Dragon Prince: The Storm's Heart

Chapter Nine: The Tracker

"You know you're going to pay for this traitor," Soren said.
"Traitor?" Shira looked over her shoulder at annoyance in the tracker's voice. "General Amaya sent me to protect the princes of Katolis — and you just tried to kidnap them. Please tell me who the traitor is."
Soren seemed to consider this point. He looked at Claudia for guidance.
"Everyone who votes this guy is a traitor, raise their hand." Soren raised his own hand, then his sister raised hers.
"Two against one." Soren smirked at the tracker, who looked more annoyed.
"What are we gonna do?" moaned Claudia, she slapped her hand against her forehead. "We betrayed our friends, and it was all for nothing."
Shira scoffed and gave a slight glare to the duo, You got that right.
Corvus couldn't agree more. But he glanced at the other prisoner in concern.
"It wasn't totally for nothing, Sis," Soren said with a smile.
"What do you mean?" She followed her brother's gaze to the wriggling brown sack on the ground, and her face brightened. "The dragon! We still have the dragon!"
The tracker froze. But Shira gave an inward smirk. They're in for a big surprise.
Soren picked up the bag and began to open it. "Come on out, you little—"
But much to Shira's satisfied amusement, a couple of moon moths flew out of the bag and into the dolt's face. There was no baby dragon inside. Soren failed around and swatted as the moths relentlessly fluttered around his head.
⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
A few days after their capture, Shira was forced to stay with the duo. Claudia and Soren previously tried in vain to persuade their captives to eat and drink. But no amount of coaxing or threats had convinced the angry, fighting girl to break her fast. Not to mention Shira had tripped them up to show her more than her fierce, but stubborn attitude towards them about her capture.
"Shira, please." She opened her eyes from her wandering thoughts and fixed a fierce glare on Soren. "You have to eat and drink something."
"Isn't there a catch?" Since her lack of food and drink, her voice has became hoarse and she started to become lean. "Or poison or dark magic in it?"
"No catch and no dark magic," said Soren honestly. "It's from my saddlebags."
Shira snorted at that, clearly doubting and she felt her stomach growling. She watched as he took out a lumpy magenta, a pear-shaped fruit, and an orange. Soren offered it to her and slowly began eating the fruits, making sure there's not a trace of dark magic since she knows how Claudia is playing at. Soren smiled at her apologetically and helped her drink some moonberry juice. She watched as he finally left her alone to speak to the other prisoner.
She stayed silent and looking away from the other prisoner and their captors. Shira was working on the ropes around her wrists. Soren certainly knew his knots. This was tight, but not so much to cause problems with blood circulation or pain, just enough to keep her from breaking free. She let out an angry huff and laid down on her side, a little away from Corvus.
Shira didn't know who Corvus was, but he talked to her anyway. Probably out of boredom, she mused. When he had learned of Shira's presence in the captivity, he had introduced himself. Even after getting no response, he continued to speak to Shira. He talked just to talk, about the cold war between the humans and Xadia, about how he hoped the tensions at The Border wouldn't escalate and spark an outbreak of a true war, and about a woman called General Amaya. But now he was speaking of how to escape Claudia and Soren.
"So...how are we going to get loose?" Corvus broke the silence between them. "Any ideas?"
"Claudia confiscated my weapons I had and handed it to her brother, so no I don't have any ideas." Shira sat up and looked at the siblings warily, who were a few feet away reading and arguing over a map. "So, unless you have any ideas on how to get my knife and my archery back, I'd like to hear them."
It had been less than day since they both got captured and held prisoner, and both Soren and Claudia wanted to attempt to recapture the princes, but they had to to find a faster route to the Border and get to the closest town to leave them in so they could resume their journey.
"I've got nothing," Corvus admitted and looked to the siblings. "Never thought I would get knocked out and imprisoned by two teenagers."
"And I never thought I'd be imprisoned by a dark mage and a Crown Guard," Shira muttered, sending them a sour look. "Yet here we are. An expert huntsman of General Amaya's army and a stablehand of a mountain village, and we're probably going to be dumped at some town for something we didn't do."
"I hardly call saving the princes lives as an act to make you a traitor." Corvus smiled at her. "Guess the only way to stop them from chasing after us is by tying them up together, eh?" Shira cracked a smile and chuckled quietly.
"I guess that's one way to do it, but they also made sure I won't do anything," replied Shira.
"Well, that certainly is disappointing." Corvus's comment made Shira crack a smile at him.
Unknowingly to them, they didn't notice Claudia watching them from the corner of her eye.
"They're talking and laughing," Claudia commented quietly to her brother as she rolled up the map.
"Wait, what?" Soren asked and turned to see their prisoners chatting and laughing as if they weren't tied up and going to be hauled to a prison. "Seriously? She's been giving us the silent treatment since we tied them both up and now she's actually talking to him of all people?"
