After their first meeting, Emilie kept in touch with Astrid. They would always meet in secret as Emilie family would surely be against it, given Astrid"s status and character. So she often ran away from home between cla.s.ses to meet Astrid on a secret spot behind the church. The place was an old abandoned school, so they could sit around and talk to each other without anyone to bother.It was always a conviction while watching Astrid for Emilie that she was probably a dirty girl with no worries with her appearance. That prejudice disappeared as she started to meet with a tidy and clean girl, always trying to look her best, with moderation. Astrid always smelled nice when they saw each other, which together with her melodious voice, gave Emilie a nice impression. She was still somewhat wild, though, and that always amazed the young aristocrat who had to deal with lots of rules all her life during all the time.
One of the first questions Emilie made was if Astrid wanted to be a boy, which made the girl laugh, answering: "holding a sword doesn"t make me less of a girl". She was always skipping around when they were together while Emilie had to sit tight, scared with the idea of staining her dress. But soon she realized she was having fun on those moments when the two of them were together. Yet, something in Astrid fascinated and scared her but she couldn"t tell for sure what was the reason.
It was during one of those meetings that Emilie learned about another important aspect of Astrid. Before leaving home, she learned the Royal Family would cross through their city on that day and they would give a speech to their people. Astrid had learned that from Ken, who said he wouldn"t be around at the time. She had little interest in watching it but Emilie pretty much forced her to.
"If I go with my family, I"m sure they"ll force me to greet them, so I want to see them from a hidden spot. Please, come with me."
While the whole Royal Family looked like something from another world, the princess was the one catching everyone"s eyes. Princess Sonia Lowell was the only heir of the Lowell Kingdom royal family. She was a girl just one year younger than Astrid and Emilie. Her blonde hair was even longer than Emilie and her bangs were almost at the height of her eyes. She had an angelic smile all the time and bright blue eyes. The princess was wearing a long and perfectly tidy white dress and walked around with the grace of royalty.
At a moment, when the royal family was walking back to their carriage, a little boy fell in front of them and threw mud on the princess" dress by accident. Everyone went silent. The king gave a scary look and the queen looked terrified. The boy was about to start crying when the princess let out a smile and reached her hand to him.
"Come now, don"t cry," she said with a soft voice and the boy held her hand. She helped him to stand up. "Are you hurt?"
The boy shook his head. The princess said something inaudible to her father and turned back to the boy with a gold coin. She put it in his hand.
"I"m very sorry for what happened," she said. "Here, I"m sorry for scaring you. Buy something for you."
The boy nodded energetically, and walked away skipping along and calling his mother. The princess watched him go with a smile and the royal family got back to their carriage to continue their travel home.
As they walked back to the old school building, Emilie realized Astrid had a big smile on her face. She found it weird and called her friend"s attention.
"What"s that? Why do you look so happy?"
"Do I?" Astrid asked with a smile. "Well, it"s just, you know. I"m happy I came after all."
"Huh? And why is that?"
"Princess Lowell was lovely, wasn"t she?"
Emilie stopped on her feet, making Astrid stop as well. She frowned her eyebrow and let out a questioning voice.
"Princess Lowell? Since when you care about royalty or t.i.tles?"
"I don"t, I just…"
"You call me Emilie. You call Sir Hibbert, Ken. But she"s Princess Lowell? And why are you in such a good mood suddenly? When you didn"t even want to come."
"I, huh," Astrid avoided looking into Emilie"s eyes. She looked nervous as her eyes moved around. "C-Can I confess something? We"re friends, right?"
"Yes, I guess. What is it?"
"W-When we get back…"
At the moment they finally arrived, Astrid made her confession. Emilie just looked at her in confusion.
"You like women? That"s it?"
"Do you think that"s wrong?" Astrid asked, looking scared of her friend"s answer.
"Wrong? I don"t think I get you. You like women? I do like women, too. Or at least, I don"t hate them. Or us."
