Dragon Marked

Chapter 11: a few days later

"Ok, I'm done with the letter." Kate looked up relived that she had finally finished after a few days. She'd spent the last couple weeks training the armies, and she only recently managed to start drafting.

"Think the queen will be able to read it?" River looked doubtfully over Kate's shoulder, at the letter. "The handwriting's pretty bad."

"Hey!" Kate snapped. "My old writer teacher can read it; the queen can get him. Let's go get the pigeon." Almost all the SAD community had started calling Damian the pigeon because he was expected to bring the letter to the queen. The only other thing that he was of food. "Uh-hu. Should we also send a letter with a real pigeon? Damian will run for his life far from the kingdom. Mothe-" River paused, correcting themself, "The queen would just execute Damian."

"I am NOT rewriting the letter." Kate muttered to River, "My hand's going to hurt for hours after this."

"Your choice." Edith looked up; she was back to 3 feet long.

I'm hungry.

"Your always hungry!" Kate and Rivers said at the same time. Thanks to River's love for dragons, and Edith's endless patience on teaching anything for treats, It only took River a few days to learn Edith's language.

"Besides," Kate continued "I just fed you. No killing solders while we are gone!" Kate opened the door."

Yea, yea, yea. No fun. Rivers rolled his eyes.

"You can have fun if you don't put anyone in danger. The pigeon included." Rivers told Edith as they crossed their arms in a way, they'd seen their sister do a bunch.

What pigeon? The animal, or human? Kate sighed.

"The human. Bye, Edith! see you in a bit!" Kate closed the door. "Thank goodness that's over. Come on, River. Let's go." Kate grabbed River's hand, and the two siblings walked toward the old food storage. Meg was also there, giving him his daily food. "HEY, DAMIAN!" she called with a grin. "YOU'VE GOT VISITORS!"

"Who is it?" Adrian looked up.

"Your least favorite people. We have the letter. You'll leave at night. Hope you enjoyed your stay," Kate replied. Meg followed them a little way away from the pit, and asked,

"You think he'll really take the message to the queen?"

"No, unless he knows we're sending dragon marked to ensure he delivers it." Kate paused, and whispered "so, talk about sending marked after him to make sure. Say it just loud enough for him to here." Meg grinned.

"Ok. Should be easy. After all, I watch him all day every day. Last day! At least that's good. Can't wait till we are rid of him." Kate smiled.

"Nor can I. So, if she sends solders to kill us?" Rivers looked at Kate nervously.

"Then, we fight.

"But... can all of S.A.D beat the royal army? What if-"

"The pillar of fire is a small group. We could probably take them out right now, if we wanted to." A quiet voice interrupted River. River, Megan, and Kate spun around to see a child with long black hair, pale skin, and dark blue green eyes. The girl held a dragon that was such a dark shade of green that it was almost black. "My name's Natalia, and this is my dragon, Arrow. I recently escaped from the pillar of fire. It wouldn't be to hard, right? My twin is still there, captured." Kate looked at her, and slowly replied,

"Of corse it wouldn't. It would really help if you could tell us all you know. Can you do that for us?" Natalia nodded.

"They number 23. I... got bored when i was being held captive. They keep their prisoners out in the open. I've seen a whole army destroyed by 10 of them, so don't get surround, and they use the prisoners as shields. Any prisoner who gets marked is forced to join their ranks. That's all I know, sorry." Natalia looked down, wishing she known more. River asked, "how many prisoners?"

"13, before I left. The number was always changing. So, about 12."

"This is very useful, thank you. Maybe we won't need the pigeon after all!" Megan exclaimed, excited at the, thought of not relying on Damian. Kate looked at Natalia. "Do you have a assigned room?"

"An assigned room." River interrupted. He shut up after a sharp look from Kate. Natalia shook her head. "No. Not yet."

"Then you can stay with me." Kate offered. Natalia was only about 7, roughly River's age.

"Ok."