Third Person POV
Three days of roads that had not been maintained in years, full of stones that rattled the carriage until Helen's bones ached. Of the cold that crept in through every gap in the curtains, no matter how many times Kai pressed them shut. Three days of their baby against her chest, warm and oblivious, making small sounds in her sleep that were the only soft thing about any of it.
The landscape had changed the further they traveled. The familiar forests of Zanzia gave way to something older and less visited, trees that grew taller and closer together, their canopies blocking out the sky until the light that reached the road was dim and grey and had already passed through too many layers to carry any warmth. The air thinned. The cold deepened. And the sky, when they could see it, had taken on the colour of iron left out in the rain.
Now they stood at the gates of the Dragon King's territory.
Helen looked up.
