Dragon Princess, Forest Ostrander [best book club books TXT] 📗

the hatchling struggle to get out. With one more mighty push soon the hatchling was fully out of the egg and the red dragon looked her ever. She looked exactly like her mother complete with the blue eyes. Shaking off the slimy yolk from her body the young Princess looked at the red dragon with curiosity.

"Hello young one." He said with a smile and touched noses with the hatchling. "I am Prince Derek." The little hatching snorted and pulled away giving the red dragon a little nip on the nose. Pulling his head back in shock he snorted in return.

"Nice to meet you to," he said but cracked a smile as the young hatchling hopped off of the mound where her nest laid. Sniffing around she looked at the red dragon and chirped at him.

"You must be hungry," he said. Quickly picking her up, he ignored her cries of protest as she tried to wiggle out of his mouth.

"Pu...put me down!" the young hatchling shirked which caused the red dragon to let go in shock. As she fell out of his mouth her wings instinctively spread open and she glided to the floor. Turning to him she snarled.

"I don't like to be picked up!" Prince Derek smiled at the feisty youngster.

"All right then," he said. "I won't pick you up but follow me if you wish to eat." Walking down the hall, he noticed out of the corner of his eye the little Princess looking around with wide eyes but was caught off guard when she asked.

"Where is my mom Prince Derek? Who is she?" Stopping he looked down at the young Princess who was looking up at him.

"Um, well you see your mom is on an extended vacation. She is the Princess of the Northern Kingdome and has entrusted us with looking out for you," he quickly lied. Well, at least not all of it was a lie, just a portion of hidden truth.

"Wait. So if she was a Princess then that makes me one to?"

"Yup. By blood you are the rightful heir to the Northern Kingdome."

"Then what am I doing here? I want to go see my home!" Prince Derek now was pinned, looking at the excited hatchling he didn't know what to tell her.

"Let's go, I'm hungry then can we go see my home?" She asked cocking her head with a questioning look.

"Um...I don't know little Princess..."

"My name isn't little Princess. Its Amelia." And with that she skipped down the hall following her nose to the smell of food leaving Prince Derek standing there dumb founded. When he finally caught up with her she had already ransacked the kitchen right under the cooks nose who when he caught her was in a tug of war contest with her. Peeping in through the door Derek couldn't help but laugh as both the cook and Amelia growled playfully while each had an end of the steak in their mouths in a tug of war until Amelia smirked and with a blink of an eye had the steak out of the cooks mouth and was trotting away with it dangling from her jaws leaving a shocked looking cook behind.

"Having problems Luther?" Derek asked while Amelia laid down next to him to eat her steak.

"Yes, where on earth did that little hatchling come from and how did she manage to ransack my kitchen without me knowing? She got into everything!" But instead of looking mad he looked amused. Looking down at Amelia who was giving him the innocent look her laughed.

"She's that egg one of the ancients from the Northern Kingdome brought."

"You mean? She's the Princess?"

"Yup," and looking down once more he noticed Amelia had demolished the steak and had her head on her claws with her eyes closed. Both dragons let out a chuckle and Luther said.

"Better watch out with this one my Prince. She's not only feisty but quick witted and fast."

"I know. She bit me when she first hatched." Nuzzling Amelia awake she growled at him but lifted her head up.

"What? I didn't do it, the rat did it," she said sleepily.

"What rat?" Luther now asked looking at her.

"The one that lives under your stove."

"What do you mean Princess?" Luther asked again.

"You can't see him? He's right there!" She said standing up and nosing under the stove, which she managed to fit under without a problem and chased out a huge rat which she pounced on and the two rolled around on the floor in a tussle before she killed it.

"Now young Princess. That is no way for a royal to act," Luther had said but Amelia didn't hear him. She like the steak and any other food she got her mouth on gulped down the rat before saying.

"So? No one said I had to act like one just because I am one. Besides, I don't want to be one." Both males gasped.

"Why not?" Derek asked.

"Well one thing, there is just too much formalities with it. I heard you all through my shell and everything is My Queen that or My Princess this. It's enough to give anyone a headache."

"And the other?" Derek asked.

"I heard what Belinda said."

"What part is that?" Derek asked now becoming worried that she had heard what would happen to her family.

