Legend of the Dragon Princess

Chapter 2.2: Girl in the Armor

Knitting his eyebrows close together, the princess clenched down his jaw. "You will come in three days. Until then, the wedding isn't happening yet." His sharp, glass-cutting eyes flickered over toward mine, and I nodded. "You better keep your promise, dearest...brother."

Deep inside, I could feel my heart drumming loudly again. The inside of my stomach twisted, with knots forming once more. "I swear on my life—and on Mother's grave, June." I had just remembered then that Hao and Ming were standing by my side. How strange is that? I need to grow used to it—and watch my tongue.

With Hao there, the preparations went by faster. Every soldier rose back onto their feet, following his commands and making sure that the area was secured. The princess, followed by the two crying maids, went to sit inside the red wooden carriage. Little else was said. Then, the horses moved, drawing the carriage forward with the cherry-red wheels going. Half of the soldiers quickly broke formation, with the other half, still in two lines, escorting them out the front gates and beyond. They would be making the journey with the three, making sure that the Lord receives his lovely bride. The ones who stayed with us were only there to see them off, with farewells. A few of them even tried to hold back tears and cried.

"Your Majesty!" It was Ming, who had looked back at the long stairsteps, and sure enough, the Empress was rapidly approaching us. Hao was quiet, eyes still lingering after the carriage that had already left the royal palace grounds. "Hao! Anyone?"

I opened my mouth to speak once the woman, dressed in her intricately embroidered gold attire, stood before me and the two young men. However, the older boy broke out of his dazed spell and spun around to face her and the remaining soldiers. His eyes had refocused.

"Behold, Empress Bao Fan!" As Hao yelled out his lungs out, the Empress tilted her head with a tightened jaw as if she was grinding her pretty little teeth out. "Positions, men! Show your utmost respect to our ruler, men! Stand still, men! Long live Empress Bao Fan!"

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Her dark eyes were made of snake venom, and that was all I could see when she held her icy gaze on me during the blaring echoes of her name. Even when I'm sitting before her at the round blood-red table with the assortment of hot and cold food. I silently inspected the boiled greens, the freshly-caught and deboned fish from the local rivers, the hardboiled pigeon eggs, and wood-smoked chicken as well as other small birds. I then looked to her, the snake eyes still penetrating through my very soul. Where ever the traces of poison may be at could very well be long embedded in hers.

"I'm...hurt that your lovely sister did not care to wait for my arrival." The woman so eloquently began, with her red lips moving slowly. "Not only that, it was only this mid-morning when a servant came running to me with the news." She moved her teacup closer for the maid to pour hot, steaming green tea from the white and blue porcelain pot. "You both do this quite often, never letting me know about any plan changes or interesting...ideas. After all, I am...your mother. Her mother as well." The grip on her teacup's handle tightened, turning white and red.

It doesn't take even a blind beggar to realize that she isn't anyone's mother. Unable to produce heirs or even children, it has been known that once we were brought inside the palace for Jing's misdemeanor of thievery, she lost favor in the Emperor's eyes when he saw the dragon hairpin. My hairpin. The sight of it was always a slap to her face from that day on. It was a gift from Mother before her passing, a royal-commissioned gift that our father gave to her as a token of his love. Our father who chose to marry Bao Fan...was none other than the Old Man himself, Emperor Fue.

One may even say that the hairpin was a part of Mother—just as it was a part of me, the Dragon Princess June.

I swallowed, staring at the thick soup broth in the small bowl set in front of me. Still cladded in full gold scaled armor from head to toe, I held my chin up, locking eyes with her hateful ones. Hao and Ming were prohibited from following. Patrolling the city in our armor would have to wait. I'm trapped—for now.

"But, now...it's just me and you, Your Majesty." I carefully looked deep into the cup of steaming tea set by my bowl of soup. "Perhaps, we can get to know each other more."

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Through tremendous tension and long periods between silence and forced, painful conversations along with odd quirks that I had observed of my brother—I had managed to act my way out from the lunch earlier than expected. It went...too well—meaning that the Empress just simply couldn't tell us apart in our swapped places—either that or... Given the few seconds of pondering, I surely didn't have much to make sense of as a navy-blue robed servant quickly opened the double blood-red doors for me to exit the royal chamber, a large spacious room indeed in comparison to both mine and Jing's—combined. All at once, I winced to look away for a moment, adjusting my eyes to the mandarin-orange sun shining its almost egotistical glory of light all over the china-blue skies and the stretches of white nian gao clouds.

From the corner of my eye though—right by the double doors leading into the Empress' chamber sat a soldier, with knees up to his chest. With the sweet and subtle aroma of the surrounding greenery, I could not help but notice how the soft blend of bright, blinding light and soothing shadows of the tree branches above hovered over his gold and silver scales. My eyes trailed over to his sleeping face, which was peacefully buried in his arms over the knees. Beside him sat a large golden helmet with a snow-white plume. I leaned in, seeing if I recognize the peculiar soldier, who would face Hao's wrath since he broke away from formation. What is he doing here—instead of preparing for our city patrol?

In my mimicked low tone, I asked, "Hello?" There was no response. "Soldier?" I squinted my eyes as the details of his face began to remind me of someone I have seen before: the long, satin-black hair, the strong masculine but maturing jawbone structure, his dark and thick eyebrows, the long unusual but beautiful nose, and tight line in his coral-pink lips. His long, delicate eyelashes fluttered, disturbing the peace resting in his babyish dark honey face, and when they were drowsily opening, the spring-green eyes confirmed my quiet, brewing suspicions. "Ming."

"Hmm?" Shit, I said it out loud by accident. "...Your Majesty?" Scratching the back of his long, dark hair, Ming yawned and was about to get up, only to be surprised by me extending a hand to help him. "Is his...Majesty offering me his assistance?" Grabbing hold of my hand, Ming managed to rise back onto his feet as I grounded mine firmly enough to not topple over like a fool. "Xie Xie."

I then went over to pick up his golden helmet—but his hand swiftly stopped mine.