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Chapter 37
Last Updated:
2022-05-05 23:59:48
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My little Dragon Queen Chapter 38
It takes an hour for that jittery, anxious sensation to subside; for Alcina to stop feeling like she's going to crawl out of her very skin.Brendan sits with her the entire time, the two of them hunched over like two commas on the floor, side by side, Brendan's hand a grounding touch on Alcina's neck.This foreign, out-of-body sensation that's taken over makes Alcina's blood pound to an alien rhythm, making her yearn for something she doesn't understand.Each time Alcina feels the panic swell again, she focuses instead on the cadence of Brendan's breathing, the firm weight of his thumb against her own pulse. Nearly an hour later, Alcina finally, finally feels herself coming down from the strange high.And as she relaxes, as she feels the tension bleed from her spine and her knuckles loosen from the white-gripped grasp they have around her own robe, the dragons, too, relax, uncoiling loosely from her arms. Until, eventually, they move from where they're curled tightly in her lap to t
Last Updated : 2022-05-07My little Dragon Queen Chapter 39
It takes a long time for Alcina to manage to stop shivering, trembling like a leaf in Brendan’s arms.It helps that Brendan hasn’t stopped the soothing, sweeping strokes up and down her back, with one hand intertwined tightly in Alcina’s.It’s like this that the idea of Brendan and safety become slowly - inextricably - intertwined for Alcina.When she dares a glance up, peeking out from where she’s nestled against Brendan’s neck, Alcina sees the two small dragons staring back at her with unblinking, bright eyes.Alcina’s hand trembles again in Brendan’s hold. “Brendan,” she whispers. Brendan hums, low and calming. Enough that Alcina manages to swallow and part her lips to continue. “Are those- are they what I think they are?”Dragons.Brendan pauses, and Alcina senses that he, too, is glancing over at the two creatures curled up quietly in front of them.“Well,” he says slowly. “That would depend on what you think they are.”Alcina inhales.Holds her breath. Counts to three before re
Last Updated : 2022-05-10My little Dragon Queen Chapter 40
As it turns out, Brendan was right.The two of them watch as the little dragons feed - a bit viciously and mildly reminiscent frighteningly- on the raw slabs of red meat Brendan had discreetly acquired from the kitchens.There isn’t really a way to explain why both Alcina and he would suddenly require raw, uncooked steaks to be sent to their rooms, so Brendan had had no choice but to slip in through the shadows like a common thief.Brendan watches, halfway torn between disturbed and intrigued, as the little dragons consume nearly their own weight in raw steaks.When Brendan glances upwards, Alcina still has that eerie, transfixed light in her eyes, the one that comes and goes as she seems to snap in and out of awareness of it, herself.As if she’s pulled in, by some otherworldly force of attraction, to the two creatures.Brendan glances now at the still-open chest, where he finds the shattered remnants of what he’d thought to be two gems - but had, apparently, been dragon eggs.Or wha
Last Updated : 2022-05-13My little Dragon Queen Chapter 41
In all the lore on dragons Brendan's ever read, there has never been a trace of anything to suggest that dragons in any way communicated, let alone bonded, with humans.Brendan has read more than the average person, given that books had been his solitary escape from most of the world all his life – but this is all too surreal.There has never been a recorded instance of a human coming into contact with a dragon and having cited any sort of comprehensible interaction. Speculations, perhaps, on their behavior, but nothing to suggest that dragons would ever deign to interact with humans on any substantive level, beyond hunter and hunted. Both ways.Brendan briefly contemplates the idea that dragons - like other small, baby animals - have some sort of animalistic imprint nature ingrained in their biology.He contemplates that Alcina, being the first thing they'd seen, had been their idea of their mother.But even that seems dubious and unsatisfactory to explain the way the dragon's circ
Last Updated : 2022-05-14My little Dragon Queen Chapter 42
