Chapter 27: Dragon tattoo
[Snowblood mountains]
Calhoun was astonished looking at the scenery ahead him. He kept taking one step forward and one step backward like a pendulum.
Whenever he took a step forward, he would see a tropical garden with beautiful white marble house in the middle. The climate was warm, and there were animals running around and having fun.
Whenever he took a step back, it was the typical snowblood mountain's chilling merciless winds he was used to in the past few weeks.
Calhoun realized there must be some extremely powerful barrier that hid this place here. Or else there was no way someone powerful like Dexter would miss this place.
Taking a deep breathe, he entered the barrier completely. The snowblood mountains behind him weren't covered with snow and ice anymore. Instead, there were green hills and beautiful waterfalls.
His breathe trembled. Is this what he was searching for? Did the stars lead him here to look at this magic?
He spotted few of the animals he met at the start of this journey. They did notice him, but went back to lazing around.
The prince then walked into the marble house. It was not a huge mansion, but a very cozy two storied house.
He looked around. The interior looked quite new, and colorful, but used. It must have been preserved using magic again.
'Does anyone live here?' He thought. There were some papers lying on the table in the middle of the hall. He didn't understand the script. He doubted if this even existed.
He carefully took a sheet and looked at it. A frown settled between his brows. He didn't understand, but this does look a bit similar to the one on the coin he picked up.
Placing the paper back on the table, he looked at the looked at the paintings hung on the white walls.
A smile settled on his lips. He liked painting too. And these all paintings were simple and lovely. He guessed all of them must be the views around.
The huge bathroom then tempted him. He thought of checking the rooms on the above floor later. He needed a warm bath, hot food and good sleep.
Planning this, he began to undress as he walked to the huge tub. It was made of marble too with some magical heating system. He was ready to boil if there wasn't one.
"Sigh.." The prince relaxed in the luxury tub and looked around. Every thing was very clean. There were even few clothes hanging on a rail. His gaze lingered for a second longer on the woman's clothing there.
If his guess was right, then the owner of the place must be very powerful. But something made them leave this place long ago. And he must be connected to it somehow. Why else would the universe lead him here?
After staying for a while in the tub, the prince jumped out to bath and walked to the mirror. He didn't look at himself and first went to open the cupboards there. There were some weirdly designed robes, but they are fit him perfectly.
So he didn't hesitate to pick one for himself. Only then did he turn around to look at himself in the mirror.
His body tensed looking at the mirror. Calhoun walked closer and slightly turned.
The red marks he previously saw on his back now took form of a huge dragon tattoo. The ink was black, and it looked majestic.
He gulped as he traced it on the mirror. Was this his beast? But he didn't know how to connect with his inner self yet.
He heard from other beast men that it feels like a second mind, and instant connection. He didn't feel that way.
A lot of thoughts ran in the prince's mind.
'Why did his beast only wake up now?'
'What dragon will it be? The weakest white dragon? Or the strongest red dragon?'
'How does he connect with it?'
'What exactly is this place?'
There were always a lot of folk tails going around about snowblood mountains. But no one ever mentioned anything close to what he was experiencing the past month.
Looking at the tattoo, Calhoun decided to not leave this place till he get answers to all his questions.
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[Mythiopia]
"Not now Stella." Lawrence said sternly to his eldest daughter as he shuffled through some documents on his table. Stella was pestering him to take her to the snowblood mountains.
Stella pursed her lips. She was never told a 'no' no matter what kind of ridiculous requests she made.
"Father. Why can't I go in when Dexter can go in? I want to see for myself if those mountains live up to their reputation or not." Stella explained.
The barrier shattered her divine whip. She needs to settle scores for that.
"Lord Dexter went there on my orders. Not to quench his curiosity. He went there to get clues about your sister. So let's not disturb him or that place for now. When everything is settled, I will personally take you there." the king concluded.
Stella didn't knew the search for her sister was so intense that they had to go into snowblood peaks. But this will be a even better opportunity to prove herself right?
Thinking this, she was about to persuade again when the entire palace heard a loud griffins roar in the sky. Right now the only one using a griffin was Dexter. So he must have return back safely from the snowblood mountains.
Lawrence too paused his work. Dexter would be coming to report everything to him soon. Hopefully he had found something to assist them.
"Stella. Go back to your chamber. I will have to meet with Lord Dexter." Lawrence said as he started cleaning up his desk.
"Father. Please let me stay. I want to listen what Dexter had to say too." Stella requested. She noticed for the past few day, even her mother was busy on the same thing.
The relationship between her parents was slowly getting better, but she was completely unaware of how they trying to find her sister. She was curious.
Lawrence didn't grant her the permission. He didn't like refusing Stella too. But she couldn't keep anything in her stomach. And he didn't want anyone to know about what all they were dealing with.
Disappointed, the princess left the king's chamber. Aliza came in after a few minutes and Dexter followed in a moment.
"Your Majesty." He bowed and greeted to the king and the queen before taking out the coin from his pocket.
Lawrence and Aliza curiously looked at it.