"From what I got out of it, I was forced into a relationship with you," Amelia said looking at Derek. This had caught everyone off guard.

"Do you not wish to be?" Derek asked. He didn't feel hurt by it, he knew many hatchlings at her age look upon an arranged marriage with distaste and eventually as they grew older would come to accept it.

"Not really to be honest. I just want to go home and see my mom." With that Amelia padded out the door leaving Derek and Luther in the kitchen staring after her.

***

Amelia's POV

I don't remember much from when I hatched. But I do remember my mother's voice as she would talk to me through my egg. The smoothness of it rocked me to sleep and calmed my nerves any time I heard it. I also remember another voice, and new from instinct it was one of the ancients when she had brought me here. All through my imprisonment in the egg I could hear all sorts of voices and had wanted to come out to meet them but a strange fear told me to remain in the safety of my egg. Now that I was out I find myself engaged against my will to the big red dragon who I had first laid my eyes on upon hatching. At first I thought he was my father until he told me he was the Prince of this Kingdome. I could also sense he was hiding something from me but couldn't pin point what it was. I may be young still but I'm not dumb. Looking up at a huge window next to a big door I spread my wings and flapped them but unfortunately I couldn't get off the ground. Growling in frustration I tried again only to find myself lifted up which made a squeak come out of me as I dug my claws into whatever had lifted me up.

"Ow, please retract your claws," I heard the familiar voice of Prince Derek. Turning around I looked him in the eyes.

"Don't pick me up, I told you I don't like to be picked up." I didn't know why but it was just something about being picked up that frightened me. Smirking he said.

"Relax. You want to go outside right? Well you can't go out on your own. At least with me carrying you they will let you go without question." I snorted but nodded as he headed out with me on his muzzle looking down. The ground was a good 20 feet below me and it made me grateful to have wings. Last time I fell from his mouth, the height was enough to scare me into thinking I was going to die with the impact. Luckily I had spread my wings and glided down safely. Looking up at the sky, I noticed other dragons in the air flying.

"I want to fly," I found myself saying out loud. Derek looked up with his eyes as well as he said.

"When you get older and your wings become bigger. Right now, the most you need to worry about is not being trampled by them."

"I won't get stepped on. I may be small but I can get out of the way." I was stunned that he thought me incapable of taking care of myself.

"Oh I'm sure. You did a number on the kitchen and the rat but these dragons are different. Many of them will not hesitate to step on you, especially if they do not know you are the Princess." I snorted.

"You know. You insult me at times. I can take care of myself perfectly fine," I said and glared at him but that only caused him to smile and laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"You don't even know how to hunt or blow fire and here you are saying you can take care of yourself."

"I can to!" I spat and before he could say anything else, I spread my wings and leaped off of his muzzle to the bushes below.

Chapter 2: The revelation

Amelia's POV

 

I walked through the bushes in the woods, I could hear Prince Derek's voice calling out behind me to return but I kept moving on. I was going to prove to him I could take care of myself, after all, I was a Princess and a Princess should be able to take care of herself. During my walk through the woods I heard three high pitched voices to my right so I followed the sound. When I was close enough, I heard a somewhat deeper voice, not as deep as Prince Derek’s but enough to show the voice belonged to an adult. Peeking through the underbrush, I spotted three hatchlings and an adult dragon together in a meadow. Interested, I remained hidden to watch them.

I soon noticed the Pink hatchling teleport from the ground to the yellow adult dragon who smiled down at the hatchling on her back. I was now intrigued at what I saw and wondered if I could possibly have any powers at all myself. Soon turning my attention to the Cobalt Blue hatchling, I watched him as he closed his eyes and summoned a cloud over his head which began to rain on him causing the other hatchlings to giggle, I even found myself slightly smiling as well but the hatchling sure didn't look to pleased. Looking over at the Emerald Green hatchling, I watched as he touched a plant and made the baby bud bloomed into a beautiful fire lily. My eyes widened as I watched the three hatchlings and the adult as they displayed power after power, each one obviously in control of a different power than the other and each making a game out of it.

Sighing, I wished I could go join them but I doubted that they would be so keen on a new hatchling joining their ranks, especially one who had just hatched today, I was much smaller than these bigger hatchlings who I guessed hatched about