6 Chapter 6 - Suttern (2)
"Deair inform me."
Kyzen suddenly remembers, it has been a while since the sister of the King of Suttern sent a letter. Royal Princess Deair would send letters every month, informing the Qye's about every single situation inside the Suttern. The content usually would be around the well-being of the King and Queen's children.
The last time Deair sent a letter was three months ago, when she had stated in her letters that she grew tired of sending the same situation over and over, she finds it hopeless to write the same thing. Besides, Deair was aware that Ezana probably had seen everything, so she didn't bother anymore.
However, last night Kyzen received a new letter, it was fully about Artha, not a single bit about Prince Alron or Princess Elrin.
He finds the content of the letter a bit amusing, a girl has approached Deair, wanting information about Artha. The girl obviously has fallen in love with Artha, despite the rumours that are going around about him. With a quick glance, Kyzen assessed his nephew once again, perhaps falling in love would be a good alternative to temporarily forget everything.
Artha takes a single glance at his Uncle. Because Kyzen didn't elaborate, he turned his eyes towards the sky once again.
"She told me a girl has started to approach you?"
Kyzen was hoping that sentence could cause a single reaction. But even a twitch of his vein couldn't be seen, Kyzen sighs. "Artha-"
Artha abruptly stood up from his seat. He nods his head towards Kyzen, turning around and taking a step to leave the room, no longer wanting to hear further words from Kyzen.
He remembers the words that Ezana said.
'I see a girl. Near Artha.'
Kyzen never doubts Ezana before. Though perhaps, her vision could go wrong this time.
Right?
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She could feel her heartbeat accelerate. Eyes wide staring right at an eyeball that blinks twice before the creature releases warm breath right in front of her. It's head tilting to the side, examining the girl that stands in front of its way.
Raiene couldn't move an inch. Besides her rapid heart that suddenly moved within seconds, she could feel sweats coming out of her pores and trickling down her neck. Her breathing has become short but a smile creeping up on her face.
It's not a dream?
Right?
Is it?
Raiene pinches her pale white cheeks, hissing when she starts to feel pain. The most absurd thing though, when she starts to incessantly let out giggles. Ruby shakes her head in disbelief upon that scene, she decides to walk closer to a burly white bearded guy standing right beside the white dragon.
"Knox!"
He nods, "been a while", inspecting Ruby from head to toe before patting the dragon next to him, "Gonna trade herbs this time?"
Ruby shakes her head, gestures towards Raiene and smiles widely, "bringing my niece to visit Qye. Next week's Lantern Festival is her birthday. Better celebrate with some crowd, don't you think?" Ruby pulls out a few coins from inside her leather brown bag and shoves it towards Knox.
Knox pulled up his eyebrow in confusion, eyes slightly turning cold.
"Three Cos?" he snickers, laughing as he shakes his head before patting the dragon once again, "If you want to use my Gotte. Better offer me more than that!"
His earlier friendly expression turns hostile the minute he finds out the sums of the money.
It is famously known, when a dragon reaches a certain age, their sensible sense would choose a creature as a sole master of their life. Devoting their entire life and creating a relationship full of trust.
But only a few dragons would receive this sense and it is quite hard for a creature to live alongside a dragon. That either fly, swim, roaming above the ground or breathing fire incessantly.
The Sky Dragon is considerably worth higher than the rest of dragons, able to fly higher and faster than that of Water or Earth. Fire is never working with this kind of business, famously known amongst the other dragons as the fiercest and ruthless, they wouldn't allow anyone to climb up their body, let alone flying across the sea.
Knox finds it an insult for only getting paid several cos and not gold.
"Accept it. Else, I will ask Furt service instead," Ruby snicker, eyes glistening, "last time I asked, he wanted to fly me across with only one cos," she said.
It is known among the merchants and traders of Wasteland, the dragon service only provided by Knox and Furt. Two individuals who always seek as many customers as possible, they would banter and try to steal each other's potential customers.
Knox glared at the woman in front of him, "that's because he only owns Earth Dragon. From here to Qye, it will take half a day flying with Earth Dragon!" he yelled, face going red from anger, as his white hair shook considerably.
Ruby tapped her chin, thinking, "Well. I'm not in a rush", she turns around and about to grab Raiene's hand, when Knox suddenly grabs her shoulder. Her triumphant smile slowly blooms and she turns once again to face Knox, whose eyes have calmed down and look a little bit flustered.
He sighed.
Looking exasperated, Knox breathed heavily with intense glare at Ruby before he hollered, "Climb up!" while immediately snatching away three cos from Ruby's hand.
Ruby tries to hold her chuckles and gestures to Raiene. Waking up from trance, Raiene takes a few steps forward closer to the dragon, hesitates a bit when Knox suddenly pushes her and in result is forced to get a footing, climbing up the dragon's back. Ruby followed her step, taking a seat right behind her.
"This dragon chose Knox when he was little," Ruby started to explain, "Poor and doesn't have much talent, Knox decided to use his dragon as a way to make a living. Creatures that were chosen who come from harsh backgrounds would choose this path to survive."
Raiene nods her head. Eyes completely glued to the skin of the dragon, feeling the rough and prickly skin though she wasn't bothered by it. Ruby smiles at that then nods towards Knox, the man whispers a word, emitting a tiny grumble from the creature.
Raiene was startled when the dragon began to take a step back, causing her body to tremble from pure surprise, its wide majestic wings began to flap from slow to rapid motion, her blood rushing from head to toe when the creature started to ascend from the ground.
Vigorous wind was blowing away whatever was in its vicinity, fortunately it was a good distance away from other creatures or else they could be flown and possibly injured themselves.
Raiene held her breath in, eyes open wide, taking in every single thing that happened without a single blink. Her fingers grabbed tightly to her safety seat, not aware of her own body shaking in both excitement and anticipation. Right at this moment, she couldn't believe that she, a human, was riding a dragon.
The surge of excitement pushed through her lungs, filling her with bubbles of unexpected joy, the dragon began to move forward, resulting in her hair smacking Ruby's face.
Ruby was about to complain, but Raiene's eyes that lit up caused Ruby to shut her mouth, she chuckled instead. Glad she decides to use a dragon as a means of transportation instead of other ways.
The wind that blew brought forth a warm salty scent and the sky that sparkly lit had managed to cause Raiene's lips to spread wide, eyes twinkling like a thousand stars. The sea underneath slowly waving while white and soft sweet-like clouds above accompany their short but mesmerising journey.
Truly, this day wouldn't ever be forgotten.
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Page 14. Section 3.
I better remind you to finish this book before experiencing the outside world.
It is better to keep this in mind. You don't want to get chopped down by a werewolf right? Or paralyzed by a witch? Don't let me mention received spells by fairies? Or getting your blood sucked by vampires.
I believe that whoever read this book had reached this section without much problem.
Well, if you haven't, hope the spirits stay with you.
-Excerpt from The Essential Book of Human Survival
Jonathan Lorth
