The Birth of The Prince and The Raven

Part 7

Cale had a great many regrets in his short life.

Some as insignificant as 'I shouldn't have drunk that cup before checking the contents, now my mouth is sour and dammit Ron, I don't care if lemonade is a good hangover cure, no I don't want more–why are you like this Ron–I will throw this damn cup, don't think I won't–ugghh I can't get the sour taste out of my mouth why I did I drink that? I trusted you Ron!'.

Some as major as 'I wish I hadn't thrown a childish fit only a week before my mother passed away, maybe she left this world thinking poorly of me. Does it matter if anyone else thinks poorly of me if I couldn't show the one person who truly mattered how much I loved her by being a good child?'.

He was currently experiencing a new and unique regret.

It was most succinctly expressed as 'Kim Rok Soo'.

Expanding upon his feelings further would be difficult in his current circumstances. For starters the squirming dragon in his arms was heavy and the people chasing them were scary and was that an explosion he heard in the distance?

"That guy is a total psycho–!" Cale bemoaned, breathlessly pushing his body past its limits as he ran for the tree line and the comfortingly familiar fog that reached out to greet him.

He shouldn't have come. Why had he insisted on coming along?!

He was curious or maybe he was just being petulant–he'd been upset when Kim Rok Soo had stated that he wouldn't be back for a couple weeks and decided all on his own that he just had to join.

He had no reason to think that it would be this dangerous–!

All the trouble he'd witnessed Kim Rok Soo partake in had thus far been fairly mundane in comparison. Getting arrested for assaulting a noble? Ha, that was absolutely irrelevantly miniscule!

"--let... me–go!" The struggling dragon sounded like it was losing patience and it had already tried to bite him once but Cale didn't dare to let it go.

For starters, because he was too scared shitless at this point in time to do anything but obey the last thing Kim Rok Soo had told him to do without complaint.

But more importantly because... he'd seen the room they rescued the dragon from.

Someone would have to saw his arms off to pry this dragon from him.

"...you did good."

A feather light hand patted his shoulder as he entered the wooded area, he didn't look back to see who'd done it but he'd barely been able to recognize the voice.

She'd pat his shoulder before disappearing behind him to face his pursuers, hardly visible for even a moment in this fog.

The girl that Kim Rok Soo had rescued from the cells was quiet. She had the aura, posture, and manners that made Cale wonder if perhaps she was a noble but she never admitted to any such connection.

She was elegant and graceful, with her deep red eyes always searching for nearby danger with an underlying fearfulness that assured Cale that she was on the run from something.

The few times he'd heard her speak, her voice was confidently timid. A paradoxical combination brought upon from a strong upbringing and traumatic past. She mostly only ever talked to the children or Kim Rok Soo and ignored Cale altogether.

He'd never heard her sound so cold.

It was enough that he almost turned around to see.

When the screams of his pursuers reached his ears, he kept his gaze firmly forward and rushed to the rendezvous point.