"No, not like that. Huh, how can I…" Astrid stopped for a moment and seemed to fall in deep thought. Emilie was just looking at her, intrigued. "Remember when you asked me if I had spent the night with a man? Like that. I wouldn"t spend a night with a man, but I would maybe with a woman. Not that I ever did."
Emilie stopped. She processed her friend"s words and nodded slightly.
"I think I get it," she said with a serious tone. "But if it"s like that, I think you have a problem. You can"t marry a woman, for example."
"I-I know," Astrid still looked nervous. "I can"t marry a woman but Ken said he met people like me. Women who like women and men who like men. He met some who lived happily together and he didn"t find anything wrong with it," then Astrid lowered her voice, as if afraid to make the next question. "Do you think that"s wrong?"
"Wrong? I don"t think it"s wrong," Emilie said but her expression still seemed bothered.
"Your face tells otherwise."
"No, I don"t think it"s wrong or illegal. I mean, I never gave it any thought before, but that"s fine. Something does bother me, though. Why do you like Princess Lowell?"
"Why? Well, she"s very beautiful," Astrid"s face turned into a big smile. "And the way she helped that kid. She"s very nice and humble, too. Even though she was raised in a wealthy house."
"I see," Emilie said and crossed her arms. "So, which one I"m not?"
"Which? I-I don"t get it…"
"I"m not beautiful? Nice? Humble? I mean, I"m not different from her. I was also born in a wealthy house and I would say I"m even physically close to her. So, considering you like women, why did you like her but not me? What"s the reason?"
"Why? I, I don"t understand. Do you want me to like you? I do love you, but…"
"That"s now what this is about," Emilie let out a sigh and left her arms to hang, forcing a smile. "You know what, forget it, okay?"
"I really don"t understand, but," and Astrid looked afraid again as she asked: "Does it change anything between us?"
"I don"t think so," Emilie paused for a minute, staring at Astrid"s nervous face. "I just don"t get. If you"re not marrying a man, you can"t become a mother, either."
"Maybe so. But I don"t think that"s a problem. It was never something I wanted."
Emilie started to remember their first conversation at the forest. And, for some reason, a bad feeling started to grow inside her. Something like a fear she couldn"t truly understand. She avoided her eyes and tried to erase it from inside her head.
"I see. I can"t really understand your position in that matter. However, we"re friends. That won"t change."
Astrid held Emilie"s hand in a jump. Turning her face to protest, Emilie saw tears on Astrid"s relieved face.
"Thanks, Emilie. Thanks."
It was years later when they were already traveling and having adventures together that Emilie learned about the princess kidnapping. She also learned about the King"s promise to give his daughter"s hand in marriage to whoever rescued her. In practice, it was a promise to become the future ruler of the kingdom. It made sense, considering how a hero becoming king was enough prestige and the princess was an only child.
At first, that news made Emilie"s stomach turn. It was true that the princess was being offered as a prize to her own rescue. It wasn"t uncommon to use daughters as just tools to the family"s future, as she experienced herself. Even if she knew that was natural in their society, the thoughts of the life she ran away from came back and made her angry.
However, she did realize the royal proclamation didn"t make any mention of gender, opening the probability of the princess marrying another woman. Since there was no female knights and even female mercenaries were a rarity, it made sense that the King would ignore that detail. But that was a loophole, and as a royal proclamation, he would be forced to keep it. So that was a chance for Astrid, who Emilie believed was strong and brave, to marry with the girl she fell in love that day in their past. After all, even during their travels, sometimes she would mention the princess with a dreamy look.
She hesitated at first knowing that doing it would probably mean losing Astrid. But in the end her loyalty and wish to see her partner happy won over her and she presented the plan to rescue the princess and survive it.
***
"So let"s talk about it again," Emilie said, opening the map in front of them.
The two had got out of the lake. And while their clothes were still dirty, they definitely smelled better than before. Astrid"s shiny red hair was still wet because of its length while Emilie"s short hair had dried already. Now that her partner didn"t smell as bad, getting that close to her made Emilie even more nervous.
