Page 21 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Alezya gasped for air; all of it had left her lungs the second her body hit the ground.

Her only luck was that there was snow down there too.

The few inches of treacherous white coating had softened her fall a bit, just a bit.

Right now though, she was in too much pain to move, even with all the willpower she could muster.

Her body was done obeying her nonsense, it was just subjected to too much pain to endure anymore.

Black and white dots were like bugs appearing in front of her eyes, warning her this was her limit. No, she had gone past her limits a long while ago already. Somewhere in her heart too, Alezya settled a bit. If this was the end, at least she was hidden a bit.

Perhaps they wouldn’t find her?

Men shouting nearby proved her wrong. To her despair, it didn’t take minutes before she heard the damp sound of someone falling next to her; unlike her, they had seen the crevice and jumped down there.

She was still lying down, but with a heroic and last attempt at bravery, she struggled to get back up; all she managed was to get on her elbow and look up.

She recognized one of her father’s men; he was staring down at her with a vicious smirk on his face like she was some trash, some prey he’d managed to hunt down .

“There you are, you traitor!”

There was no need to answer that; no answer was expected.

Alezya knew she had lost, and she didn’t have it in her to throw some bitter response.

Instead, she stubbornly kept trying to move.

It was strange, to know that she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, and yet to want to keep trying.

It was like she had carved an intention with hot iron in her mind, and her body kept obeying mindlessly.

She could only move so little and drag the lower half of her body behind her, managing to crawl perhaps three inches.

“She’s here!”

“That damn swine! Where did you think you were running to, you cursed whore?!”

Their insults fell on deaf ears, literally.

Somehow Alezya’s ears were ringing too much as more black and white dots had appeared, and she couldn’t hear anything.

If she did, she would have heard the furious growl of the dragon, somewhere above their heads, that got both men to jolt and look up in fright.

“That damn monster,” one of them hissed. “It got three of us!”

“Let’s grab that whore and just get home quickly. Where is her bastard?”

“That thing is not here?” said a third man who had just jumped down with them.

They cursed and looked around, but they wouldn’t find Lumie there; that information should have comforted Alezya, but then again, she didn’t hear it.

Instead, she saw the dots getting bigger, and her head heavier.

Her entire body was getting incredibly light, like she was about to float.

A fourth man arrived in the crevice out of breath.

“That wretched monster got four of us!” he shouted. “It’s not even hunting, it’s on a rampage!”

“Tell us where you put your bastard!”

One of the men tried to grab Alezya, but by reflex, she fought him off.

More exactly, he grabbed her arms and she used her hands to try and push him away.

People about to fall unconscious cannot close their fists properly, and that was exactly the case for her.

Her hands were just weakly trying to move around and keep that man away from her, but even as he held her up, her whole body felt way too heavy to move.

One of the men suddenly grabbed her hair, pulling it furiously.

“You whore! Where is that bastard?!”

The sudden movement hurt her neck, but at least, the other man let go.

Alezya felt herself about to pass out, and she was sure she would not wake up from it.

Either those men would kill her or she would die from her injuries, she had already given up on any hope of surviving.

She was completely exhausted in every way and done fighting.

Her head was heavy, and if it wasn’t for that man pulling her hair, it would have happily laid in the snow with the rest of her body, ready to give in to the soothing call of numbness.

Somewhere above their heads, another growl was heard, and she found the strength in herself to wish that the dragon would just eat them all. ..

“Who is tha–Argh!”

Alezya was too tired to feel the sudden change of atmosphere around her. All she noticed was that at some point, the man had let go of her hair, and her head was now resting against the snow.

Finally being able to lie down was a relief she hadn’t expected.

She was so tired, she could gratefully pass out.

But it didn’t happen right away. For some reason, her body wasn’t ready to fully give up yet.

Perhaps she was too tired to even pass out.

She felt herself in a strange state, like she was just a passenger in the broken vessel that was her body, observing a scene that had nothing to do with her.

Her eyes saw the sudden flashes of crimson that stained the scene around her, but her head didn’t register the potential danger, or even that it was blood. It didn’t matter anymore, as the darkness finally swallowed her.

Being unconscious is different from being asleep. There is no consciousness left, not even a single thought, nothing that happens.

That’s why for most, unconsciousness feels like it happened only for a fraction of a second, for their mind is completely blanked out during the period they were unconscious. One doesn’t dream, think, or even realize time passes. The body and mind are completely shut off.

Thus, Alezya couldn’t have been completely passed out because very briefly, she had moments where she felt carried, her body moving independently from her will.

Somehow, she found it incredibly soothing to be simply carried away by something that seemed incredibly warm and gentle.

And then, she’d go back to the darkness, or what she thought to be death.

She didn’t die. That was the first thought that came to mind as she gradually woke up.

Her body was sore and painful, that might have been what helped her wake up.

Her stomach felt tightened by painful hunger too.

Everything else was strangely comfortable though, something she hadn’t experienced in a long while.

During the time it took for her to fully regain consciousness, she was aware of being on something soft, and her whole body being surrounded by delicious warmth.

She had grown so accustomed to the cold that this sensation felt eerie to her.

Her eyes slowly opened, and they felt horribly dry, a strange sensation that was pulling on her skin around them a bit.

The place around her was so dark that she didn’t need to adjust at all; in fact, her eyes were immediately drawn to the only source of light, a small fire flickering several steps away, its glow casting faint shadows against the walls.

She was too exhausted to move her head, but even in her peripheral vision, she could tell she was in some kind of human dwelling.There were wooden pillars with fabric running all around them, sheltering the large place.

It felt strange for her to see a place created by man that could be as large as some of the natural caves that had been claimed by the wealthiest of her people.

The floor was even and covered by a patchwork of short fur rugs.

There was some wooden furniture, although most of it was bare, and in a corner, a set of shiny plates that looked like battle braces, and several swords lined up.

The sight of weapons should have alarmed Alezya, but she was too tired to move or even think of running away.

Not only that, but aside from the foreign environment, there was no one around.

As she was lying on her side, she couldn’t see what was behind her, but from the shape of the room, she could tell the bed she was on was against the wall of this habitation; thus, there couldn’t be anyone. She was alone.

This allowed her some time to remember the recent events.

As unbelievable as it seemed to her, she had survived.

How, she had no idea. Had the dragon eaten everyone but her?

She had a vague sensation that something had happened right before she passed out, but she couldn’t remember what.

Was she with another clan, then? She had never heard of a clan that had such habitations, but she knew there were a lot of clans up north that she knew nothing about.

.. Perhaps they had established themselves in faraway plains?

If so, she was far from the mountain she used to belong to.

Lumie . Her child suddenly came to mind, and she panicked in silence. A cold shiver ran down her spine at the realization.

Where was she? Had this clan found her too? Was she safe?

Not knowing if her baby had survived or not was a torture worse than any physical pain she could have endured.

She tried to move, hoping to get up to find someone and ask, but her whole body winced in protest. She was badly hurt, and only now was she fully realizing just how badly.

Everything hurt, literally so, and it was worse when she tried to move.

As she had tried anyway, her hand came into sight. It was covered in bandages, and smelled of something she didn’t recognize. Alezya took a minute to try and stubbornly move her body, taking the full measure of what had been done to it.

All of her injuries were bandaged. She could even feel some strange paste on her lip where it had been cut.

Her feet were the most painful of all, but she could tell they were also bandaged all the way up to her ankles and something cooling had been spread on her soles.

Her flank was covered by bandages tightened around her waist too; she could feel them with each breath she took.

She wasn’t wearing anything but her underwear, all her clothes were gone.