Dragon Prince

Chapter 8: The Prince With The Dragon Tattoo

CHAPTER 8

THE PRINCE WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

"LAND HO!"

Callie sighed with relief upon hearing her boatswain Jed declare that from the crow's nest. She had swiftly avoided explaining how she had evaded the mermaids melodies by gathering her crew to pay respects to the dead and insisting she shouldn't be bothered.

Philip's charm had worked! If only she knew what was so special about this sword they were after.

The ship suddenly jerked to a halt as though it had hit into an iceberg. In the distance, what appeared to be a loaded catapult emerged from the watery depths and flung its load right at the ship.

Callie cursed under her breath. Of course the islanders would have taken extra precaution to prevent pirate attacks. She could have face-palmed for being so stupid.

"TAKE COVER!" she bellowed as she crouched by the helm.

The slapping and splashing sounds of the catapults load filled her ears as whatever it was landed on deck or in the water beside the ship. The yells and shouts of her crew prompted her into action but what she saw made her jaw drop.

Her ship was litterd with live red eels snapping and slithering at her men and the prince's knights. Isaac, Aurora and Neil had already been affected as were Arty and Obed and a good number of her men.

"Pepper!"

***

The ship had been cleared of eels and all that had been bitten by the eels were receiving their treatment - blood sucking leeches.

Seeing as her ship was still stuck, Callie had taken to tending to the injured and had faced quite the problem with the prince.

"I don't want that thing near me," he slurred, pointing a shaky finger at what was supposed to be the leech she was holding but instead the wall behind her.

"It's just one more round and then you can rest," she said to him as politely as she could. "I know it hurts but you'll thank me for this later."

Isaac shook his head defiantly. "Osyren doean't like leeches either."

She looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Osyren?"

"The dragon in my head," Isaac replied slowly as though she were stupid for not understanding such simple logic. "But it's a secret."

Clearly the hallucinations were worse than she thought.

"Okay," Callie said as she parted his ripped sleeve where the eel had bitten him (and where the leeches had feasted upon his venom-induced blood). She was shocked to see black ink of a dragon snaking around his upper arm.

Why would a prince have a tattoo of a dragon?

"That's a secret too," he answered quietly as though reading her thoughts. "But I don't know it either."

Callie made a mental note to ask Mrs Pepper what else Isaac had said in his delirious state. She felt his hand brush her cheek and she found him looking at her in a very starnge way.

"Pretty," he muttered.

Without wasting time she jammed the squirming leech onto his arm making him cry out in agony.

He had definitely been hallucinating that time, she reasoned.

Most definitely.

***

A small vessel from Tormanta Island had come to their rescue about an hour later. To appologize for the inconvenience, the governor held a feast in their honour which obviously included entertainment.

And the islanders always entertained themaelves with their traditional sport - bull-troll fighting.

Callie had a feeling it was a bad idea and her worries were confirmed when the governor had taken quite a liking to Raine, as he believed her to be a descendant of fairies (mostly because she was blonde) while he showed obvious disdain for Neil (who was also blond).

Unfortunately both Neil and Isaac still weren't quite in their right minds. Neil was resting with all the others in the infirmary - courtesy of the governor - but Isaac was still wide awake and Callie watched in horror as he accepted the challenge of bull-troll fighting. A crowd had gathered in the arena for the marvellous bravery/stupidity of the royal foreigner and were placing bets among themselves.

"This is bad." Raine whispered to Callie as the governor placed his beefy dark hand over Raine's.

"I hope this seat is to your liking, beautiful swan," he said to her with a heavy accent, smiling at her adoringly.

She responded with a nervous chuckle.

Callie meanwhile looked down at the arena from her seat and watched as a man blew a horn and the gates opened to reveal an angry looking bull-troll with green skin and powerful horns. It stood nearly eight feet tall and brandished a gigantic club.

"Oh, dungbeetles," Aurora muttered from beside her, squinting at the scene. At least she was doing better than the idiot about to face the monster.

Isaac simply taunted the beast by waving his arms about and calling it names. The object of the game was to lure the beast into a well placed trap while giving the audience a show.

The monster lunged at him and swung its club, roaring in anger when the prince dodged it effortlessly and laughed in its face.

Callie felt both amused and embarrassed for Isaac but she was never going to let him live this down. He had even taken off his shirt at one point, exposing his tattoo (and his well toned physique) to the awed crowd, and waved it in front of the bull-troll to taunt it once more.

The monster charged at him head bent and horns ready to stab but the prince flung his shirt over its head right as he leaped over it using an acrobatic flip. The crowd cheered with obvious vigor as the beast fell into the trap.

"Your champion!" the herod said, walking up to the prince and raising his tattooed arm in victory.

The crowd cheered violently while Aurora, Callie and Raine sighed in relief.

"He's quite something," the governor mused, clapping along.

"Yeah," Callie quietly agreed, taking in the prince and his strange dragon tattoo as he blew kisses to the crowd in a most uncharacteristic manner.

"Quite something."

****

Author's Note:
Howdy folks! I know its been ages but wattpad has been tripping so I had to retype this entire chappie on my phone cuz I love this story and yall that much. Stay tuned and please vote comment and share

xoxo

Skyglider