Page 6 of The Silent Mountain (Under the Werewolf Crown #2)

six

The Silent Mountain

*ALANA*

I watch in amusement at how Elio and Ludwig try to tend to the horses. My family, back in the werewolf kingdom, had my own two horses sent here so that I wouldn’t feel alone. I ride them regularly. One of them is a very kind mare, the other a bit of a strong-headed stallion who needs a confident rider. I’ve decided to teach them riding on my mare, Constantia, but first, I want them to get confident with each other. Constantia has a gentle nature and endless patience, fortunately, which makes this task easier for Elio and Ludwig.

I decided to start with Ludwig, mainly because he is a warrior and has a good posture already, and he also has control over his body. Elio, meanwhile, can learn from watching him first, before it’s his turn.

“I never thought riding would be that exhausting,” Ludwig pants while he tries to put into practice everything I’ve told him.

“What did you think?” I chuckle.

“I don’t know, I thought I would sit on it and…”

“And the horse would do all the work?” I ask.

“You got me there, Pri-… Alana,” he admits with a crooked smile.

“Horse riding is a physical activity,” I tell him. “And also, a mental one. Your horse will feel when you are insecure and scared. Horses have a natural flight response; they are flight animals, and you always have to keep that in mind.”

“Got you,” he says. “My goal is to be secure enough to ride next to you through our lands.”

“Can my brother ride?” Elio asks me curiously.

“Yes,” I say. “Favian learned it from my brothers during his many political visits to our kingdom.” And he also learned it from me, but I don’t tell him that. It almost feels like I am sharing something too private. When I arrived here and Favian bought the first couple of horses, it was our way to bond, the first genuine bonding experience between us. I helped him improve his posture and his skills while spending time with him and learning a whole new side of him.

“He can truly do anything,” Elio says, his eyes shining in admiration for his older brother.

“The young king is truly amazing,” Ludwig agrees. I help him dismount the horse so that Elio can have his turn. “He already changed so much in such a short time. I think our kingdom will flourish again soon, just thanks to him.” He pauses. “Previous kings never had relationships outside of the Silent Mountain, so we had no allies. But King Favian is different, so modern and interested in his people. A commoner like me would have never had the opportunity of receiving such a high rank before.”

If Favian only knew and understood how much the dragon shifters look up to him. He feels guilty for surviving and for not saving more of them, but to them, he is their hero and savior. Without him, there would be no dragon kingdom anymore, and the dragon shifters would have died out because the golden dragon could not grant them their dragon spirits anymore. He is crucial for their existence.

While the three of us continue our training, a group of dragon shifters has started to watch us curiously. This was exactly what Favian and I were hoping for. First, they would just be curious, then hopefully interested, and then, they might want to learn too. It helps that Elio is one of the first to learn to ride. As the prince, he holds importance to them.

Elio passes the crowd and waves at them, making a group of young girls giggle while the elderly people wave back at him. One person in particular sticks out to me, an elderly lady who is standing a little aside from the group. I’ve seen her in the palace a few times. Both Favian and Elio treat her with a lot of respect and love.

Also, now Elio waves and nods at her when he passes her, making sure to greet her in particular. “Who is she?” I ask Ludwig.

“That’s Margarete,” Ludwig explains. “She used to be Prince Elio’s nanny.”

His nanny! The one person Favian trusted with his brother’s life. “She is the one who fled together with him!”

“Yes, she saved the young prince,” Ludwig says. “She and Theodor. Theodor was just a teen back then, but took responsibility as Elio’s protector.”

I know that story, but I didn’t know much about Margarete yet. “I haven’t seen her a lot here,” I admit.

“She is of weak health,” Ludwig explains. “The king made sure that she is attended to and has one of the best chambers in the castle. Elio visits her daily. She has only started to feel better recently.”

I turn around and smile at the woman. When I catch her eye, I wave at her to come closer. “I apologize,” I tell her once she approaches us. “I wasn’t aware you were family.”

The old woman smiles warmly at me. “I didn’t want to disrupt the training.”

“You are not,” I reassure her. “I am Alana.”

“The Warrior Princess of the werewolf kingdom,” she chuckles. “Elio talked about you a lot. And the young king, too.” She pauses. “I am Margarete, but Elio calls me Maggie.”

Maggie! Now, I am finally putting the pieces together. Elio has talked about a ‘Maggie’ to me, but I never made the connection to her being his old nanny.

