The Dragon Bride | ✔️

Chapter Four

Kora's POV

The rain patters down endlessly, and with every raindrop, after each little patter, my heart feels heavier and heavier. Each moment that I am in this rainforest, I feel my head throbbing more and more and my muscles feeling sorer and sorer. I will break down any second now. Any second now, I feel like I will drop down dead. Perhaps it'd be a good thing if I did. After all, I have nothing left to live for. No mother, no father, no home. What's a little girl to do, with nowhere to go, stuck in a rainforest all by herself?

I feel myself slowing down even more. I had been trudging through the thickets and the mud but now I find myself hardly walking at all.

My stomach growls, the ache of my stomach growing larger as I feel myself kneeling onto the ground, caking myself in the mud as the heavy rain continues to splatter onto me. My hair is now soaking rats' tails hanging off my head.

But I don't care. I care about nothing at all as the exhaustion, the restlessness and the absolute numbness take me over, consuming me like a drug. I feel drowsy.

Mama had woken me in the middle of the night, claiming she heard something, and that's when we saw the soldiers setting our village on fire, drowning it in oranges and reds like painting a sunset on a blank canvas.

That's when my entire life changed. Now I have nothing.

Nothing... Nothing at all... I won't rest until m-my mama's death has been a-avenged...

I jerk, shrieking as I feel my heartbeat thudding violently against my chest, my hair straggly and my breathing jagged and hitched. Tears stream rapidly down my cheeks but I quickly wipe them away, terrified someone will come in and see.

I look down at myself, but I find no mud or dirt or leaves or ashes. I am clean, wearing a fancy silk nightgown. I touch my hair. Although it's untamed, it's not nearly as soaked. I look around the room. What time is it? Eight? Nine? Or lunchtime? Memories of yesterday's events come flooding back, and I find myself slumping in bed.

I should've just made a run for it when I had the chance. I forgot about my nightmares. Oh God. What if I woke everyone up? Are they searching the palace, looking for a terrible monster that made such a banshee wail? Or are they outside my chamber now, ready to kill me?

Pull yourself together, Kora! You're not actually scared, are you?

Pffft. They're just bunch of dragons. A bunch of sharp-teethed, powerful, royal dragons that can rip me to shreds if they so wished – and they probably do wish to. No big deal.

I get up off bed, yawning as I do so.

Suddenly, as I dismiss these thoughts, my chamber room door bursts open, revealing a very excited Delphine, with what seems to be a lime-green glowing orb floating beside her.

"Good morning, Dragon Bride," Delphine says. It's clear she's quite eager about something – but she doesn't show it like normal people do. She's just mildly smiling a lot and her eyes are sparkling with a child's fizzy happiness.

I can tell Delphine is quite... How do I say this? She's... Spiritual? No, um... Otherwordly? Lost in her thoughts?

The green orb beside her suddenly begins to glow an abnormal amount. And that's when something weird happens. The orb turns into a magiks creature.

I gawp. She's incredibly pretty, in a very earthy way. She's got warm tan skin and light brown hair in a messy ponytail. Her eyes are so dark, I can just about make out the greens and browns – they're a very deep hazel. She's wearing strange blue and green mushroom earrings and a cute leaf dress, with vines and flowers in some places.