The Dragon's Kiss

"My real.. gender?"

Kel froze.

Nesta knew? She knew the farmboy she took in was actually a girl? For how long?

No. This wasn't the time to worry about that. From the moment she chose to take Dash's hand that night in Serin, Keliyah, the female guard and princess's body double, had been left behind.

"I am Kel, your grandson," Kel declared firmly, "and I will not run away from this."

"Stupid girl!" Nesta brandished her wooden spoon. "If a couple of half-blind old folks like us can tell right away, do you think you can fool the sharp eyes of hundreds of soldiers? Women are not permitted in the army. Punishable by death!"

"If not them, what about that scary man who leads them?" came Harrow's muffled voice from another room where he sat bundling his farm tools together. "You think you can hide from the Dragon Emperor himself?"

Kel paused mid-protest.

The Dragon Emperor.

Calix.

Would she.. see him again?

If she knelt before him as another body in a sea of black armor, her hair tied safely out of sight, would he even notice? Would those piercing scarlet eyes pick away at all the layers and see Keliyah buried underneath?

She should have been terrified at the thought.

But she wasn't.

"He won't notice me," she whispered, mostly to reassure her own pounding heart that those words were the reason for her lack of fear--that it wasn't the childish hope living deep in her heart that Calix would recognize her and embrace her as warmly as he did that winter night.

"We should get out of here and find your boyfriend," Nesta continued, shoving her spoon back into the sack. "He'll be able to take us somewhere sa-"

"No," Kel cut the old woman off. "I will not run."

Not again.

Especially not when so many lives, at least the lives of Nesta and Harrow, could be at stake because of it.

Nesta turned a scrutinizing stare toward Kel, her nostrils flaring with each frustrated exhale. After several angry breaths, the woman closed her eyes, dropping the burlap bag at her feet.

Nesta, and Harrow too, were stubborn people. And once they had an objective to fixate that stubbornness on, they became unyielding in their resolve. But Nesta, more so than Harrow, could perceive when an unstoppable force was pounding against her immovable will.

The old woman's eyes fluttered open.

"Take off your shirt. Now."

"E-Excuse me?!" Kel stammered, shrinking under the woman's fiery expression.

Nesta rolled her eyes and continued her advance.

"If you want those men to honestly believe you're one of them, you're going to have to wrap that chest of yours much tighter," the woman demanded before suddenly shouting at Harrow. "Stay in there for a little while, Dear."

"Um ok.. Wait, right now?" Kel squirmed as Nesta yanked her tunic over her head.

Kel had never wrapped her chest before coming to Tael. She learned quickly (after the first few days of wrapping resulted in unexpected bruising around her ribs) that it was far more comfortable to tie the bandages loosely. She figured there wasn't much to hide anyway.

Now, as Nesta tugged the bandages encircling her chest so tight she thought her ribs would collapse, she learned a new trick about wrapping.

"If you tie it this way, so the pressure is distributed evenly around your front and back," Nesta instructed as she secured the ends of the bandages, "your chest will match the thickness of your waist, and it won't be painful."

"I see," Kel murmured, patting her new, snugly-bound flat chest. "How did you know?"

"We all have our secrets here in Tael," Nesta murmured, handing Kel her tunic.

"Thank you," Kel responded, grabbing her shirt, "for helping me, and for.. trusting me."

"Trust? You think I trust this naïve little girl to not get herself killed?" Nesta huffed, shaking her head. "I just can't force you into a better way is all."

"You're right," Kel swallowed.

Trust wasn't the right word. It wasn't what she wanted to convey..

Thanks for taking care of me? Thanks for helping me? Thanks for literally risking your lives and livelihood for me?

Suddenly, Nesta turned her back to Kel.

"No matter where you are, Child," she muttered, "you will always have a home here."

"... Thank you," Kel repeated quietly.

"Thanks for giving me a home."

***

"Load up!!"

The loud deep voice rang out over the dark empty street.

Kel had reported for duty late in the evening with the help of an impatient soldier who'd been stationed outside Nesta and Harrow's house while Kel 'said her farewells'. When she arrived at the desolate market, she saw two other boys waiting with their own escorts looming over them.

Neither boy looked to be above 16 years old. With bronze-colored skin and silver hair, they might have been beautiful if not for their thin faces with sunken eyes.

'Refugees,' her escort had explained quietly. 'We'll get 'em nice and fattened up quick as we can.'

Ha. Kel had snorted under her breath. Do you plan to enlist them or eat them?

Together, she and the two boys climbed into the back of one of the (now empty) supply wagons.

"Thank goodness there aren't more of you," one of the boys' escorts remarked, sliding into the driver's box. "It would take forever if we had to walk… HYAH!"

Kel and her two companions rode in silence, neither party willing to strike up useless conversation with the other. Besides, like Kel, the two kids probably had a lot on their minds.

As Kel nestled back against the upright wooden wall, her eyes beginning to droop with drowsiness, she noticed one of her silver-haired comrade's golden eyes fixated on her.

"Ah.." Awkwardly, she reached up to touch her dirt-caked hair.

Along with her chest, Nesta had insisted her hair was too noticeable the way she wore it. And, without warning, slopped a handful of mud on top of Kel's head with the instructions to let it dry and then shake off the excess.

Needless to say, her hair was now as gray as the barren Tael dirt. Additionally, she'd received a slosh of much to the face for the purpose of 'covering her decidedly feminine features.'

By the end of it, Kel was half-convinced that Nesta was exacting her revenge for having Kel refuse her plan via mud.

"You should get some sleep," Kel broke the silence, uncomfortable under the boy's unwavering gaze.

"I imagine tomorrow will be a long day."