Physician to the Dragon Prince

CHAPTER 1– Dragon meets the Tigress Emma’s POV I roamed my eyes around, I could only see a single color. The color of the war, the color of the pained voices of people, the color that every human feared to see—red. There was thick red blood everywhere. The whole ground was covered with the blood of people. My head was dizzy and my eyelashes were too heavy to see my surroundings. My eyes were half open but it was enough to see the death of my king, making me the sole witness of his death. I watched how he fought hard to save us. I tried protecting him as much as I could, but I was not a soldier and I was not strong enough to fight with the slaughter machines. I collapsed on the ground with my half-opened eyes, causing dust to disturb the air upon my impact before I slowly fell unconscious. The blood flowing from my forehead covered one of my eyes but before I closed my eyes, I noticed a silhouette of a person. His dark aura was enough to cover the sun rays which fell on the battlefield. Yes, we were in a war, and we lost our battle! My body betrayed me. I forced my eyes to stay open, but within few seconds I was unconscious. “Emma, wake up,” I felt someone call my name and shaking my body. My brain started to scold the person who interrupted my sleep. “Emma, wake up!” This time I heard it clearly. It was my mother. I attempted to open my eyes, but my heavy eyelashes only wanted to keep my eyes shut. I slowly rolled my eyeballs around before trying to open my eyes once again. “Thank God! You are back!” My mother kissed my forehead. I fully opened my eyes to realize that I was in a dungeon. The dungeon was a large dark room covered with used and abandoned cobwebs. I caught sight of the old blood patches on the walls and cockroaches running on the ground like they were busy welcoming their new visitors. A wide metal door added to the horrible look of the dungeons. Their dungeons looked as horrific as them and dark like their souls. I had heard that the Dragon King was a ruthless person, he captured everyone’s lands, castles, and kingdoms to broaden the borders of his kingdom and made the poor people his slaves.  I continued scanning the dungeon, but it proved to be more like a cage actually. The room was not enough to house all the people that were captured by them. Then, I noticed that there were many women like us sitting in their positions, without moving. I tried to stand up but couldn’t, my hands were tied to my back and my legs were chained. Every time I pulled my hands the rope grazed me harshly, cutting deep into my wrists, making me winced in pain. “Mother, where’s Father?” I realized that the dungeon was full of only women and children; there were no men to be seen. Assuming that they kept the men separately, I observed the captives carefully. Every woman and child were tied with chains. They looked awful with their wounds and the dry, clotted blood that hugged their clothes to their painful bodies. All of a sudden, my mother started to cry. “What is it, Mother? Why are you crying? Please, tell me?” My mind automatically speculated that something happened on the battlefield. “He is no longer with us. He is dead, Emma,” mother said, her voice shaking as tears flowed freely from her eyes. Her words felt like thunder in my mind. “What did you say?” I asked, my voice coming out as a whisper and my heart clenching.   “He died on the battlefield, Emma. Your father was killed by the Dragon Prince,” she explained and I looked at her with my widened eyes. My throat went dry and my whole body started to shake. “No! That can’t be, Mother!” I screamed,  my voice echoing through the dungeon. “Emma, please be quiet. If they hear our voices raised higher than theirs, they will kill us,” someone else from my kingdom advised softly. Tears started to fall from my eyes like a waterfall, my heart ached and loud sobs started to escape from my mouth. “Emma, please be quiet, my daughter. They will come and kill us all,” mother said. What a life have we been given?! We couldn’t even freely cry. We had to hide everything we were feeling and dance according to their beat. I hate them all! I vow to kill them all. The Dragon Prince killed my father, I will never forgive him. I promise to make him pay! I was sobbing on the floor when suddenly, the dungeon doors opened and I heard the metal sounds of the key entering the lock. It gave me an eerie feeling that our fates were going to be bonded to this kingdom. I slowly raised my head to see who was coming. I noticed a few dwarfs entering the dungeon with the soldiers. Everyone else was looking down. “Emma, keep your head low!” mother whispered to me. I heard her, but I acted like I didn’t. I wanted to see the person who was coming to the dungeons with so many guards and such tight security. Between everyone else, I was the only one raising my head. I stuck out in the middle of everyone who lowered their head, making me very visible to anyone as soon as they entered through the dungeon doors. After everyone entered the room, the final person entered the dungeon. His aura was strong enough to bring an abnormal heat to the room. As soon as he entered the room our eyes locked. I didn’t look away even for a second and oddly, neither did he. His blue color eyes were deeply drilling into the core of the soul. Just one look from him was enough to make shivers run through my spine. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his jaw clenched. His long neck and pointed nose complimented his perfect prince look. He was wearing black leather boots, woolen pants, and a supple coat of black ringmail over layers of black wool. Suddenly the torches secured to the walls were lit. His aura was more powerful than the torches. I blinked as soon as the torchlight hit my eyes. A soldier pointed at us, “Your Grace, these are the prisoners we captured today.” “Very well.” He didn’t move his gaze away from me to look at the soldier. “Why did you kill my father?” I demanded, my voice laced with pure anger. But, my question didn’t affect him one bit, his facial expression remained the same, his eyes still fixed on mine. “You are a murderer!” I screamed at him. “Emma, please calm down, daughter,” mother whispered to me, starting to sob.  “How dare you to speak to His Grace like that? Forgive me, Your Grace. I will teach her a lesson!” One of the dwarfs with a huge nose jumped in front of me and slapped me hard. The slap echoed in the air and I heard bells ringing in my right ear. My cheek started to burn due to the slap, but then, within a snap of a finger, my whole body and face were covered with the dwarf’s blood. Shock paralyzed me and I couldn’t recollect what happened exactly. My whole body jolted with fear and the hair on the back of my neck rose at the sight before me. The dwarf’s head was rolling on the floor and the hand he raised towards me had parted from his body. “I do not like it when someone disturbs me while I am speaking to someone!” A voice asserted, and I turned to see the man wiping his bloody hands on a white handkerchief before passing it to a soldier. He approached me with long strides and stopped in front of me. I couldn’t stand up due to the chains, so he kneeled to my level and tilted my head up with his index finger on my chin. “You were telling something. Could you repeat it?” he asked with his deep voice. “You killed my father! You are a murderer!” I spat my venomous words to his face. “You’ve got a big mouth, My Tigress. Aren’t you scared of me after seeing what happened to that dwarf, right in front of you?” he mocked with a smirk on his face. How weirdly amazing. He is not showing a single ounce of his anger towards me. Maybe he’s plotting a bigger plan for me in the back of his mind. “You are a murderer. I am not scared of you. You should be scared of God, after the whole horrible ordeal you did to my kingdom and my people,” I warned, looking straight into his eyes. All of a sudden, his blue eyes turned red and I believed that I was about to have the same fate that the dwarf had. “Enough! You will learn how to respect me soon, Tigress.” He stood up upright and looked down at me. Suddenly I heard a woman screaming, “Aaah!” “Emma, she needs your help!” mother alerted and I turned to see who it was. It was a woman among us, but she was not from our kingdom. She was pregnant and she was about to deliver her baby. “What is it?” the nobleman in front of me asked. “If you were born from your mother’s womb, then you would notice that she is pregnant and she is going to deliver her baby. Her water broke and she needs my help,” I explained to him at once.   “Do you know how to help her?” he asked, arching his eyebrows at me.   “She is a nurse of the Royal Medical Squad, Your Grace,” mother informed him on behalf of me. “Go ahead, help her. Tell me, what do you need?” the nobleman inquired. “I need clean clothes, warm water, and a sharp knife to cut the umbilical cord. But, most importantly, I need you to release me and few women from these chains to help her,” I ordered at once and he looked at me for few seconds. “Do as she says. Help her to deliver the baby,” he commanded his soldiers and one of them came forward quickly to unlock our chains. As soon as the chains were released, I felt a soothing feeling and I rubbed my wrists a few times. “Send someone with the things she requested, quickly!” he instructed another soldier. “Of course, Your Grace!” The soldier bowed before him and hurried to collect the things. The stranger looking intently at me with his blue eyes while his hands were remained hidden inside his trouser pockets. “There’s nothing to look at here. We can proceed with the delivery.” My tone was slightly harsh as my eyes narrowed at him. “Watch your tongue, Tigress. You are nobody. You have no right to give me orders. I am the prince here and every corner of this castle rules under my commands. You are still alive because I wanted you to and you will die when I want you to die, understood? Now, do your work and I am going to watch you from right here. You can cover her with some clothes,” he roared at me before he stood near the dungeon door. So he is the prince, The Dragon Prince! The soldier returned with the necessary things and two other maids brought hot water buckets to the dungeons. I quickly washed my hands with warm water and covered her with clothes. “Wait outside until the delivery is over.” He sent the dwarfs and soldiers outside, leaving him the only male inside the dungeon. I could feel his dark aura and his gaze directed at me. I was busy with the delivery but from time to time whenever I looked at him, our eyes met and I found myself swallowing my saliva whenever that happened. “You need to push now. Take a deep breath, and keep pushing,” I advised the woman. She did exactly as I instructed and after struggling for about an hour, she finally gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. “She is as cute as you.” I cut the umbilical cord and the baby started to cry. I passed her the baby and washed my hands. “Where’s your husband?” I asked her while wiping my hands dry. “He is dead on the battlefield.” Her words felt like someone stabbed me right in my heart. My blood boiled and I turned to offer my next set of words angry to him. But he was not there. He was gone!