4 Twin Rose Castle

The worst winter they have seen in a thousand years was set to descend upon their continent.

She is the last of the Winterchild family. As the ruler of the land, she has a duty to look after the kingdom.

Now that she has the dragon in her hand, it is time she retrieved all that her family has lost once more.

The kingdom of mountains has been under her control, because she was the one who married the heir to the Windcastle.

Yet, pockets of resistance existed.

The first and foremost being the county of twin roses, who were as corrupt as nobles could be. Rumor has it they were in plans of claiming inheritance of the wind castle through a distant connection.

Sasha, by her blood, and marriage alliances, is the first heiress Winterland, kingdom of mountains and kingdom of water. It is time the rest of the world is reminded of that.

War ravaged the kingdom of water, and currently, she does not have a strong enough army to subdue the little counties of rebels, much less an entire kingdom.

She will start from the little pockets of resistance. One must never leave backstabbers behind.

The mercenary army her brother's enemies hired has been annihilated, but remnants of the army were bought by lord Brune of twin roses. They have a thousand man army, while she has nothing, at least, till now.

Now, she has a dragon.

A thousand man army is as simple to solve as a child's toy sword, if you follow the strategy of 'burn them all' like the dragon lords.

However, she's not a dragon lord, and in winter, every life is important.

"My lady ! " the messenger greeted her.

"Speak." The guard beside her who doubled as a herald said.

" A two thousand man army, coming in from the twin rose pass, my lady." he told her.

They probably intended to surround her, and starve her to death.

Let them set up .

For one, she's not going to get starved no matter how they surround her.

Moon snow was all too willing to hunt for herself and an entire castle of staff.

"Close the gates. Wait for now." Sasha ordered.

By the night, the base of the mountain was full of camps.

The dragon basked in sunlight during the day, and went out to hunt in the night. None knew of its presence.

Even if they see it, they would assume it's owner is a Drakon instead of a Winterchild.

Moon snow brought a shark the size of a carriage the first day.

An Orca half its own size the next day.

Sasha has taken fins of the shark on the first day, and a part of the belly for the meal, and gave the rest to the dragon.

The orca was cut up into many pieces, after skinners removed all it's skin and blubber before offering all the meat to the dragon, after searing the meat at the behest of Sasha.

Moon snow seems to have taken a liking to the taste of flensed orca. It liked it even more when they cooked the meat instead of it cooking on it's own.

In the days that followed, the yard was almost always filled with the bodies of killer whales.

Thanks to the dragon's hunting speed, Windcastle was almost about to turn into a tanner's house.

Sasha, unable to bear the smell, had part of the backyard cleared for the dragon and it's catch.

The dragon doubled in size day after day as it fed on the whales.

Meanwhile, Sasha commissioned a giant wooden basket to be made with a handle.

While the dragon went out to hunt, and the craftsmen were busy with making wooden baskets, she focused on honing her talent of soul flight. She transferred to one snow shrike after another.

The first snow shrike she possessed died immediately, unable to bear the weight of her soul. Sasha reeled back from the pain. Next time, she lightened her touch as much as possible.

Only, the snow shrike was mid-flight, and it stopped beating its wings.

After multitude of snow shrikes died various ways of dropping from flight, staying too still to get hunted by predators, and just falling down under the weight of Sasha's soul, she finally lightened her soul flight enough to only see what is happening through snow shrike's eyes rather than put any sort of weight on it.

Had there been another soul master around, they would have told Sasha how extraordinarily talented she was, but ... she is the last Winterchild.

There's no one to compliment her, there's no one to scold her, there's no one to warn her when she is about to step in a quagmire.

On the fifth day, she deemed The dragon big and strong enough to carry a twelve knight contingent. They prepared their gears, five of them in full plate armor with tower shields, while the rest wore thick leather armor with furs.

All the knights carried a sword and spear, and for the safety and convenience, a dagger and a snow pike.

The basket is made of bamboo, and the covering is made of whale leather, to keep it dry from snow. It looked like a giant umbrella mixed with a gazebo, in order to give birth to a puffed up balloon child. it had the frame of umbrella on top, pillars of gazebo in the bottom.

Sasha herself wore a fur leather gown, her thick red hair braided into two twin braids, which she tucked into the hoodie.

A saddle was made, however unlike the one that used iron rings around the dragon's teeth, the one they made is attached with an elastic rope mechanism to two of the spines on the dragon's head.

They used treated killer whale tendons to create the ropes, and a hammock mixed with baby walker style seat was created in between the dragon's spine thorns.

Sasha was able to comfortably sit between the spines, and even if the dragon did a thousand dangerous aerial maneuvers, she wouldn't fall down.

On top of that, there's no pain to the dragon as it was with the tooth saddle.

Sasha flew a round around Windcastle, to make sure she is used to flying and to adjust the saddle. The views from the dragon back were amazing.

Soon, the twelve knights were seated in the basket, flying out of the Windcastle carried by a dragon.

By foot, the journey from Windcastle to twin roses takes three days, and in inclement weather, up to fifteen days.

Twin roses castle is built atop a mountain in between two of the steepest crags Sasha has ever seen.

No wonder the lord of Twin Rose Castle was so confident in the safety of his castle to leave only the greenest of the guards here as the protection.

The dragon swept right into the narrow courtyard of the castle to release the knight's carriage, then flew a loop around the castle, to land just above the stone main gate of the castle.

Thankfully, the gate is more than made of stone. It's carved out of a single stone, attached to the stone mountain on which twin rose castle stood.

Sasha released hooks of the saddle, walked up so she could stand in between horns of the dragon to look around.

The household staff were running around like chickens whose heads are cut off, and the knight's team is rounding up all of them in the yard.

Soon, the entire Brune family was brought in front of her in chains.

Lord Brune is a fat and weaselly looking man, a bit like a bamboo rat.

"Lound Brune, You have defied orders from your ruling lord, persecuted the people under your rule. For these crimes, in the name of Raul Winterchild, I sentence you to death. Any last words? " Sasha asked.

"You bitch! You are nothing but a Luster's whore. My army will cut you into pieces and you will die a whore's death. Blah.." The man continued babbling.

Sasha ignored him when it looked like he would keep on ranting.

"This also applies to the rest of you." She told the man's wife.

A little girl who resembled her stayed by her side.

"Please! I can tell you where he hid all his gold and secrets. Please, Please spare my child." Lady Brune begged Sasha.

"I am sorry, Lady Brune. I can find his gold and secrets just fine by myself, and all who carry Brune blood must die." Sasha answered.

The woman looked conflicted.

"My daughter does not carry Brune blood. Please! " The woman begged.

Sasha raised one of her eyebrows.

The man beside her screamed.

"You bitch! You whore! I forbid you! I forbid you! " Lound Brune screamed, as his wife prepared to confess.

Sasha gestured to one of the knights besides her.

The man moved forward, and punched Lord Brune in the face.

The rest of the household did not even look surprised at the news.

"Her father is a Summer Islander, His name is Mocai, he came from the Island of Naga." Lady Brune confessed.

At this news, everyone looked shocked, including her husband.

It seems they all thought her daughter's father was someone else.

"How about we move it inside? " Sasha asked, assuming this is going to be a long story.