Sarkata (On Hiatus)

Chapter 7: Nina

Nina and Erok had been up for about several hours, they were still in the royal orchard and exactly where they had eaten the oranges and fallen asleep. Currently Nina was lying on her back with her head propped up against Erok’s scaly body. Erok’s head was next to Nina’s body, his enormous head the size of her stature. The rest of his body wrapped around her in a long slithering line. They were silent for most of the morning. There was nothing to do until night came. Erok spoke,

“Are you sure this plan will work Nina?” he asked.

Nina let out a deep breath, “The gods have foretold it and so it shall happen.”

“Yes, but will it work?”

“I hope so.” Nina stated. “If it does not I don’t have any other plans.”

Erok turned a golden eye, the size of her head, towards her, “And what is this plan of yours?”

Nina laughed quietly, “I forgot I didn’t tell you.” She shuffled and turned on her side to look at the eye that was watching her. Erok looked deep into her scarred left eye. A deep gash cut straight down it. When Nina had gotten the gash, in a brawl, it destroyed her eye causing her to lose her sight. However, the Goddess Sarkata restored Nina’s vision by granting her a new eye and healing the wound. All that was left was a scar marking down her eye.

“What? Is there something on my face?” Nina asked while wiping her face.

“No, there’s nothing there.” Erok said.

“Oh, alright then. Well I’ll tell you the plan.”

Erok listened intently because Nina did not like repeating plans, especially if you ask about it while the plan is in act.

“Tonight,” she said quietly even though they were far out in the palace orchard, “We will sneak into the Palace and steal the Princess away.”

A scaly eyebrow raised higher above Erok’s eye.

Nina nodded her head and smiled. “This mission actually excites me. I cannot wait. This is the first mission I’ve had that marks the beginning of the war, the beginning of the end of Tempra’s reign of terror.”

Erok watched Nina in amazement. It’s true; Nina hasn’t been this excited in years.

“We’re going to kidnap the Princess.” She stated again while looking into Erok’s eye gleefully.

“How do you plan on doing this?” Erok asked carefully. This would certainly be hard to do.

“When night comes and bathes us with darkness, which will be easy since we are not in bright colors,” she added while noting her dark clothes and Erok’s black scales, “We will sneak into the Palace, enter her room, and take her away.”

Erok was amused at how easy she expected this to be, “Are there not guards that are hired to prevent this very thing?”

“There are, but the Tempran’s, being the fools they are, have become lax in the amount that should be there. Therefore if there are guards there won’t be very many.”

“They really believe that no one will try to harm them…” Erok marveled.

Nina nodded her head and flung a protruding bang from her face, “Yes, either they’ve become comfortable with the amount of power they have or they think non-Tempran’s are too stupid to try and attack them. But soon they’ll realize that so isn’t the case.”

The dragon nodded.

“But until night, we must stay hidden in this orchard.”