The Dragon Bride | ✔️

Chapter Five

Kora's POV

The town looks so huge, more like a city.

It doesn't look like my own, which is much more... Medieval. This is one of the richer ones.

There is a massive billboard with a smiling Opal Dundale – a famous billionaire elderfairy – on it, with the words; ARCH FAIRY DUST IS THE SECRET SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS!

"Arch" is a company that sells fairy dust. I wonder if fairy dust will make the Prince let me go unscathed. Which is unlikely, considering my knowledge of magiks. Or rather lack thereof.

I haven't seen Prince Synn since exiting the palace, though. There is a big group of guards all bunched up in a circle, and trailing behind them is Bob and I. I still cannot get over the fact that that's his name.

"We're going through the marketplace now," Bob tells me gently, as if I'm daft in the head.

"I know what a market is, for God's sake. You creatures think you're so smart, don't you?" I hiss. I notice one of the guards flinching, readying their weapon as if I'm about to attack him.

"That's because we're biologically smarter,"

I roll my eyes. "Oh, yeah? Which scientific experiment says that?"

"Nobody needed to conduct one." Bob smiles. For some reason, I can tell he doesn't really think that. I mean, being a magiks creature, he's definitely not saintly and lacking in bundles of pride. But somehow it seems all his denouncing of humanity is just to irritate me. And frankly it's working.

I push him a little, in pretend fury mixed with actual agitation. He raises an eyebrow and pushes me back, harder. So of course I have to retaliate. We're going at this until I almost topple over, both of us desperately trying to stifle our uncontrollable laughter.

How disapproving Queen Alexandria would be of this behaviour, I think. But who cares? I think I'm having fun for the first time since I arrived in the palace. We keep nudging each other until we're in front of the fruit and vegetable stalls. The guards stop and begin to talk to Bob in hushed tones. Still, I can't see Prince Synn.

Of course we're all wearing peasant clothing – anything can happen if someone recognises His Highness. These places don't often broadcast the royal family's faces unless they're King and Queen. And I don't think anyone would care if they did.

Everyone is in their own little world as they wander about the marketplace, some goblins with fruits in hand, some Vampire children laughing and running, their parents yelling at them not to knock anything over.

It's strange how these all-powerful creatures can be just as normal as us humans.

But then I look to the dragons, and I know I'll never be able to see the goodness of those creatures. Not after what happened, even if it was twelve years ago now. It's because of them that I don't have any real family, and that's something not easily forgotten, let alone forgiven.

I notice one particular little girl – a nymph, probably – playing with a patched up old teddy bear. She looks up to meet eyes with me. I smile, trying to seem polite, although I don't really know how to act. She tilts her head at me curiously. She has amazingly emerald green eyes, shining like diamonds under the sunlight as her fawn, light brown waves of hair cover one of them. Her skin is tanned and her lips are arched into a smile. I notice then that her bear has these weirdly life-like sapphire blue eyes.

What is it about those that look so... Real? Human-like?

"You seem familiar," she says. Her voice is soft and hesitant. She's about nine, eight at the least.