The Soft-Hearted Prince and His Dragon, Chapter 4

Synopsis

Everything went so well between the prince and the dragon so far. This week, reality catches up with them when knights arrive to shoot their shot at acquiring the dragon’s magic.

Story on Wattpad.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Chapter 5 comes out August 6, 2022.

4 - Sen

It was about a week after Galen had arrived at the cavern. He was sitting on his bed, immersed in a book about potion-making. His face shifted between surprised and doubtful, depending on what information he read at the moment. The man was an open book. I was dozing off, only occasionally opening my eyes to take an inconspicuous look at him.

That was when I heard it. Please, not now. I could feel my whole body tense up as I listened. Did I only imagine it? There was nothing besides the usual sounds of fire and waterfall and the wind buzzing on higher floors inside the mountain. I glanced at Galen and realized he was staring at me, frowning.

“What’s—” he started, but I hushed him. No, I didn’t imagine it.

“Someone’s coming to the cave,” I explained. “Stay here.” I set off to the tunnel leading outside. After a few steps, I turned around. Galen was right there, behind me. “Galen!” I wanted to curse.

“I’m coming with you,” he said with a defiant look. “Maybe I can help.”

I had to admire him. He was no fighter, and his face had fear written all over it, but he was still there. I knew him so briefly, but I already learned that there’s not much arguing with him when he sets his mind to something.

I sighed. “Fine,” I said as I continued through the tunnel. “But you stay in the cave so that no one sees you. You can cast your spells from there, if necessary. If anyone sees you, you can no longer go to the village for supplies.”

“Sounds reasonable,” came the answer from behind me.

“Bloody reasonable,” I muttered. I didn’t like that he was coming with me. During my seven years here, I got used to having regular… visits. I was rarely truly scared because I could handle the fights. But now I will have to worry that something will go wrong with Galen, that people will see him. I didn’t want to imagine how they might react.

The memory of the first day Galen came here flashed through my mind. The men got me by surprise. There were more of them than usual, and I wasn’t on my guard. Thank gods Galen was there. Although, to be fair, his soft talk and his hair glistening with gold were why I wasn’t on my guard in the first place.

When we reached the end of the tunnel, I slowed down. I still had a slight hope that the people outside weren’t fighters. Some of the visitors were people driven by curiosity or sensation hunters. I usually tried to talk to them first, as I had done with Galen. One glance outside smashed my hope into crumbles. I saw four men standing at the clearing edge, about 100 meters from the cave entrance. They were in full armor. Many of those coming here had cheap replicas of swords, but these were clearly the real deal. These men were no ordinary subjects, no sons of upstart townsmen wanting to try their luck.

The knights stood without a movement, and I had to admit they looked scary. I wished one of them would scratch an itching nose so that I’d know they are even human.

The air was full of tension. The weather only highlighted the brooding atmosphere with heavy clouds and rising wind. I wanted to tell Galen to turn around and return to the cave. To tell him about the boat hidden behind the bend of the river. In case things went wrong, he could use it to escape. Why was I so reckless and didn’t tell him before? I didn’t dare to do it now, though. I didn’t want the echo to let the warriors know someone was with me.

Galen put his hand on my neck. His eyes were full of worry.

“Be careful,” he mouthed. Thank gods he got the echo thing. I nodded and took a few steps out so the men could see me.

“In the name of king Carol,” one bellowed, raising his sword in the air. Trumpets rang out from the forest. The knights didn’t waste a second of their time and ran towards me.

I let out the fire. It was not very clever of them to be so close to each other since I could hit them all at once. They managed to dodge it, though. They were obviously trained in combat and in the prime of their strength. Their only problem was they honored tradition. Why are people so dumb and go fight a dragon wearing metal armor? I never understood it. If they helped their wives with cooking every now and then, they’d know what happens when metal meets fire. That thought made me more confident. They are big and scary, but they are not smart.

I inhaled and let another fire column out. One of the men wasn’t quick enough, and it hit him hard. I pushed myself to prolong his fire exposure as much as possible. I stopped when I heard him shrieking. My heart clenched, but before I had any time to think more, I realized another one had reached my side already. I whirled around and hit him with my tail. His body flew halfway across the clearing, crumpling to the ground.

The other two were circling around me. Why haven’t they attacked already? Why would they wait? It didn’t make sense. One of them raised his sword in the air. I started to inhale.

“Shoot!” he yelled.

I raised my head in surprise. As I realized my mistake, an arrow hit my right side. They had archers set up in the trees at the edge of the forest. I could see only one, but I was sure there must be more. I sent my fire in the archer’s directions and roared in anger. The two men still standing ran towards me. I managed to send one flying across the clearing. I could feel the blade of the other one hitting my skin. It slid down my scales, though, and didn’t hurt me. I turned around and took him in my mouth, my sharp teeth piercing through his armor as if it was paper. I tossed him away and looked around.

Two of the knights still managed to stand up, and now they were again circling around me. I swung my tail against the one behind me, but he managed to duck. I struck again and, at the same time, felt a piercing pain in my side. The other knight managed to get close enough to strike. His sword didn’t go deep, but the wound still burned. I sent fire in his direction and managed to hit him. Since he was standing so close, the impact pushed him a few meters away. With another swing of my tail, I hit the last one and sent him flying as well.

My head was in a state of tensed confusion. I expected a forest of arrows to come any moment, but nothing happened. All four warriors were lying on the ground, groaning. One of them, the first one I hit with my fire, wasn’t moving. The edge of the forest where the archer was was on fire. I swore under my breath. I always tried not to hit the trees because I didn’t want to burn them down.

