“You should st-stay away from th-the human habitations, K-Krai. Alright? G-go to the beaches or where they c-can’t see you. There’s a c-coast under my room, you c-can visit me when you want.”
The dragon growled back. Nana wondered if it was just in response to her voice, or because it could actually understand the Princess’ language...
Soon enough, the dragon pushed its snout against Cessilia one more time and sat up, looking around while spreading its wings. Once it stood up in all its glory, that dragon was even taller and scarier. Nana felt her heart skip a beat. It was scary, very scary, but also impressive and amazing. The gigantic creature flapped its wings twice before taking off, leaving a large swirl of dust and wind behind. Cessilia looked up, protecting her eyes from the sun and smiling at the dark figure until it was too far up, and going farther away. Then, the Princess casually walked back to the little group.
“A d-d-dragon!” a man on the side who had been petrified by fear all this time suddenly screamed . “A dragon!”
He ran away screaming a bit ridiculously. Tessa sighed.
“Sometimes I really forget they have this effect on people. And we only came with one...”
“Do you have a lot of dragons in the Empire?” asked Nana, whose curiosity had seemed to chase all the fear away.
“J-just a few,” replied Cessilia, “b-but Krai is the b-biggest.”
“I see... Are they all black? Do they all fly? Oh, and are the others smaller because they are young then? Do you ride them all whenever you want? How high can they go?”
While Nana kept her long list of questions going without rest, their little group began leaving the place, in the same formation as before. Cessilia didn’t mind Nana’s questions at all and managed to give an answer here and there where she could. It was a bit funny to follow their conversation, one’s speech being incredibly fast and restless, while the other was slowed down by her stutter, but did her best to answer happily and calmly.
Meanwhile, Tessa kept stealing glances at Sabael, walking closer to him with her hands behind her back, a mischievous look in her eyes.
“So... You’re the first of Nana’s older brothers to become a Royal Guard instead of a fisherman?”
“Yes. I was the first in my family.”
Sabael was visibly avoiding her glances a bit and tried his best to keep a serious but polite tone.
“I see... Who trained you?”
“The Royal Guards all go through the same training at the Royal Academy. We learn to use the official weapons and can graduate as soon as three years later.”
“I bet you were one of the early ones.”
This time, Tessa’s confident response surprised him, enough that he dropped his serious look to finally stare at her in surprise.
“That... How did you know?”
“You have good, lean muscles. If you didn’t have any before your training, they would be much more shaped than that. I spent some time with my uncles’ warriors in the north, I know enough to recognize the changes someone’s body went through. Plus, your tribe’s people have a fish diet mostly, and you do a lot of physical tasks every day, from what we have seen so far. You probably already had the body for it, and just needed the training. With your kind of mindset, I’m sure you worked like crazy to prove even a fisherman’s son could make it as a Royal Guard.”
Sabael was left completely speechless. Everything in Tessa’s analysis was perfectly on point. After a second and realizing the idiotic expression he had on, he cleared his throat a little and averted his eyes. A bit too late though. The young woman had a smile on, her win written all over her face.
“So, uh... Is it common for women to fight in the Dragon Empire?”
“Not really,” shrugged Tessa. “It was my mom’s belief that women should know how to defend themselves, so she had my father teach me and my sister all we needed to know for self-defense, and I just liked it a lot. I wanted to learn more, so I went to the north to learn with my cousins. They are far better than me, though; I can’t measure up to them at all. They wouldn’t even fight me for fun... We have a very large camp in the north, it’s perfect for training. We do have more and more female soldiers now, though. The Empress has inspired many since she’s probably the second-best warrior in the Empire herself... Maybe Cessi’s brothers could beat her now since she’s stuck in the palace all day long.”
“What about the Princess?”
“Cessi? Oh, she hates fighting. She is just like her mom, though, she is good with plants, and a master healer already. While at the camp, she spent most of her time practicing on injured soldiers.”
Sabael nodded, his eyes going to Cessilia’s figure. The Princess looked very innocent in her gestures indeed, but she had a well-toned and defined body, although skinnier than her cousin. She definitely knew some rudiments of fighting as well, in Sabael’s opinion.
Next to him, Tessa frowned, a bit unhappy by the attention directed at her cousin instead of her. However, she didn’t have time to say anything. While between two buildings, men suddenly came out from streets ahead and behind them, swords in their hands, to block their paths. Immediately, the triplets moved, two of them in front of Cessilia and Nana, the last one at the rear. Sabael too drew his sword.
“What’s this?” scoffed Tessa, glancing at both sides. “An ambush?”
“Stay behind me, ladies,” said Sabael, very serious. “These felons are experts at trapping people like this and robbing them of their possessions.”
“You thought that gold wouldn’t catch some attention?!” scoffed one of them. “Leave your possessions and the Dragon girls here and perhaps we will let the rest of you leave.”
“Wait, what do you want us for?” exclaimed Tessa, putting a hand on her hip.
“The Dragon people have ravaged our Empire! We shall kill you and send your guts back to your wretched Empire!”
“...You do realize the two of us weren’t even born back then, right?” scoffed Tessa.
“We heard you call the other woman Princess! A member of the Imperial Family, here!”
Tessa glanced up at where the voices had come from. There were four more men on the roofs... She grimaced, annoyed that she had missed them. On the other side, Cessilia pushed Nana behind her, glaring at the men present.
“Cessilia, Nana, make sure you stay against the wall! Hey, handsome, how many of those do you think you can handle? Need my help?”
“I can fend for myself!” retorted Sabael, immediately outraged. “I don’t need a girl protecting me.”
“I’m a woman, love. You’d better remember that for later. What about you, triplets?” she asked, swirling her swords in her hands and moving to the front of their group.
“We can defend ourselves and the Princess, but we are not used to frontal battles...” admitted Nupia.
So those three were assassins more than fighters. As expected of the King’s spies, thought Tessa. Still, she swung her swords once more before getting into position.
