The Cursed Prince

Margueritte looked at Raphael with disbelief. "I am sure that's not the reason why you helped her."

Raphael chuckled and looked out the window. His gaze seemed to see far in the distance. Then he replied, "You are right, Mother. I actually helped her because I saw the future."

After saying that, Raphael resumed playing his music. He refused to answer any more questions from Margueritte. The white witch knitted her brows and tried to decipher what Raphael meant by his words.

She knew Raphael was a seer. He had the gift that even among elven royals was rare to have. Margueritte had seen many of his words came true all this time.

She knew Raphael would never speak carelessly. He didn't have a sense of humor and never joke around with his words.

So.. what did he see in the future that made him decide to help Emmelyn?

Margueritte could only keep her questions to herself. She knew better than to force Raphael to speak when he chose to keep his silence.

The sad music continued and filled the air, as the white witch decided to leave the man alone.

***

After Aslain dropped Emmelyn and Maxim on the foot of the mountain, he went up to get Kira and Lysander. Once both landed safely near the first two passengers, he went back again and get Renwyck.

It was almost nightfall and Maxim decided they should just rest for the day and continued the journey tomorrow. Lysander quickly looked for firewood and tried to make fire. Since the trees and fallen branches around the area were damp from the snow, it was hard to light a fire.

Fortunately, Aslain came not long after and Renwyck asked his dragon to help them with it. Soon, they all sat around the fire to warm up their bodies and roasted dry meat that Lysander had in his bag for dinner.

Maxim was not too bothered by the cold. He lent his coat to Emmelyn so she would get extra warmth. 

This gesture made Kira feel jealous. She thought Emmelyn was so lucky to be surrounded by men who were kind to her. Just look at the monster called the ice prince. He turned Kira into an ice statue while he spared Emmelyn from his scary gaze. So, not fair!

Lysander also treated Emmelyn with respect, while he acted casual toward Kira. Uff... if only Lysander was not in their group, Kira would love to teach that man a lesson sometimes.

And then, there was Maxim. He also treated Emmelyn with care and he obviously doted on her. Just look at how he kept giving her his coat.

Kira wanted to find a man who would look at her the way Maxim looked at Emmelyn, with stars in his eyes.

Would she find him on this journey? She couldn't wait to find out.

Kira had almost everything she wanted in life. She just wanted to experience what it was like to fall in love properly.

"Let's eat something and then rest. Tomorrow we will continue our journey and, hopefully, we can reach Castilse in three days," said Maxim.

"Huh? How come it is now 3 days away? Didn't you say we need to travel for two more weeks?" Emmelyn asked Maxim.

"Well, that was before we have Aslain here," Maxim explained. "If we took the dragon, we can reach Castilse sooner, but with a horse, we will need two weeks. Up to you."

"Oh..." Emmelyn's eyes were gleaming in excitement.

So, they could use Aslain to cut the time? This was such a good offer! She looked at Aslain who was lying down leisurely not far from their place and gushed, "I'd love that!"

Then, she thought about Kira and the others. It's not fair that she would arrive in Castilse faster while Kira had to be left behind and take the normal route. Emmelyn asked the pirate princess to go with her, to accompany her travel, and now she would just leave Kira when she got a better offer?

That's just rude and selfish, Emmelyn thought to herself. If she was Kira, she wouldn't like that and she would feel like being taken advantage.

So, Emmelyn cleared her throat and said, "But, I think the normal journey will be nicer since I get to see the cities on the way to Castilse. Remember how much I wanted to explore Summeria two years ago but I didn't get the chance? I might as well do that now."

Maxim knitted his brows and tried to guess the reason why Emmelyn refused his amazing offer. Wasn't she really excited earlier when they flew on Aslain's back? Why didn't she want to continue their journey to his home riding the dragon?

When the corner of his eyes caught sight of Kira, Maxim finally understood why. The man sighed and nodded reluctantly. "I guess you are right. I can be a good host and show you around my kingdom. That's nice too."

"Yes." Emmelyn smiled in affirmation. She was happy because Maxim didn't press on the matter and just went with what she wanted. Emmelyn changed the subject and pointed at the roasted meat. "I think the meat is ready. Let's eat."

Kira was not dumb. Even though she could be naive sometimes, but she understood what happened from the conversation between Maxim and Emmelyn.

She knew the reason why Emmelyn refused the offer to ride the dragon to Castilse was because she didn't want to leave Kira behind, with Lysander and Renwyck whom she just met. This gesture gave a warm and fuzzy feeling in Kira's heart.

She decided she liked Emmelyn more and more. Before Emmelyn could take the meat from the skewer over the fire, she had grabbed one and gave it to Emmelyn.

"Here, take this," she said nonchalantly.

Emmelyn batted her eyes at Kira's attitude. She realized the pirate princess was a lot nice to her after they left the ice castle. She smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Kira."

Maxim rolled his eyes at Kira and took another skewer of roasted meat for himself. He was upset because Kira was faster than him. Maxim also wanted to give Emmelyn the first roasted meat.