The Dragon's Kiss

The Dragon's Kiss - Chapter 3 - Three: Clumsy Kids Are Cute

Thunk!

The squirrel fell to the ground, struck by Kel’s arrow.

“That makes five for me!” she yelled.

A younger soldier tramped over at her call, pitifully dangling a single catch at his side.

“Looks like I’m still the dinner-catching champion,” Kel bragged.

The boy rolled his eyes. His name was Leif, and he was a new guard recruit who had been selected for the mission due to his remarkable sword talent. As the two youngest of the group, Kel and Leif were stuck on hunting duty.

“I’m just worried you might injure your delicate fingers at this rate, Milady,” Leif teased, dipping into an exaggerated bow.
.

“Since you brought it up,” Kel quipped, “perhaps you should carry everything back.”

She winked as she tossed her bag of prey to Leif. “You know, so I won’t strain myself.”

Leif shook his head, but obediently picked up the bag.

“Can I ask you something?” he queried.

“Go ahead,” Kel called over her shoulder, pushing a branch aside as she trekked back toward camp. Leif jogged after her.

“Um… there was this one time I was in charge of guarding the princess on her way to a banquet,” the boy began sheepishly.

“Go on,” Kel murmured, uninterested.

Since setting out ten days ago, Kel had been continuously showered with questions about Princess Adriell.

At first, the soldiers were mainly curious about how the role of body double worked. They had been shocked to learn that aside from hair and physique, the two actually looked nothing alike. They were even more amazed when Kel explained the extensive makeup and styling techniques used to make the two appear identical. In reality, the princess the public knew wasn’t a true reflection of Kel nor Adriell’s actual appearance.

After the initial interrogation, the soldiers started asking about the princess directly. Answering the questions was easy, as she knew more about Adriell than anybody else, but she was quickly growing tired of the topic. The dual identity of Mevani’s golden flower was a novelty to everyone else, but it had consumed nearly every part of Kel’s life for the past several years. Every moment she hadn’t spent at the training grounds, she was being tutored alongside Adriell, practicing etiquette with Adriell, or pretending to be Adriell.

“You see…” Leif continued, oblivious to Kel’s indifference. “I was walking at the princess’s side and, well, I sort of… tripped a bit.”

“Oh I remember,” Kel remarked. “You tripped over your own feet and brought the guard behind you to the ground as well.”

She turned around to face Leif, whose face was a deep shade of crimson.

“Yeah, that’s what happened,” he mumbled. “I’m glad it turned out to be you that saw.”

Kel couldn’t resist snickering at the boy’s embarrassment. Imagining the shame Leif had endured for months as he believed he’d made a total fool out of himself in front of the kingdom’s number one beauty lifted her mood considerably.

“Cheer up,” she consoled him, “Even if it had been the princess, I’m sure she thinks clumsy kids are cute.”

“I-I’m only three years younger than you!” Leif shouted, his face reddening even more.

“But that makes you five years younger than Her Highness,” Kel laughed. She threw her arm around the dejected boy and steered him through the bushes. “You have a lot of growing to do before you ever catch the princess’s attention.”