Khora entered the dining room, the room dimly lit by the massive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The huge table lay in the center, surrounded by chairs, with two throne-like dining chairs at the two heads of the table. One was for Khora's mother, though it hadn't seen use for⦠quite some time. And at the other head was for her father, who was standing right next to it. Beside his royal presence was a boy she'd never seen before, was her father trying to arrange a marriage? "Welcome, Khora," Her father pulled out a chair, gesturing for her to sit in it, "Please, come take a seat, I have someone I'd like to introduce to you." The princess silently took a seat, glaring at the father and the mysterious figure. He looked to be about her age, maybe five to ten years older than her. He bowed and sat across the table from her.
"And who is this, father?" A servant placed their meal in front of each of them.
"This," The king sat in his chair, drinking a glass of green liquid, "Is Alaric, your half-brother." Khora choked on the wine she was actively drinking, putting down the glass to cough. Her supposed sibling was sitting across the table smirking.
"It is such a pleasure to finally meet you, Khora," He reached his hand across the table, his voice was oddly smooth and his hand was gloved in a thick, black leather. "Your father has been telling me so much about you." A crooked smile slithered its way onto his face, she could tell he was scheming behind those bright purple eyes.
"And he has never told me about you," The princess shook his hand, feeling that the inside was rough, especially compared to her remarkably smooth hands. "And judging by your looks," Her eyes flicked over to her father, "You must share my mother's half." The boy nodded, grabbing his glass of wine and taking a sip.
"May the gods rest her soul," He put the glass down, picking up a fork and taking a slice of the meat pie that had been laid out in front of all of them, "And I am surprised he didn't tell you about me. He has known for years, now."
"Perhaps he just didn't consider you important," Khora's eye flicked to her father, who seemed to be ignoring their conversation, focusing on his dinner.
"Strange, given I am the eldest royal child, and am owed the throne," Her father took another sip from his wine glass and smiled, he wouldn't give up the throne that easily.
"As if, you can't just pop in here and pretend to be more important than I! I am his last living child," She pointed to the king with her fork before taking another bite of the pie, "And I am owed the throne much more than you."
"Quit squabbling," Her father slammed his wine glass down, the green liquid inside shaking, "Khora, Alaric will be staying here until further notice," His head turned towards the black haired boy, "And Alaric, you must treat my daughter kindly, or I will rethink my hospitality." The king stood up, pushing the chair away from the table with a screech. "I am headed to bed, you two should finish up your meals." He adjusted his coat, straightening himself up, "Khora, lead Alaric to his room when you are done eating, he will be staying in the room across from yours." Her father left the room, servant closing the door silently behind him. The two sat eating in silence for minutes, both shooting each other the occasional glance. As Khora was finishing up her meal, the interloper decided to say something,
"You know⦠I have not heard nearly as much about you from your father as I have from Vogaix," That same crooked smile appeared as his eyes scanned her face for reactions. Upon hearing her knight's name, every muscle in her body tensed, and she could feel her palm begin to bleed from under the table from how tightly she was holding the knife. "Oh, struck a nerve?" The boy put his silverware on the plate, taking another sip from his wine glass, "Not used to talking about her with anyone here? Well don't you worry your pretty little head, I want her to stick around as much as you do. I have no reason to unveil her hiding spot, nor the place of rest of the half-dragons." Khora's face twitched, Vogaix hadn't taken her to her family's village yet, how did this interloper know anything about it? "Oh, my bad," He smiled, a small scoff escaping from his throat, "You don't even know where their hiding spot is? Looks like your little, well, not quite little, half-dragon friend trusts me more than she trusts you. How sad for you. The good news for Vogaix is that she'll end up in the same position no matter which of us ascends to the throne, as queen."
"Shut up," Khora stood out of her chair, knocking it to the ground and dropping her silverware on the floor, the handle of the knife covered in blood. The princess leaned across the table and grabbed onto Alaric's shirt with her bloodied hand, pulling him closer to her, "Keep her name out of your mouth, she will not be your queen, she will be mine." Alaric smirked, staring down at Khora's fist.
