“...Your father was a slave?”
“Weren’t all Rain people?” scoffed Jisel. “He was caught as a boy, and sold to entertain the whims of a princess a few years older than him. In all ways, of course. He couldn’t say anything back to her, so he tried to use her to survive. He obeyed her every whim and made her attached. While she fell in love with her toy, he loathed her more and more each day. Their relationship was violent even when she was still his master, yet he showed her just the right amount of attention and kindness for her to never complain, and always forgive him. The typical romance tragedy for a love-deprived woman. I was born of their love-hate relationship first.”
“...You used t-to live in the Imperial P-Palace?”
“Like a rat, yes. I hid all the time. I knew pissing the wrong person off could get me killed, so I did all I could to hide my very existence, and so did my mother. Everything was completely ruined by the war, though. You probably know better than I do what happened... When... your father killed him, my mother and that slave of hers she was in love with, fled from the palace to here. She got pregnant with my younger brother somewhere along the way. Life as refugees turned out to be... even worse than the one we had at the palace. My father took over as the monster.”
She had a bitter smirk on as she stared at the fire, her eyes lost in her memories.
“Once free of his status as a slave, he became more violent than ever toward my mother. The difficulties were easier to blame on that woman than on himself. Although he never hurt us, my brother and I hated him alike. One day, he killed our mother, almost by accident. The wrong hit and that was it. What happened then traumatized my younger brother... and that’s when we met Jinn.”
“His d-dragon?”
“Jinn arrived out of nowhere, but my brother knew it was his dragon. I knew where my parents came from, I put the pieces together. My father, as well, of course. He did not like that his son was suddenly stronger than him, nor the reminder of whose blood we carried. Junian was too young for us to leave our father, so just like our mother did, we had to endure. Until we were both old enough to leave, to find a place of our own.”
“...What happened to your b-brother?”
Jisel sighed. She was incredibly calm and seemingly detached from the story she was telling. Almost as if it wasn’t her own, or she had absolutely no feelings about it.
“A dragon isn’t like a human. It can’t be told to shut up and behave. So, each time my brother got upset, Jinn would retaliate against my father. He had the same fear-anger relationship as we had toward our father, even when he grew much bigger. My stupid father thought getting more violent toward my brother would make Jinn behave. Of course, he was wrong. One day, Jinn injured him. Badly. I remember leaving him there and going to bed hoping that man would be dead the next day. As it turns out, neither of them woke up.”
A chill went down Naptunie’s spine. She didn’t like that woman one bit, but listening to her story was still terribly painful. She could sort of understand what had happened, and it was frightening to put the pieces together. It was such a horrible story. Yet, Jisel was completely placid, and distant.
“I found myself alone with a dragon. Jinn was attached to me, of course, but I knew he’d draw attention. So I sent him away for a while, and tried to find my way into the Eastern Kingdom... I knew my skin color would draw attention, and I was young, alone, and worse, a woman. I survived, however I could. Whatever I had to do to survive, I did. I learned not to trust anyone. Especially men... They all betray you in the end.”
She suddenly turned her head to glare at Ashen. Cessilia sighed but did not say anything. Although she had played a large part in this, she still knew this issue was between Jisel and Ashen; what had happened between them was not something she could intrude on.
“...Not all men,” Naptunie interjected, very invested in the story. “Your little brother didn’t betray you.”
“Yeah, but he never grew to be a man.”
Another long silence followed. Beyond Jisel’s story, Cessilia was thinking about Jinn the dragon. Its mere existence meant there was a lot more to her mother’s tribe than they had initially thought. She had never thought she would see water dragons other than in her family, but as it turned out, the Rain Tribe and the Dragon Empire’s Imperial Family had a lot in common, enough for their blood to be able to create more water dragons. She thought about Jisel’s words from earlier. Would a male sibling of Tessandra really have a water dragon too? If a man of the Rain Tribe and an Imperial Princess could produce a son with a water dragon, didn’t that mean the Rain Tribe’s genes only reacted when paired with someone from the Imperial Family? Cessilia’s thoughts painfully drifted to Cece, her own dragon.
She still wouldn’t have had Cece if it wasn’t for her mother and her encounter with a Water God. Cessilia had always known that story was more than a simple tale, but now, she felt like she was touching something even deeper about her own family. She felt a bit proud, even. At the same time, she missed Cece more than ever. If she had been here, none of this would have happened... Cece would have been big enough to get them out of there in a blink, while growling happily like she always did.
She froze, suddenly hearing it. Dragon growls. Cessilia jumped on her feet and ran toward the rocks.
“...D-do you hear that?”
“Is this Sir Dragon?” asked Nana.
“...No,” said Tessandra, a smile on her face.
Indeed, the dragon growls didn’t sound like Krai’s. They could hear Jinn growling against another dragon, with a more high-pitched growl than Krai, and male voices panicking out there.
“What the heck is going on?!” a male voice shouted. “Where the heck did that brat dragon come from?!”
“...Darsan?” frowned Tessandra.
“Cessi!” shouted a second male voice. “Cessi! Tessa! Are you in there?”
“K-Kassian!” Cessilia exclaimed, beaming.
A large ruckus followed, and they both had to quickly retreat as the mountain of rocks moved brutally. For a while, everything began to collapse on the other side, and after a few seconds, a very large silhouette of another, larger water dragon appeared at the top, with magnificent silver scales, and two men’s silhouettes on its back.
Chapter 21
The dragon that had climbed on the pile of rocks tilted its head just as the two young men jumped off. They both slid down the mountain of rocks easily, jumping when needed, making the ride down look like child’s play. Once they got closer, it became obvious they were actually pretty tall and muscular as well. As they had stayed behind, both Jisel and Naptunie watched the two young men come down, noticing their striking resemblance to Cessilia.
“Cessi!” shouted the first of them, running to hug her.
Even the tall Cessilia suddenly looked petite in his large, bulky arms. This man was tall, extremely muscular, and had his dark hair organized in rogue braids over his shoulders. He had a little scar covered with dark yellow scales on his cheek and many more on his body. He had a youthful look to him, with his big, black eyes, his hairless, square chin, and that large smile stuck on his face. He made Cessilia spin in the air, hugging her like an excited child, but Cessilia was just as happy to see them.
“How c-come you’re here?” Cessilia asked the man behind him.
“Well, when I came back from the north, as soon as I heard Dad had agreed for you to come here, I decided to come and check up on my little sister and cousin. I just happened to fly over some mountain this idiot was still busy on... Come on, let her go for a sec.”
He tapped his brother’s shoulder until Darsan finally put his sister down and stepped aside, letting Kassian hug her next. Their hug was very different from the excited one with Darsan. He smiled at her, gently kissed the top of her head, and embraced her fully in his arms, gently but firmly. They didn’t move, just hugging each other in silence for a few seconds. Although they looked a lot alike, the brothers were completely different. Kassian was actually a bit thinner and a couple of inches shorter than Darsan, and his hair was cut short, except for a couple of braids on his neck. He also wore a simple leather ensemble, while Darsan had half of his armor on, and an extra fur coat too.
Next to them, Darsan turned to Tessandra.
“What came over you?!” he exclaimed. “Coming here? With Cessi? What the heck?!”
“Hey, Cessi had boyfriend issues to settle. I just tagged along for her security.”
“What security?! You both look like you got into a mud fight with a dragon and lost! ...Wait a minute. Is that my sword? Hey, that is my sword! What in the hell did you do with it?! It was all pretty and sharpened, what did you do to my precious beauty?! And where... By the fucking dragon’s balls, Tessandra, where is the other one?!”
