Page 150 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
“Listen,” Lorey said calmly. “We have never fully... understood everything there is to know about dragons. No one has ever seen them lay an egg, nor do we know how they sense when their owner fathers a child that’s not even in their body as soon as the child is conceived.
We don’t know how they can even reproduce while being genderless and incapable of mating.
We don’t know how your oldest brother’s dragon knew it had to hatch early to save your mother.
We don’t know how your father’s dragon sensed your mother was related to the original tribe of the Water Dragon, either.
Your sister Cessilia told us about another dragon that survived his owner’s death for years to protect his sister, and you know her own dragon came back to life years after we all thought she died.
Your grandmother told us countless incredible stories, Kiera, like how your grandfather’s dragon scales changed color to turn gold when he became the Emperor or how a centuries-old dragon gave its life to resuscitate one human.
We know for sure that stranger miracles have happened.
Why is it so hard to believe that Kein could sense that Lumie would be Kassein’s adoptive child and decide to give her a baby dragon as well? ”
A heavy silence fell, and eventually, Kiera was the first to move and throw her hands up in a defeated movement.
“A headache,” she finally mumbled. “This is going to be such a headache... Gods, Tievin’s going to go crazy with that one. Nobody tells him without me there; I want to see that.”
“You may think it’s crazy,” Lorey chuckled, ”but my theory is the only one that holds up, love. There’s no better explanation as to why Niiru hatched so fast while being Kein’s and is now stuck to Alezya. Kassein adopting Lumie is the only explanation that works. Look at it!”
They did, and Niiru had gone from playing around with Kein to rubbing its back against Alezya’s legs like an overgrown cat.
Kassein and Kiera exchanged a long look, having a silent conversation with their eyes.
Although Lorey’s theory was indeed crazy, it still made a whole lot of sense.
They had grown up in a family of eight siblings, and they knew Niiru was the size of a toddler’s dragon.
Plus, there was no denying how obsessed that young dragon was with Alezya.
“Alezya has scales,” Kassein noted, gently raising her wrist to show them.
“ White scales,” Lorey noted, ”from the baby she’s carrying, the one with its dragon in the white egg. So, Niiru...”
“Niiru came from that hatched black egg and has to be Lumie’s,” Kiera scoffed. “Alright, got it. This is insane, but let’s just... run with that one because I’m out of ideas. And I have to admit that little shit does look like Kein.”
It was unmistakable whenever Niiru was near Kein; the young dragon was indeed a copy of Kein, except for its colors: all black scales and amber eyes.
After a beat, Kassein gently took Lumie out of Alezya’s arms and, under her confused eyes, put her toddler down on the ground.
Immediately, Niiru came near, and instead of sniffing her like it did the other humans present, it immediately jumped over the little girl’s legs, and swirled around her grabby hands, making Lumie squeal.
Alezya seemed a bit nervous at first to see the dragon so close to her child, but after a few seconds of observing the two of them playing around, she relaxed.
Soon enough, they were chasing after each other in the garden, both of them on all fours, and though the young dragon was obviously faster, it made loops around Lumie, delighting the little girl.
“Are you spending the night here?” Lorey asked Kassein.
He nodded.
“Alright,” she smiled. “I’ll go and prepare a bath for you. You could both use one, no offense... Kiera?”
“Yes, yes, I’m leaving,” Kiera grimaced.
“I’m going to sleep in the mountains, on the floor of some cave, with a bunch of stinky men, while my brother gets to sleep all comfy in his bed in the Onyx Castle while I watch his army prepare for the battle that he decided to launch for his girlfriend. No big deal!”
Just then, her dragon, Kiki, appeared above them in a swift flap of wings, and while the dark gray dragon elegantly landed, three balls of bright colors hit the ground.
Alezya gasped and immediately went to grab Lumie, visibly rendered nervous by the triplets.
It was a fair reaction, given that the three of them immediately began fighting on the ground, with loud growls and rowdy movements, and twice, one of them bumped into Niiru before jumping to attack a sibling again.
The triplets were about two or three times its size, and after being knocked over twice, the tiny dragon quickly darted to stay next to Kein, hiding under its wing, intimidated.
When the triplets finally noticed the smaller dragon, a growl from Kein prevented them from picking on Niiru.