"And what makes you so sure," The boy pushed his thumb into the bottom of her wrist, causing her to drop him and wince. "She clearly trusts me more, she's just using you to gain a position in the kingdom." He adjusted the collar of his shirt, letting the bloody print stay there. "You were to take me to my room, were you not?" The smirk had not left his face once, and his hands were now in his vest's pockets.
"Follow me," The princess angrily led him out of the dining room and down the halls, reaching her bedroom door and pointing to one down the hall. "That one's yours. Or you could just leave." The interloper smiled and bowed, as he walked towards his room, Khora raised her middle finger at him. She entered her own room and slammed the door shut, falling to the floor with tears falling down her face.
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Boran gripped his blade, it had been a day since the fight with the half-breed, and he had been training all day. Out of the tiny visibility spots in his helmet he fended off the three attackers, he could feel sweat start to drip down his face. He moved his head out of the way, and felt the training sword move the air where his head used to be. Kicking behind him, he pushed the flanking attacker to their ass. He blocked the attacker on his left with his shield and flicked his sword at the rightward attacker, causing them to drop their blade. He charged at the remaining attacker with his shield, pushing them to the ground as well. He stood in between his three trainees, each one of them panting much harder than he was.
The one that was flanking him took off their helmet, "How long are we gonna do this, pa," The head knight took off his helmet, looking at his son sitting on the ground and caked in sweat. "We've been fighting for the whole day. It's past noon, for the gods sakes." The two others nodded, both sitting on the ground beside his son. They didn't get a single hit on him, which just means that half-breed was remarkable. Boran sat himself down on a bench against the walls of the barracks.
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"You three too tired?" The head knight smiled, staring at his son, YaÄmur, and the two redheads beside him, George and Jane. "I'm just getting started!"
"Paâ¦" YaÄmur stared at his father with a worried look in his eyes, "I know you're worried you're losing your edge, but I promise you aren't." The smaller boy rubbed his back, wincing as he got to the spot his father had hit earlier in the day.
"Yeah, sir Boran," George perked up, rubbing his sister's shoulders, "Is there something else that's bothering you? It can't just be getting struck, everyone gets hit every once in a while,"
"Especially someone as big as you," Jane butted in with a laugh.
"I know," Boran looked around, only seeing a few other knights in the training field. He knew these three remarkably well, and trusted them more than anyone, "Listen, all three of you, if I tell you what happened, you have promise not to tell anyone. Not even the king." The three exchanged worried glances with each other, all of them agreeing with a nod. "There's another glass dragon out there. And not just the half-breed that struck me. I remember the effect their blood had on me, and it was stronger than it was all those years ago. One of them survived." YaÄmur smiled, a chortle escaping his throat,
"Please, you can't be serious pa," He began to tie his hair in a knot, "You killed them all, even burnt their eggs! How could one have survived?"
"I don't know, all I know is that it did. If the king found out about this⦠he can't find out about this," Boran walked towards the exit of the training field, "He would claim me a traitor for letting one survive."
"Why would he call you a traitor?" Jane and George asked the question at the same time, "It was an accident after all."
"It wasâ¦" Boran and his son exchanged a knowing look, "But the king is paranoid. If any of you tell this to anyone you will regret it." The three nodded intensely. "Good. Now, George and Jane, how about you treat me and YaÄmur to some of those flatbread sandwiches you were raving about." The four laughed together, before the twins ran ahead of the head knight and his son, leading them to their home.
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Fenrir was laying under the waterfall as the sun set on the clearing. He was remembering his sister laying under here, her scales reflecting the light of the sun into a radiant rainbow. She was truly a specimen to behold, and Boran ruined that. He pierced her skull with his blade before she even knew what was coming. And he de-scaled her like a monster. Like all humans wanted to do to them, the beasts. She was the first victim of the humans attack on their nest, and he wouldn't let himself be the last.
"Doing some daydreaming?" Vogaix's voice woke him from his memories, she looked at the sky, "Well, more like regular dreaming at this hour." She seemed oddly comfortable with Fenrir, given their last encounter. She still carried the bladed half of her halberd, but her scales were reflecting the light of the moon, she was terrible at camouflage.
"Not even bothering to camouflage your scales? Boran clearly wants you dead, it is a foolish endeavor to walk around that reflective." He stepped out from under the waterfall, shaking the water off of his body as his scales shifted to a dark blue. The half-human tilted her head, clearly confused. By the scales, if this was his only heir he had a lot of work to do.