She coughs, making me look at her in worry. “Are you not feeling well?”

“Oh, child,” she smiles. “I am not getting any younger or healthier.” She pauses, her eyes drifting toward Elio. “I am glad that the young prince and the young king have someone at their side who will protect them. It puts my mind at ease.”

Something about her words make me feel sad. It’s the finality in them, but although she is rather old, she is a shifter, and shifters are longer lived than humans. Even when they are older in age, they are still rather strong and healthy.

“Maggie,” Elio exclaims when I help him lead Constantia back to us. “Did you watch me? Did you see how well I did?”

Margarete’s whole stance softens, and she smiles gently at him. “Yes, my boy is truly amazing.”

I let Ludwig help Elio off the horse as a practice for him. I hope in the future, he will be able to help me with potential riding lessons for other dragon shifters.

Elio instantly runs towards Margarete and hugs her. “Are you feeling better?” he asks. “Can you really go outside?”

“Our healer told me I can take a few steps outside,” she says. “The fresh air will do me good.”

“I will help Alana and Ludwig clean and attend to Constantia, then I can accompany you.”

“You can go now,” I tell him. “Ludwig can help me. Three people are too many anyway, and will just stress Constantia unnecessarily. Next time, you can help me, and Ludwig will take a break.”

“Is that really okay?” he asks.

“Of course,” Ludwig smiles at him. “You go and keep Margarete company.”

I smile when I see him beam happily and offer Margarete his arm. The two of them slowly walk towards the castle, while Elio chats happily with her. “She is like his mom, isn’t she?”

“I believe so,” Ludwig admits. “Theodor and she basically raised him.” He pauses. “Poor child. So young, and he already went through so much.”

“You all did,” I say quietly.

Ludwig tosses me a curious look before nodding. “In a way, you are right.” While I show him how to put the saddle away and how to brush a horse, he is lost in his thoughts. Then, however, he looks at me again. “I’ve heard that when war strikes a country, it takes up to three generations to overcome the trauma. Three generations, traumatized.” He shakes his head. “And for what?”

“I don’t know,” I say quietly.

“I just can’t believe the dark witch did it all just for power. For power! That’s such a shallow reason,” he looks frustrated. “If at least it would have been revenge.” He pauses to look at me again. “Why is there no reason I can understand?”

My own kingdom was at war with the human realm, the Everlasting Desert, for centuries under my great-grandfather and later under my grandfather’s reign. Then my father brought peace. I had the luck to grow up in a peaceful country. I can’t even imagine what the dragon shifters are experiencing right now. The anger, the sorrow, the grief… the questions they will never receive an answer to, and the meaninglessness of it all.

“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “I wish I could have an answer, something that makes sense. But it doesn’t. It never makes sense.”

“So, how were the boys doing?” Barbara asks me. I just had lunch with Favian before meeting with them. Ever since last night, I’ve been a lot less awkward around him, and I’m not feeling stupid or guilty for asking questions. So, I basically bombarded him with questions about Margerete, and he happily answered them. It seems like my showing interest in anything concerning his kingdom actually pleases him. I thought I would annoy him, but today he proved to me once more that I was just making assumptions.

“They weren’t too bad,” I tell her.

“Well, thank you,” Ludwig snorts. “Not too bad, huh? That’s just one step away from having failed completely.”

Barbara laughs at his comment. “Don’t worry, Alana,” she tells me. “It does his confidence some good to realize he isn’t good at everything.”

“So, it means that you think I’m usually good at everything I do?” Ludwig asks.

I can notice how Barbara’s cheeks flush slightly.

Oh yes, she does. I know dragon shifters similarly have fated mates, but with their numbers having declined so much in a short period of time, I don’t think it’s in any way condemnable that they are looking at the possibility of chosen mates.

I’m the last to judge anyway. If Ita had wanted me also, I would have taken her as a chosen mate in a heartbeat.

I still miss her so much. My best friend, my mentor and my shoulder to lean on, yet I feel like the heartache has gotten a bit less recently.

“From here on, we have to be really careful where we step,” Ludwig’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts. Both he and Barbara are fulfilling their promise to show me the seaside. It means we need to climb down the mountain on foot. We could all shift, but we agreed that it would be best for me to learn the path as a human first, to really understand its dangers, before shifting and letting Ros take the lead. I want to know the terrain as well as I can.