"Are you sure he has a dragon?" Astrid asked, ignoring the blush forming on Emilie"s face close to her.
"Y-Yes. Sir Gray Corwin belongs to a respectable family of dragon hunters. He is a formidable dragon hunter himself. One of the reasons for their success is the ability to tame dragons. It"s a secret the family Corwin found and use to their gain. Using dragons themselves to help catch and kill other dragons. I"m sure he would use one to guard the place where he kept the princess until they attended his demands. Money," Emilie said and stopped herself. It was true the kidnapper, Sir Corwin, had asked for an absurd value to release the princess. But knowing his family story, that didn"t make sense to her. She imagined something else could have been his intention.
"And you say we should avoid the dragon," Astrid said. Looking just at the map, she didn"t realize Emilie complexed expression.
"Yes. We should only face the dragon as a last retort. For now, we avoid it. Look," she made a big circle around the tower showing in the map. "This is the tower where the princess is confined right now. According to my studies on this dragon, this is its field of vision from the tower height. Maybe it"s flying around instead but then we"ll see it easily. We have to find a way to block the vision from above as soon as we cross the bridge. I believe the best way is going inside this forest," she made an arrow pointing to a forest starting just to the side of the bridge." If they"re not patrolling the old bridge, we"ll be at an advantage. But even if we"re seen, we should go back and rethink our strategy."
"You think I can"t kill a dragon?" This time Astrid looked right at Emilie, who avoided staring back at her.
"I made preparations for that possibility. A dragon"s weak point is its heart. Their heart is big and it"s in their chest so it shouldn"t be a big problem. If that was all, killing a dragon would be way easier. They have protection on their thorax practically impossible to pierce or breakthrough. When a dragon breathes fire, its bones move and it creates a circle opening on that same spot, leaving a radius of twenty centimeters of vulnerability where you can easily pierce. That"s why your sword this time is thinner than you usually hold. For the possibility of fighting it. However, while the dragon is breathing fire, attacking it from head-on is crazy and irresponsible. Even dragon hunters usually bring mercenaries to distract the dragon before they attack and strike from a surprise point. Or another dragon when it comes to the Corwin family."
"I see. And fighting Corwin himself is out of question, right?"
"You said it yourself, that Sir Hibbert didn"t recognize you as his disciple at the end. Sir Corwin is the second best swordsman in the Lowell Kingdom. He only lost to Sir Hibbert himself. You can win against mercenaries and most bandits, but knights are on a whole different level. Facing him is also crazy and irresponsible."
"It looks like everything is against the odds," Astrid said with a bitter smile. "Can we even do it?"
"We have faced hard situations together before," Emilie said with a smile. "Don"t worry. I"ll always have your back."
"And I"m grateful again for having someone as smart as you by my side."
The two women spend the night there and departed again early at dawn. The old bridge they found was curiously well maintained, which made Emilie worry about how much that route was being neglected. But they crossed it without any issues and got to the other side, Astrid leading the way. While well maintained, the bridge did shake a lot. But Emilie was used to that and could recognize it was st.u.r.dy enough to let two or even three adults people cross.
When their feet touched firm land, Emilie turned to her side in the forest direction but a loud roar and flapping of wings far away interrupted her. She looked up to see a flying creature approaching them.
"Let"s go back!" She shouted at Astrid.
But Astrid didn"t move. Instead, she held her sword and let her eyes examine the creature approaching them.
"Hide in the forest, Emilie," she said with a serious voice.
"But!" Emilie tried to pull Astrid"s arm.
"Maybe we can still cross back but if it destroys the bridge, we"re done."
"Then come with me!"
"Trust in me. Try to find the best route to the tower while I fight that monster. I"ll catch up with you."
Emilie tried to argue but seeing the fierce look Astrid was giving and the smile on her face, she gave up. She gave some steps back and shook her head.
"That"s crazy and irresponsible," she said as she ran inside the forest.
***
Astrid walked some meters ahead to leave the cliff behind her and waited. It didn"t take much until the monster arrived and floated just above her. It was a giant. Its wings flapping made a wind that threw Astrid"s hair in disarray. Its breathing making sparks from its nose.