"Why'd you ask me to come back here? It doesn't seem like you like me too much," Vogaix leaned herself against a tree, staring at the massive dragon before her. "And it's not like I'll be much help in helping you repopulate, given my situation." She giggled softly, and Fenrir's face twitched, it clearly hit a nerve for him.
"What situation?" Fenrir was curious why his heir wouldn't be able to have children, and needed to fix whatever the issue was.
"Oh, just some treatments one of my sisters is making for me. They supposedly are gonna make it harder for me to have children for a while." The massive dragon growled, if this were true he would have to force the half-human to stop the treatments, whatever they were.
"Hmm," Fenrir stared at his heir, "That is not why I asked you here, no. I wanted you to tell me about your situation with the human, Khora." The dragon internally scoffed as he referred to it by name, "And I am now curious to learn more about your family. Are they all glass-humans like you?"
"I'd rather talk about Khora right now." The half-human glared at Fenrir, cracking her neck, "Khora and I are⦠close, we have been since I first met her. She was eleven and had just sneaked out of her castle, and I was on a hunting trip for my family. I could tell she was scared, so I gave her some of my rations. She'd⦠never seen a half-dragon before, and had nothing against half-breeds at all. Apparently a lot of the kinder servants in her castle are half-breeds." Fenrir remembered the pathetic form of Malachi, and recalled him stating he would be able to isolate the princess. She must trust him, shame for her that he had more loyalty to Fenrir's blood than he did any person. "We kept meeting after that, she tried to escape at least once a month to get to know me. She's one of the kindest people I've ever met, if it weren't for her father we'd be inseparable." The half-human trailed off, seemingly remembering her times with Khora.
"And what do you two plan to do about the king? He's been around for quite some time, I doubt he's just going to collapse one of these days." Fenrir wasn't sure how the human had managed to live longer than even some dragons could, but he wasn't going to let it last long. "And I doubt it'll be able to sneak out after the little show you gave Boran."
"We have a plan to deal with the king." Vogaix looked the dragon up and down, trying to asses what his plan was. "I presume you hate him as much as most half-breeds?" Fenrir nodded, assessing the half-human as well, "We're going to kill him. My princess will take the throne and make life better for all people, not just full-blooded humans." The dragon scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"You really believe that a human has such noble goals? It just wants power, and is using you to get it."
"She's not!" Vogaix growled at the towering figure before her, "And stop calling her an it. It was my idea to assassinate the king." Vogaix flapped her wings open, attempting to look bigger in front of Fenrir.
"What should I use then, your human language has too many words to refer to others."
"She!" The half-human turned around, throwing her middle finger up at Fenrir for some reason, "I'm done here, whatever you want I'm not gonna help you with it."
"And what if I told you I could liberate your people far sooner than she could?" Fenrir huffed out some smoke, his breath-sac surprisingly empty. Vogaix paused, turning around slowly.
"And how exactly could you do that? The castle is always on alert for attack, you'd die if you got even within a dragon's throw." The half-human put a hand on her waist, staring at Fenrir with a skeptical look.
"I can take control of the servants, one mind at a time," Fenrir felt a smile creep across his mouth, "And with the help of your people, we can kill the king, Boran, and all that stand with them." Vogaix stared at Fenrir, the skepticism still on her face, "Not only all that, I can bring Khora to you, and she won't be taken back by Boran this time." If Fenrir had to use it to gain his daughter's trust, he would.
"Follow me," Vogaix began to walk through the forest, eventually leading the dragon to another clearing, covered in strange hills. The half-human whistled a tune, and the hills began to open one by one. There were dozens of half-breeds here, and even more surprisingly, six half-dragons. "Dragon,"
"Fenrir." The dragon interrupted his heir, finally introducing himself to her.
"Well, Fenrir, this is my family. Family, this is Fenrir, he's here to help, apparently." The dragon stared at the various half-breeds, all of them giving the dragon a slightly different look, from amazement to contempt. An ancient looking human stepped out of the crowd, leaning on a cane with two hands.
"Welcome, Fenrir," Its voice was raspy and shaky, as if it had done too much talking in its prime, "It's a pleasure to meet the last glass dragon."