To Protect Dragons

17. Amree

It was the middle of the night when I had woken up. I wish I had just stayed asleep, it hurt more than I would have liked to admit. When I opened my eyes for those few short seconds I had seen Eun-ji and Kazuto kissing in the distance.

I had felt sick, I knew I was right about him. I quietly got up and walked towards the stream that was near our camp. He was fooling me. I couldn't let myself give into this. I wouldn't be upset. I looked at my reflection in the rippling water, would my mom be sad to see what I have become? Would she be disappointed in her daughter, in the future queen who didn't know what she was doing. I couldn't tell what the prince was thinking at all, no matter what I would always have a disadvantage when it came to him. He was an experienced war hero, while next to him I knew little to nothing about the true nature of war. The thought of war made me tremble, but for him it was an every day occurrence.

Suddenly a tree branch broke behind me and I whipped my head around.

"Kana?" Kazuto stepped closer to me.

"What do you want?" I bit out more harshly than I would have liked. I hated myself for it, but the closer he got the more my resolve crumbled, and suddenly I was forgetting the things I was going to say.

He rubbed his temples and breathed out. "Listen I-"

I held my hand up in front of him silencing his next thought, "I don't care Kazuto, I won't fight over you with Eun-ji. I will fight for my country and my people, not for you." I said sternly. I was about to walk away when he grabbed onto my arm holding me in place.

"Listen to me. She kissed me Kana, I have no feelings for her, I-" He frustratingly let go of my arm and ran his hand through his hair.

"I just have known her for so long that i'm trying my best to not hurt her. It's different than what I feel for you." He said staring into my eyes. I almost shuddered under his intense gaze. However, behind his eyes this time was warmth, not the cold gaze I had gotten to accustomed to seeing.

"And what do you feel for me?" I needed a straight answer from him, I had too many doubts about what he truly intended with this whole thing.

"All I know is when this journey ends, I don't want to just go back to our own kingdoms." He reached forward and grabbed my hand, rubbing small circles around the inside of my palm.

I didn't know what to say. It's like the words were lodged in my throat. Why did he have to say this now? Our countries were more important, this was a dangerous game we were playing and I had to remember that. But for some reason I couldn't pull away as he cupped my face with his hands and brought me closer to his face. I stared back into his eyes, my wariness evident.

And then he was kissing me again. I knew I would regret this later, I knew I shouldn't be doing this but I couldn't help but wrap my hands around him, pulling him just a little closer. And just for a moment, a small moment, I was kissing just Kazuto, not the Prince who had came with baggage for decades.

The next morning when we had all finally woken up I wasn't sure where me and Kazuto were supposed to go from here. I couldn't think about that too much though because we were only a short while away from seeing Amree and being back in my kingdom. We had been riding for a few hours now and the numbness from sitting for that long was overshadowed by my longing to see her again.

Finally we had came to the trail that lead to the top of the mountain where Amree was. "This is it!" I said jumping off Kazuto's horse. My heart leaped at the thought of seeing her again, I had missed her so much during this trip. I impatiently waited for them to tie up the horses so they could follow me up. I started to run, my legs burning slightly from how uphill it was. I could see her shimmering blue wings in the distance, I picked up my speed.

Then I got to the top of the hill. My head was spinning, I tried to scream but nothing came out. My throat dried instantly as my body went cold. I felt vile rising to my throat as I looked at the arrow plunged into her side with the Southern kingdom mark. "Amree!" I choked out running towards her. Everything was moving in slow motion.

I could barely see through the tears that clouded my vision. I fell to the ground next to her head, which lay lifeless and cold on the ground now. "No no no no.. Wake up please, wake up wake up." The air wouldn't reach my lungs, I stroked her head rocking back and forth. I willed her to wake up. "No please.. you can't take her too."

He said he would stop the hunting during the journey

I turned around suddenly. Reo reached out to grab me but I too quickly lunged at kazuto.

"You said you stopped the hunting!" I sobbed out reaching for my pocket knife. "I lunged it towards his chest but Eun-ji and Reo were quick to grab my arms and pull me away. Eun-ji tackled me to the ground and I tried to escape but her hold on me was to strong.

I couldn't look at Kazuto, I couldn't see his face, I knew I would do something horrible if I looked at him.

"Get off me." I said to Eun-ji. "Get off me!" I repeated one more time with a deadly tone to my voice that I wasn't aware I had. She looked at Reo reluctantly before him nodding and her releasing me. I quickly pushed her away from me and ran to a bush and threw up everything I had been holding in.

I turned back towards them unable to control the pain that hurled into my stomach. "Leave" This time I was looking at Kazuto. "If I ever see your face again I will make sure that mine will be the last you see." I tried to stay strong, but the sobs coming from my voice almost made my words incomprehensible. But I know he understood me.

He looked as if he was going to take a step towards me but he quickly replaced his expression with a cold hard one he had once worn when we had first met.

"GO!" I screamed, my voice was shallow and breaking. "Leave!" I screamed once more, the sound echoing in my own head. As soon as I saw Reo grab Kazuto and pull him down the hill with Eun-ji following I collapsed at the side of Amree.

"How long were you suffering for?" I sobbed loudly.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so so so sorry." I shook uncontrollably.

I don't know how long I stayed there. The sun had gone down and at one point my father had appeared behind me. He kneeled down next to me and held me. He hadn't said anything, he just let me cry. I don't know how long we both sat there but my overwhelming grief shifted from anger to sadness over and over again. At one point I think I ran out of tears, just my dry heaving filled the silence of the forest.

She was gone.