Page 173 of The White King's Favorite

Another long silence followed. Beyond Jisel’s story, Cessilia was thinking about Jinn the dragon. Its mere existence meant there was a lot more to her mother’s tribe than they had initially thought. She had never thought she would see water dragons other than in her family, but as it turned out, the Rain Tribe and the Dragon Empire’s Imperial Family had a lot in common, enough for their blood to be able to create more water dragons. She thought about Jisel’s words from earlier. Would a male sibling of Tessandra really have a water dragon too? If a man of the Rain Tribe and an Imperial Princess could produce a son with a water dragon, didn’t that mean the Rain Tribe’s genes only reacted when paired with someone from the Imperial Family? Cessilia’s thoughts painfully drifted to Cece, her own dragon.

She still wouldn’t have had Cece if it wasn’t for her mother and her encounter with a Water God. Cessilia had always known that story was more than a simple tale, but now, she felt like she was touching something even deeper about her own family. She felt a bit proud, even. At the same time, she missed Cece more than ever. If she had been here, none of this would have happened... Cece would have been big enough to get them out of there in a blink, while growling happily like she always did.

She froze, suddenly hearing it. Dragon growls. Cessilia jumped on her feet and ran toward the rocks.

“...D-do you hear that?”

“Is this Sir Dragon?” asked Nana.

“...No,” said Tessandra, a smile on her face.

Indeed, the dragon growls didn’t sound like Krai’s. They could hear Jinn growling against another dragon, with a more high-pitched growl than Krai, and male voices panicking out there.

“What the heck is going on?!” a male voice shouted. “Where the heck did that brat dragon come from?!”

“...Darsan?” frowned Tessandra.

“Cessi!” shouted a second male voice. “Cessi! Tessa! Are you in there?”

“K-Kassian!” Cessilia exclaimed, beaming.

A large ruckus followed, and they both had to quickly retreat as the mountain of rocks moved brutally. For a while, everything began to collapse on the other side, and after a few seconds, a very large silhouette of another, larger water dragon appeared at the top, with magnificent silver scales, and two men’s silhouettes on its back.

Chapter 21

The dragon that had climbed on the pile of rocks tilted its head just as the two young men jumped off. They both slid down the mountain of rocks easily, jumping when needed, making the ride down look like child’s play. Once they got closer, it became obvious they were actually pretty tall and muscular as well. As they had stayed behind, both Jisel and Naptunie watched the two young men come down, noticing their striking resemblance to Cessilia.

“Cessi!” shouted the first of them, running to hug her.

Even the tall Cessilia suddenly looked petite in his large, bulky arms. This man was tall, extremely muscular, and had his dark hair organized in rogue braids over his shoulders. He had a little scar covered with dark yellow scales on his cheek and many more on his body. He had a youthful look to him, with his big, black eyes, his hairless, square chin, and that large smile stuck on his face. He made Cessilia spin in the air, hugging her like an excited child, but Cessilia was just as happy to see them.

“How c-come you’re here?” Cessilia asked the man behind him.

“Well, when I came back from the north, as soon as I heard Dad had agreed for you to come here, I decided to come and check up on my little sister and cousin. I just happened to fly over some mountain this idiot was still busy on... Come on, let her go for a sec.”

He tapped his brother’s shoulder until Darsan finally put his sister down and stepped aside, letting Kassian hug her next. Their hug was very different from the excited one with Darsan. He smiled at her, gently kissed the top of her head, and embraced her fully in his arms, gently but firmly. They didn’t move, just hugging each other in silence for a few seconds. Although they looked a lot alike, the brothers were completely different. Kassian was actually a bit thinner and a couple of inches shorter than Darsan, and his hair was cut short, except for a couple of braids on his neck. He also wore a simple leather ensemble, while Darsan had half of his armor on, and an extra fur coat too.

Next to them, Darsan turned to Tessandra.

“What came over you?!” he exclaimed. “Coming here? With Cessi? What the heck?!”

“Hey, Cessi had boyfriend issues to settle. I just tagged along for her security.”

“What security?! You both look like you got into a mud fight with a dragon and lost! ...Wait a minute. Is that my sword? Hey, that is my sword! What in the hell did you do with it?! It was all pretty and sharpened, what did you do to my precious beauty?! And where... By the fucking dragon’s balls, Tessandra, where is the other one?!”

“Sorry,” she shrugged, “I lost it. This one’s fine, though. Just needs a bit of cleaning...”

“Lost it? How could you lose it?! It was my favorite!”

While Tessandra and Darsan were bickering, Cessilia and Kassian finally parted, looking at each other with the same smile.

Just then, the silver-scaled dragon growled loudly on top of the rocks and jumped down as well. Its long body made every movement look very elegant, and its small wings flapped so it barely even touched the rocks at all. When it landed, it began to growl loudly, curling its body in circles around Cessilia.

“Kian!” she exclaimed, hugging the large snout. “I missed you t-too!”

“By the way...”

Darsan cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed.

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