Estevan
The small hut was made of wood and straw, there was a wood-burning stove and a table made of clay.
"Sit down, you need to eat something or you won't last long on your feet!" He said and I obeyed him.
He put a bowl on the table, some bread and soup. Even though I knew I shouldn't trust him and still remembered the day I was poisoned, I went against all the reluctance and fear of my stomach, which seemed to be screaming at me.
I took the bowl a little further towards him.
"What, it doesn't look good to you?"
"Try it"
Kanue looked at me seriously and cut off a piece of bread with his own hand. He dipped it into the soup and brought it to his mouth, chewing as he went, licking his fingers and saying:
"I think it lacked a little salt, but it's good." He smiled and looked at me. "Do you think I'd bring you to my house if I wanted to kill you? You were about to jump off the cliff when I found you!"
I stared at him seriously and took a piece of bread and dipped it in the soup. When I brought it to my lips, I felt like an animal with no education, just following my instincts and swallowing quickly, the bread came tearing down my dry throat, but I still couldn't stop eating.
It was a simple soup, but it looked like the best I'd ever tasted in my life.
I looked at him.
"Was it you who cured me?"
He nodded.
"Are you a witch?"
"Unfortunately not, this is just a plant with healing properties that you wouldn't understand. It has saved many of the tribe and has done so for hundreds of years."
"Hundreds of years" I raised an eyebrow "So there have been men on Dragon Island for hundreds of years?"
He nodded.
"Why haven't you ever tried to leave?"
"We've never wanted to leave, there's everything we need here and more. All this madness of kingdoms, wars, treaties, the whole system, that's what we don't want to deal with. Here we have rules, laws, but we're freer than you are."
I looked into his intrigued eyes.
"I'd love to learn about your system"
"You look too starched, I don't think I'd understand. What are you, a count?"
"I'm the prince of Olimper, but that doesn't mean anything, or does your freedom make you judge without knowing people?"
My words drew a smile from him.
"All right, kid, but first I want to know what your name is. You haven't told me yet."
"My name is Estevan and I don't know how I ended up here"
"A dragon brought you"
"My dragon"
"It was clear that he was attached to you, he spent the night by your side" He looked outside and followed his eyes seeing that those little dragons were still outside playing with each other "Those baby dragons weren't going to do you any harm! They just wanted to play, they were happy that you had woken up"
"How do you know that?"
"'Cause they're the offspring of the dragon that brought you here." He turned to look at me and then, at last, I understood why my dragon hadn't come back all this time.
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Alexia
Over the stained-glass windows that illuminate the throne room, the faces of hatred at seeing me wearing a crown had no more weight than the image still solid in my mind of Acácio and Soraya's exposed and bloodied bodies, to which I had become attached in a way that even I couldn't imagine, and now a great emptiness settled in my chest.
The crown was heavy on my head, it seemed disproportionate, but I would bear its weight day after day until I saw Estevan's face cross that room.
My heart raced, anxiety was eating away at me as soon as I opened my eyes and saw that it wasn't a nightmare, Estevan wasn't by my side. A huge hole seemed to have been dug in my chest and now all that was left was the cold and the sadness, the minutes of the day seemed like an eternity as I missed his increasing fear for his life without knowing what to expect, whether he was alive or not.
Searching from village to village, through squares and forests, wanting to see his honey-colored eyes staring back at me, wanting to hear his voice again, I called his name wherever I went, looking for him in the dark and in the light, but he seemed to have evaporated from the earth, making the nights longer and the days more tiring, my eyes heavy from the fatigue of sleepless nights while my cold bed brought back memories of when the hours were used to kill our desire and not to cry.
It had been a week of searching and every day I felt the weight of the days passing, I wondered if he was eating, if he was dressing well, if he had a roof over his head, if his wounds were healing well, something inside me still clung to the idea that he was alive out there even if there was nothing to indicate it and against everyone who seemed to look at me with pity I still hoped for his return, I still looked for him wherever he went and it would always be like this, I wouldn't give up on finding him.
Solving the people's problems, seeing the kingdom rise little by little, there was still a lot of ground to cover, but there were no more enemies.
Torrem and Zaim now belonged to Olimper and King Francisco couldn't have been happier, deciding to come on his own to consolidate our alliance in a war he hadn't even helped to win.
It was listening to his words of flattery at the lunch table that I began to understand the impartial way in which Acacio dealt with issues from other kingdoms.
I didn't promise to sign our alliance, but I did promise that peace would still be present and because of his friendship with the royal family I would still maintain a friendship, but that I wouldn't forget when he turned his back on Olimper.
It was strange the way I had hardened, wandering the corridors alone, looking out of the window every night watching the city when I wasn't sorting out matters of the kingdom and ignoring the nobles, nothing seemed to make me happy anymore, holding a shirt of Estevan's I sniffed it and put it against my chest feeling a lump form in my throat and I allowed myself to cry.
My tears soaked the shirt violently, wetting it quickly, I lowered myself to the floor, cowering in a corner and crying loudly, feeling my body suffocate as the tears came out, the pain was becoming more exposed, so much so that it felt like someone was squeezing my heart tightly, crushing it, nothing was going down my throat and the pain came in waves oscillating through my body, I clutched his shirt tightly and looked up at the ceiling.
"Where are you Estevan, I need you!"