Prince of Dragons

Chapter Twenty-Five

When I woke up the next morning, I was a bit confused. For one, it was still relatively dark in the tent, which made me wonder if I was awakened by something early in the morning. However, I felt absolutely fine and well rested, so surely that couldn't be a possibility.

Secondly, I felt a warm heat against my back, and when I turned to look, I was surprised to see none other than Narvi curled up against my back, completely out cold.

Brows furrowing, I looked away and yawned, before carefully sitting up as to not wake the sleeping dragon. A quick glance to the other side of the tent told me Alaban was already up and about, and for some reason that caused a small, knowing smile to spill across my lips.

I chuckled to myself and left the tent, catching sight of the sun dragon as he stood with his back towards me, staring intensely into the small fire he had built. And since I was outside, I could see why it seemed so dark in the tent, and that was because of the heavy, dark clouds that slowly moved ahead, meaning we were probably due for a good rainstorm soon.

Tearing my gaze from the dark sky above, I made my way over to the space next to Alaban and sat down, noticing that golden gaze of his fogged over, as if he was deep in thought.

I pursed my lips, and gently bumped my shoulder against his, causing him to jump and glance at me. "Good morning, Alaban. Everything alright? You seem pretty deep in thought there."

"Good morning." He muttered, before he turned to the satchel by his side and began rummaging inside. "And yes, everything is fine, I just...have a lot of things on my mind right now that I'm trying to work through. Ah, nothing to concern yourself with." He pulled something out of his bag and turned to me, holding out some of the cured meat from our rations. "What about you? Did you sleep well? That moon dragon seems to be quite comfortable with you, when I got up this morning."

I blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck. "Oh, ah, I slept quite well, thank you. Though, I didn't even realize Narvi had cuddled with me until I woke up. Maybe he was cold? I have been told I run a little warm, so maybe that's what it was?" I nibbled at my bottom lip, gaze pinned on Alaban. "Also, looks like we're due for some rain soon. Not sure how long, but if we want to gain a little distance before then, now might be a good time to move. But, you know, that's entirely up to you and all..."

Alaban's golden gaze lifted towards the dark sky. "We might have an hour, or two at the most before the rain comes." He then looked at me. "So sure, wake up your new friend and we'll try to get ahead of the storm. If it starts raining too hard, we can always stop and set up the tent until it stops."

I frowned a bit at his tone, but chalked it up to him being tired—even if he seemed wide awake—and made my way into the tent, where Narvi was now using my pack as a make-shift pillow. I felt a smile pull at my lips as I bent down and gently shook the sleeping dragon, causing him to widely yawn and blink open those light eyes of his.

"Morning," I spoke softly, "Alaban and I are about ready to start moving, so if you're still wanting to join us, you might want to get up."

Narvi blinked at me and sat up, rubbing his pale palms against his eyes before he stood up and stretched, arms twisting high as another yawn spilled from between his lips. He then stopped and peered at me, head tilted.

"Alright...ah, come on." I gently grabbed his arm and led him out of the tent—noticing when Alaban spared the briefest of glances towards the moon dragon—and began the nagging process of taking the tent down.

The wind began to pick up, with that tell tale cooling of the air telling us of an approaching storm. Feeling it pick up made me quicken my pace as I managed to get the tent down and condensed before hooking it up to my horse.

About ten minutes later, we were on our way, with Narvi riding behind me. His arms were tightly wound around my waist, his face pressed tightly against my back as he seemed to hold on for dear life. Judging by that, I gathered this was probably his first time riding a horse and didn't know how to quite handle it. It was adorable, really, and I kept telling him that he was doing quite good, that these horses were nice...practically anything I could to make sure he remained calm and level-headed.

Alaban occasionally sent glances our way, but would remain quiet, which made me wonder what the hell his problem was. Did he not want Narvi on this journey? Why? He seemed fine when he first encountered the moon dragon, seemed even amazed by him. Yet now he was acting all broody and quiet and I was kind of getting over it.

I mean, what was his problem? Actually...didn't he mention how a moon dragon essentially boosted a sun dragon's magical capabilities? I didn't quite know how magic felt swirling within my blood, so did it feel different being around Narvi? What if it was making him uncomfortable with all this new potential? Could that be the reason he was acting all moody?

A loud sound cracked behind me, causing me to jump until I realized what that sound had been; Narvi sneezing. I quickly collected myself, my cheeks burning a dark red as Alaban's golden gaze flickered back towards me, and blessed Narvi before clearing my throat and acting like I didn't notice the amused stare the sun dragon was sending me.

"What, it caught me off guard," I mumbled grumpily, causing Alaban to finally laugh and shake his head.

"I didn't say anything." Alaban grinned and made his horse gallop slightly faster, causing him to get ahead of Narvi and me—his blond hair fluttering behind him as the wind blew it back.

I shook my head, ready to start racing him when he started slowing down, his face tight when I caught up beside him. "What is it?" I asked and looked forward, only for a frown to immediately pull at my lips when I saw our way forward blocked off by a small troop of individuals, who all stood side by side as they stared at us.

Alaban and I pulled our horses to a stop, each of us sending a look to one another before Alaban shifted forward and addressed them. "I apologize if we are interrupting you, but could there be a chance that you gain us space to pass through? We...are in a hurry to get to our destination, and we're already trying to outrace this storm that's about to fall out. Again, we apologize if we're impeding you in any way."

One of the people—a tall, burly red dragon with a full beard—approached, hand on the hilt of a nasty looking axe—it looked incredibly sharp, mind you—and eyed our little trio with dark eyes. "Oh don't worry, darlin', ya'll ain't impeding my jolly little crew. In fact, we was kind of sitting here bored out of our minds, wonderin' what we should do to pass the time."

His eyes flickered from Alaban, to me, then to Narvi. A chill went down my spine, and I had a sinking feeling I knew what type of people these were, and just how they made their living.

By stealing from those struggling to live themselves.

Bandits.

And here was none other than draconic royalty, with no royal guards, ripe for the taking.

A/N: Uh ohhhhh, not bandits!!!!! Figured they needed a little "action" since they've pretty much have only been traveling these past few chapters. Hehehee! Also, here's a quick little drawing I did of Narvi so yall can get an image of what he looks like in mind. Hair is white (I may have over shaded lmao) with a slighhhht purple tint.

Anywayyyy, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Lemme know what you think so far! I love reading comments!