Page 9 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince (Omega Fairy Tales #4)

Chapter

Five

Misha

I ’d never been on a quest before, let alone one set by someone as magnificent as Queen Gaia.

I didn’t know how they were supposed to feel or how I was supposed to conduct myself while searching for the items Queen Gaia had requested Azurus and I retrieve for her.

So I wasn’t certain whether I should feel the fluttering sense of anticipation as Azurus and I picked up our pace and headed toward the stretching orchard that filled the valley in front of us or if I should feel dread.

“We should probably be serious about this,” I said, trying to steady my heartbeats as we approached a series of small buildings near the edge of the orchard. “Who knows what we’ll find here or whether whoever tends the orchard will even let us in?”

Azurus grinned at me and rested a hand on my shoulder. “I think you’ll find that in the magical world, things come fairly easily to dragons.”

He was teasing, I knew, but something about his comment made me feel off-center. I was no dragon, and despite being a prince, nothing had ever come easily in my life.

I tried to fight the gloom of that thought.

I was on a mission set by a queen. I couldn’t let that inner darkness that lived in my gut pull me down when there was a task to be completed.

It required far more energy to do that small thing than it had to walk all the way from Queen Gaia’s throne room.

“Excuse me. You there,” Azurus called out in his rich, bold, alpha voice to a man that stepped out of one of the outbuildings with a large basket in his arms.

The man, who wore the simple clothing and straw hat of a farmer, but who seemed to have authority all the same, started a bit, then turned to us. When he saw us, he smiled and changed directions to meet us.

“Hello and welcome, friends,” he said, holding his basket with one hand and touching the brim of his hat to us with the other. “How might I help you today?”

I had always been wary of strangers, even ones who smiled and appeared friendly.

Indeed, in my father’s court, it was the ones who pretended to be friendly who usually swooped in and demanded to take my heat or the heat of one of my brothers.

So I took a half step back, trying not to embarrass myself by hiding behind Azurus completely, and glanced up at my fated mate.

Azurus was completely at ease as he addressed the farmer.

“My mate and I have been sent on a mission to collect the pit from a cherry on the one hundredth tree,” he said.

“If it would be alright with you, and if you can point out which of all these trees is the one hundredth, we’ll pick a cherry and be on our way. ”

The farmer laughed, which had the hair on the back of my neck standing up, even though it wasn’t an unkind sound. “If it was as easy a matter as pointing out which tree held which number I would surely help you,” the farmer said. “But this is a magical orchard.”

Azurus’s confident smile faded. “Oh, I see,” he said. “What does that mean?”

The farmer shrugged and pivoted to gesture to the trees. “It means that each tree is planted, grows, flowers, and produces fruit all within a day before completing its purpose and vanishing.”

I frowned in confusion for a moment, then looked past the farmer to see what he meant.

It was obvious as soon as I watched the trees for a few moments. I’d noticed from our approach that the trees were in all phases of growth and flower, but now that we were there in the orchard, I could see the growth happening.

Some of the trees were nothing more than saplings, but I watched as they slowly grew before my eyes.

The growth wasn’t as evident if I simply stared at the trees, but if I glanced away and looked back, there was progress, new branches and new leaves.

Beyond those trees were taller ones bursting with blooms that seemed to flower before my eyes.

Another section had mostly green trees with fruit growing swiftly.

Still other trees had circles of baskets around them, and as the cherries ripened, then fell off the trees and straight into the baskets of their own accord.

Several attendants were gathering baskets or putting new ones out.

At the very end of the orchard, I watched as trees that had delivered all their fruit vanished.

No, they didn’t vanish entirely. It was more like they disintegrated into a dozen tiny saplings, which other attendants gathered up in trays and brought back to the outbuildings.

“You see,” the farmer explained. “It is a constant cycle, an ongoing effort. There is no beginning and no end to the production of fruit, so it is impossible to number the trees and say which is first and which is one hundredth.”

My shoulders sank and my hope for a better life with it. Queen Gaia had set us an impossible task.

Azurus wasn’t half as deterred as I was. “If the orchard is a constant cycle, how do we find a specific one hundredth tree?” he asked.

