Cursed Without A Crown

02 | Formulating a Shady Plan

STILL IN THE KINGDOM OF DRAKENWELL

After hurriedly and begrudgingly putting out the rest of the candles, Naomi rushed out of the bedchamber. There, she encountered the usual guards posted at either side of the door, not sparing her a glance.

Not that she expected them to. The guards in the castle were so terribly hard to provoke. Naomi had tried. She hadn't even seen them blink before, honestly. Their royal blue and purple attire was supposed to emit a friendly aura, as King Rhys always boasted about. A nice inviting presence. But the bastards were so stiff and unmoving that Naomi always made it a habit of pretending to poke them in the eye as she passed.

She was sure that if the guards had their way, they would've probably sliced her finger open with their swords. But luckily for her, no matter how annoying she was, they couldn't harm a hair on her head without her doing something even more stupid to warrant it.

That night, however, they could relax because she was in no mood for attempting to poke eyeballs. She had a plan to formulate.

The guards might probably be surprised – since they always expected that silly gesture from her – but they would have to wait till the next day.

Poor things. So anxious for my attention.

"Tomorrow, Guardies. I promise. I've got to hurry to bed tonight." She quickly gave each a small bow. "Bye Reginald. Bye Duke. I hope you sleep well!" she added over her shoulder, despite knowing full well that they wouldn't have a moment's rest until the next morning when their shift would end.

Moving fast, but not too fast to draw attention, Naomi exited the west wing of the upper floor of the castle and rushed down to the lower. There was hardly any noise about because of the hour, so Naomi figured she was alone and took that opportunity to run to the servants' quarters.

She only shared a wing with the other servants, but not a chamber, and she had the princess to thank for that.

Rushing to open her bedchamber door, Naomi had completely forgotten that a very important and excited roommate would be waiting anxiously for her to return. So as soon as Naomi thrust the door open, a small yet heavy force suddenly collided with her face. The Shade was then thrown backwards against the corridor wall and groaned as her back made a painful thud against the stone.

"Ardha!" Naomi gritted out in frustration, grabbing the pestering load and pulling it away from her face. "You stupid dragon!"

Wincing, Naomi pushed away from the wall and glared at the little dragon staring expectantly at her. The mark on the creature was only a shade darker than its own bluish skin. "Do you want to kill me? Is that what you want? Hm?"

Ardha, not understanding a word nor the cause of Naomi's anger, twisted her head and moved closer to Naomi's face, nudging her nose.

"You think you're so adorable," Naomi muttered in annoyance, but her voice had softened considerably. Even though her back and face still throbbed from the attack, she knew that Ardha was only thrilled to see her. How could she blame the poor thing for being so enthusiastic?

It's either that or the disgrace of a dragon is probably just hungry again.

"Impossible." Naomi felt the dragon's rough middle and looked into its striking, blue, snake-like eyes.

"I already sent Baeron to feed you so you better not be hungry, you silly cow," Naomi chided, but affectionately cuddled Ardha in her arms and entered her bedchamber. "You surely can't be hungry. Look at how fat and heavy you're becoming."

Sincerely, even if Naomi felt the need to, she just couldn't let it starve because it wasn't even her dragon to begin with. It belonged to Princess Laya, and the princess only entrusted the care of the dragon – ironically – to her. Which she in turn entrusted the care of the dragon – without the princess' knowledge – to her own private personal servant.