“Those little–” Kiera hissed. “You’ve hunted and ran all day already, will you calm down? Do you know how many times I had to stop them from biting people’s toes today? What’s with their obsession with toes? Those can’t possibly be any good to eat!”
“...Baby dragons?” Alezya asked with a nervous voice, her eyes riveted on the rowdy bunch.
“Those are children dragons,” Lorey chuckled. “They’re small but not babies anymore. Ten years old.”
Alezya nodded at her ten raised fingers, but she was still giving a defiant look to the three little terrors, who were now off on a race around the Onyx Castle, it seemed.
“I am not taking those three shitstains for the night,” Kiera hissed. “You’re in charge of those little assholes. As if it wasn’t already enough that you left without a word earlier and left me behind with them...”
“Yes, yes,” Lorey smiled, walking up to her to press a kiss on her cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ve got them. Kassein will bring them back in the morning.”
Kiera’s frown lessened a bit after a look from Lorey, and she let out a sigh.
As her partner seemed pacified, Lorey walked back inside, and for some reason, the triplets followed behind her, perhaps excited to explore the Onyx Castle or maybe hoping she’d feed them.
Once they were gone, Niiru popped its head from under Kein’s wing and made its way back to Alezya’s feet.
“Speaking of the morning... Now that you’ve got your girl back, what’s the plan?” Kiera asked, turning her eyes back to her brother. “We were looking for her, but now that we’ve got her, do we keep attacking the tribes? Not that I mind, but–”
“Alezya has a plan,” he said.
Kiera’s jaw dropped.
“Excuse me?” she scoffed. “ She has a plan? What do you–”
“She has allied with tribes that do not want to fight us,” Kassein said, his eyes on Alezya, who was returning his gaze with a little frown, Lumie pressed against her chest. “They will be joining our army to fight those who attacked her. Her home tribe wants to attack us.”
“...Alright,” Kiera muttered. “I don’t really care whose butts we kick, to be honest. But how do you know that...?”
“She told me. She had me meet them too,” he said, pride coating his words.
“Alezya managed to save herself, and she met with other tribes. When I found her, there was some sort of meeting going on, but they were fighting. Those who were on Alezya’s side called themselves the Munsa.
They took me back to their home, and there were more people there, probably other tribes.
The tribespeople she showed me respected and listened to her. ”
After a beat, Kiera sighed and gave him a nod.
“Fine. I mean, that woman has proven time and time again that she’s smart... but are we sure they want us to keep fighting? They don’t want us to just fuck off?”
“No. Alezya said some tribes were still hunting... attacking the others, and she wants us to fight alongside them.”
He glanced down, and Alezya was intently staring at him, probably trying to decipher each word. He gave her a gentle smile and petted her hair, trying to comfort her while she hugged Lumie against her chest.
“I see,” Kiera nodded. “Well, not that I mind a good brawl, and your men might enjoy an actual fight too. All the tribes we’ve come across so far were busier running away than actually defending their homes, for some reason.”
That was mostly due to the trio of young dragons running absolutely berserk inside the tunnels; Kassein hadn’t anticipated the triplets being so efficient, but the three of them were terrorizing the tribes before any of his men could even launch attacks.
While it was a lot of fun for the young dragons, he had no intention of putting them in any more danger.
It had been fine for them to run amok, and truthfully, the three of them were too small and too fast for the tribespeople to land a blow, but in a real battle, he couldn’t guarantee one of them wouldn’t be hurt.
“Let’s bring Tievin to the camp tomorrow,” Kassein said.
“Tievin?” Kiera raised an eyebrow with a sneer. “You want to bring your paperwork guy to a battlefield? He’s already two seconds from shitting himself on a normal day in the camp, Kassein!”
“If we’re going to negotiate with the tribes and convince them we can be their allies, we can’t only have fighters present. Tievin can stay at the back with the young dragons.”
“...You want Tievin to babysit the triplets?” Kiera chuckled. “Kassein, they’re going to eat him alive!”
“He’ll be fine.”
Tievin ranted a lot, but Kassein knew there was no chance the young dragons would actually harm him; they had been raised not to harm humans, despite the impression they gave their enemies. While painful, their bites were just their way of playing and never meant to actually maim, more of a nibble.