The Dragon Prince

Introduction

I was surrounded by a glacial forest. The grass and trees were covered in an iridescent layer of permafrost. An eerie calm fell over me as I wandered, the silence was deafening, but not overwhelming. As I padded through the trees, snow started to fall around me. Although everything around me was frozen, I was filled with a comforting warmth that radiated from my core.

I could see a clearing in the trees up ahead. As I headed toward the opening of the forest, the night started to brighten, as if it were showing me the way.

The spacing between the trees grew wider as I came closer, slowly the forest disappeared behind me as I stepped into the clearing. It was more of a valley, filled with white flowers untouched by the icy night. The snow continued to fall around me, but it almost seemed to disappear before it reached the flowers, as if there was some sort of barrier protecting this small part of the world.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and as I looked up to survey my surroundings, I came to the realization that I was not alone in this frost filled wonderland.

All around me, at the edges of the forest I had just left, were magnificent white, winged creatures. A pang of longing hit me, seemingly from nowhere. I stood and stared at them, as they did the same at me. They stood in a circle around me, their scales glinting glimmering shades of blue and purple in the moonlight.

Dragons

I was surrounded by gigantic, beautiful, white dragons. The largest one of the group started to take a step forward, but seemed wary. Suddenly, I heard a voice, seemingly from nowhere.

“Girl, what are you doing so far from your home?”

I widened my eyes in shock as I realized It had been the dragon directly in front of me who’d spoken, his mouth remained unmoving. His eyes were trained directly on my own, and I was caught as if in some sort of trance. They seemed almost human, if it weren’t for the shimmering flecks of gold and purple in the deep cerulean depths of his irises.

“Arya!”

A different voice broke through the spell that had seemed to hold me in place. I looked around, frantically searching for the voice that had called my name.

“ARYA!”

I woke with a start, looking up into my fathers concerned face hovering over my bed. “Arya I have been trying to wake you up for like half an hour.  Are you okay? Have you not been getting enough rest?” I looked at the clock next to my bed in a panic. “DAD! Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?! I’m going to be late for work!” I jumped up quickly, almost colliding with my father on the way to the bathroom.

“Well, maybe if you didn’t stay up all night reading, you’d be able to get up in time.” he chuckled. I rolled my eyes at him in exasperation. “Dad get out of here; I have to get ready.” he grabbed me and planted a loving kiss on my forehead. “I know, Nugget, I just worry about you. I’ll head out. Your mom has breakfast ready for you in the kitchen. Make sure you grab something on the way out.” I smiled at him as he headed out the door and turned to look into the bathroom mirror.

My long black hair was a matted mess, and I had drool plastered to the side of my face. “Gods I look awful.” I muttered to myself as I attempted to tame the disaster on my head. “And what the hell was that dream?” I questioned, looking into my ice blue eyes in the mirror.

It couldn’t have been from the book I’d been reading before I fell asleep, which was now haphazardly thrown face down on the floor beside my bed. It was just a run of the mill trashy romance novel that I’d picked up from a thrift shop in town.

I brushed it off, deciding I’d worry about it later, if at all. After all it was just a dream, no matter how real it had felt.

I finished cleaning myself up and got dressed quickly. I rushed down the stairs into the kitchen, just catching my mom as she was heading to work herself. “Love you kiddo, I’ll see you later. Breakfast is on the counter!” she said with her signature warm smile. “Mom, I’m twenty-two! I’m not a kiddo anymore.” I quipped with a laugh as she went towards the door. Her eyes crinkled up into another smile when she glanced back and said, “You’ll always be my kiddo, Arya.” as she closed the door, a melodic laugh trailing behind her. I rolled my eyes with a small grin.

I grabbed a still warm pastry my mom had baked off the counter and headed out the door behind her. Stepping out into the cool morning air was refreshing. I loved the outdoors. Our house was further outside of our small town than most, near the base of a small mountain range with snow covered peaks, even in the summer. I spent most of my free time reading and biking through the forest, finding wonderful places to hide out and dive into fantasy and romance novels.

I headed to my bike hurriedly, already knowing that I was going to be late for work. I worked as a waitress at a local bar, and had worked there since my eighteenth birthday. The owner, Josh, was a good friend of our family. He was a nice guy, and he’d known my mom since they were just kids. He was usually pretty lenient with me since they were so close, but this was the third time I’d been late this week. “He is going to kill me.” I muttered as I clambered onto my bike and headed towards town.

