The Dragon Bride | ✔️

Chapter Forty

Kora's POV

"So he essentially asked you out on a date?" Azura questions.

I frown. "Of course not. That would be..."

"Completely normal. But you're not used to that, are you?" she giggles. I glare at her, but we both know she's right. Whatever kind of life I've been living up till now, it's been anything but normal, and everything but desirable. Perhaps tonight is my chance to live a little freely? To let loose of my worries for a night and simply try and be normal?

The idea of that seems odd, and I don't really understand why other people like doing it so much. Drowning out their miseries, I mean. It seems useless; like being stuck in a room with a man-eating beast, and thinking that pulling a curtain over to hide it would help any, as if pretending it's not there is going to make it disappear. Because it isn't.

I take a deep breath. There I go again. Tonight is not about facing fears, it's about letting go of them.

That's what old Freya Cosma next door said whenever she began another of her drinking sessions. She was our one of our neighbours, back in the old house, and was always drunk. And I mean always. But, no matter how much she drank, her problems never seemed to just vanish.

Freya Cosma did seem happier when drunk, though. Like she was on cloud nine, actually. Maybe that's why people do it? That short, sweet release from reality?

I cough a little, unsure how to begin my sentence, "Uhh... Azura?"

"Yes?"

"Could you help me- er... Well, pick an outfit?"

Azura raises her eyebrow at me questioningly. I stare back, furrowing my eyebrows in annoyance. Does she have to look so suspicious, to make it worse?

"I never thought I'd hear the day Kora Moons asked me to choose her outfit!" she chuckles. I scowl at her but relent when she begins to get up and prod me experimentally. "What sort of date is it, anyway? Casual? Formal? Somewhere in between?"

"I have no idea. Synn said it's a surprise," I state.

"Hmm. I don't have much to work with," Azura says pointedly, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Oh gee, I'm so sorry Your Fashionable Grace. I have to say, you boost my self-esteem like no one else," I say, sarcasm oozing out of my voice. Azura laughs at me.

"I have an idea! What about a simple dress?"

"I can never get out of these stupid dresses, can I?" I mutter to myself wretchedly. It's not that I don't like dresses. Hell, when I first arrived, a little part of me was kind of excited about being able to wear such beautiful dresses so much, though I wouldn't admit it through pride and hatred of anything the Ignatian royalty provide for me.

But now wearing them has become an everyday occurence, I can't help missing the mobility of trousers.

"Don't be silly, Kora! It's Ignatian tradition for a woman to wear some type of dress. Trousers are for men,"

"But-"

"Not negotiable. Try to change that custom and you'll be looked at as a ruffian!"

"At least ruffians get to freely present themselves how they see fit," I whisper. Azura hears and gently wacks my arm.

"A simple summer dress, at least?" Azura crosses her arms, losing her patience with me.

"Are you insane? It's ruddy freezing outside! Those four wretched Element siblings won't leave the bloody weather alone these days!"