That night, Alcina returns to Brendan's (their, her traitorous mind has already begun to call it) bed, the two dragons stubbornly affixed to each of her shoulders.Brendan thinks he ought to voice his doubtfulness when he catches the anxious, yearning light in Alcina's eyes. Then, all Brendan does is hand Alcina her silken sleeping eye mask from the nightstand.The tremulous smile Alcina grants him makes Brendan suppose that if he is burnt into a crisp in the middle of the night, well.There are worse ways to go.Thankfully, he is not burnt to a crisp in his sleep.When he wakes, he finds Alcina curled into his chest as usual. The two mini-hearths are curled against Alcina's back, their ridged spines brushing Brendan's arm and transferring a near-burning heat.When Alcina wakes next, eyes sleepy and still, instinctively seeking out first the dragons and then Brendan, Brendan grants her a soft kiss and a smile.* * * * * * * * * *Of course, as with all things in life: just as Alcina b
Last Updated : 2022-05-17My little Dragon Queen Chapter 43
When Alcina wakes up, the fire is gone, leaving behind an ice-cold chill that makes her shiver as if it’s frozen her body inside out.First, she registers the light weight of the two dragons pressed against her head atop her pillow.And then, the hand still wrapped loosely in both of hers.She opens her eyes, right into Brendan’s gaze, staring right back at her.Brendan’s hand sweeps her hair out of her eyes, caressing her skin as he goes, and Alcina shivers.Alcina shifts close, curling inwards around Brendan’s hand, held in hers. She closes her eyes, afraid to open them again.She can still see the gruesome remains of the two men splayed across the bedroom floor. Hadn’t had the courage to open her eyes again to see the third corpse. Instead, she clenched her eyes shut and trembled her way into unconsciousness.“You can open your eyes now,” Brendan murmurs.“You don’t have to be afraid.” You don’t have to see. “Just close your eyes, darling.”Alcina’s lip trembles.She’s afraid.And
Last Updated : 2022-05-18My little Dragon Queen Chapter 44
In all of the excitement of receiving the envoys from House Arison, the dragons, and the attempt on her life - Alcina hadn't noticed the time passing. It isn't until she notices the household staff bustling with a renewed vigor that she realizes just how much time has passed. Mary laughs as she works on Alcina's hair. Orion and Perseus are safely hidden away in Brendan's room, who is now marginally better at being separated from Alcina for small increments of time. "My lady," she exclaims. "What do you mean, what is going on! Your brother is arriving today." Alcina stills. Her eyes widen almost comically in the mirror's reflection, and Mary laughs harder. "My lady!" she repeats. Alcina spins around, disrupting Mary's work on her hair. "Mary," she says urgently. "Today? Are you certain- has it truly already been-?" Mary beams at her. "Yes, my lady. Everyone is quite excited - we have never entertained envoys from the esteemed House Clair before!" The esteemed House Clair. But
Last Updated : 2022-05-21My little Dragon Queen Chapter 45
Lunch is a stilted, awkward affair.Alcina doesn't quite understand the edge in her brothers' smiles. Perfect, undoubtedly, to anyone who views it, who isn't intimately familiar with all the outlines of their features and expressions.Nordin, in particular, is an adept master at fooling the masses into falling in love with his beautiful smile, all while cursing the recipient to the hottest depths of hell in his mind.But Alcina is their sister.Alcina knows, like the back of her own hand, the entire range of expressions and masks her two brothers are capable of putting up.And so, despite the fact that Alfred is conversing calmly and elegantly with Alpha Warner as usual; despite the fact that Nordin's utterly charming personality has already won the swooning love of both the Alpha and the entirety of the household staff; Alcina can sense that something isn't quite right.There's a hint of steel in Nordin's gaze that doesn't melt away, no matter how much he laughs (or pretends to).The
Last Updated : 2022-05-22
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My little Dragon Queen Chapter 96