A few people ran out of the fire. Of course, the warriors didn’t come on their own. They never did. Someone had to play the trumpet. And take care of the fighters lying on the ground with broken bones and open wounds after the battle. One of the servants was carrying a white flag—a sign of surrender. At least in this, the tradition was good. I knew these men wouldn’t turn around and attack me even if they still could. That would be considered lowly, not worthy of a man, even against a dragon.

I watched the young men lifting up the wounded warriors and carrying them to the forest, away from the fire. I could see there was more movement behind the trees. Some people must have been running the other way, towards the village.

A drop fell on my head. The rain was starting. Hopefully, the forest fire won’t reach too far.

The wind was howling all around now, and I felt like it also found a way to my heart. Victories have never felt particularly good, but it was even worse this time. What would Galen think? Will he understand that I was just protecting myself? Or see me as a monster that bakes people in their armor—the monster deep inside me I was afraid I was? I watched the whole forlorn scene for a little longer and then turned around and returned to the cave.

My heart almost stopped when I found Galen collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. His face was all white, like the day we met after he used too much magic. Has he used magic now? I didn’t even notice. Or was he so afraid? He still managed to smile at me when our eyes met. I felt a surge of relief. Without a word, I helped him get on his feet. He started out through the tunnel back to the cavern, but I nudged him back and gestured that he should climb up on my back. I could see him hesitating, but then he did it.

Only once we were back in the cavern, we dared talk.

“Are you okay?” Galen asked immediately, his voice weak and trembling. Of course, that would be his first question, even though he was the one barely standing. He slid off my back and started to walk around me in search of injuries.

“I’m fine, Galen,” I answered. “But what happened to you?”

“You’re bleeding,” he ignored my question.

“It’s gonna be—”

“And here, too.”

That surprised me. I only noticed getting the sword wound, so I looked around to see what he was talking about. There was a tip of an arrow sticking out of my side. The outer part chipped off. The wound bled. I could take care of the injury in a moment, but I needed to stop Galen from being a damn nurse and take care of himself first.

“You,” I said, stressing the word, “are going here.” I pushed him towards his bed. He didn’t seem keen but didn’t put up a fight either and crumpled on the blankets. “Now. Tell me what happened.”

Galen sighed as if he was about to complain about my stubbornness but answered. “There were archers in the trees,” he said, pulling his rolled sleeves down and drawing a blanket over his back. I could see he was trembling.

“How many?” I asked while making him get up again and dragging the bed closer to the fire.

“About 10 of them,” he said, reaching his hands towards the flames.

Things were finally starting to make sense. “You took them down?”

“I raised their heartbeats to the point they blacked out, falling down from the trees. I missed one, though. I’m sorry.”

I gasped. “You took down 10 men by altering their heartbeat? That must have taken so much magic!” No wonder he was in such bad shape. I wanted to be upset with him for not being more careful. Again. But I couldn’t make myself.

“You stupid, lovely fool,” I mumbled. Galen looked at me with surprise.

“You’re not angry?”

“Angry? No. Afraid for you? Yes. You need to learn to take care of yourself better. You can’t push yourself that far…” I stopped. We can talk about that later. “Thank you. I could’ve been hurt more if it wasn’t for your help,” I admitted. Generally, the fight wasn’t as tricky, and I had no doubt I’d handle it either way. But what I said was true—given the number of archers, it could’ve hurt much more.

Galen insisted on helping me take the chip of an arrow out and wash both wounds. Then he crawled back under his blankets and fell asleep in an instant. I stayed beside him, not moving an inch, watching his breath change from shallow to deep.

This repeated approximately every other week for the next two months afterward. Warriors came to the cave, shouting for me to come out and fight them. And I did, as always—this time around, to protect both of us.

Galen was staying in the shadows of the entrance, sending out spells, helping me. He was getting creative with them and was also learning to be more careful not to drain himself completely.

Despite becoming more mighty with his magic, all the fighting and violence gave Galen nightmares. His scream ricocheting off the walls of the cavern woke me up one night. I stood up, crossed the space, and laid down next to him, arching my head towards him.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” I mumbled. I felt horrible because I knew I was the cause of his nightmares. He was a soft man, not built to live with danger always lurking behind the corner.

I watched him reach out and touch my snout. He didn’t say anything, holding my gaze for a while. Then the deep brownness of his eyes disappeared behind the lids in drowsiness again. Soon, I heard his breath slowing and getting deeper once more.

A memory crossed my mind. I remembered the first morning when I had watched Galen wake up. His gaze was soft, and his face had a little smile on it. Never before had I realized how much intimacy there was in watching someone wake up. Those first few moments, before they start to think—it was like seeing them without any mask, seeing the real person behind it all. I was sure it must be a special kind of magic Mother Nature plays on us. I thought about how it was impossible not to fall in love with someone you saw waking up next to you.

The next night after Galen’s nightmare, I laid down to sleep in my corner of the cave, but Galen pulled his bed next to me. He didn’t say a word, as seemed to be his wont. I wondered if sleeping next to a dragon felt safer or if he felt the same pull towards me that I felt towards him. As he was falling asleep, he reached out to touch my skin again. His hand felt small against my neck, and it was radiating warmth. My heart was breaking in thousand little ways. As much as I would sell my soul to have him sleep next to me forever, I knew things could never work for us. He deserved better than living in a cave with a confused dragon incessantly fighting for his life.

Click here for chapter 5.