Chapter 9

Elvis was flying fast toward the west when he felt a strange feeling that made him sad; unknown to him, tears were dropping from his eyes.

He just brushed the feeling off and focused on his journey.

After flying for hours, he became tired and looked for a place to spend the night.

"System, how long is the journey going to take?" He asked.

[Estimated, it's going to take twelve hours if you keep it up without taking any breaks.]

"Don't take a break from my ass," he said as he flew down towards a cave he sighted down below.

"The journey is still long," Elvis mumbled and approached the cave, which was right in front of him. He entered and comforted himself while cuddling his whole body around himself.

"Sigh, I need to take a rest for today; for some reason, I don't feel too well." With those words said, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

Elvis was sleeping like a child with no worries. In the past few days, many things happened to him: he died in the original world, got reincarnated as a dragon, came out of the mountains as a young dragon who fought and survived alone, fought a wolf beast in the woods, learned how to fly, got bigger, and on top of that, he made a friend who could communicate with him.

Time passed quickly, and it had already turned dark outside.

Meanwhile…

Some people were walking close to the cave Elvis was residing in.

"Princess, it's getting dark. I believe we should look for a place to stay for the night." A young lady, judging from her physical appearance, is a maid. She said those words to a lady standing beside her who is the princess judging from her royal outfit; she's twenty years old with white hair and blue eyes.

The princess didn't reply, but she agreed with the fact that they needed to rest and that it wouldn't be wise to travel at night, so she just nodded her head in response.

"Miss, we found a cave ahead; I believe we should rest there for the night," one of the guards returned from their little scouting and bowed before the princess.

"Yes, no problem, we'll rest there tonight and leave for the city early in the morning," she replied to the guard, knowing how difficult it is to see a cave in the middle of the forest, so they were really lucky to find one.

Listening to the words coming from the young lady's mouth, they nodded in response. The other guards arrived and began to lead the princess and her maid to the cave.

Two ladies were in the middle, while two guards were at the front, and two were at the back to protect the princess from any hidden dangers in the forest.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the cave. The cave wasn't large, but it wasn't small either.

One of the guards stopped them from entering, saying, "Wait, princess, let's search inside the cave first in case any beasts are living in it."

"All right then, do as you please," the princess replied casually.

The two guards went in, and surprisingly, the interior structure of the cave seemed large.

They finally got to a wall that seemed to be the end point of the cave; it was dark and they held no light, only relying on the moonlight, so they assumed it to be a giant, thick, rough black wall.

They turned around and went back out, and the wall moved a bit.

They got out and told the princess that it was safe.

"Thanks to the gods, this place is empty, so we should be able to rest here," the princess sighed in a relieved manner.

"It's great that we didn't find any beasts here," the maid exhaled deeply and sighed.

The three guards nodded in response; they were on alert and ready to face any hidden danger in this place, but it was a good thing that this cave was safe and empty inside. They still can't let their guards down, staying alert at all times.

They began to pull out a mat from their bags and lay it on the floor to rest comfortably.

"Princess, "We'll stay outside and guard in case any dangerous beasts try to approach, and thanks to the cave, we won't have to worry about our backs during the night," one of the guards said, to which the other guards agreed.

After hearing those words from the guard, she nodded and looked toward the woman who was standing beside her.

A medium-sized tall dragon was still sleeping in the cave around their backside, unnoticed by them.

Elvis, who was also unaware of their presence, moved an inch to comfort himself and fell asleep again.

"Are you alright, Ana?" The princess asked her maid, who had a shocked and strange expression while staring at the wall behind the princess.

"Sorry, princess, I thought I just saw that wall move for a second," the maid responded, her face puzzled.

The princess looked back, and the wall seemed pretty normal to her, so she said, "You get some sleep; you must be pretty tired, that's all."

"You are probably right, princess; I am probably seeing things," the maid said, believing she was just hallucinating.

The princess and maid both slept later; the dragon and humans were unaware of each other's existence in the cave.

The guards took turns sleeping to preserve each other's energy.

Midnight posts were changed; the two guards who were the first to keep watch went to sleep while the other two woke up and took over.

After a while, making sure that everyone had slept, the two guards protecting the princess both nodded toward each other and went into the cave.

One of the guards held a handkerchief, while the other held a huge knife, and the two both had creepy smiles on their faces.