The Search

(Vlad's POV)

"Have you seen Kira?" Karol asked, pacing and fretting as usual.

"No, I haven't seen Kira. Is there a problem?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"How could you be so calm? The royal dinner is in two hours, and I checked her room and she's not there!"

I sighed. Was Karol really so blind? Of course Kira ran off somewhere, the second we mentioned the royal dinner she had been down all day. "She's probably gone out. I'm sure she'll be back in time."

"Vlad, what will happen if she misses the dinner? Oh, we'll have such a bad reputation! I worked so hard to get all the princes over so that they could meet her!"

I stifled a retort. Why did she always have to make a fret about everything? "How about I send a search party out to look for her?" I suggested. Maybe that would get her off my back.

"Alright! Make sure you send out as many guards as possible! This is important!"

I nodded and headed over towards my commander, Chris. "Chris, can you go out and send out some search parties to look for Kira?"

"Kira's missing?" Chris stiffened. Kira was his best friend, he was bound to be worried. "I'll go out and lead a search party right away!"

I drew in a deep breath and headed over to my office. Why was everyone making such a fuss? When I was younger, I snuck out all the time, and no one even seemed to notice I was missing.

I sat down in my office chair and let out a stressful sigh. I opened my drawer to look for some papers that I needed to sign, but something felt missing. I looked down into the drawer. Everything seemed in their usual places. My files, pens, papers, and... my diary!

"Where is it?" I asked myself through gritted teeth, feeling around the drawer. No, what if someone took it? Karol would tell me about such a thing. None of my guards would go searching through my things. There was only one person immature enough to have stolen it. Kira!

What if she read it? Anger surged through me. She would've read about Ryker... and that means that she went to one place and one place only.

"Chris!" I called, bursting out of the office. Chris turned to look over his shoulder right before he headed outside to lead the search party.

"What is it, Lord Virkzon?" Chris asked.

"Redirect your search party to the Magical Forest," I panted.

"Yes sir, but may I ask why?"

"Just do it!" I lost my patience. The Magical Forest was dangerous... too many people had fallen in love there.

(Chris's POV)

If Kira went off somewhere and those dragon slayers got a hold of her, I was going to kill every last one of them for her. "Where are you?" I shouted loudly.

"We're not going to find any lurking slayers here, Chris," Kyle remarked. "The slayers are cowards, they've probably already run back to their base."

"Hey, Chris! I found something!" Justin waved his hand to gesture me over.

"What is it?" I asked. I stopped right by him, and he pointed to a pool of stuff that looked almost black. I squinted my eyes, and in the moonlight shining through the trees I saw a tint of red. "Is that Kira's blood?" I asked warily.

"You know Kira best. Does it smell like her?"

I leaned down closer to the blood and took a whiff. It smelled a bit like iron, like all blood. And then I picked up the musty tang of dragon blood. I thought deeper and focused all my senses of the blood, searching for that sweet, nectar-like scent. I found it.

"It's definitely Kira's blood. We should try following a scent trail," I suggested.

"Alright, I'll go tell the others, you should see if you can pick up a trail," Justin said, and then turned to go and tell the others about our find.

In the dark, it was hard to see, but even the blindest dragon could pick up the blood spatters that led to a faint trail towards a bed of ferns. I gently placed my hand on the ferns, and instantly felt the sticky substance cover my hands.

"Guys, I found more blood!" I called out, and the others headed over to me, staring in horror at all the blood on the ferns.

"Does it lead anywhere?" Kyle asked.

"No, doesn't look like there's another blood trail. We could try following her scent though," Justin replied.

"There's no scent," Tyler pointed out. "It's all been washed away in the rain. We won't be able to pick up any more traces of blood in the dark. Best to wait until morning."

"Let's head back," I decided. As much as I wanted to stay and look for Kira the entire night, I knew it would be hopeless. Maybe everything would be be better in the morning. I quietly led the group back to castle, ready to face Virkzon's wrath.

"Did you find her?" Virkzon immediately demanded.

"We found pools of her blood along the ground, but the rain washed away all the scent and we couldn't see the blood trail in the dark," I explained meekly.

"What do you mean? You must find her before she gets lost!"

"Lord, I apologise. We'll look for her first thing in the morning," I promised.

"First thing in the morning isn't fast enough! I want you to keep searching! I don't care if it's too dark, transform and fly across the forest if you have to!"

I shrunk back from Virkzon's protest. He wasn't usually this intimidating, but I nodded and took the others back out into the forest that seemed to stretch on forever. What kind of secret was Virkzon hiding?