Author's note: Hi everyone, thank you for continuing to read my story! It's high time for Kai to get that dragon's tear! As for Sebastian and Milo, things will just get a little heated...
curiousaudrey - yeah, baby, yeah, Kai is getting closer to the BL plot than he could have thought possible... he just doesn't realize it yet. A lot of things will change for him and inside his heart and mind, too. Beatrice is not essential to the plotline, but I consider it a nice idea for Sebastian to interact with other people while he's living Kai's life. Thanks a lot for the comment, as always!
HHYagami - yes, you are so correct... that will be the complicated - or the most complicated - part, Milo falling for Sebastian/Kai. There will be blurred lines and revelations will be made - at the right time - but I can promise that I won't brush the situation off like it's not as entangled as you pointed out. I like Milo a lot, too, he's just such a genuine nice guy :) Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Chapter Nine - Why You Have To Be Mad?
"Look, Pepin," Kai said as they got closer to the cave that was letting out the now overpowering smell of sulfur, "you don't have to come with me. Just wait here."
He dismounted the horse and pulled out his sword. Like everything else so far, he would wing it and be fine. When holding court, everything had gone smoothly, right? Getting a dragon to cry his heart out couldn't be that much of a problem.
"No," the servant replied stubbornly. "I didn't ride with you all this way to abandon you here."
"That sounded almost like a joke. There," Kai pointed at the cave's entrance, "lies a dragon. A fire-spitting angry mofo."
"Mofo?"
Kai waved impatiently. "That's a creature that could turn you into way too crispy steak in a second. Like this." He snapped his fingers to get Pepin's attention, who was busy tending to the horse. The animal had sensed the smell, too, and he was showing signs of impatience.
Pepin finally turned to face him. "No. You brought me with you." He crossed his arms. "You always enjoy these things on your own. It's not fair."
Kai could see the other's bottom lip quivering. It had to be so boring to be a servant, albeit a royal one. All the other boys got to play with swords and fight dragons, while Pepin had to do the laundry and cook eggs Benedict or whatever. Yeah, he could sympathize with that. Nonetheless, he had a hunch now that Prince Sebastian wanted to keep Pepin safe, and in the off-chance that they ever switched back - the cold royal must be in his body right now if the rules of body swap logic were obeyed - he would get pretty pissed if anything happened to his precious manservant.
"All right," he said. "Just take the horse... wait, what's his name?"
"Thunder," Pepin replied and grabbed the reins.
"Cool name. Take him somewhere out of the way. I don't want him to get scared."
"He should get used to the smell of monsters. He's not a young colt anymore," Pepin argued.
"Well, he'll get plenty of other opportunities to get used to that. Maybe start with something easier, like goblins and such."
"But you hate going against goblins. You always say that their smell is disgusting and you need to throw your sword away because nothing takes their stench out of the blade."
"All right, so not goblins. Trolls?" he offered.
Pepin made a sour face.
"Hey, I'm the royal dude here," Kai said. "Take Thunder somewhere he cannot smell the dragon so much and make sure to secure him well so that we don't have to return by foot. That if you want to come with me, after all."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Pepin said primly.
It was a bit of fun to pull Pepin's leg and also great that he was easy to fool. Kai waited until Pepin was at a fair distance from him and hurried toward the mouth of the cave, his sword drawn.
***
The moment he was inside, he started coughing. No wonder dragons were so pissed off all the time. They had to live in a dank, smelly place, and heroes and adventurers wanted to hunt them down all the time.
That was, however, the highest sympathy he could muster for that kind of creature. After all, they were a pain to go against, and they were high-level enemies. That meant that he needed to tread carefully and keep his eyes open.
He walked slowly until he reached the edge of an abyss opening up under his feet. He didn't need any light because there was plenty of it coming out. First, he thought it was some sort of a giant forge, but looking down, he realized that the orange light came from clusters of fiery crystals. Wow, now that was some epic loot right there, only if he could figure out a way to pull them out. Plus, he didn't have an inventory, and his trousers didn't have any pockets.
"What right have you to stir my wrath, human?" a booming voice asked, coming somewhere from behind.
"Shit," Kai said and turned on his heels. For a few moments, he lost all ability to speak. Before him, a giant dragon stood blocking the way he had come from. His scales were red, and the eyes staring him down were orange like the fire coming from within the crystals below. "Glad I found you," he said, finally gaining back his voice.
The dragon loomed above him, and Kai expected to become scared shitless any moment now. Well, it looked like Prince Sebastian's cold blood helped a lot because he couldn't feel anything like that.
"Look," he said, raising his arms, "I just need a little something from you."
The dragon rose high above him, so he had to tilt his head back to keep him in sight.
"You need something from me?" the dragon boomed and lunged, fire coming out his nostrils - or mouth, Kai couldn't be sure.
He stepped out of the way just in time. "Hey, is this really the way you treat a guest? No wonder nobody ever comes to visit."
"You're brandishing your sword at me and yet, you speak of that?" The dragon launched another attack, and Kai deftly avoided it just in time.
Oh, right, he had entered with his sword drawn. Of course, anyone, let alone a dragon, would have thought he had some not so pure intentions while walking in there. He sheathed his sword. "Look, I put it away. Can we talk like normal people now?"
He briefly wondered if Prince Sebastian had any skill in his set regarding high-level speech because this looked like a quest requiring him to be clever enough to convince a dragon to surrender a tear to him.
Like, what was a tear, to begin with? Practically nothing.
"Normal people? I know who you are, Prince Sebastian, and I know why you are here."
"Oh, are we playing riddles? Try me. I'm telling you; you have no idea why I'm here."
He could dance around the dragon like that all night, but he was starting to worry about how well those walls could hold while the creature spat fire.
"You are here to destroy my legacy," the dragon said. "To finish my race."
"Well, that was yesterday," Kai said. "Today, it's a totally different thing. And really, stop spitting fire all the time. Why you have to be mad?"
"Mad? Why am I mad?"
Kai put one finger into his ear and pulled it out quickly. "I think I'm going to be deaf in one ear if you keep shouting like this."
"I will not go down without a fight. I see that you came on your own. How arrogant of you," the dragon hissed. "You will meet your end here."
"Not if I can help it." Kai hoped he wouldn't get a cramp from all that hopping around. Things were getting nowhere, and his speech abilities didn't appear to work on dragons. "Hey, let's just talk."
"Talk about what? How you want to destroy my kind?"
"Well, I have nothing against you personally, but you're a giant bird that terrorizes entire villages, burning them down, destroying crops, and all that."
"Is that what you think? I only hunt when I'm hungry," the dragon replied.
Kai wondered briefly how no one had ever thought of using dragons' fire breathing as a renewable energy source. That would solve a thing or two. "Well, humans shouldn't be on your menu."
