Lyra's POV
When I was little, the tale of the dragons was the most told tale to every child, and to me, who would grow up to be a leader in the pack, mine was more than a story it was a doctrine I had to abide by. It needed to be ingrained in my soul. It was important for every leader to know their enemies.
The rules were simple: never let your guard down. Two, know your enemies. And the third but most important. Be more vigilant when you win.
I let my guard down when I thought my brother was any different from all of these rules. When he walked into my room right after engaging in an argument with my father, I should have been more wary of his words and his mood. I should have seen his restrained anger in the systematic tap of his finger before I went to prepare for my coronation, and worst of all, I was stupid not to see that no one becomes happy all of a sudden after being ridiculed and compared.
I should have known he would grow bitter, but I let my guard down and let him into the room. The memories clouded my mind the same way tears clouded my vision. My breath was slightly dramatic, and my throat was sore and lumpy.
Pulling the soft fabric over my eyes, I let myself bask in the cold wind while I stared at the exotic sky; the dragon capital was very different from the wolf empire not only in ethics but also in beauty.
The tales have it that our worlds were built in the fashion that a god saw it. And the sun god was the most exuberant of them all. Being in Veyrax proved it right. There was no amount of storytelling that would have prepared me for this.
There was a spiral lane of bluish hue in the sky. scattered haphazardly like a trail of finger paint. The stories called them the paths leading to the bosoms of the gods; they were so scattered yet so beautiful.
The dragons didn't worship the moon. They worshipped the sun, and at night when the sun god was residing in his resting place, his sons took over; two of them aligned in the sky. Luma, the eldest, had a flowing ring around him like a waterfall of smoke; he was the most worshiped. Helios, known as the simple god, had a resemblance to the moon, and I couldn't help but adore his simplicity.
Edged on the far corner of the sky, he shone the brightest light without contradiction. I wanted to reach out to him to hold it, to engulf myself in its calmness. I was also reminded how far I was from a moon. And how alone I was, stripped of my identity and trapped in the enemy's land. My vision blurred again, and the tickling sensation on my skin remained prominent.
I had no idea how long I stared or how long Alisha watched before she came to me. She had blocked my view with her bright smile, which dropped the moment our eyes met. Taken aback by her sudden appearance, I rose to my feet, but she shoved me down, stopping me from headbutting her face.
"Stay… Don't move; you don't need to hide out here all alone." She said before taking a seat on the pavement as I have done.
"When we were given a house to stay in." She started right when she took her seat. Her eyes resting on the cloud too, her voice slow and calm, I watched her recoil her legs till they were wrapped within her arms, and she rested her head on her kneecaps.
"Maryam told us to cast our fears away. That we have been lied to from the beginning, and generation after generation has told us lies about these demons."
The pace at which she spoke piqued my attention. Slow and steady, she slightly forced a smile, which barely met her eyes, her pupils slightly dilating until they were too pitiful to look at. I never thought a day would come when she wasn't bubbly and passive, and I didn't know how to act.
Reach out? My fingers stretched at will, but then she spoke again.
"She told us we could call them demons and pray against them. But we should also understand that the people who sold us were our people. or loved once a fellow human who saw us fit as livestock or trade."
I thought of my brother. Both of us were the best of peers; we were best friends before we became soldiers, before the throne was even in view.
"She said the humans weren't any better than the demons we claim were evil. And she told us she has been here for years and has experienced more compassion with them than she has ever had outside. And if we try to see that we will be helping each other live a better life, we will notice how we are not so different."
My vision blurred again
"I knew you were not from around here the moment you headbutted a guy while in chains. It was obvious you are not used to this kind of life, which explains you sitting in the cold when everyone is huddled inside."
My tongue went heavy with unsaid words. I wondered if she would be so accepting if I told her I wasn't human, we were too different for her to be close by. That if I had my wolf still active within me, she wouldn't be safe even a mile from me. but my worries were met with warm arms.
Alisha had thrown her arms around me, then tapped my back. Words failed me, and my body eased into hers. Her calming scent had me burying my nose deeper into her shoulder blades like a coward afraid to show her face, I buried myself there till I couldn't feel the warm tears or the ache.
After what seemed like forever, my sadness was replaced by guilt and foreign embarrassment.
"You are one strange lady, you know that, right?"
Peeling myself from her addictive bosom, I met a familiar smile. Bubbly and cheerful, the sorrowful look was absent, and the girl I met on the way to Veyrax stared at me.
"Do you know I thought they looked ugly… But damn, I haven't met one beast in what? two days, I expected them to be evil-looking, but the only thing evil here is my thoughts—did you see the one they call Lord Kealith?"
Maybe it was her excitement or her innocence, but it made me chuckle just hearing her speak so freely.
"Lord Kealith is one of the oldest dragons here." I chirped in. "He's over a hundred years old!" At least that's what the books said. He was present in the war and, even as a child, had killed enough wolves; he was a demon alright.
Her eyes beamed in surprise. She didn't even know the half of it.
"Wow, he certainly doesn't look it, he looks like young, and I mean young, young!"
"The skin you see is merely a cover-up; it doesn't fade easily." Time in our realm, even though it was shielded by an invisible line only supernaturals could feel, was different. Time moved more slowly here; a hundred years here meant a thousand years in the human realm. I didn't need to tell her how old I was either.
I regarded her reaction to the new information, and I saw her looking at the sky like I had done earlier, but with fascination.
"I like the one with rings around it, it's so beautiful, like a stream of smoke. But the other one? "
"Yeah?" She looked at me again, still holding her smile.
"It looks like you. Weird but bright."