Chapter 15
“I wonder what they came for.”
I looked at Nate who was spacing out. He was clearly talking about the royal family of the Ruby Kingdom. I shook my head at him and scowled. “Now that isn’t any of your business now, is it?”
He gave me a serious look. “For all we know, it could be important.”
I looked at myself in the mirror, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. It was getting late and they’re still talking. What could they be talking about? I mentally slapped myself. I really shouldn’t put my nose into other people’s business. A sudden thought came to me.
“Hey, Nate. Since that dragon of yours only went invisible to scare me, do you think they saw it? I mean, do you think the people of the Ruby Kingdom saw your dragon? I thought dragons were supposed to be secret.”
He had a thoughtful look on. “Oh yeah..you’re right.”
I stared at him with horror. “Isn’t that bad?!” I shrieked, but not loud enough for it to be heard outside.
He shrugged. “When I came to visit the dragon right before you went out, it was sleeping. For all we know, they might’ve thought it was a statue.”
“But the Queen! She might’ve explained the situation earlier!” I protested, angry that he was treating this as nothing.
This time, he had a hard look on his face. “Well, let’s just hope they wont get too suspicious.”
I was boiling in anger at how carefree he was being. I thought the dragon was something precious to him! “Nate! Do something! They might execute the dragon! Aren’t you afraid of the consequences?”
To my surprise, he didn’t steam at all by my argument. Instead, he grinned like a maniac. “That’s our princess! See! I knew you cared about our magical beings! Shows that you really do see us as family!”
I gave him a skeptical look. “How does that show I’m part of your family? I just..”
I was lost for words since I didn’t find the right word to describe the situation. Nate just grinned at this, satisfied.
“I just don’t want the dragon to get hurt!” I admitted.
“See! So you do care,” Nate stated smugly.
“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes at him. “So do something!”
“All right. All right. Relax. I have a plan. But I’m gonna need you to help me.”
“Okay, what is it then?”
“Well, dragons can shrink to a convenient size. Not only that but they can go invisible in that size. So I think you can guess why I need you.”
I looked at him as if he was crazy. “I don’t know how to shrink dragons! Are you crazy?!”
He slapped his head with his hand. “Seriously? Think about it! I need you to cover for me. I mean, the dragon can’t just disappear on its own! They’d get suspicious! So I need you to tell them you got rid of the dragon or something.”
I placed my head on my palm, getting into thought about it. Yeah. He’s right. I really need to make an excuse to let the dragon free. But what? Pretend to kill it? Pretend that it just vanished out of sight? It still has shackles on!
“All right. Leave it to me!” I assured Nate.
“Good. Go do it now. You might kick me for saying this but, the Ruby Kingdom are the people who should be the last to see our dragons.”
“How come? So, what? They’re like the enemies or something?” I joked with a grin. Though Nate had a serious look on his face, making me back up a bit.
“You can say that. Be more careful around them. I’ll meet you at the garden. Now go!”
I nodded my head in agreement and stood up to get outside. I need to find Lucille. She might know where the keys to the shackles are. But Nate’s words kept ringing in my mind: Be more careful around them. What? They can produce fire or something? I rolled my eyes at my silly guess.
I ran in the corridors, finding where Lucille could be. I went to the kitchen and found her, eating slices of apples as a snack.
“Lucille! Do you know where the keys to the shackles are?” I asked her, in a hurry.
“Shackles? Now why—”
“It’s the dragon! He has shackles on him. And he told me that it needed to go back to its family!” I mentally slapped myself. This may be the most stupid excuse but it’s worth a shot.
Lucille stared at me as if I was a mad, crazy person. She blinked and realized what I just said. “So you can speak to it?”
I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by her again. “Well, it isn’t surprising since you could even tame it! A dragon whisperer! I never thought I’d meet one!” she said in a jolly tone shaking my hands with excitement.
I took this as my chance and nodded furiously. “Yes! Ahaha. Now if you could help me find the keys—”
“Why, it’s with Danny! He has the keys. Go and find him! I think he’s at Prince Dylan’s room.”
I nodded my head and strode to Prince Dylan’s room. Huh? So Anna’s not around. I went up the stairs and went to my right to make my way to Prince Dylan’s room.
Knock Knock
“Come in,” said a young boy’s voice.
I went in and found Prince Dylan tucked in bed, awake. My eyes then landed on Danny who was sitting on a chair next to the bed, reading a book. I smiled at the scene before me. Well, it is 9pm already so this was expected.
“Ah, sorry to disturb,” I apologized politely. “But I need to borrow Danny a bit. I need to ask him something,” I smiled sweetly at Prince Dylan.
He folded his arms across his chest and pouted. “About what?”
“I..just some boring stuff.”
Prince Dylan sighed and allowed Danny to leave with me for a while. I smiled at Prince Dylan as he scowled behind Danny. Oh, so Danny’s one of his victims. We left the room and closed it with a click.
