3. Journey To The North.

***Willow’s POV.***

“Are we near?” I asked Ryker after a few hours.

We are walking towards this border and have yet to reach there. My legs are getting numb and my eyes feel heavy, too. I check the slight bump on my head, which is a little painful. I have already applied some ointment on it so I would be fine, but sleep is a necessity for me right now. Because I can’t think or see without proper rest and I already used enough of my powers today.

I want to regain my powers because even if this man doesn’t show any ill intention towards me, there is something about him that I can’t help but think about. If he is from the capital of Ashenalp Kingdom, then what was he doing in the Mortalian Kingdom? Also, the fact that I can’t see much about him leaves me clueless about him.

I mean, I can’t know if I am safe with him or not. My powers have gotten so disruptive. It rarely happens that I can’t see someone’s future. I know I need to touch that person once, then I can see some things about him without touching that person again, but about him I can’t see anything. Even his cloak has only given me one information that he is from the capital.

“Few more minutes, we will cross the border. There is a cave nearby where we can spend the night.” He says without looking back.

Maybe I am too tired or something, but I feel that his earlier demeanor looks changed. He was soft-spoken before, rough but still a little soft. But now he sounds a little harsh. Maybe because he is trying to be cautious not to be caught. Is he a smuggler of some kind? Maybe that is why he is hiding and making sure no one sees us.

“Okay.” I say and pull the hood of my cloak over my head as I felt a little cold.

It is dark, but as he is a dragon so he could see anything through it while I have to walk right behind him with the end of his cloak in my hand. The moonlight is enough to show a path, but every once in a while, the clouds cover it up. We walk for a few more minutes when we reach a clearing.

I blink my eyes to adjust to the light after walking in the dark for an hour now. A mountain is in front of us. I look behind to see the forest has ended and now the mountains are surrounding us. Do we have to climb it? But how? It seems so huge.

“The cave is on the other side.” He says, “Let’s cross it, then you can get some sleep.”

I look at him with wide eyes, thinking for the second time today if he has lost it or what while he looks at me like he doesn’t understand why am I not following him. I shake my head and get myself ready to explain when his eyes light with understanding.

“Yes. I get it now. I forgot humans are weak and can’t climb mountains like dragons. Come, climb me.” He says.

“We are not weak. We can climb that mountain too, but with tools. And by ‘climb me’, I hope you don’t mean something else.” I say with hands on my hips.

“I was just being honest. And I know you humans don’t mean literally what you say. So if I want to have sex with you, I will say it in simple words.” He says with a smile, which is supposed to assure me.

“I guess, thanks, but no thanks.” I say with a scrowl.

“Now let’s go.” He says and bends down on one knee and gestures for me to climb him.

“Can’t you just turn into a dragon and fly us over this mountain?” I ask and he turns around to give me ‘if I am stupid’ look.

“No. We dragons don’t use our power for little things like this. We only turn when there is a dire need of it or in battle. Other than that, we walk like normal people, as we don’t want to create chaos in the sky. Now get on before someone sees us.” He says in scolding.

I look around, then walk up to him. I hesitantly put my arms around his neck and said, “Okay.”

“If you want to strangle me, this is a good idea. What about legs?” He asks.

“Here then.” I say and bend my knees on each side of his waist and he sighs heavily.

“And you wanted to ride the dragon.” He says sarcastically and gets up. He wraps my legs around his waist and when I go to protest, he interrupts, “Hold on tight, unless you want to fall down.”

“What do you-” I say, but get cut off when he makes the first jump.

I close my eyes and tighten my arms around his neck and legs around waist. A strangled voice says, “Not that tight.”

I loosen my hold a little, but not that much. The sounds of stone falling down and the whoosh of air are what I feel. I slowly open my eyes and look up to see we are moving closer to the moon and when I look down, I see we are leaving the ground far behind.

The man I am holding onto with my dear life looks way stronger than before. He is holding the gaps in the mountain as he goes up. He stops and watches around again to find another gap and then jumps in that direction. His hands are turned into sharp claws like a dragon’s. The nails shine under the moonlight.

I feel dizzy from the movements, so I lower my head to his neck. A sweet smell fills my senses, which gives me one more brief vision, even though I am drained of everything. How? When I want to see something about this man, I can’t and when I don’t expect it, I see the brief vision.

This time I see why he was in the human kingdom. He is smuggling goods. Even though five kingdoms trade things with each other. There are some goods they don’t share with everyone. Humans definitely don’t share the perfumes that are made there. The other kingdoms could make it but Ashenalp has little resources and needs special ingredients which can be found in Mortalian only.

“Could you please stop doing that, otherwise I will get the wrong idea that you want me?” He asks with a rough voice.

“What?” I ask in shock and come out of the spell which the sweet scent of his put me into.

“You literally seem very close to licking my neck, which in our kingdom means you want to get naked and lick me over and expect the same courtesy. Do you?” He asks, and I look horrified by that fact. How many weird sexual customs do they have? I doubt my decision to go to Ashenalps now.

“I do not want any such things and also I would not lick your neck. My nose might have slipped because I am sleepy.” I argue back.

“I could feel your breath on my neck. So I thought you were going to do it. By the way, here we are.” He says and with a last jump, we are on the other side.

I open my eyes to see we are on the ground. I look up to see the height of the mountain is less on this side but he just jumped and didn’t break his bones, which is miraculous for me. But then I look at his feet and realize he turned them into claws, too.

“You can untangle yourself from me now.” He says softly and I blink my eyes and go to put my feet down.

But as soon as I untangle my arms around his neck, I sit down on soft grass with a thud and he turns around to look at me.

“You okay?” He asks with a frown.

“Yes. Just a little… sleepy…” I say, but I am so tired that I lose my hold on consciousness the second time that day.

The next time, I wake up to the warmth and cuddle myself into it. I look up to see a hard jaw and blink my eyes just to be clear who it is. Then I realize the Ryker has locked me in the shackles of his arms and is in deep sleep. I try to break free, but I should know better that my strength is nothing compared to this.

I give up and look up at him again. His face looks more relaxed now than before. He has a firm square jaw and his black hair, which I didn’t notice before, is shoulder length and so silky. He is a well-maintained man and clean too, which can mean that he is a man of high status but not royalty. I heard from folktales that a royal dragon has three eye colors, but Ryker has only two. Who is he?

I feel too warm to stay awake, so I close my eyes and snuggle into him again and take as much rest as possible to regain my full power. But that doesn’t happen. I close my eyes and it doesn’t even feel like a few minutes before I am abruptly woken up again.

“Get up, Willow. I said get up. We have to leave now.” Ryker whispers, yells near my ear, and I blink my eyes open.

“What happened?” I ask as I rub my eyes and look at him.

“We have to leave now. Otherwise, there would be a problem.” He says and douses the fire and picks up our satchels.

“But why?” I ask.

“Because I don’t want to be caught.” He says, and I realize what he means.

“Okay.” I say and get up.

“Wear this.” He says, draping his heavy cloak over my shoulder.

“But why?” I ask and try not to sniff it.

“Because now we are starting our journey to the north. And it is about to get cold.” He says and takes my hands.

“Okay.” I say and follow him with no other question or judgement.

But his touch gives me a feeling that this man is more than what he shows me. Who is Ryker Wilburn actually?