When Alcina manages to trudge her way to her room in the palace, she has hardly made it past the doorway when Brandon is instantly at her side.Brandon grips her by the shoulders, expression blank but eyes almost frantic in the way they run over her frame from head to toe, as though cataloging any possible injuries. And then, at last, Brandon lifts a hand to rest gently along Alcina’s cheek.Alcina shudders and sinks into it, sighing. “I half feared the Duchess may have buried you somewhere in the courtyard, and I would have to go digging for my wife,” Brandon drawls, teasing and insouciant but with genuine worry in his eyes when Alcina peers up at him.Alcina manages to muster a scowl, though she loses the energy for it right after.Drained, Alcina allows Brandon to help her change into her silken pajamas and guide her right to bed, where Alcina sinks gratefully into the pillows. “I really ought to shower,” Alcina murmurs uselessly, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “I’m quite disgust
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 95
The courtyard is a ruined wasteland.Everywhere the eye can see, the ground is shattered into nothing more than rubble, uneven and dusty and jagged with uneven footing.But there is one woman who maintains perfect balance, even as the ground shakes violently underneath her precarious red heels: the Duchess, hair flawlessly coifed with not a single strand out of place, even four hours into their training session.She lifts her chin, and a massive, tapered boulder, narrowed to a lethal point, separates itself from the ground.And then, it goes shooting forward, soaring through the air to hurtle towards the two figures hovering in the sky. Alcina sees it coming and grits her teeth as Orion dives sideways in a spinning tumble to avoid it.The Duchess straightens up.All of a sudden, the ground falls still.The silence that follows feels oddly deafening in Alcina’s ringing ears, after hours of its cacophonous din. She, too, straightens up, peering down at her mother in confusion. The Duc
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 94
“Survive.”It is all the warning Alcina gets before the ground erupts.That is the only word that can be used to describe the way the earth shifts and jagged little spears come hurtling upwards, all around her, tall enough to pierce Orion’s underbelly should she be standing over one.With an enraged shriek, Orion hurries to take to the air, and Alcina has to scramble to hold on as she frantically takes off.When she is airborne, and Orion has steadied herself with measured, powerful flaps of her great wings, the ground finally stops shaking.Again, she finds her mother standing effortlessly even amid the ruins she had created. “You were lucky, before.” When Alcina had recklessly charged into Elton’s stronghold alone, with nothing but an untrained dragon and a flimsy sword. “The soldiers then had been wholly unprepared for the sight of a dragon, and had been too stricken to react.”She lifts her hand once more. “But you will not be so lucky the next time. And you must be prepared, to f
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 93
Somewhere far, far below the grounds of the Western Plains, is an elaborate passageway of holding cells, built of heavy metal bars and lit only by the sparse torches.The dungeons, though no one quite likes to use the word.The dungeons have long been empty for years, having only been used once in recent times. And only briefly, too, given that the inhabitant had been quickly disposed of, once all the information had been extracted from his mind with Lord Alfred’s Gift.Today, the unused torches in the dungeons have been lit once more, for a new guest.It is a young woman, hardly older than twenty, her features lovely and delicate in violent contrast to the grimy holding cell she has been chained to. Everything about her seems like a sacrilege, here, in the dank walls of a dirty underground prison; as though she is something that does not belong in a place so dirty and murky.Even the color of her hair - pale pink locks, vibrant even in the darkness of the cell - stands at odds with t
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 92
Alcina watches wordlessly as the Gifted medic heals Brendan’s palm. She stares intently at the white glow emanating from the woman’s hand, as she hovers it over Brendan’s burned palm. Slowly, the reddish hue of the burn recedes, until Brendan’s palm has returned to its normal state.Alcina wishes she could have been born with a Gift like hers, something that would allow her to chase away the bruises and ailments and scars on Brendan’s skin; not something that would hurt him. Human nature, she realizes, is greedy beyond all belief. How many years had she yearned for a Gift, any Gift, she remembers wishing desperately in these very halls? And now that she has been graced with one, she yearns for something more, still.With a respectful bow, the healer excuses herself, leaving just the two of them in the otherwise empty room. Alcina doesn’t move from her perch, sitting ramrod straight in her chair. Stares at Brendan’s hand, every fiber of her being longing to reach out for it so that
