The Dragon Bond: Heirs of Lyra

Chapter 21

"Ralf!" Mirum's voice echoed loudly in his head, successfully awakening the tired dragon bond.

Groggily, Ralf replied, "What is it?" He had no idea where his dragon was and the fact that she was reaching out to him so early in the morning was unusual.

"I'm with Sia, she wanted me to summon you."

Ralf wiped his eyes and sat up in bed. "Summon me for what?"

"Some sort of archery contest. Her guardian is here."

"Okay, anything else?"

There was a pause in response and Ralf could feel his dragon's hesitance.

"Elysia thought it would be a good idea if you would ask the snobby foreign princess if she would like to come and watch as well. I think it's a terrible idea."

Ralf laughed, still surprised by how much his dragon despised the princess.

"I'll see if she's up. Let Sia know I'll be over there soon."

"I'll see you then."

Ralf's mind was now silent as he hobbled over to his wardrobe and changed as quickly as he could.

He adjusted his grip on his cane as he exited his room and walked down the hallway to the doors of Princess Karolina's room.

He hesitated outside her bedroom, unsure of whether he should disturb her or not. Although it was not extremely early in the morning, Ralf knew that Karolina enjoyed sleeping in.

Finally he tapped softly on the door. After a minute of no response, he tried again, louder this time. Again when there was no answer he decided to give up and check downstairs.

Just as he passed Henry's door, it opened, hitting him hard and causing him to fall over.

A sharp gasp escaped the foreign Princess' mouth. She swore in her own language. "Ralf! I'm...I'm so sorry..."

Ralf couldn't tell what he was more unnerved about. The fact that he had been taken out by the Princess, or the fact that she was coming out of Henry's room, wearing the same dress she had worn the night before.

"The fault is my own," Ralf finally managed to speak, though he still looked up at her from the ground.

Princess Karolina finally seemed to realize whose room she was stepping out of. Her eyes widened in panic. "It's not what you think!" She exclaimed. "I would never...Henry and I were just...nothing-"

"It's fine," Ralf said, grinding his teeth with the effort it took to stand up. Once he was on his feet and eye level with the Princess, he continued, "You two are engaged. Your business is your business."

Karolina was not sure how to respond. She desperately wanted Ralf to know that she had not done anything with Henry last night. Nothing happened, nothing at all. Then she finally wondered why she was so frazzled about this. After all, she was engaged to Henry, and why should she care what Ralf thought of her?

Ralf himself was struggling to calm his own mind. It wasn't a big deal Karolina had spent the night in Henry's room, right? After all, he had seen plenty of other girls traipsing out of Henry's room before. So why did it bother him now?

Suddenly he remembered his initial intentions of asking the Princess to join him and Sia outside; but now for some reason he couldn't bring himself to ask.

Instead he clumsily sidestepped the Princess and wished her a good day.

He tried to walk down the stairs as quickly as he could, but it was hard to do with his deformed leg. All he wanted was to get far away from what had just happened. He wanted to clear his head.