WREN Book Three Prince of Dragons

Upwards

The tension was pliable. Xixi was in place, claws digging into the wood of the door as the little creature pressed its enormous ear against it. I walked up slowly, as the others hung slightly back.

'Hear anything?' I asked his mind.

He lifted his head from the wood. Looking into my eyes, Xixi shook his head. Letting go of the door, he flew to my shoulder. Malvent stepped up to me. She placed a thin hand on my arm. Smiling bravely she told me.

'We can lose me, we can't lose Zyn.' With that she reached for the door.

I wanted to yell at her, to yank her back. This wasn't the way I wanted dragons to help me. But before either of us could move, terror gripped me as Wics stormed forward ripping the door open. A blast of smoke shot past him into the darkness. I could see the smoke dragon swirl around. He came back in his man shape before Wics.

"All clear!" Attroxia called.

"Are you insane!" I hissed at him.

Dyami walked past his Nuare. "Well, it worked." He muttered.

Frowning I went after him. "Was this your idea?" I demanded.

"Nope. Little shits did it themselves!" Dyami smirked proudly.

"This way, and keep the talking down. We aren't far from the kitchens!" Ammedidon growled.

He shifted past the others to take the lead. I watched him, a boy who grew up here, now coming back. Was he a man? No! Just a kid trying to figure out his life. He shouldn't be here. He should be in school, playing with his friends.

'Never had any friends, unless you count the cook, or the maids that tended me.' He shot me a look as his voice reached me. I nodded.

Guess I knew how that was like. As the thought hit me, a hand nudged mine. We had passed from the stock room into a slightly smaller food storage room. Wics pointed, I turned.

We didn't need words, we didn't need mental voices. This was my brother. A being known to me better than any other. We both saw it. The strange shape huddled in the corner. There wasn't any light here.

My eyes flicked back to Dyami. He furrowed his brow. Slowly he broke from our tight formation. He inched closer to the object.

'Its bags of flour! Keep moving!' Ammedidon scolded us.

But Dyami didn't take his word for it. He moved towards the flour bag. It moved! There was a squeaking cry. Hands smacked at Dyami, before he could wrap the little whelp up in his own.

"This flour packs a punch!" Dyami scowled.

Ammedidon walked up to the child. He reached out to place a hand on its chin. The thing tried to bit him. It opened its mouth to scream.

'Don't! We won't hurt you!' I told it.

It stilled. Dark eyes blinked at me. I smiled back.

'Who are you?' I asked.

"You can talk to me, but you can't be a royal! They aren't nice!" the voice sounded like a young female, but I was still unsure of the gender yet.

What I could make out of the person was a raggedy smock like shirt, bare filthy legs, long tangled messy hair. It looked like this person had lived in the dirt for most of its young life.

'I have royal blood, it's just not all Vangah.' I told them.

Their head lifted as their body stilled. 'An invading force! With the former crown prince!' eyes glowed in the dark.

Then a long low whistle came out of their mouth. Suddenly we were surrounded by a pint sized force of fighters. Each one had something to fight with in their hand. There had to be at least ten to fifteen of them.