The farmer shifted his weight and scratched his beard. “I suppose the only way to give the trees numbers would be if you planted them yourselves,” he said. “There would be the first tree you planted, the tenth, and the hundredth.”

Azurus smiled. “Perfect,” he said. “Then if you’ll allow us, my mate and I will plant a hundred trees and take a cherry from the last.”

The farmer nodded cheerily. “All of us here would be glad for the help with our tasks. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you to a prepared field, find you several trays of seedlings, and explain the planting process.”

Azurus seemed completely satisfied with the arrangement, but as I followed him and the farmer to one of the outbuildings, my heart sank.

“How can we plant a hundred trees?” I asked once the farmer provided us with everything we would need for the task and led us into an empty field. “Planting trees is hard work. I…I must admit that I’ve never had to do manual labor in my life.”

Azurus, who was lining up the two-foot-tall saplings and the tools we would need to plant them, turned to me with a smile. “You can do this, Misha. I know you can. Have I not said all along that you are stronger than you look?”

I tried to smile at his kind assessment, but I didn’t feel strong at all. “You overestimate my abilities,” I told him with a sigh, putting on the gardening gloves and hat I’d been provided with.

“And you have no idea how wonderful you are,” Azurus told me.

He stepped closer to me and surprised me by sweeping me into his arms when I wasn’t expecting it and planting a firm kiss on my lips.

His rain scent surrounded me, and for a moment I felt something loosen and soften inside me.

I wanted to embrace him in return, keep kissing him, and see where the kiss might go.

It was the closest I’d come to going into heat since the two of us had met, and it encouraged me.

“How do we do this?” I asked with a different sort of sigh entirely when he let me go.

Azurus seemed as happy as could be as he took me to the line of saplings he’d made next to the small ridge of dirt where the trees needed to be planted.

“In theory, it’s simple,” he said. We dig a hole deep enough for each sapling’s roots, then we put the tree in, fill the dirt back into the hole, and water it. ”

I drew in a bracing breath and nodded. “It sounds simple enough,” I said.

Then I glanced down the long, long row where we needed to do all the planting. It seemed to stretch on forever. The task Queen Gaia had set us might not have been impossible, but it looked like it would be difficult and take forever.

Just as my fear and anxiety started to well up at all the work ahead of me, the Queen’s voice sounded in my head again. “Do you want to be made better?”

I sucked in a breath, using it to help me stand tall. “Yes,” I answered aloud. “I want to get better.” And to do that, I needed to do the work.

Azurus had gone to fetch a shovel. He walked back to the ridge of dirt like he would dig the hole and do all the work for me, but I stepped forward and held out my hand.

“I can do it,” I said.

“Not if you think it’s too strenuous,” Azurus said, hesitating instead of handing me the shovel.

I shook my head. “This quest is to make me better. I need to do the work.”

That seemed to be enough of an answer for my alpha. He handed over the shovel.

I walked to the ridge, and with only a bit of hesitation to take a deep breath, I thrust the blade of the shovel into the ground, digging my first hole.

It wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought it would be.

The dirt was moist and loose and came away easily as I put my back into it.

Azurus stood at the ready with the first sapling, and as soon as the hole was deep enough, he lifted it and placed it just so.

I shoveled dirt back into the hole, and together we patted it securely before watering it.

Once that was done, I glanced up at Azurus and smiled. “That wasn’t so hard,” I said.

“Not at all,” Azurus agreed.

He looked so proud of me, which warmed my heart in ways I wasn’t sure it had ever been warmed. I’d never been cared about the way Azurus cared about me before. It made moving onto the second tree so much easier.

We worked together to plant the second tree, then the third, then the fourth.

Azurus and I worked so well together, which became apparent almost immediately.

We fell into a sort of rhythm with each other, me digging and Azurus placing the tree before we filled in the dirt and watered it together.

We were a partnership, a team, and the whole process felt good.

Until we got to the twenty-fifth tree.

“How are you holding up?” Azurus asked, concern hiding behind his smile.

My muscles were aching from digging holes and I could have sworn blisters were starting to form on my hands. But I answered, “I’m okay,” with a short, tight smile for him.

“Do you want me to take a turn digging the holes?” Azurus asked.