having a hood that was constantly seen over her head, was holding a torch behind him. "A funeral so soon is madness! It is a tradition to mourn fallen kings for seven sunsets! You've not even given him one!" She angrily remarked.

"I understand your concern, Opeli. But in a time of war, we must move forward!" The High Mage sped up his walking, a bit away from the woman so he could avoid the conversation.

Viren, Soren, Claudia, Opeli, some girls with white cloaks, and the deceased king were walking a little farther from the castle. The siblings were at the very back of the group. The blonde was visibly exhausted after the long fight that happend last night and yawned.

"Hey, keep your head up!" The teen mage advised her brother.

"Ugh, sorry, long night." The royal guard said.

Claudia took out from her pocket a little cup and poured a hot brown potion in it. "I call it 'hot brown morning potion'!"

The boy looked at the cup, smelled it, and took a sip. "That's good!" He started laughing.

Claudia sighed. "I wish Harrow didn't die...Adora and the boys loved him so much, I remember how many beautiful memories they had together. Remember when Callum and Adora found out that Sarai died?" She timidly glanced at her brother, both reminiscing the vague, uncomfortable memories of their friends' mourning. Her distancing, her numbness, her emptiness. "I am terribly sorry for them. I can't imagine how they will find out. Plus, how am I gonna tell them? They are my best friends! I don't wanna hurt them...I don't want it to happen again."

"They will learn to live with it eventually," Soren said while taking another sip of the brown potion. "As they have done until now. But I do hope that Adora won't react like last time."

"Soren! You are being rude!" The sister had an infuriated look while looking at her brother, who was just drinking the potion nonchalantly with his eyes closed. The blond noticed the girl's disgruntlement about his choice of words, so he spoke again, in a manner good enough to please her.

"Look, the three of them are strong. They will get over it. I don't see why Adora and Callum would suffer. Adora is adopted and Harrow was Callum's step-dad. I just think that the most hurt person from all of them would be Ezran!" Soren said.

"Soren! That's so rude and disrespectful! You can't say this stuff about our friends! I think you drank too much morning potion for today. " Claudia grabbed the grey cup from her brother's hand.

He sighed. "Perhaps you're right, I'm not really thinking straight right now." He temporarily closed his eyes in drowsiness.

Finally, they got to a place in front of a lake, where some statues of ex-kings and queens were being established on some mini-towers. They placed the body in front of the public, so they could commence the funeral. The High Mage began his speech.

"Today we woke to a devastating truth. Our king has been taken from us." The crowd gasped at Viren's words but soon silenced, letting him continue," Slain by the forceps of Xadia, vile Moonshadow elves. To me, he was more than a king. In his final hours, Harrow called me...his brother." The mage was about to speak again, but a woman's voice interrupted, which was Opeli's. Viren turned his head to the female, so he could let her know that he was listening to what she was about to say.