Dragon Blood [Alonia's Queenslayer #2]

13

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Eli's stomach growled, her muscles screamed, her head cried, and her brain had died a long time ago.

The sun beat down on Eli's little group without a hint of mercy. Rays of sunshine cast long shadows as they hit the trees of the foot of the mountain they were supposed to climb. It had taken them several long hours of non-stop hiking while either was also dragging the princess after him to reach the first slope, and Helios had a little baby wolf asleep in his arms. The princess wasn't used to walking, or being wounded, and especially not walking while wounded, so Eli could understand how she couldn't keep up.

"Oh, gods, this mountain has no peak," Helios said, stopping under the shade to wipe his forehead and let the princess and Blaed, who was the one to carry her, rest for a while. The wolf cub woke up and leapt out of his arms, restlessly beginning to sniff around the trees. It wouldn't let anyone but Helios touch it, to Eli's dismay.

Rileigh and Eli had taken to leading the group while princess Lillia was incapacitated, and Eli was feeling pretty proud of how well they kept the pace and progress.

"It should be right about there, where the snow begins," Blaed said, pointing up. Eli had to crane her neck all the way up to see the top, and instantly covered her eyes with her hand from the intensity of the sun.

"This is gonna be tough, huh?" she commented. During their last stop, she took her armour off for ten minutes to inspect her wounds, and the situation wasn't good. Her armour had managed to dig into her skin in several places, and the herbal medicine they managed to craft on the spot didn't really help, and they had used most of it for the princess, anyway.

"We- we don't have to stop because of me," the princess said, sitting up and leaning onto the tree, her movements slow and careful. She still winced upon making contact with the bark.

Ril shook his head, draping his hand around Eli's shoulders and leaning onto her suddenly, and Eli managed to brace herself barely in time so they wouldn't fall. "We're all tired, and we need to eat. Those measly berries didn't do anything for me."

In other circumstances, Eli would've appreciated being that close to Ril, with him leaning onto her and everything, but right then, she couldn't feel him against her because of the thick layer of metal armour, and his added weight only made it dig into her skin further, so she carefully untangled from him. He sent her an apologetic gaze.

"Sorry, I forgot you're carrying a princess of your own on your back," he said, causing the real princess to roll her eyes.

"I'm lighter than that armour," she said. Blaed, who was lying on the ground and breathing heavily, sat up to give her a very reluctant look.

"Well..." he said, leaning back to dodge a swing from the princess. "That is debatable. But at least you don't dig your nails into my shoulders, like Eli's princess."

"Ugh, don't call it a princess, please," Eli said, plopping down onto the ground and peeling off the hunks of metal again. She couldn't keep them off for longer than twenty minutes, or they'd get disqualified, so she was taking a chance- what if they got attacked while it was off? What if they had to run? There was a thousand ways it could go wrong.

But her skin and muscles and whole body sighed in relief when the weight was finally off her, leaving her in a simple white shirt and pants, which were completely soaked from her sweat. She had never felt that disgustingly dirty and stinky in a long time, and she wasn't about to allow herself to succumb to her old ways of not caring one bit about whether she was soaked in sweat and covered in dirt and blood.