She went up to her room with a heavy heart. In the behavior of the fair-haired general, I traced a certain strangeness.

They're enemies.

They came to take...

Conquer, pacify and rule.

But this white dragon didn't even put us in prison.

He didn’t take them out to the courtyard, he didn’t flog them as losers. Not humiliated and not crushed like bedbugs.

He did nothing that is usually done to those who are deprived of power.

Although... In fairness, it must be admitted that they have no one to fight with in this castle.

A cripple, a peasant woman, and two empty-headed Lehrs with a draft running through their ears.

That's all the enemies. Both funny and scary.

Krites… I was worried about him the most.

Of course we weren't close. Never! All these years I have not heard a single kind word from him. Didn't feel supported.

But he's not a stranger.

Younger brother…

“Alicia, you are pale,” Talya closed the door of the room.

“My knee hurts,” I admitted honestly.

“And I spent all my strength on the lerd,” she threw up her hands in annoyance. - It wasn't worth it...

“Nothing.” I sat down on the only chair in the room.

“I’ll be empty for two days,” my sister persisted. - If only bit by bit poured into you ...

- I'll be patient, Talya. The important thing is that we are both alive. And still in my house

“He scared me.” She sighed heavily and sat down on the chest by the bed. - How he looked, as if the soul was burned. You know, the feeling is as if he has launched claws in his heart. I thought I would just petrify there with fright.

“This man seemed reasonable and tired to me,” I said softly.

He's creepy, he's handsome. But in his eyes, this has never happened to me before. I look into his eyes and thoughts in different directions, and it's so hot in my chest ...

Smiling, she waved her hand and, rising, walked to the door leading to the balcony. She opened it.

She took a deep breath and nodded.

A huge red dragon circled over the ocean.

He furiously opened his mouth, pouring flames over the cold waters, as if taking out fierce anger on them.

So much fury, anger... Frozen at the railing, I could not take my eyes off him.

It was as if something was tormenting him. Didn't rest...

Turning around, the dragon flew towards the castle. Having made several circles over the courtyard, he rushed to the rocks.

There, where the wide river flowed into the ocean.

Where I loved to play as a child.

The dragon did not hold back the flame, scorching the ground, burning grass and low bushes.

He seemed to be trying to destroy the place itself. Turn him to ashes.

Frightened watching the actions of the frantic general, I understood that such a one would hardly spare. And it is better to let my life be in the hands of his relative.

With a war cry that sent chills down my spine, the dragon returned to the castle and, striking the south tower spire with its tail, flew straight at me.

I probably should have hidden in the room, but I just tightened my grip on the cane.

The pain in my knee was slowly driving me crazy.

Noticing me, the frightening lizard slowed down and, circling around the roof, clumsily caught on the wall and slid down to my balcony. Stone chips fell. Up close, the dragon looked enormous. Having occupied almost the entire terrace, the general bowed his head and blew smoke from his nose.

The bright red scales fit snugly together and gleamed in the sun. Three sharp combs adorned his neck. Spikes on the tail...

Bowing its head, the dragon reached out to me. We were separated by one small step.

He exhaled, warm wisps of smoke touched my skin warming.

I stood paralyzed with fear and just looked into his glowing green eyes. Inhuman...

I saw my reflection in them. Disheveled, hairs were knocked out of a light braid in all directions. Huge blue eyes, in which such horror froze.

I felt ashamed of my weakness.

Blinking, I gathered my will into a fist and forced myself to turn away. He growled, but that didn't stop him. Slowly rearranging the cane, limping heavily on my injured right leg, I simply returned to the room.

And all this under the gaze of the dragon.

Shaking with fear, she awkwardly sat on the bed and froze.

Talya was no longer in the room.

I heard the dragon moving awkwardly across the terrace, climbing the wall. How small stones crumble, jumping out from under his paws.

He growled, got angry...

A flap of wings, and terrible flames poured from my balcony towards the nearest rocks.

This general, without a doubt, possessed magic, and not weak.

But what does he want here on the roof of my tower?

Another powerful flapping of wings. Loud, deafening...

The dragon jumped up and took off into the sky.

The air was shattered by his bone-chilling roar.

Closing my eyes, I prayed to the Great Elemental Gods so that his anger would subside and we would not be touched.

***

Until the evening I sat in my room. Occasionally, Talya came and brought news. They seemed disappointing to me.

Krites is in the room. The castle is full of dragons that poke their noses into all the cracks. The sisters were completely locked up.