Claudia frowned at the tone her brother used.
"Soren, are you... jealous?"
"W-what? Me? Jealous? Of the huntsman talking to the stablehand?" Soren asked and scoffed. "No, no way. I am not iealous of him."
"Well they seem to be getting along fine, and I'm sure they're going to bond in whatever prison we leave them in," Claudia said with a shrug.
"I guess I better tighten those knots during our break," Soren muttered as he walked back to the two prisoners, who were now talking about what sounded like their personal life stories.
"...and so by the time I came back into the kitchen, Amaya had already dropped the egg shells into the batter and I didn't even know until Gren started eating the cake!" Corvus said when Soren got close and Shira burst out laughing, which startled him and realized that was the first time he had ever heard the serious girl's laughter. "He looked ready to spit it out, but he didn't want to hurt the general's feelings so he just ate the rest of his slice trying not to cringe every time he got eggshells in almost every bite!"
"Oh, the poor commander." Shira laughed and shook her head, her gaze full of amusement. "When I was young, me and my Mom were both being housed by the royal family of Katolis in the mountains. I was playing with Callum and baby Ezran when a female Banther had came out of the forest. Queen Sarai had managed to save her sons, but she didn't know that I was still outside till it was too late. I was pretty curious about the Banther, and the next thing you know, she took me back to her den and treated me like one of her cubs!" Shira and Corvus both bursted out laughing.
"Okay. Chat time is over, we're moving on!" Soren announced as he began to tighten the rope bounding Corvus and Shira together. "Shira will be with me and Corvus will be with Claudia." She soon became tense and angry, she snapped at Soren and he flinched back at her fierce anger.
"We barely stopped to rest, your horses are still tired!" Corvus pointed out, gesturing to the two horses. "And it's getting dark, shouldn't we also rest and leave in the morning?"
"Don't try and stall us, traitor," Soren retorted as he finished tightening the rope. "The princes and the elf are probably half ways to the Border by now, we cannot afford to lose time. Claudia take him before he attempts to escape!"
The next few days of traveling were not fun for either the prisoners nor the people keeping them tied up. Several times Corvus had attempted to escape, but his escape always ended with either Claudia's snake chains catching him, or Soren just chasing him down on his horse and snatching him up. Shira had gave up trying to escape, but she tried to help Corvus escape by giving Soren and Claudia a hard time.
After each escape the ropes tied around his wrists were soon wrapped up to his elbows and tied up from his ankles to the knees when they had to stop to rest. But Shira had gave up trying to escape and she was stuck with the ropes around her wrists, binding her time till it's right to strike.
Shira had voiced her discomfort to Corvus about going to a village, not caring if Soren and Claudia were listening to them. She was scared, even terrified that someone was going to try to hurt her.
"But you've changed over the years, I'm not sure how you looked as a little kid, but I'm sure you looked a lot different then," Corvus assured her one evening when they were getting close to the town. "But what had happened was so bad that you're scared of coming back?"
"Hey enough talking! We're almost close!" Soren barked when Shira was about to respond.
"I'll tell you later," replied Shira quietly. "But can you protect me while we're there?"
Corvus gave her a reassuring smile and gently let her snuggle against him. Over the time they spent being tied up and imprisoned he had grown fond of Shira, not in a romantic way of course, but nevertheless he was willing to keep her safe. He found they had some things in common, like they both came from families who made things with their hands, his family being blacksmiths and hers being stablehands.
"Don't worry, no one is going to hurt you while I'm here," said Corvus. "Just trust me on this."
"Well I'm certainly not going to to trust them after what happened." Shira gesturing to Soren and Claudia, who turned to give them both annoyed looks, which she ignored. "So I might as well trust my new best friend, Corvus!"
"Seriously? You only knew him for like three days and now he's your best friend?" Soren scoffed in annoyance and looked back at them.
"He's more of a friend than you two are attempting to be," Shira said bluntly.
The two of them both flinched, both clearly hurt by Shira's words and exchanged glances with each other.
Shira sighed and turned around to look at Corvus, she started speaking quietly to him and making sure their captors couldn't hear what she has to say. "See this bracelet?" He saw a bracelet made of copper wires and is attached to three moonstones that radiated pure beauty, gleaming milky white with a sheen of sky blue. "These stones has a spell that turns me into someone that you might have trouble recognizing."
Corvus felt confused by Shira's mysterious words, but he could see the quiet urgency in her fierce blue eyes. He would have given her some sense of comfort if he wasn't tied up. So, he tried the next best thing. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."
Shira gave him a genuine smile. "Thanks Corvus." She saw the village that they're both arriving to, but Shira didn't feel afraid anymore. She is with a true friend. The two of them will find a way to get out of this mess and rejoin the team together.