Chapter 6 (2/2)

Suddenly, I heard the sound of something hard hitting the window.

I crawled out from under the blankets, hurriedly wiped my face, and tried to look calm as I peered out the window.

Fruys was tapping on the windowpane with his wings.

I opened the window, and the cold night air gently blew in.

Fruys looked at me with an expression I had trouble understanding.

“I was about to go to bed when I noticed that the lights were still on here. Also, there were sounds,” he explained.

I remembered that a dragon’s senses were much sharper than an ordinary human’s. He lived right next door to me, and our balconies were connected. He would naturally notice if I had the light on.

I didn’t know what to say. However, there was no way I could say that I was crying from reading Haider’s poetry.

I could only lower my head, and tell him, “It’s nothing.”

Fruys was silent.

After some time, he asked me, “Do you want know how it feels like to fly?”

I looked up at him with astonishment.

After spending almost a year with him, I knew very well that dragons were extremely proud. I gave up long ago on the notion that I’d be able to ride on his back for a quick flight.

I think my eyes and the expression on my face completely gave me away.

Hurriedly draping on a cloak, I pushed the door to the balcony open and headed outside. Fruys had flown some distance away, and he swooped back in like lightning before biting my lapel and twisting his neck to place me on his back.

I was completely caught off guard and had a dizzy spell for a moment. By the time I got a hold of myself, my arms had already wrapped themselves tightly around his neck by instinct.

Fruys brought us shooting straight into the skies with a loud roar—the moon, the stars, and rolling clouds all seemed like they were just within my reach. The night air was very cold, but I was too excited and ecstatic to mind.

I could see a panorama of my fief and the neighboring territories—the earth and the sky were vast, and I could even see the still Sea of Death. Over there, on the other side of the sea, was Fruys’s home. And there was even a larger world over the horizon.

My heart suddenly felt at peace and warm. It was as if the vast expanse of the unknown no longer made me afraid. All I needed was to follow my heart, and continue moving forward.

One mustn’t grow arrogant from victory nor lose heart from defeat.

Fruys slowed down, and we drifted among the moon and the stars in silence.

Only when I pressed flat on his back, s.h.i.+vering, did Fruys once again pick up speed. We returned to the fortress very quickly.

When I was back on the balcony, he drew his face close and nuzzled my neck.

“You’re so cold.” His voice like ice berry wine had a ting of annoyance. I suddenly found myself being picked up by the lapel again and placed on his back before being carried into his room. He used his claws to brush me off and envelope me in the embrace of his belly.

Curled up against his chest like that, I felt like some kind of small animal that was wrapped in the palm of his hand.

However, the euphoria of experiencing my long-cherished wish soon occupied my thoughts, and I immediately fell asleep in Fruys’s arms while reminiscing the sensation of soaring over the sea of clouds.

I think Fruys really is a great dragon.

He was nothing like those dragons in the stories—those powerful, bad-tempered dragons who reigned over the skies like tyrants, those human-despising creatures who destroyed cities and laid waste to the land.

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