Lodin turned the last corner before he reached the exit of the castle, his pace quick enough to have left his two guards behind long ago.

He'd heard those dragons a while ago, but when they continued to rise in amount and volume as they approached, he knew it wasn't something to be left alone. The group approaching them were livid, that much he knew for certain. He'd heard quite a selection of dragon sounds over the last moon-cycle or so, and he could tell what these meant without doubt.

Everyone could, to be fair. Maids were running around, screaming and hiding inside the castle, the Royal Guards were desperately trying to maintain order despite being terrified themselves and the Dragon Slayers were rushing outside, weapons in hand and eyes glittering like the stars on a cloudless night-sky.

Horrible timing for this chaos to ensue, now the princess was bedridden. She'd already proven her worth in situations involving dragons.

Just then, Sergon turned a corner ahead of him as well, headed for the entrance. The only greeting between them was that of an exchange of serious gazes before they both headed outside at the same time.

A myriad of Dragon Slayers was gathered there, surrounding the area completely. Each and every one of them were keeping their gazes on the sky, watching the quickly approaching group. There were six adult dragons rushing toward them, the next angrier than the previous.

With Sergon at his side, Lodin stepped out to the front of the circle. Those six were flying with too much purpose to only be dragons.

That much was proven when the six landed perfectly in the middle of the many Slayers' pointing spears, not giving a single damn about any of them.

The one at the front was a pale pink and yellow and looked to be the most furious of them all, baring its teeth and snarling threateningly at anyone who would dare so much as look at it.

As expected, six riders clad in what seemed to be their full armor slid down from the dragons' backs and landed deftly on their feet. Something they'd done many times.

The man who'd been on the pink one's back had dusty, blonde hair and eyes that seemed ready to kill anything that got in his way.

"That one is Aem, Ciara's brother," Sergon explained in a quiet murmur, his eyes locked on the man. Not too surprisingly, given the hair.

Lodin nodded slowly, not missing how the Commander'd so comfortably used her name without title or anything. Well, perhaps it wasn't too surprising given the amount of time he'd been spending with her recently.

That man, Aem, noticed the two of them standing there. His eyes found Sergon first, whom he clearly recognized, then turned to Lodin. For a moment, his eyebrows furrowed angrily as he quickly approached them.

His blue gaze was locked with Lodin's, not an ounce of hesitance to be seen in them.

"Are you the king?"

"I am," Lodin confirmed with a curt nod, knowing where this conversation was going.

"Why have our men never returned? Why has no one returned to tell us any-damn-thing?" Aem asked, truthfully not speaking very clearly through his gritted teeth.

Lodin's eyes narrowed slightly.

"We sent a messenger to you a full cycle ago. Surely you saw a ship fairly close to your island when you left."

"We saw no goddamn ships on our way here. And I do not see even a shadow of any of our men here," the blonde man pointed out. "Now, I want you to tell me what the hell happened and where the hell my sister is. And I want you to do it now." He poked his finger into the king's chest and left it there to accentuate just how much he meant it. The pink dragon even snarled behind him in agreement.

Before Lodin could remind this boy who the hell he was talking to, Sergon stepped between them with a hand on the other guy's arm.

"It is unfortunate our messenger has not yet reached you, however let me explain why your men have not returned." He waited till the boy's hand dropped, then finally began once he knew he had his attention. "A mistake on our side was made the day she arrived. As it turned out, the one we had appointed their guard was not who we thought him to be. And for that reason, they were led astray on the way here and ambushed." Panic spread on the brother's face. "She is alive and well, do not worry."

Aem breathed out heavily in relief and as did the men behind him.

"That is good, at least. So, where is she?" He was already attempting to move past them before he even finished.

Sergon held a hand out to halt his progress before he got too far.

"There is something else you must know before you see her..."

Aem's eyebrows shot up as he looked at the man when he didn't simply continue and finish that sentence.

"What?"

Lodin sighed. "No one but the princess herself arrived here."

All haste and impatience dropped from the brother's face as he stared at the two of them.

"What?" His shoulders slumped immediately.

"Apparently-" Lodin crossed his arms. "They were ambushed in the alley by a group of mercenaries. As your men fell, the one in charge called a dragon for assistance. He made her get on the back of it as the rest fell, then singlehandedly made sure she and it escaped before finally falling himself."

"Tao fell? Hells," someone in the back muttered, clearly shell-shocked. If Lodin didn't remember all wrong, that 'Tao' had been one of the Dragon Kingdom's best ground-fighters, having inherited the blood of the clan they'd been allied with in the past. Quite a loss for them, indeed.

"Sounds like something he would do, though." Aem ran his hand through his already spiky hair and looking off to the side. "So, I am guessing the black drake over there would be the one from that time, then?"

Lodin looked off in the same direction, seeing that that black dragon of the princess' was poking its head up and staring at them curiously.

Sergon nodded. "He is. And he has been very protective of her ever since then."

"I bet." Aem smiled. "I am just glad she is not all alone here." He slowly turned back to the two of them. "Now, I am glad you told me all this, but I really do want to see her." He forced his way through them, towards the castle. "Right now."

Lodin sighed. Truly a bad timing for it all to collide like this.

"There is something else you should know."