To Love A Dragon (BOYxBOY) *SLOWLY UPDATING*

Chapter 15

The kingdom, it seemed, was rich. At the farthest edges of its reach, Kyriakos flew low, dipping over valleys and hills, scaring herds of cow and sheep that were thick and fat with the sustenance of spring. Further than that, were crops as far as the eye could see, bursting with life. Golden fields of corn, brilliantly colored acres of grape vines for wine and the sound of the sea crashing in the distance. It truly was a beautiful kingdom. But at the forefront of the dragon’s mind was Alex.

He nearly lost him a night and a half ago. The thought made the great dragon shudder, wings beating faster in order to get him to his goal.

The winds were rough, and at one point he had to take cover from a storm, but his wings had held out throughout the night and morning. They always had. He could trust them. He felt relieved to leave the cave to the one elf he knew better than any other of her kind. Hasasha; a woman who cared for Alex almost as much as he himself did. She was strong but had victimized herself after years of never being good enough for the man she loved. That sentiment was enough to make him want to kill Istas twice over. He wasn’t dumb, or blind, or deaf. He had heard whisperings and watched her eyes trail after Istas every time he walked into a room. For this he had been suspicious of her, at first, but now he was having second thoughts.

The dragon continued flying, startling slightly when he heard a weak moan from his back and a hoarse, deathly sounding cough. He almost completely stopped flying for a moment, fearing the prince would wake up. Should he wake up, he would surely feel the hurt of his wounds and cry out. The last thing Kyriakos wanted was the prince fighting against the bindings holding him to the only thing keeping him in the air.

The great dragon glided on an updraft to lessen the movement of his wings, praying to the gods that the prince would fall back into unconsciousness. The prince shifted a few times, and then silenced. With newly awakened haste the dragon dove and then used the momentum to propel him over the valleys. His keen eyes sought out denser populations in the distance. The closer he got the more aware he became of the screams. Fires were lit and bells were rung signaling the approach of either an army or something just as equally destructive and dangerous; in this case, a dragon.

A swift wing beat and the townspeople were already behind him. He set his sights on the towering palace in the middle of the thriving city. Archers were already crowding the terraces of the towering walls with bows and a volley of arrows already notched. The moment he heard the twang of a hundred arrows released, he blew fire at them. Arrows disintegrated in the heat and the Archers had to take cover behind stone to keep from being burnt alive.

Kyriakos was irritated. No, he was enraged. To think they would suspect him capable of being killed by tiny wooden projectiles? With an angry flap of his wings he circled the tower and decimated the rest of the arching turrets, scorching the stone with a quick bite of flame. The archers had long since fled inside, too fearful of being incinerated to fight for their kingdom.

With a somewhat contented grunt he dove again before snapping his wings open, catching himself on a lower gale. Palace guards sent spears flying from the ground but they simply deflected from his underbelly. They were too dull to pierce his scales. Obviously this kingdom hadn’t seen war in quite a long time.

He ignored the lesser soldiers, flying over the royal court yard before landing inelegantly before the palace steps. A great roar alerted whoever didn’t already know to his arrival. His bundle shifted on his back as he shook his wings out, tucking them in safely to his sides. Soldiers surrounded him with spears, and to protect Alex he blew flame at them, scattering them away from his defenseless prince. As he did so, his tail idly destroyed an ancient statue of some dead king, or whoever.

“Send out your queen!” Kyriakos roared, wings held out to make himself look larger and more imposing, although that was not needed. Soldiers quailed at the sight of him as his nostrils smoldered with fire. They fled at the following snarl, a blast of heat sending one mount hurtling back to the stables with his rider dragged behind it.