“Erin? What do you need me for?” Danny asked as we were out of earshot from Prince Dylan.
“Danny, do you still have the keys? The keys for that dragon down there?”
Danny raised his eyebrow. “What do you need them for?”
“For the dragon! You see, I’m a dragon whisperer,” I lied. “And the dragon told me it needed to go home badly for its family. It’s really urgent.”
Danny, who was completely gullible, believed this. He nodded his head as he fished for the keys in his pockets. “All right. Never knew I’d meet a dragon whisperer!”
“Oh and tell the guards about this. You’re close with them aren’t you? Please tell them that the dragon is now free, all right?”
He smiled at me. “Sure.” He had the keys in his hand and handed them to me.
“Thanks so much, Danny!”
I left him there and went on my way to the back door. I have to hurry before the royal families get out of the greenhouse.
I opened the door and saw that they were still in the greenhouse, the light now open giving a green glow from afar. I found the dragon looking at me expectantly. I did my best to smile at him but was too terrified to.
“There you are!”
I jumped from the voice behind me and found Nate pulling the invisible robe away from his body.
“Stop that!” I told him, angry.
“Hurry. We need to do this fast.”
I handed him the key. “You do it. It’s too scary.”
He scowled at me, holding the key. “Fine. Let me do all the work!” he said with strong sarcasm.
“Okay,” I grinned. He rolled his eyes at me. He went towards the dragon and unlocked each shackle, including the one on the dragon’s neck.
The dragon looked like it wanted to roar in happiness but Nate stopped him. “Shh!” Nate whispered to the dragon. The dragon nodded as if it understood. He stroke the dragon gently, as if he wanted to calm the creature. Nate tickled the dragon’s ear in a weird way, as it slowly shrunk down into a plushie’s size.
“Aww!” I droned softly. “It’s so cute in this size!”
Nate rolled his eyes at me but grinned. He grabbed the dragon and put it into his bag. I gasped at him.
“Will it be okay in there?”
“Yeah. They’re used to being treated like Chihuahuas.”
Suddenly, light flooded out from the door of the greenhouse. Someone was coming out.
“Quick! Let’s go!” Nate commanded as he took me by the arm. We went back into the castle as he struggled to wear the invisible robe.
I bumped into someone as I was about to enter my room. “Erin! So is it free now? Hope he’ll be okay. After all, animals are just like people too you know.”
My eyes landed on a concerned Lucille. “Ah! Yeah. Don’t worry. It’s safe now. Just please tell the Royal family that it went back to where it belongs. It was really whining to get out of here.”
Lucille smiled at me. “Very well. Off you go. Sleep early now. We have a long day tomorrow.”
I nodded my head. I went past her and opened the door to get into my soft bed. I heard shuffling behind me and didn’t bother looking since I know it was Nate in the invisible robe.
“Turn around,” I ordered him. I wanted to change and just sleep already.
I changed into a white night gown and pulled my ponytail out of my hair. Outside my window, I could see the Royal families coming out of the greenhouse. Someone was squeezing Prince Darren’s arm and I knew immediately who it was. I grumbled a bit at the sight.
“Hm? So now this really proves you like the second Prince of Amethyst.”
I rolled my eyes at Nate and pushed him aside. “Mind your own business!”
“You have to keep quiet. Other people are sleeping in the next rooms.”
I pouted at him a bit. I glanced a bit at the window and saw Lucille explaining something to the Queen. Must be about the dragon. I took a short glance at Prince Darren and saw Princess Laurren nuzzling her head against Prince Darren’s neck. Prince Darren didn’t do anything at all. I couldn’t see his expression since it was dark.
“I do hope you remember you’re a princess too and that you have a chance with him.”
I ignored Nate’s last comment and jumped on the bed. “That reminds me Nate. Where do you sleep?”
He grinned at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Just tell me,” I told him. “Honestly.”
He scowled at me. “That’s no fun.”
“Nate!”
“I usually sleep on that couch over there,” he pointed at the red couch on the right of my bed.
“Usually?”
“Well, sometimes I would go to the roof and just watch the night sky. I’m that romantic,” he said, wagging his eyebrows.
I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Hey..can you explain the relationship between our Kingdom and the Ruby Kingdom. I want to get a clearer image.”
He sighed as he pulled a blanket over his head in the couch.
“Roar!” roared something under Nate’s blanket.
“Getting interested in our Kingdom now, are we?” Nate grinned. “Tomorrow,” he told me.
“But I don’t even know if I’ll live tomorrow!” I shrieked dramatically.
“Goodnight, Erin.”
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Author’s note: Sorry if it was too fast. Was in a rush. I really had to deal with the dragon > < Sure hope this was okay. Next chapter might be the revealing of the past again >:D Hehe. I’ll try my best to make it..not boring. Oh and be patient for another Erin-Darren moment xD
Oh. Can you guess who's on the right? xD Blazing red eyes. Blonde hair. A girl. Who is it? xD haha. Forgive the poor drawing xD