CROWNS I: Of Desolate Hope | ✔

9. Draken's Chance

"Anerion," commanded Draken, "you stay here."

The small dragon sat and looked around at the dense forest, full of undergrowth where they were camped. The journey had been mostly simple apart from a rather short and unpleasant break in a small colony in The Dark. Fortunately, the exiled prince had been given an entire forest for their stay. It was meant only for the dragon to stay away from the public eye and get rid of the nardhogs but he had insisted that he camp with Anerion to keep an eye out.

Draken and Anerion had been camped in the forest for nearly two weeks and no real progress had been made in securing the funds necessary to restore his princehood. The problem the Central Bank of Narantis had with handing out this monstrous loan was most likely Draken's response to the simple question as to why it was needed. Every few days they would rephrase but fundamentally ask, " Why does a nation of dragons need coin?" Draken who didn't fully understand the reason himself would give the answer he had been given back home in Anador or the 'Dragonland' as they called it here. "To refurbish Infernus," he would answer. Internally, the young prince knew as well as anything with a functioning brain that it didn't add up but who was he to question the King.

"It'll be different today," he said to Anerion as if the dragon understood.

Anerion wandered away, careful not to trample Draken's expensive, rolled up sleeping mat and tent, and dozed off by the carcass of a large nardhog in the distance. Although the two had only known each other for a short space of time, both the prince and the dragon respected one another. Oddly, just like the Queen in the Haunt, Anerion became somewhat agitated and hostile when close to Draken's sword, Ganan which glowed a faint yellow when near the dragon and so he tried his best to separate the two.

Draken quickly picked up the sheathed sword and attached it to his leather belt. Alright. Time to go, he thought. Right on cue, a horse burst through the bushes at breakneck speed before coming to a halt beside the prince. "Wow," he mumbled, "Narantis really do have the best horses."

When he had first landed in the woods as planned a guard waiting there had given him a horse. "A gift from the Council," she had said. Draken knew that Narantis prided themselves on being the 'Masters of the Beasts' but there was something strange about this horse. Unlike the immaculate and perfectly trained and bred horses, this one seemed to come and go as it pleased but was always there when Draken needed him. Furthermore, it didn't seem to be scared of Anerion. It was grey like all Narantiri horses but had a unique and noticeable red mark between its ears. You're not like them, are you?, he thought, You're not a tame creature.

Draken clambered onto the free-willed mount which was yet to be given a name, apparently, and prompted a canter. He yelped as the horse abruptly reared in excitement and decided to abandon the short-lived canter instead opting to charge out of the forest at full speed. After only a few seconds, Draken's thighs were burning despite a very padded saddle. Needs...more...padding, he noted. A few moments later, they broke out of the forest and passed a small farming village. The prince wasn't sure what they were growing but purple plants lined the adjacent fields and a windmill stood proud behind it.

The speed at which the horse and his boy were travelling was terrifying. So terrifying that Draken was willing to bet that it was the fastest horse in the country. Narantis was a coin-centred land and so he was sure that if he was right, he could make enough from a bet to refurbish Infernus himself. Life is sure different back home, he thought, as he watched the farmers work. Unlike in Anador, Narantis was, evidently, a free country. There were no slaves he could see and everyone seemed to look different either in skin colour or eye colour, some evidently hailing from distant lands he had never heard of. However, this did not shock Draken nearly as much as the fact that Narantis had no king but instead nine Councilmen and women that set out the basic laws and apart from that people could do as they please. Strange gods were worshipped, new spices and exotic fruits were brought in and many cultures fused into one. Poverty was nowhere to be seen. This place is magical.