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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 103
“And how long has she been here?” Brandon asks, just as the others arrive at the cell.He can hear a sharp intake of breath; Alcina.“Oh, a few days, I reckon,” Lincoln shrugs casually, his hand still holding the girl’s neck to the wall in a brutal grip. “I’m afraid I’ve lost count, as I’ve been down here all the while.”For a man like Commander Lincoln, sleep is but a trifling and unnecessary luxury.When a man like Lincoln has a prey set in his sights, he does not need such a thing as sleep.Even for days on end."I caught her trying to slip into your study," Lincoln says. The girl comes to life momentarily, struggling against the grip on her neck, but grows limp when Lincoln simply tightens his hold anew without even batting an eye.“I’d hoped to be able to have a nice, civilized conversation with our friend here,” Lincoln sighs, sounding as though it were nothing more than a matter of some friendly gossip. “Without needing to call you here, but.”“She has not been forthcoming,” Alf
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 102
There is little time for pleasantries, in light of the note.Brandon does not know what could have possessed Lincoln to send such a note, nor are there any details to be gleaned from its contents: a precautionary measure, given how often such notes are wont to be intercepted in travel.Still, he knows that there is very little - almost nothing at all - that the Commander is not entirely equipped to handle on his own, short of the very war coming to their doorsteps, such that he would be forced to call for Brandon's return.Let alone demand him to bring Lord Alfred, as Lincoln had so alluded.It makes Brandon slip seamlessly into the shadows, for even the scant extra moments it would take to travel by foot is a luxury they do not seem to have.* * * * * * * * * *In the end, it is a lean retinue of the Lords and two soldiers from the Heartlands, that are to make their departure for the Western Plains.Given that the Western Plains are directly en route to the Ranges, Percy and Darla wi
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 101
Alcina wakes up alone.It’s enough to startle her, even trapped as she is in that dull haze of the moment in between sleep and consciousness; enough, that she sits up, blearily rubbing one eye. “Brandon?” she calls blindly, voice rising in pitch to come out just the tiniest bit plaintive.Brandon steps out from the ensuite doorway, then, and Alcina turns her head in his direction, still rubbing sleepily at one eye.Brandon has evidently just stepped out of the shower, clad in a black silken robe, tied loosely at the waist and splayed open around his upper body. Alcina, still dazed from sleep, watches the way water droplets continue to drip down from Brandon’s damp locks, trailing down his neck and splattering onto the floor.When her eyes return to Brandon’s face, she finds Brandon wearing a small smirk, dark eyes intent and amused. Brandon raises a slow brow.Had Alcina been more awake, she might have had the presence of mind to be embarrassed at having been caught staring.But at th
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 100
Alcina gasps violently awake.Her hands fly to her neck.But her neck is fine. There are no hands curled around them, like manacles pressing the very life out of her with each squeeze. There is no soldier, eyes wild with the adrenaline rush of a battle, forcing her onto the ground to choke her into an eternal slumber.But there are, Alcina dimly realizes, soldiers.All around her.They seem to be swarming in, from far away, but bringing with them a panicked sense of urgency, all the same.From-Alcina stiffens.The marble floors, the elegant pillars, the limp body of-Elton.She is-Alcina is in Elton’s fortress.The thought of it brings the immediate, surging terror for- Brandon-!Alcina whirls around, nearly stumbling with the force of it. And then she sees him.Brandon, here this time, strapped to the pillar behind him with massive, heavy iron chains. Brandon, pale and gaunt and dripping crimson, everywhere-“Brandon!” the cry tears itself out of Alcina’s throat, a wild and devasta
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 99
“You would wage a war, For my daughter?”Brandon’s gaze flickers up to meet Duches's eyes, wretchedly amused.“Madame,” he laughs, low and dark, and in it, she hears something ruinous.This man, she realizes then, is one who would wage not one war, but thousands of wars, all in the name of devotion to her daughter.“I would do far more than fight a war, for your daughter,” he says, condescension laced into every word, lips parting to reveal a cold and predatory, calamitous facsimile of a grin. “and I would win it.”And as the Duchess stares into Lord Brandon’s face, she discovers, that there is something frightening like no other nightmare in the world could replicate, in a devotion like this. An ardent, zealous, terrifying brand of devotion, one that is more befitting of a creature they call the Shadowed Beast than a man.For better, or for worse.The man - the monster - to whom she had bartered off her own daughter, with thoughts of a hundred and thirty thousand lives, and hundreds
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 98
Nordin, after all, had been Alfred’s closest friend all throughout their childhood and had been there when Alfred underwent his own grueling training with the Duchess.He had been the one person whom Alfred allowed to see all those cracked and broken parts of himself and had been the person who had mended Alfred and made him whole each time.Nordin has had to put one Clair back together and does not fancy having to pick up the pieces of another one after all this time.Years ago, when Nordin had only been thirteen and Alfred eleven, and Nordin had had to put the broken pieces of Alfred back together after his mother’s training--Thirteen-year-old Nordin had looked at Alfred, then, wearing a soft and kind smile despite the pain that had been wrought upon him by virtue of a terrible and harsh world--And that is the moment when Nordin had decided that he would become strong enough to ensure no man would be able to hurt Alfred again.That for Alfred- the boy who spoke of those mysteries
My little Dragon Queen Chapter 97
In the morning, Alcina wakes earlier than her husband.It is not often she gets to experience such a luxury, given that Brandon is the early riser between the two of them. But occasionally, on mornings like this, Alcina has the privilege of waking before Brandon, and looking over to see her husband’s face smoothed with slumber.Alcina had never thought she’d grow to adore another’s features the way she has Brandon’s.It is an endless fascination for him, one that she could spend hours tracing the lines and dips and curves of, without end. Even now, Alcina turns and shuffles a little closer, pillowing her head on one arm while her other reaches up of its own accord, fingers reaching out to-She stills.Her fingers, still outstretched towards the slope of Brandon’s nose, hover uncertainly in mid-air. They twitch, before she brings her hand back to tuck tightly against her own chest, biting her lip.Alcina stares at Brandon, now, the man who had fearlessly and lovingly grasped the very h
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
