With her coronation coming fast, Yasmin Castennes faces pressure from her parents, the King and Queen to be her best. Nothing but the best, for the sake of their image, reign and kingdom. She doesn't have the time for emotions, nightmares of her pas...
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Usually the cove was empty. I'd known this for the last three weeks as mid-October approached.
The nights were getting shorter as the days became warmer from the sun's unforgiving rays. So it was mostly just me here, allowing me to seek solace away from the growing chaos in my home from my father's unexpected appearance.
His presence unnerved my magic, making my wards that I put around my house weaken so I needed to escape that and come rest here. The cove was silent from any unnatural noises, the birds tweeting and chirping in the tall trees that stood above me.
Most of the smaller animals were in their burrows and homes, it was still early in the morning. I watched the lake and ran my eyes over the arch that used to be a cave, the running water from the river pouring into the shallows.
It was peaceful. I was used to this.
But now, here I was, in front of the princess who stood mere metres away from me. It had been three weeks since I'd last seen the princess. Three weeks and yet here we were again, in the same place at the same time.
From the last time I'd seen her, she looked tired but now, she looked exhausted.
She was smiling at her dragon however I saw the dark circles under eyes, saw the red rims that looked too familiar in my mind. She was exhausted and had just finished crying. I felt my heart tighten as I wondered what caused it but she looked in my direction again and my thoughts scattered.
I glanced away from her quickly, my eyes fixed on her dragon, a question sitting on my tongue but I was scared of over stepping. It wasn't like we were friends but I wanted to be friends with the princess.
"She's not going to harm you." The princess said, patting Irai's chest as she stood proudly next to her. "She deemed you okay the first time we met."
My eyes widened as I looked back to her, watching her shrug as she moved to sit down gracefully. Her dress billowed like air around her as she settled on the grass blades around some flowers. How did she know..?
My mind flickered back all those weeks ago and I remembered the first time I saw the princess and her dragon. Irai was skeptical at first and examined me before she moved her attention back to her princess. I always thought dragons hated other people.
"She's very beautiful." I said softly, my lips curving into a small smile when Irai herself stopped to stare at me. She gave me what I believed was the dragon version of a smile, her sharp teeth standing out. A part of me was still scared of her but she hadn't given me any indication that she was a threat.
"She says thank you." The princess chimed in, her accent thickening when she pronounced the 'th'.
"You can talk to her?" I asked, my voice laced with confusion as I glanced to Irai then back to the princess. "But she didn't say anythin- Oh."
