Page 1 of The Silent Mountain
one
The Warrior Princess with the Fiery Hair
*FAVIAN*
Herbeautifulhairlookslike flames in the snow, dancing and moving in the wind. Within the grey, boring view of the endless white of the snow and the fog surrounding us, she is the only picture of joy. We reside high in the mountains, surrounded by the safety of the steep rocks. Ahead of us lies the Kingdom of Eternal Ice, a magical place full of snowy landscapes and romantic forests.
The land beyond my kingdom, however, is empty. A barren landscape with white rocks and uninhabited wasteland stretching towards the ocean shore, angry and unpleasant.
The flames move now, coming closer. I watch her as she leads the horses over the mountain path and to the stables.
“Princess Alana.” Some of my fellow dragon shifters greet her politely as they pass, much to my relief. She deserves to be treated with the utmost respect, and I would hate to have to put my foot down and threaten my people after what our kind went through only recently. “We hope you are settling in well.”
“I am,” she reassures them with a smile.
It’s humbling to see the interactions and to understand that we dragons are slowly able to recover our strength again. We almost became extinct in the war, which destroyed most of our lands and killed so many of us. My father and mother were killed, leaving me as the heir to the throne. Our enemies put me under a spell and locked my mind, forcing me into a deep sleep, until only a couple of months ago when I was finally able to return. The red-haired princess was one of the reasons I was able to wake up again.
A werewolf shifter.
The Warrior Princess of the Kingdom of Eternal Ice, the werewolf kingdom.
Many years ago, she saw a dragon, and ever since, has never believed that we were extinct. She was persistent in her belief and stood confident against everyone who doubted her.
I leave my spot on the balcony, making my way downstairs and through the entrance hall of the castle. Thick, stone bricks surround us: our halls are very high, they keep the cold outside, and are sturdy enough to allow us to shift to our dragon form without tearing the castle apart. When I step outside, I can see my younger brother, Elio, running over the snow path towards my Warrior Princess.
I follow Elio slowly to give the both of them time to chat a bit before I need to intervene to send Elio back to his studies. He is my only remaining family member, a teenage boy who has spent years hidden away with his nanny, until Alana’s family and her brother’s mate set us free. It’s all thanks to them that I survived and was able to reunite my people.
The Warrior Princess looks up as I approach them slowly. Her senses must have alerted her. For a moment, our eyes meet, and I can feel the persistent, dragon soul in me reaching out to her. Her eyes are telling a similar story, her wolf spirit clearly looking at me longingly.
“Alana,” I say when I have finally reached her.
She brushes through her hair in an almost tentative gesture to tame it, then she smiles. “Favian. Are you done with your work?”
“Not yet,” I admit. “But I noticed that you are bringing the horses back in.”
“Thank you for letting me do this,” she says.
“I told you, you are my guest here,” I say. “You can do whatever you please. And the horses are a good addition to the Silent Mountain. It gives my people a sense of peace to have them around.”
“They are a sturdy breed,” Alana reassures me. “I hope, sooner or later, some of your subjects might want to learn how to ride.”
“You might do well with asking the female dragon shifters first,” I tell her. “In general, they are more open to trying new things than us men are.”
Alana chuckles. “Thank you for the heads up.”
My heart skips a beat at her laughter. I want to reach out for her and hold her, but I’m not quite there yet. After years of being forced into a slumber and being held hostage, I am not yet ready to let someone close to me again. For her, it’s very similar as she lost the person she loved, the one she wanted to take as a chosen mate.
I try not to be jealous when I think about how she almost chose someone else instead of waiting for me, her fated mate, but she was in love, and I can’t blame her for it.
I turn to my brother now. “Elio, did you finish your studies for the day?”
“No,” Elio admits, shifting around under my gaze. “I heard Alana and wanted to see if she needed help.”
“Alana can fend for herself,” I say. “And in case she needs something, she can ask me. You have your own tasks, and I expect you to listen to your teachers.”
For a moment, Elio looks crestfallen for being admonished, but he recovers quickly and nods. “I will go back,” he says.
Alana and I watch him leave; then I help her attend to the horses. Dragon shifters usually don’t live with other animals around them, but Alana has told me about how the werewolves hold horses in their stables and use them to cover distances in their human form. It was intriguing enough for me to try.