My stomach cramped from hunger, but I did not dare to leave my quarters. She still remembered the angry roar of the red general.

It was getting dark.

Loud footsteps were heard on the stairs. Heavy, but at the same time, some indecisive. They then faded, then heard again. I quieted down.

Swallowing, she quickly realized that Talya could not own steps.

Silence. And again the dull echo of the sound of boots. It seemed to be moving away.

But the man stopped and returned to the door.

What does he need? Why does he walk up and down the stairs leading to my quarters. What he can't decide.

Fear gripped the heart.

With good intentions, hardly anyone would show up to me.

The sound of footsteps was getting closer. I could easily make out the soft clang of metal.

The Dragon!

Only they tamp the heels of their boots with plates of iron.

Someone stood outside my door and just stood there.

It was scary as hell. Pulling my head into my shoulders, I frantically tried to figure out what to do. Who can stand there?

There was a heavy silence. She pressed like a wall. Gathering what little courage still remained in me and trying not to make a sound, I got up from my chair, put down my embroidery and, taking my cane, slowly walked to the door.

I listened. Breath. Heavy. Male.

Suppressing the impulse to speak to the uninvited guest and find out why he came here, she turned around and hurried to the balcony.

I tried not to make noise.

Bypassing a large box with a lush bush, she hid behind it, stretching out her leg. Not anyhow some kind of shelter, but at least not in plain sight.

My knee was already hurting badly. And now I was ready to scream from the agony that it brought me.

Large tears rolled down from his eyes. Such melancholy and hopelessness settled in my soul.

Helplessness.

***

Sitting in my precarious hiding place, I kept wondering if that uninvited guest had left.

Who was that?

A lost warrior or a rapist who found out that a weak lera lives in the back rooms of the castle? A woman who can't fight back. The tears have dried up. There was only an emptiness in my soul. It's like I've lost something important.

Just what? Haven't figured it out yet.

She tilted her head back and rested her head on the side of the box. The sweet scent of fading flowers wafted around. Heavy clouds rolled across the darkening sky. The wind drove them somewhere deep into the mainland. Screams of rare gulls. The weather changed so rapidly that it was impossible to predict what it would be like in an hour.

Stars in a clear sky or a tedious lingering rain.

It's always been that way in the fall.

How much has already passed. An hour, maybe more. I would go back to the room, but I just didn’t have the strength to get up.

The body is frozen.

Stretched out on the floor of the balcony terrace, I watched dark clouds gather from the ocean.

The space was again filled with the wild cry of the dragon.

In his fury, the red general, having circled the eastern tower, rushed to the territory of the dragon kind. Where my Frodi once lived.

Hovering over the gorge, a huge lizard released a flame.

“No…” I whispered with my lips. - Do not dare!

If he burns the log, I will never be able to return to where I once was so happy.

In its incomprehensible anger, the dragon destroyed the field through which I ran to the oak grove.

- You something that does not live? I breathed. What pain is tormenting your soul?

Closing her eyes, she heard another roar. His kinsman, the white dragon, hurried to his brother. Hovering over the raging fire, he brought down a stream of water on the gorge.

Baring his teeth in displeasure, the red one let out such a battle cry that the hairs on my arms stood up.

White, calmly waving his wings, held his positions, preventing his friend from burning everything here.

It seemed that there was a silent dialogue between these two. understandable only to them.

The white general seemed to be holding his friend over the abyss of madness.

Smearing the newly flowing tears down my cheeks, I prayed to the gods that my place would remain untouched.

So that this Orm does not destroy the last piece of land on which I was still happy.

Yes, I returned to that gorge.

Waddling, she crossed the log over the abyss, each time overcoming her fear. And waited.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

I understood that all this was empty, but I continued to believe in my friend. Weaving for him children's bracelets on his hand from colored leather laces. I hung them on the branches. And every time she returned, she closed her eyes in the wild hope that they would not be there.

That he would fly over there and pick them up.

What will come out from under the crown of a sprawling tree and, laughing, will open its arms.

Like before...

As always...

Show me the bracelets I made for him and hold out mine.

That cherished... Promised...

Over the years, I have not forgotten him. No.

The feeling I had for him. That friendship only grew stronger, it grew into something more.

It was so weird. I didn't know where he was, what he had become. What it looks like, because dragons change so much as they grow up.

But the heart seemed to feel him, wept for him, stretched out, but ran into a blank wall.