Nusantara: Taming a Dragon ✔

The Yearly Hunt

So, darlings, I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter (fufufu~). For now we're getting back to the regular life on the island, and delving a bit deeper into Komodo customs and traditions in the following chapters. Of course, I discussed all my ideas with SweetChiel first of all, to get her approval of expanding on her creation. So I hope you'll all enjoy what's to come, because we don't actually have that much left until the end.

But for now I'll stop ranting and just let you guys enjoy the chapter and the first weekend of spring. Have fun, lovelies~ ( ˘ ³˘)❤

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~ The next morning ~

The moment Aleera stepped out into the early morning sunlight, she found herself smothered in a mixture of warm flesh, flower-scented silk and soft feathers when Asih fell upon her.

"Thank the Goddess!" she sobbed into the redhead's shoulder. "Yuda and Mitra told us what happened..."

"Calm down, she's alive isn't she?" Tamara sighed.

Though Aleera couldn't see her with Asih all in her face, she could easily hear the relief in the other girl's tone. Almost immediately she recognized Yuda's snort and sure enough his voice followed.

"The girl touched by the gods..." he huffed. "Most of us have had dealings with gods; why is she anything special?"

"Well, most of us were not brought back to life by the gods." Mitra chuckled.

"It's still a stupid thing to name her..."

With Asih compelled to release her so that she could pinch her husband's arm, the redhead could finally take in the sight of all her friends. Mitra looked like he had seen better days, but the greatest shock had to be the half missing from one of Yuda's wings.

"Don't worry..." Granny Sukma whispered next to her, startling the girl out of her skin. "He's fine; the bone will heal and the feathers will grow back."

Feeling a sudden knot in her throat, Aleera turned to walk toward the large clearing at the edge of the village.

"Don't..." Reksa said gently, taking hold of her wrist.

"I want to see." she protested, staring at him with a hard gaze he had yet to see before in her, despite the tears threatening to spill.

Taking her hand back when his grasp loosened, she walked along the main road ignoring all the stares and whispers along the way. The sight, however, left her rooted to the spot like a breathing statue. One half of the clearing was lined up with the injured, while on the other a handful of more fortunate Komodos and Avians were digging graves for the piles of dead soldiers.

"It's not your fault..." she heard Reksa whisper in her ear, as his hand weighed on her shoulder.

His words only served to break the dam, letting the tears trail along her cheeks as she sighed a quivering breath. Giving her a moment to soak it in, as she had wanted, the young prince then cupped her face and gently but firmly turned her toward him.

"Look at me... Aleera, look at me." he insisted, until she set her horrified stare upon him. "None of this is your fault. None of it!"

Kissing her forehead, he turned her to once more face the clearing and wrapped her in his arms from behind, his breath warming her ear when he spoke again.

"You see those dead warriors? If it weren't for you, we would be there with them – Tamara... Mitra... Chief Sukma... my father... me. Everyone would be dead: those men digging the graves, those women tending to the wounded, those children playing in the dirt, those two elders talking by that hut. Everyone  would be dead, if you hadn't saved us! You can cry for them, if you wish... Goddess knows you have a kind enough heart for that. But don't burden yourself with the weight of their deaths, not even for one moment."