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 91
Alcina sips dutifully at the glass of water Brendan had forced upon her, eyes doleful as she peeks up at him from underneath her lashes.Brendan stands over her, arms crossed, not unlike an ominous guard watching with keen eyes as if to ensure Alcina truly is drinking the water. They had hardly made it to the closest parlor room from the courtyard entrance when Brendan had promptly sat her down on a chair and ordered a terrified attendant to fetch a pitcher of water.Alcina sips obediently at her second glass now, shoulders slumped both in exhaustion and misery as she glances up at Brendan through her drenched bangs.“Why do you look as though someone has slaughtered your childhood pet?” Brendan demands.Alcina recognizes the terseness of Brendan’s awkward attempts at caring for someone, but cannot help the slight grimace all the same. “You were watching, weren’t you?” she says sullenly, mouthing at the rim of her cup. “I was terrible-”“You were not terrible,” Brendan begins to say,
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 90
Two hours in and Alcina is already exhausted.It is midday, now, and the sun beats harshly down on her back, thoroughly drenched with sweat. The wind whipping at her face and limbs from Orion’s movements as she darts through the air does little to cool her down, perspiration dotting her temples and her hair matted to her forehead and neck.Alcina can barely hold on to her sword as it is, while still maintaining her tenuous hold on one of Orion’s spikes to steady herself on her back.A pair of arrows whistle as they just barely miss her cheek, her hair whipping upwards from the projectiles spinning past her just a millimeter away from her skin. “Pay attention,” Percy says from the ground, where he stands, perfectly relaxed with his hands tucked into his pockets - not at all unlike the form he’d assumed, that day of the ruinous wedding.Darla, seated beside him still in her panther’s form, licks her lips in a manner that sends a shiver down Alcina’s back.She yelps, then, as Orion jerk
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 89
Back in the Western Plains, a Commander General continues his vigilant observance throughout the night, long after all the castle lights have been extinguished.Alone, he sits, eyes sharp as he assesses each unobtrusive corner of the room.It is none other than Lord Brendan’s own private study, a room that is locked and forbidden to all those aside from the lord himself, and his most trusted advisor: the General who has tasted only the sweetness of victory, each time he has stepped onto the battlefield.Lincoln tilts his head.And then, in a motion too quick for an ordinary man to catch, seizes the dagger laying innocently across the desk, and hurls it across the room.It sinks itself into its target.A gasped expletive fills the air.Lincoln picks up a second dagger, its blade gleaming under the single line of moonlight spilling in through the sliver in the curtains. This, in the next breath, he throws with lethal accuracy.“My, would you look at that,” he says cheerfully, brightly.
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 88
“No.”Alcina fumbles with the straps currently adorning Perseus’s broad back the contraption that, she claims, is meant to strap a person in. Brendan stares at it with an unmoving expression.Alcina pouts.Brendan remains firm. “You do realize,” he drawls. “That I am, technically, still in recovery, yes?”Alcina winces.“I don’t know about you, but I’m rather certain that falling hundreds of feet to my death is not what the healers advised for a speedy recovery-”Alcina whines at him. Stomps her foot, even, in a way that Brendan resolutely does not find at all endearing.“You won’t fall,” she says. “I have been practicing very hard this entire week, at flying with Perseus!”Brendan raises a solemn brow. “You mean to say that this is a newly acquired skill that you are attempting to pass off on me, then?”Alcina flushes. “Brendan,” she wheedles. Brendan briefly spares a moment of appreciation, anew, for the two older brothers who have raised this petulant little thing, all these years