The very first attack the monster made was a huge gulf of fire. It wasn"t that fast and Astrid jumped to the side, avoiding being hit by it. Since the monster was still on the air, she couldn"t counter-attack.
She reminded Emilie"s instructions before they even left the hotel for their mission.
"Dragons will try to stay out of range but their stamina is limited. Breathing out a huge quant.i.ty of fire will tire them out easily. Most dragon will land after the first breathing. Dragons with more endurance will be able to use it two or three times."
Astrid waited in her place for the next attack. While being on air, there wasn"t much the creature could do but breathe fire, and that would make it land sooner or later. Flapping its wings, the dragon turned to Astrid again and let out another gulf of fire through its mouth. Astrid successfully dodged it again.
She wondered if it would do it a third time, but the creature showed signs of being tired, flapping its wings in slower movements. It started to fly lower and soon landed on the land, making the earth shake below Astrid"s feet.
"Well, the true fight starts now," she said, wielding her sword and slowly walking in the dragon"s direction.
But the first attack was not as she expected. Instead of breathing fire again, the creature turned its back and hit her with its tail. Astrid felt her body being thrown with force to the side. She landed at the ground just in time to get back up and jumping back as the dragon closed its mouth on the same s.p.a.ce she was.
She wielded her sword again. Now, having felt death so close, her hands were shaking and her heart beating strong.
"I"m done," she thought.
At the moment, what came to her mind wasn"t the thought of the princess still locked up inside the tower but her partner still waiting up for her inside the forest. She would surely cry for her partner"s death. But even worse, maybe she wouldn"t even be able to go back to safety alone.
Giving a deep breath, Astrid straightened her grip on her sword. She calmed down and looked at the creature in front of her. She had been careless thinking the creature would use fire again, but now she was prepared. When the dragon tried to use its tail again, she jumped away, avoiding it with success.
The monster was facing her and she smiled at it, provoking it.
The dragon gave out a big roar and threw fire through its mouth again. Astrid jumped to the side and ran ahead, getting closer to the creature. When the dragon tried to use its tail again, Astrid pierced it with the point of her sword and using it as a support, jumped over it. She wielded her sword again, now painted with the black blood of the creature and let out another smile.
The dragon growled and tried to step back but Astrid ran in its direction.
Then with another huge roar, the dragon let out a huge burst of fire. Astrid let her body fall and made a slide that left her right below the dragon. Through the dragon"s skin, she could see the bones moving, closing up the vulnerable point leading to its heart. It was her last change. Before her body even stopped sliding, she used her left hand as a support and raised her body. As soon as she was on her feet, she gave a jump and reached with her sword upwards. It gave a metallic sound as it got stuck by the dragon"s closed bones.
"I didn"t make it," Astrid said with a laugh. "It"s over…"
But she realized the liquid leaking through it, painting her sword black. Soon the leaking became a shower, raining blood over her head. The protection opened up again, allowing her to remove the sword and fall back to the ground. She was stunned at first but as soon as she realized what was going on, she jumped away, just before the huge creature"s body fell, making the ground shake below her.
Cleaning the blood away from her eyes, she stared at the monster lying in front of her, the body of the dead dragon, not believing it.
"I...killed it," she said and let out a smile, watching the black blood streaming through the green gra.s.s. "It"s dead…"
Then something rang inside her head. Soon mercenaries would be there, or maybe even the dragon"s lord, and she wasn"t in conditions of fighting back. Her whole body was hurting after the impact she suffered by the dragon"s tail and she was exhausted.
With her eyes blurry by the blood she was bathed on, she walked to the forest. If there was a monster inside, she probably wouldn"t be able to fight it either but it was her only option. She couldn"t even run and was almost dragging her own body.
She got inside the forest and then suddenly her vision became black. Something was wrong. She felt her body lose strength. As she tried to lean against a tree, Astrid felt a familiar warm embrace her.