Chapter 13

Canyon opened his eyes, then immediately shut them after seeing his Queen standing before him.

“Yikes.…I think he’s going to have a bad headache when he wakes up,” Sage’s voice squeaked.

Headache indeed. Actually, it was more like a head pounding, that’s how bad it hurt.

Canyon slowly sat up and flopped his arm over his eyes, shielding them from the bright light.

“Oh, you have a strange talking creature too.” Cactus said, walking up to Sage. Sage shrank, but apparently, realizing this dragon had no intent of eating her, she straightened up.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Canyon said, shakily standing up.

“Whatever for?” Cactus asked, looking puzzled.

“Uh, I thought…” Canyon squinted, confused.

“Oh, you thought I was going to be mad at you because you are an assassin and you are supposed to be menacing and fight dragons and kill them and not have a soft spot for cute little tiny animals like….uh whatever that is?” she asked, pointing to Sage.

Canyon coughed. “Well, if you…uh…put it that way, then yes,” he said, amused. His smile vanished as he shook his head. “No, actually, I was apologizing for crashing into you in mid-air,” he admitted, lowering his head as he sunk into a bow.

“Oh, great thundering thorns, you don’t have to bow to me,” Cactus said, waving a talon dismissively. “Unlike Falcon,” she said, referring to the WindDragon queen, “I do not make my children carry out the royal etiquette, because I prefer them to be more normal,” she said breezily.

“Oh, well that’s…uh, good….” Canyon said, with a chuckle, then he stopped, stone faced. “Wait—uh did you—”

Sage beat him to it.

“Hang on, did you just say, ‘your children’?” Sage asked, with a sharp breath. “Does that…does that mean that Canyon is—”

“Yes, Canyon is my son.”