Naptunie felt like she was going to be sick. Either she was misunderstood or the dragon was mocking her, she couldn’t tell. A few seconds later, at least, there was nothing left of the gruesome body, but some blood on the dark scales. This, she could endure. Still, Naptunie knew she had to get control of that dragon, for everyone’s sake. She glanced to the side again. It was just a few yards away. Just a dragon’s big jump...

“We need to go!” she declared.

Clenching her fists and persuading herself she could do it, she suddenly walked up to the dragon. While she was hoping very hard not to get gobbled up for her impertinence, she was even more surprised to hear Krai growl, very softly, and turn its head to the side, following her. Still, Nana kept going until she reached its side and carefully began climbing. She didn’t remember it being so high... She wasn’t very fit, and the climb itself was a lot. Panting and grunting, Naptunie kept going, telling herself at least the dragon wouldn’t try and bite its own neck... She finally reached the top, and found herself right at the collar.

Krai suddenly raised its head, and she had no choice but to grab the first thing she could, falling forward with her arms around the dragons’ neck. While well aware of the ridiculousness of her position, Naptunie couldn’t help but hang on even tighter, praying not to fall off... When the dragon was fully standing up and somewhat stable, she tried to repress her desire to cry.

“A-alright... There! We need to go there, please!”

It took all of her strength to raise an arm in said direction, and it took less than a second before Krai suddenly took off, surprisingly obeying her right away. Naptunie didn’t see much, aside from the ground and sea moving quickly under them, and hearing the desperate scream in her ears.

One second later, they brutally landed, and she heard many, many men shouting. She forced herself to sit up, despite literally all her limbs trembling. Krai didn’t even wait for her to say anything; the dragon was well aware of what to do when dozens of men ran in its direction with their swords up and obvious aggressive attitudes. Naptunie could only hang on for dear life once more. The dragon began to violently jump, left and right, moving around like a terrible earthquake under her. Not only that, but she heard men shouting, and more of the dragon’s growls, which terrified her. Nana wanted to scream, but she didn’t even dare move a muscle, including her jaw. She had no idea how long it lasted, but it felt way, way too long. Nana closed her eyes as hard as she could, crying and hoping it would end soon.

Suddenly, it stopped. She could still hear dragon growls, but the earthshaking had miraculously stopped. Two large hands came out of nowhere, and she felt herself being grabbed under her armpits, and despite how stunned she was, she was dragged off the dragon’s back.

“Nana!”

She opened her eyes upon recognizing the familiar voice.

Holding her at arms’ length, a huge smile on his face, was none other than Darsan. His hair was an absolute mess, and his face covered with dirt and dried blood, but he looked happier than ever, his dark eyes sparkling with joy.

“What are you doing here?!” he exclaimed, gently putting her down.

Nana’s legs almost gave out when they actually met the ground, but fortunately, Darsan’s hands didn’t leave her waist. For a second, she got a bit dizzy, and had to remind herself to breathe and think.

“Th-the ca-... The c-catapults... We came here to...”

“Oh, those?”

Darsan finally let go and stepped back, to point somewhere behind him at a large pile of wood that were indeed catapults just seconds ago. They were all taken care of already, literally wrecked apart, reduced to large pieces of wood. Krai was already going through the mess, its claw digging through as if looking for a toy or something. Suddenly, the Black Dragon seemed to have found what it had been looking for: one large, spiky ball that was meant to be sent over the wall. While it began enthusiastically playing around with it, the few men that hadn’t been crushed in the ordeal took their chance to run away, absolutely terrified by the sight of the big Black Dragon. It seemed like the wild rodeo from earlier had been somewhat justified, in the end. Nana let out a faint sigh of relief.

“Thank the gods it’s taken care of,” she muttered, thinking about the people in the plaza.

“Yep!”

“B-but Prince Darsan, what are you doing here?”

“I heard you scream, and I saw Krai, so I ran over here! I mean, I was in the area, anyway, so–”

“What? But what about the bridge you were supposed to guard?!”

Naptunie’s mind panicked, thinking Darsan had completely abandoned the southwest bridge to come over here. Or was he perhaps forced to flee? He didn’t look like someone who had lost a fight... He was messy, for sure, but she couldn’t spot a single injury on him. Still, Naptunie couldn’t understand why he was here and not on the bridge. She was already having scary thoughts of angry men destroying the gates, invading the city... However, before her imagination ran any wilder, Darsan grimaced, visibly embarrassed.

“Yeah, uh... About that... About that bridge, I may have, uh... caused a little bit of an accident...”

“What? Don’t tell me you... you destroyed the bridge?”

“I didn’t mean to!” he said, trying to explain himself. “I really didn’t! But that thing was just a bit too weak, you know, and I may have, uh... used a bit too much strength while fighting, so it began to crack all of a sudden, and by the time I ran back to the edge, splash! I-it fell down into the river...”

