The other end was, as she had imagined, a bloody massacre. Krai’s large body was occupying almost all of the bridge’s width, and even its black tail was dangerously swishing left and right, a few yards ahead of where Nana stood. The dragon’s back and butt were mostly blocking her sight, but the little she could see from what was happening on the other side already terrified her. There was a lot of blood. Not only that, but she could see human limbs regularly being thrown sideways, some ending up in the river when the dragon didn’t enthusiastically chomp it mid-air.
“Oh, holy fish...” she muttered.
Nana had already seen a lot of blood and bodies today, but a dragon devouring living humans was a whole new level of horror for her. She could see the Black Dragon was having fun, toying around with them, its large paw suddenly squishing a human body against the white bricks of the bridge. Naptunie took a deep breath. She was supposed to bother Sir Dragon in the middle of that? Had Tessandra gone insane?! There was no way she wouldn’t be gobbled up too! Still, she could hear, and now also see, the large spiky balls of metal flying in the sky to brutally land in the Capital. Nana didn’t even need to think about the damages done; the mere confirmation that she had been right, the projectiles coming from the Outer Wall, was enough to reassure her she had been right to run here.
Despite that, she only dared to take a couple of steps toward the dragon; she had to admire the men on the other side, who were still fighting hard to try and get past anyway despite the large, bloody piles of bodies already spread across the bridge... Krai didn’t even need to move much; the humans were running right in the dragon’s direction, swords up, and a large bite was enough to welcome them and chomp three men’s bodies at once. Naptunie stood there for several seconds, trying to think about the best way to get the dragon’s attention without being the next one eaten up. As much as she trusted Tessandra, she really didn’t have much confidence in taming a dragon when she didn’t have the right treat for it... or she potentially was the treat herself.
With pearls of sweat running down her nape, she cautiously stepped forward.
“S-Sir Dragon?” she called out.
She was almost relieved when she got no response. She took another deep breath, immediately followed by a huge bang behind her, which gave her the wave of bravery to try again. If her friends’ life depended on her, she could do it!
“Sir Dragon!”
This time, Krai suddenly lifted its large head, and one red eye finally spotted Naptunie, standing alone in the middle of the bridge. Naptunie felt her bravery melt like snow under the sun. Luckily, so did all her ability to move, and when the dragon turned around to face her, completely ignoring the dozens of men, its hips swooped across the bridge in the process, she could only try to take deep breaths and keep the blood flowing to her brain.
“H-hi...” she heard her voice mutter.
The dragon’s head suddenly came to meet her, snout first, strangely lowered and grazing the ground as if it was trying to match her height. Even more disturbing was the blood-covered human hand hanging out from between two fangs. Naptunie blinked twice, and forced herself to look up at the pair of glowing ruby eyes.
“I-I kind of need your help...” she muttered.
The dragon tilted its head, almost in a cute way. She could hear the blades on the other side trying to attack the wall of scales, but as soon as they got a bit annoying, the huge scaled butt and paws would move a bit, and suddenly crush more of them underneath. The stomping was enough to make the whole bridge tremble and creak, making Nana fear it would actually collapse under its weight... It was built to let horses and carriages through, but not a gigantic creature like a full-grown dragon!
When Krai growled softly, its breathing reaching her in hot waves of air, Naptunie took another deep breath.
“W-we need to get over there,” she said, trying to talk fast, “to the other bridge, outside the wall, and destroy the catapults! I-I know it’s not the original p-plan, but Lady Tessa sent me, and, uh... it’s important...”
The more she spoke, the more she realized the chance the dragon caught any of that were rather low. She had always seen Tessandra and Cessilia casually speak to the dragon, and Krai seemed to somehow understand the gist of it, but this was her first time alone! She tried to imagine she was speaking to the family cat, before realizing it wouldn’t help either. The dragon was probably smarter, to some extent... Naptunie glanced to the side, feeling increasingly nervous. She was wasting so much time right now! She could endure the gruesomeness of the dragon, but if she lost any time here, more lives would be lost, and she did not want to be responsible for this!
Nana clenched her small fists, and tried to imagine what the pair of Princesses would do in her stead. Her eyes went back to the piece of limb hanging from the dragon’s maw, still very disturbing.
“D-drop it!”
She had tried to put as much intent as she could, and even pointed her index toward the ground. However, after a few seconds of silence, the dragon began to very slowly resume chewing.
“N-no, I said drop it! Oh, come on, that’s... a bit disgusting... I’m sure it’s not really good for your stomach either, Sir Dragon... Yuck...”
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–”