Ludwig and Barbara weren’t kidding when they warned me about the path. It’s steep and leads through thick snow, always in danger of setting off an avalanche. Once we pass the thick, snowy area, there is the mountain path to descend, a path so small and narrow I wouldn’t have spotted it if it hadn’t been for my two guides. Barbara and Ludwig know it well, however, so Barbara takes the lead while Ludwig walks behind me to help in case I need it.

The path leads through huge rocks and steep canyons.

“That’s a glacier,” Ludwig explains to me when we pass another snowfield with something shiny sparkling from below. “There is an opening to it close by. It’s endless. Please, no matter what you do, never step into it.”

“I can see now why you like to fly,” I mutter.

“It’s definitely safer,” Barbara agrees. “But we dragon shifters know these paths by heart. Also, for us, it’s important to know the terrain and understand the dangers. I was six years old when my father took me on this walk for the first time.”

“It’s dangerous,” I say, gazing around to take in the white around us, while right behind us, there is the thick, high mountain wall. “But it’s also majestic and beautiful.”

“Wait until you see the shore,” Ludwig says.

It takes us three hours to descend the mountain, and I assume the only reason we are that fast is because my two guides know exactly where to go. Once we reach the bottom of the mountain, I let out a sigh of relief. I made it. My first real trip through the Silent Mountain. Maybe I can convince Favian to show me even more. I feel like he knows the most secret and beautiful paths. I turn around, gazing at the massive mountain behind us, truly impressed by how high it is.

“It’s so high,” I say.

“Actually, it’s not that high,” Barbara explains. “Or we wouldn’t have made it in three hours. The other side of the mountain, leading to the werewolf kingdom, is much higher. However, it also has some easier paths and an actual road.”

“You are right. It just feels higher here because we basically climbed down in a straight line.”

“Come now,” Barbara beams at me and picks up her pace. “The ocean is waiting.”

Her excitement is contagious, and I find myself hurrying after her while Ludwig just groans and complains behind us. The rest of the path is rather flat and comfortable until I feel the noise of the waves coming closer and closer. Unlike the seaside border of my kingdom, the sea here isn’t as angry and wild. Flying on Favian’s back has already shown me that it’s much calmer.

I pause when we finally reach the shore, my eyes widening as I take in the whole picture. The whole shore is covered in thick ice, parts of the water too, and some seals are lying on it. The air is cold and salty but refreshing. “This is amazing,” I exclaim. “I didn’t notice it when I rode Favian’s dragon, but the water is so turquoise here!”

“It is truly beautiful,” Ludwig agrees, looking happy at my obvious excitement.

“You have seals here,” I beam.

“And penguins,” Barbara exclaims. “Though they aren’t always residing here.”

“Can I walk around?”

“Of course, just be careful when you step onto the ice,” Ludwig says. “I don’t want my king to behead me if something happens to you.”

He said it as a joke, but I still feel my cheeks warm up slightly. To diffuse my embarrassment, I walk around, taking everything in. I am in awe, that is, until I see an object close by. “What’s that?” I ask. “A small rock?”

Ludwig frowns and walks past me to inspect what’s ahead of us. “It’s an albatross,” he exclaims.

“What?” Barbara asks, hurrying towards him. I follow her, peeking over her shoulder. A beautiful big bird is lying on the ice, not moving. Ludwig inspects it carefully.

“It’s dead,” he mutters.

“What are the black stripes on its body?” I ask. “It almost looks like veins.”

Ludwig reaches out his hand, turning the bird on its back to reveal its stomach. It’s almost black.

“Don’t touch it,” Barbara says.

“It’s probably nothing, Barbara,” he says.

“We don’t know that,” she says. “It’s certainly weird. I haven’t seen anything like that before.”

“We should have it investigated,” I say.

Ludwig looks at both of us, shaking his head slightly. “I think you both made this into something bigger than it is,” he says. “But if it makes you feel better, we can return here tomorrow and check on it properly.”

He rummages for something in his bag before carefully shifting the bird and covering it with a black net, fixing it in the ice. “I want it to stay here until tomorrow,” he explains. “So, we can find it again.”

“Let’s go now,” Barbara urges. “It’s depressing, and I want Alana to see the beauty of the shore.”

I smile while I turn my attention back to her. “Take the lead, I will follow you.”