Chapter 5 - Here Comes the Dragon King

It read:

"Just wait for me, my love. I will find a way for us to be together again."

Lytio must have had his brain replaced with one of the fishes that he captured to make such ridiculous promises.

She looked at the piece of paper blankly once again and muttered to herself, "such terrible handwriting."

She threw it into the fire, where some women were cooking for another wedding.

Then left for the library.

The moment she stepped into the library, the Librarian greeted her.

"There you are, child. My wife told me everything. That mother of yours is a witch."

Gladies, his wife, always some how knew everything that was going on in Inaymi.

Belladonna had always thought they were a match made in heaven. While she knew about the things going on in town presently, her husband knew very well about the things that happened in the past.

Soulmates, she often called them.

"And that sister of yours is a snake. Spineless man, the father you have."

"Technically, he is not my father."

"I know, I know but..." He paused before he continued. "I am Highly disappointed by Lytio and his family."

She shrugged. "Well..."

"If I could just fight all of them for you, I would."

A quick imagery of that crossed through her mind and she quickly stifled a laugh because of how ridiculous the librarian had looked in her imagination.

"The only thing I need to fight right now is being chosen."

"Oh yes, I found you a book!"

He brought out a book from his drawer and stretched it towards her. She took it from him.

The book turned out to be the same book she had found and dropped the day before yesterday.

How much things had changed from then.

"Looks like this is the only book on it."

"Sadly, it is."

She nodded, then started walking away with the book in her hand.

"I should get on reading then."

"If you need anything..."

"You've already helped me enough with this."

"You will be fine at the end of all these, child, just be strong."

"Thank you, sir."

She smiled politely, then disappeared within the shelves.

***

Every family with daughters who were eligible for the Chosing Ritual were known and it was their duty to produce a daughter for the Choosing Ritual.

If they failed to, the Dragon King's guards would usually take them away, never to be seen again.

Some said the offenders were thrown into the dungeon for daring the wrath of the Dragon king, others, as usual, said the King fed them to his dragon.

No matter what it was, the people knew that it wasn't anything good.

So for Belladonna's family not to face that kind of fate after the trick they had pulled, they prepared Belladonna for the ritual.

The ritual was tonight and since the ladies were to be at the Choosing Ground for the ritual looking beautiful in a long sleek white gown, Isa had taken it upon herself to make Belladonna look the most beautiful she would ever look in her life.

While Isa took care of everything, she kept talking about how good it would be for everyone if she became the bride.

Belladonna said nothing while she repeated the rules from the book she had read, over and over again in her head, ensuring that she wouldn't forget any.

"1. Make yourself as small as you can.

2. Do not let your voice be heard.

3. Be invisible..."

"There, done." Isa stepped back, a grimace on her face.

When Belladonna looked into the mirror, she was indeed really beautiful. Her black long curly hair had been packed and rolled into a high messy bun. Her face looked totally dolled up, she almost didn't recognize herself.

"Do you know why I made you this beautiful?"

"To be your sacrificial lamb." She replied, still looking into the mirror, watching the line where the dark complexion of her skin, met with the plain, short sleeve, gown she wore.

Isa smiled broadly, her hand tracing a line on Belladonna's arm while she locked eyes with her in the mirror.

Beneath the line she was tracing was a long healing cut that she had skillfully hid away with make up, one of the many cuts that she had designed on her daughter's skin.

It was a form of threat, a silent saying that she really had nothing to come back to.

"Yes. Now go and never come back."

***

At the ground, there were two sections. One for the families of the Possibile Potentials, with the Village Head and his family sitting at the front seat, and the other for the Possible Potential's themselves.

Isa and Jasper went to the Families' side and joined Aniya and Lytio on a long bench at the front, where they were already waiting for them.

Aniya smiled at her parents, waving her hand, that was intertwined with Lytio's, at them as they shared pleasantries. Then they settled down and looked down to where the Possible Potential's were seated.

They were twenty three maidens who were all dressed in plain white.

Belladonna joined them, making them twenty four.

As per the rules she was bent on following, she found a seat at the middle, hunched her back so that she would look small and didn't say a word while the others mumbled amongst one another.

Belladonna didn't know what to expect because this was the first time she was attending the Choosing Ritual, she had never seen the king before neither had she seen his dragon, but she had heard that the Dragon King would be bringing his dragon.

Just as he had done for every Choosing Ritual.

Her stomach twisted in knots at that, increasing her fear knowing that not only would the dreaded King be here, but he would also bring along his ferocious beast.

There was tension and fear in the air as they waited.

They would be here anytime soon.

They could sense it in the air that they were coming.

Then they heard loud marching of warriors in amours from a distance away, as their boots hit the ground in unison.

Everyone went dead silent.

Finally, the warriors arrived at the Ground, then they stopped.

Belladonna tightened her hands by her sides, holding the edge of her seat, her gaze planted to the ground.

She heard the neighing of a horse but nothing after that.

A horse? Didn't they say he would bring a dragon?

She raised her head slowly to see that it wasn't the king but a woman who was smoothly getting off the horse with the help of one of the warriors.

She was wearing an armless, long and flowing, blood red dress. It dazzled under the moonlight as it stuck carefully to her fair, slightly curvy body. It had a slit from the middle of her breast, down to the right side of her waist. Then another slit from her right mid-thigh all the way down.

She emitted power, so much power that although Belladonna was sitting far from her, she felt consumed by it.

The woman's gaze landed on the Possible Potentials section and Belladonna stiffened as she scanned them with concealed eyes.

The Village Head immediately ran towards her along with his wife, bowing lightly.

She whispered something to them and they start talking.

Now that he was close to her, Belladonna noticed that this woman was a tall one. She was taller than the village head by a few inches. Although she was wearing red heels, so she wasn't quite sure anymore.

Romina looked away from her, her eyes onto the warriors instead. She started searching through the guards for the Dragon King, so that she would know whose attention she didn't want to draw.

That was one of the most important rules she read in the book.

She searched and searched but she couldn't find him.

Just as she was about to give up and just hope that her plan tonight would work despite her first failure, she heard a distant flapping sound in the air.

It got louder and louder.

Just like many others, Belladonna looked up.

Although at first, she saw nothing because of the dark sky, soon the image got clearer and her eyes widened with surprise... and fear!

By Ignas, a dragon!

Her grip on the edges of her seat tightened as she watched the mighty beast descend.

The dragon landed some distance in front of them, its feet hitting the ground, making it shake slightly. Dust rushed up into the air, as it flapped its wide wings before closing them up to it's sides.

It rumbled lowly at that, Belladonna could almost feel the vibration.

This was the biggest beast she had ever seen in her entire life, it was even bigger than she had imagined it, adding to her fear.

The dragon had two colors, one side of it was silver and the other, red. It had spikes all over its head, down to its neck.

That was when she noticed the man that rode the dragon.

The dreaded Dragon King himself.

He jumped off the dragon, which was a long way to the ground, landing perfectly on one knee.

Then he rose to his feet, straightening up.

He was a tall muscular man with a golden iron mask over his face, he was also fully cladded in a brown leather armour, with a huge sword hug by his belt.

Belladonna gulped.

This was definitely happening.

At that moment, the woman who had arrived earlier before him, yelled.

"Bow to your King!"