“You destroyed the bridge?!” exclaimed Nana, getting mad all of a sudden. “You actually destroyed the bridge! Do you know how long it took to build it?! And how many bricks of white stone were used too?! And that bridge was really important, it was helping the flow of traffic into the Capital, it led straight to one of the biggest markets for the people that were coming from the south! Now everyone is going to have to take a long detour around to get into the Capital, not to mention the inconveniences, increased traffic, and even the time it’s going to take to repair that bridge!”

“I’m very, very sorry...” muttered Darsan, whilst making himself smaller in front of the infuriated Nana. “I didn’t know...”

There were even frustrated tears appearing in her eyes, and her accusatory look was literally pinning Darsan where he was with guilt. He certainly hadn’t expected it to be such a big deal, and Naptunie’s sudden burst of anger and tears was taking him completely by surprise. His body moved like it was torn between running to her or in the opposite direction.

“You have to rebuild it!”

“I-I will!” he exclaimed, seeing a light of hope. “I swear I’m going to put it back brick by brick if needed!”

Nana let out a heavy annoyed sigh. The truth was, she knew it wasn’t a matter for tears at all. Darsan’s mistake had just happened right after one of the most traumatic moments of her life, and seemed to be the next best thing for her to unleash her already battered nerves on, after they’d been put through an awful lot for the previous hour. Of course, she was genuinely horrified about the bridge being gone, but it seemed like quite a secondary matter, given the situation... Naptunie looked around. Since there was one bridge Darsan had destroyed, and Krai had gone on a rampage here, they could consider these two entry points into the city now completely blocked, which could still work to their advantage.

“Don’t be mad, alright?” said Darsan, still visibly worried. “I promise I will do my best. There’s still a bit left too...”

Naptunie turned back to him. The Prince looked almost pitiful now, trying to justify his mistake and be forgiven. He was a head taller than her, but right now, he was keeping his shoulders and head low, and his fingers were all fidgety. Nana sighed.

“I... I think it will be fine,” she said, a bit embarrassed about her earlier shouting. “It’s not really important right now. Is... uh... Sir Shiny Dragon alright?”

“Kian? Oh, yeah, he’s doing completely fine. I mean, last I saw, he was hanging on great.”

“A-alright. Then, I think this area is secure now, so we should leave Sir Dragon at the next bridge, and get back inside the city. I think everyone could use our help.”

Darsan gave her a strong nod and enthusiastically punched his palm.

“I like that plan! Let’s do that!”

“But you can’t destroy any more bridges!” Nana added, raising her index finger with a cute frown.

“I-I won’t! I really won’t...”

Naptunie sighed a bit, but turned around, looking at the Black Dragon. Krai was still happily digging through the mess of ruined catapults to find more spiky balls to play with, or happily hunting down the few unfortunate men that hadn’t been running fast enough.

“Sir Dragon!”

She had made sure to shout loud enough for him to hear and, to her surprise, the dragon immediately turned its large head her way, its big red eyes opened wide with a curious expression. Nana tried to swallow the wave of anxiousness that was coming back. Would she be able to ride the dragon again after the fright from earlier?

“Let’s go!”

Before she could say a word, Darsan suddenly grabbed her around the waist, and in two movements, lifted Nana onto the Black Dragon’s back. Krai moved right away, but this time, Naptunie was actually able to hold onto Darsan, who was much more stable. She even managed to keep her eyes open to witness the Black Dragon taking a couple of long leaps to the next bridge, getting back to where she had gotten him from. They told the dragon to stay there and guard it. Then, Darsan helped her down, but he didn’t let go of her hand while they ran back toward the city.

“Let’s go get my sister and the others!” he exclaimed with a big smile, running on the bridge.

Naptunie was literally dragged behind him, but surprisingly, Darsan managed to clear the way in front of them without having to let go of her hand at all. He swung his large sword left and right, sending the Yekara soldiers flying with incredible strength. Nana was now starting to understand how the bridge had collapsed...

The two of them ran all the way back, nothing and no one capable of stopping them. Unlike Nana who had been forced to take detours to avoid confronting any of the enemy, Darsan was more than happy to run head first into the crowd. The young Prince’s colossal strength was knocking any enemy out of the way in a blow or two, allowing the two of them to simply run in a straight line, not taking any detours at all. Thanks to that, they got back to the main plaza even faster than Nana would have thought, and completely unscathed too.

However, once they got there, she quickly realized the situation at the main battlefield was still very complicated. From behind Darsan, she tried to assess the situation, glancing below his arms and in between their enemies to see the damages. The background had changed again, and not in a good way. Not only had more spiky balls been sent before Krai got to the catapults, damaging the roads and buildings around, but fires had been started too. While the crowd seemed to have doubled, it wasn’t exactly in their favor. A lot of the civilians had run or were busy trying to save their family and friends, doing their best to avoid the Yekara fighters and, if possible, leaving the area. The Yekara soldiers and their mercenary allies, however, had used the newly caused damages to gain more ground. Soon, they found themselves facing a dozen of them, and Darsan had no choice but to let go of Nana’s hand.

“Stay behind me!”