Sun Bound

The Coming of Winter

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Chapter Three

The Coming of Winter

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'I have it!' Damon pronounced loudly as he burst into their quarters late in the afternoon. Jason looked up from the scroll he was trying to make sense of. Lune had been dozing in front of the fire. He woke with a cute little snort, looking about with half-closed eyes.

'Huh?'

'I found what Takara was reading,' Damon said with a mischievous grin.

Lune was suddenly much more awake. 'You did? What was it?' he asked excitedly.

Jason groaned and rolled his eyes. 'You two are terrible.'

'Aren't you even a bit curious?' Damian asked, holding up a familiar scroll.

'It's really none of our business...' Jason drawled. 'But seeing as you already have it.'

He reached for it, but Damon snatched it away. 'Oh, but if you think we're prying too much then maybe I should just take it back to the library,' Damon jeered.

Lune let out a snort of laughter. Jason glared at the pair of them. 'Oh, screw you both. Give it here,' he barked.

Damon laid the scroll out on the table so they could read it. Lune plopped himself down in a free chair. At the top of the scroll was an ink drawing of a magnificent crimson dragon. To Lune's surprise, he recognized it.

'I know that dragon,' Lune breathed.

'Any child of nobility would know that dragon. That's Ardere, the Sun Queen's dragon,' Damon grunted.

'The History of Sun Royalty,' Jason read aloud, pointing to the title. The two dragons stared in confusion.

'Isn't that something Takara would already know a lot about? Why would he be reading about it?' asked Lune.

'He should...' Jason said slowly. 'In fact, there's a good chance he knows more about the royal family than anyone else. But from I understand, Takara was quite close to the members of the royal family. Many of the tapestries and paintings of the queen and their son have been removed over the years. The queen was quite loved by the people though so a few of her tapestries, like the one in the library are still on display. Maybe this was a way for Takara to remember the whole family.' Lune recalled the strange expression on Takara's face. Could it have been grief? Did he miss the queen and the son that hardly anyone seemed to remember?

'I didn't even know the king had a son until the king mentioned him to me,' Lune said. 'You never told me what happened.'

Jason grimaced. 'As you can imagine, it's not exactly a happy story. What did the king tell you?'

Lune frowned, thinking back to the day the Sun King had stepped into his stall. He remembered the thrill of fear that had run through him at the sight of the man. At the time Jason and Damon had been away, leaving Lune behind. Collared at the time and trapped in his stall, he had truly felt his vulnerabilities. He cleared his throat and began to recall the conversation.

'It's been over one hundred years since a Kagame has lived in my stronghold, did you know that, dragon?' the king had said. 'I still remember the beast. He was like nothing I had ever seen. Beautiful, naturally, like all Kagame are. I remember thinking he would do well as a breeder. He too, refused to take a rider at first. My own son at the time did everything he could to win the animal over. The beast started to lose his feathers. He didn't take to any other dragon in the stable. His species was so rare that it seemed cruel to allow him to die in a stall, too weak to even feed himself.