Dragon Prince

8

Two days after the party Roman invited Mara to go riding with him for a day. She accepted of course and as they rode she did her best to act normal and contain her new crush. Logan came too for some reason. When they stopped around noon Logan unpacked a large picnic and they sat down to eat.

Once Mara was sitting down Roman nodded at Logan. At this Logan came up behind Mara and put something over her mouth and nose. She inhaled sharply in surprise and passed out. Logan caught Mara and carefully lowered her to the ground. Then he and Roman bound and gagged her before carefully putting her on her horse and starting towards the mountain.

Mara groaned and slowly opened her eyes feeling dazed and confused 'what happened?' she thought. 'The last thing i remember was going on a picnic with Roman and Logan....'. She was lying on her back on a hard surface with a pillow under her head and a light blanket over her body. She tried to push herself into a sitting position only to discover her wrists were tied together, then she noticed that someone (probably the same person who had tied her up) had gaged her in such a way that she could not open her mouth at all. After some struggling she finally managed to get into a sitting position and examined her surroundings. She had been lying on a blanket on the floor of a large cave that was bare except for a battered writing desk, the remains of a fire, a bundle of what was probably food from the smell and one wall that was covered in scratches. 

Her stomach growled 'how long had it been since she had been knocked out?' it had been around noon when they had begun the picnic but Mara hadn't had the chance to eat before being knocked out. She struggled to her feet and walked to the entrance of the cave only now noticing two men dressed in full black wearing masks and holding spears. When she stopped in front of them they crossed their spears over the entrance in a clear signal, she was not aloud to leave the cave. Mara nodded at them sighing and squinted at the sky, the sun was setting already! It was about to touch the horizon. She stood there a moment wondering what was the heck happening and what she should do next but then her stomach grumbled loudly. The two men looked at each other then one nodded at the other one who put down his spear and went outside only to return a moment later carrying an armful of wood. He set about restarting the fire before turning to Mara and pointing to the ground next to it. She took this as a sign to sit and did, the man walked up behind her and knelt to take off the gag but not before giving her a scathing look that said 'don't even think of trying anything on me'. Once the gag was off Mara turned to the man opening her mouth to ask what was going on, but he just shook his head with another scathing glare. He then went over to the bundle that smelled so good producing food from it and giving it to her. She ate ravenously not caring that she was being very unproper and getting crumbs everywhere. When she was done the man gave her a full water skin from which she drank greedily, not having realized how thirsty she was. Done with that she looked around again and saw a hole at the back of the cave that she had not noticed before, this entrance to was guarded by a man all in black with a spear. Next she went to the desk to see if she could find anything their but it had been cleared of whatever contents had once occupied it. 

Mara sighed there was obviously nothing she could do now but wait for something to happen and she was willing to bet her finest jewels that if she made any attempt to speak the men standing guard would put the gag back on. So she gathered up the blankets and went to sit by the fire. Not long after just as the sun was about to disappear over the horizon when an all to familiar dragon landed in the entrance of the cave. Mara got to her feet not noticing the guards walk to the back of the cave. She would never forget the day she had cursed her brother or the look in his eyes as he clumsily flew for the first time, running from the soldiers trying to kill him. 

The dragon who was her brother stood there for a moment looking at her with a strange expression in his eyes. She looked at him definitely, unwilling to submit to whatever might happen next. He came right up to her as she held her breath, but to her surprise he did not attack, instead cutting the rope tying on her wrists with a claw. Then after a moment the dragons image began to waver and break up, Mara remembered that part of the curse she had cast was that the afflicted person would return to their original form at night. She stood there trembling slightly, doing her best to not be afraid and trying to prepare herself for whatever Virgil might throw at her as he pushed back his hood. 

He suddenly hugged her tightly. She squeaked and stiffened in surprise, this was the complete opposite of the greeting she had expected. When Virgil finally let go Mara looked up at him (she always forgot he was slightly taller than her) searching his eyes, what for she wasn't sure. Then he said "We need to talk". This was the last straw. She was unwilling to admit it, but she had missed him so much it sometimes hurt, and to hear him say that so casually as if she had just played a prank on him and not done something that threw everything into chaos and caused everyone so much pain, it was just to much. She threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest sobbing. "I missed you too" he said which both startled her and made her cry harder. After Mara had calmed down some and let go of Virgil, they sat down next to the fire to talk. She started off with "why do you not hate after what I did to you?". He laughed which made her do a double take and said "Mara, you're my big sister, I could never hate you"

She stared at him, "But-but, I turned you into a dragon and told everyone you were dead."

"Even so and given all the time I've had to think I think I know why you did it"

She huffed and looked away, he knew her too well. "Well then why did I do it?"

"You did it because you want to rule when father dies but he has insisted on giving that birthright to me even though I'm younger"

She sighed and looked down before saying yes, she had never been able to hide anything from her little brother

He smiled, "You know I wish you had just talked to me"

She looked up at him, startled.

"I don't want to be king and I never have" he explained "if you had just talked to me we could have worked something out and avoided this whole mess"

Mara looked down with a quiet "oh", she had never thought about what his opinion was or taken into account that he might not want to be king one day, she had been too busy being jealous and scheming to see something so obvious. She felt like a complete moron.

After a minute of silence Virgil called "you guys can come out now." over her shoulder.

Mara jumped and looked around, she had forgotten about the guards. Out from the opening at the back of the cave came Patton who glared, Roman who smiled, and Logan, who didn't have any particular expression on his face. The five people gathered around the fire to talk.

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Feel free to comment on my terrible grammar because I know I always forget to write with commas.