Dragon Prince

Chapter 1: All Aboard The Ocean's Doom

“Na’matoreh!” A male voice greeted.

“Excuse me?” Isaac asked the owner of the voice.

“It means ‘welcome’. Oh, you must be the prince of Isalgia,” a curly-haired young man with olive skin said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.  

“Yes,” Isaac answered. “Where is the rest of the crew?”

“Still getting a few supplies before we set sail.” The young man grinned and as though just remembering he was in the presence of royalty, he bowed awkwardly. “Uh, I’ll show you and your companions to your living quarters. Oh, I’m Artemesio by the way – the quarter master. But you can call me Arty.”

“Isaac,” the prince gave him a nod of confirmation and he and his knights were given a brief tour of the ship before returning to the deck.

“This ship’s amazing,” Aurora mused, gripping onto the railing and looking out to the ocean. When she looked down, she instantly felt dizzy. It was a long way and the fact that she couldn’t swim didn’t help ease her nerves.

“Calm down, Aurora,” Raine laughed, slinging her arm around her red-headed friend. “We haven’t even set sail yet. Besides, that Arty guy is kinda cute.”

“Hard to believe you’d say that after setting your eyes on Neil,” Aurora chuckled. “Bored of him already?”

A feint blush spread over Raine’s cheeks. “You now as well as I do that that’s not possible. I know you’re in love with Jon but even you can’t deny how insanely good-looking he is.”

“I heard ‘insanely good-looking’ and I know you ladies are talking about me,” Neil said as he sauntered over to them, an arrogant smirk plastered onto his features.

“No we weren’t,” Raine blurted.

“Yeah,” Aurora agreed. “We were talking about… Derek,”

Aurora mentally winced at bringing out Raine’s arch nemesis. But then, Neil didn’t know that.

“That jerk who flashed his abs to the entire crowd at the tournament?” Neil seethed. “He pretty much gained more feminine attention than me after that little display of his – why are you even thinking about him when I’m right here?”

“You’re right,” Raine agreed. “I don’t even want to think about him. Let’s talk about someone even better like Artemesio. Isn’t his name just so swoon-worthy?”

Aurora tried not to laugh at Raine’s exaggerated dreamy sigh.

“You can’t seriously be comparing me to him?” Neil narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. “He’s as ordinary looking as Jon,”

“Hey,”

“Come on, Aurora, you know it’s true.” Neil said, his eyes grew wide as realisation dawned on him. “I see what you’re doing.” He chuckled then turned to Raine. “You’re trying to get me jealous. Well it won’t work ‘cause we’re gonna be stuck on this ship for a long time. Long enough to win you over.” With that, he winked and walked away.

“Oh, you’re so doomed,” Aurora smiled at her friend’s terrified expression.

“I can’t fall for him,” she hissed. “That would mean acting all girly and stuff. Next thing you know I’ll be wearing dresses and covering my face with a fan and going ‘tee hee’ like my cousin. I can’t allow that to happen.”

Raine hadn’t realised she’d been shaking Aurora’s shoulders until she had finished talking.

“Come on, so you blushed a little bit. That doesn’t mean you’ll end up being… like that.”