As I cycled up to the bar, I could see that the lights were already on and the locals were starting to show up for morning drinks. With it being such a small town, everyone here pretty much knew each other. They had their routines and were set in their ways, and some of their ways were to attend a bar early in the morning. Go figure.

I saw Josh step out the front doors and cross his arms as I hopped off my bike. He trudged up to me with a pissed off look on his face. His brows lowered and his arms crossed tightly across his chest. He was a large man; you’d almost think he was intimidating if it weren’t for the smile lines starting to show on his slowly aging face. Tall and burly, almost comparable to a bear in stature with short dark hair and piercing green eyes.

  “Arya, is this going to be a habit?” he said with a slight scowl. I gave him a weak smile in return. “I’m sorry Josh, it won't happen again. Dad was late waking me up this morning.”

“I can’t go easy on you every time you’re late, you know that. The other employees are going to start thinking I give you special treatment.” He said with a slight smile starting to show at the corners of his mouth. “And when are you going to get a car, girl?”

I grinned as we turned and headed to the doors of the bar together. “Maybe when my boss starts paying me more.”

He let out a huge belly laugh that practically shook the ground and looked at me lovingly. “Get to work, you little brat. Donnie is already in there asking where his favorite waitress is.”

Donnie was our resident bar-fly, an older man with a troubled past that he refused to talk about. But he was a kind soul, who loved joking around and flirting with the waitresses at the bar and generally was a good person all around.

I walked into the bar and unsurprisingly was greeted with a booming, “ARYA! Where have you been, girl? I’ve been here for an hour and have yet to be greeted by your beautiful face. This is an atrocity!” I flashed a grin at Donnie as I grabbed my apron from the hook behind the counter and clocked in.

“Donnie, I was just having a rough start to the day. You know I’d never intentionally hurt your feelings.” He looked up at me from his seat with a pout as I started making his favorite drink, a gin and tonic. “Baby girl you know I miss you when you’re not around.” I let out a laugh as I sat his drink down for him and smiled.

“Donnie you’re just about the biggest flirt I know. When are you going to settle down with a nice lady your own age?” He threw me a small frown and said “All these old biddies around here don’t know how to have any fun Arya; you can’t blame me for that.” I threw him a knowing look and got to work making drinks for the few other customers who decided they needed drinks on a Thursday morning.

Work went on as usual for a few hours. Josh asked me to stay for a double and I happily obliged. I needed the money if I was ever going to finally attend college like I had planned. My family was pretty well off, we never struggled for food or necessities. But they wanted me to be strong and able to take care of myself, and so did I, so I wanted to put myself through school.

As the day slowly drifted on into night, I went to the back of the bar to grab a few more bottles of our best drinks. When I came back out, I noticed that a hush had fallen over the entire room.

I followed everyone's stares to the doors of the bar to see a drop dead gorgeous young man standing there, waiting to be seated. He was tall and slim, with lean muscles running down his ivory arms. Straight, bleach white hair hung down past his shoulders in a thick curtain. He was dressed casually, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, but the aura emanating from him was almost paralyzing.

As if out of nowhere, life sprang back into the bar like nothing had happened. I guiltily realized I had been staring and came to my senses. I walked up to the newcomer and gave him an award-winning smile. “Hi there! You can sit down anywhere. Don’t mind the townsfolk. They’re just not used to out of towners.” He regarded me carefully, giving me a sly smile. “Thanks.” and walked over to the bar and sat down on one of the stools.

I followed behind him and went behind the counter, preparing myself to talk to him again. The smile he’d given me had caught me off guard, making my heart race. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to gather my thoughts. Turning around to the bar slowly, I mustered up the courage to ask. “So, what can I get you to drink?”

“I’ll take a glass of rum.” He said, with a contemplative look on his face. His eyes were a deep ocean blue that I swear I recognized from somewhere, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. “So, where you from? I haven’t seen you around town.” I asked as I sat his glass down in front of him.

“The mountains.” He said quietly. I didn’t think he’d taken his eyes off of me once since I’d walked in. Slightly unnerved, I replied. “Oh, I didn’t know anyone lived up there. Does your family not come into town often?” he raised his eyebrows at me a fraction and gave me a small heart stopping smile. “No, they don’t.”

I paused for a moment, considering my next move, but he continued on, “Thank you for the drink, Arya, but I have to go.” He stood up and left just as quickly as he’d arrived, leaving his drink untouched.

I stared after him for a moment, before I realized.

I hadn’t told him my name.