Page 17 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

He could hear Kein growling nearby, but for once, he didn’t have to watch out for his dragon’s attack; just temporarily, they were on the same side. In fact, he could even feel his dragon’s silver eyes on him, warning him to hurry up, or else...

Kassein kept jumping and diving, regardless of his body aching.

He scratched over the scales he already had, scraped his finger’s skin, and disregarded his own safety completely while hurrying down.

Even for one with the miraculous Dragon Blood, a fall from a mountain to crash on rocks below could be deadly, but he wasn’t one to care much for his own safety, not when he had something on his mind.

Thus, he kept going at a crazy fast pace, much faster than the men who were running opposite to him to get there too.

Why were so many men after one woman? Were some of them coming to her rescue?

That was unlikely. From their attire, he could tell they were all from the same tribe.

Moreover, they kept shouting, and the one answering them was one of the three surrounding that woman.

.. His dragon growled and took down one more man right when Kassein was finally getting there.

He jumped into the crevasse, taking all the men by surprise.

They all recognized the enemy at once, though.

The one who had been pulling the woman’s hair let go immediately and they all pulled out their weapons: curved blades and strange, two-bladed, pointy daggers.

Kassein felt the anger rise as he was now close enough to see the situation under a clearer light: the woman was heavily injured, while none of those men were.

She wasn’t unharmed, yet they were. All the blood on the snow belonged to one person, and as the man had let go of her hair, her head had fallen down against the white ground as if she was too tired to keep it up.

Her eyes were open, but they were those of someone clearly exhausted, almost unconscious. It only fueled his anger more.

The three barbarians attacked, but just like their peers trying to escape a dragon, they had no chance.

Kassein swung his sword one, two, three times, one neat movement for each kill.

Everything went quiet around him for a few seconds.

And then, Kein growled above his head. He glanced up, but as expected, his dragon could only fly in annoyed circles above them, its tail swishing the air.

Its big size wasn’t an advantage in irregular spaces like this.

Still, Kein soon resumed hunting the barbarians coming their way, so Kassein knew he probably wouldn’t have more enemies to face.

He cleaned his sword, and slowly walked up to the woman.

She had fallen unconscious while he was busy killing those men, her body lying still in the snow.

From one glance, Kassein could tell a bit of what had happened; her hands and feet were the most injured, bleeding all over.

She had probably gotten hurt while trying to run from those men.

He glanced up and realized she had likely not chosen to trap herself down here, but fallen off that cliff right above their heads, into this small crevice.

This explained why most of her injuries hadn’t been caused by those men’s weapons. .. Still, she was in bad shape.

Kein growled impatiently again and Kassein glared back.

The dragon was probably done with its hunt, and didn’t enjoy waiting.

.. Kassein sighed, put his sword in its sheath behind him, and walked over to the woman.

He couldn’t help but stare at her face; she looked young, but her eyes, nose, and lips were reddened by the cold.

Tears had drawn faint lines on her face, and even unconscious, she was slightly frowning.

From the pain? Kassein got down on one knee, and very gently, put his arms under her legs and shoulders.

She was lighter than he had anticipated, but she groaned as he lifted her; she had definitely broken a few bones from her fall.

Her long black hair fell off her shoulder as he got back up.

She had really pretty hair, black as a crow’s feather and smooth as silk, like he’d never seen before.

In fact, it was the first time Kassein had ever seen a female barbarian.

From her clothing and skin color, she was definitely one of those barbarians, so why had those men chased her?

Would this be considered taking her away from her people if he took her back with him?

Either way, he didn’t have a choice. None of her people had come to her aid, far from it, and if he left her here, she’d die of the cold and blood loss in a matter of hours.

Her feet were so severely damaged, all he could see was blood dripping from her wrecked shoes.

Kassein didn’t hesitate much longer before climbing out of the crevice carrying the foreign woman.

Because she was so light, it wasn’t too hard for him to get back, although he had to move much more slowly and carefully than before.

It took him a little while to find his way back to his men, and all along the journey, he felt Kein hovering over his head.

His dragon had gone surprisingly silent ever since he had picked up the woman, but Kassein could feel it watching like a hawk.

This got him quite nervous, but this was also the first time he and his dragon had been in the same vicinity without trying to murder each other; nervousness made sense.

“Commander! Where did…?”

His men’s questions died as soon as they noticed the woman he was carrying. They exchanged glances, visibly all confused, but none dared to protest or question him about this unprecedented situation. The woman’s horrible state and the way Kassein was carrying her gently spoke volumes already.

“We’re going back,” Kassein simply said.

Although they had all waited for this raid to battle some barbarians, none of them voiced their disappointment.

Instead, they quickly gathered into formation again and followed their leader.

They also quickly noticed the large shadow that kept hovering over them, and while they were frightened the first few times, they quickly stopped reacting to it, leaving their questions suspended on the way back to the camp.

Kassein didn’t glance at his dragon again; he was solely focused on that woman and bringing her back as quickly and safely as possible.

Was she even going to make it? She looked too weak and in critical condition.

This prompted him to hurry back even faster, and he reached the camp in half the time they had needed to go up.

They weren’t expected back so soon either; the sentinels had to run to go get Tievin, and by the time he arrived, Kassein was already marching into the camp, gathering curious eyes around him.

“Wha–... What is this?” Tievin exclaimed as he saw the woman in Kassein’s arms.

“Call a doctor,” the Prince simply said.

It was an order this time, not a request. Still dumbfounded, Tievin gestured impatiently for a nearby soldier to go and fetch the closest medical unit. As he was still moving his hand, the large shadow suddenly flying above them caused all the men around them to panic.

“Dragon! Dragon incoming!”

But Kein landed with a loud growl and, to the men’s surprise, with no visible intention to harm its owner.

The men hesitated, swords drawn, and directed all their eyes to the Commander in Chief for an explanation, or at least an indication as to what to do.

Kassein was standing there, still carrying that woman, only slightly turned toward the dragon.

It was a surreal scene. The dragon and the Prince stared at each other for a long time.

The dragon growled in a menacing manner, but didn’t move.

It was just showing its fangs as Kassein was squinting his eyes at it, the two of them completely still in this strange stand-off.

“Your Highness, the medical unit is on their way.”

“...To my tent,” Kassein simply hissed.

He turned his back to the dragon and began walking toward his tent. Tievin’s jaw dropped, but no sound came out. He glanced at the still-growling Kein, and after a few seconds of trying to make sense out of this situation and failing, he sighed.

“Yes, sir.”

He hurried after him.