STILL IN THE KINGDOM OF DRAKENWELL

After hurriedly and begrudgingly putting out the rest of the candles, Naomi rushed out of the bedchamber. There, she encountered the usual guards posted at either side of the door, not sparing her a glance.

Not that she expected them to. The guards in the castle were so terribly hard to provoke. Naomi had tried. She hadn't even seen them blink before, honestly. Their royal blue and purple attire was supposed to emit a friendly aura, as King Rhys always boasted about. A nice inviting presence. But the bastards were so stiff and unmoving that Naomi always made it a habit of pretending to poke them in the eye as she passed.

She was sure that if the guards had their way, they would've probably sliced her finger open with their swords. But luckily for her, no matter how annoying she was, they couldn't harm a hair on her head without her doing something even more stupid to warrant it.

That night, however, they could relax because she was in no mood for attempting to poke eyeballs. She had a plan to formulate.

The guards might probably be surprised – since they always expected that silly gesture from her – but they would have to wait till the next day.

Poor things. So anxious for my attention.

"Tomorrow, Guardies. I promise. I've got to hurry to bed tonight." She quickly gave each a small bow. "Bye Reginald. Bye Duke. I hope you sleep well!" she added over her shoulder, despite knowing full well that they wouldn't have a moment's rest until the next morning when their shift would end.

Moving fast, but not too fast to draw attention, Naomi exited the west wing of the upper floor of the castle and rushed down to the lower. There was hardly any noise about because of the hour, so Naomi figured she was alone and took that opportunity to run to the servants' quarters.

She only shared a wing with the other servants, but not a chamber, and she had the princess to thank for that.

Rushing to open her bedchamber door, Naomi had completely forgotten that a very important and excited roommate would be waiting anxiously for her to return. So as soon as Naomi thrust the door open, a small yet heavy force suddenly collided with her face. The Shade was then thrown backwards against the corridor wall and groaned as her back made a painful thud against the stone.

"Ardha!" Naomi gritted out in frustration, grabbing the pestering load and pulling it away from her face. "You stupid dragon!"

Wincing, Naomi pushed away from the wall and glared at the little dragon staring expectantly at her. The mark on the creature was only a shade darker than its own bluish skin. "Do you want to kill me? Is that what you want? Hm?"

Ardha, not understanding a word nor the cause of Naomi's anger, twisted her head and moved closer to Naomi's face, nudging her nose.

"You think you're so adorable," Naomi muttered in annoyance, but her voice had softened considerably. Even though her back and face still throbbed from the attack, she knew that Ardha was only thrilled to see her. How could she blame the poor thing for being so enthusiastic?

It's either that or the disgrace of a dragon is probably just hungry again.

"Impossible." Naomi felt the dragon's rough middle and looked into its striking, blue, snake-like eyes.

"I already sent Baeron to feed you so you better not be hungry, you silly cow," Naomi chided, but affectionately cuddled Ardha in her arms and entered her bedchamber. "You surely can't be hungry. Look at how fat and heavy you're becoming."

Sincerely, even if Naomi felt the need to, she just couldn't let it starve because it wasn't even her dragon to begin with. It belonged to Princess Laya, and the princess only entrusted the care of the dragon – ironically – to her. Which she in turn entrusted the care of the dragon – without the princess' knowledge – to her own private personal servant.

The creature had been gifted to Princess Laya by the king on her seventeenth birthday, and the pompous princess, not wasting any time, had added the dragon egg to Naomi's list of duties to perform until it was older and large enough to start living in Dragons Keep with the others.

The queen had been immediately against the idea, but the king permitted his daughter to do whatever she pleased, just as long as the dragon didn't die. Which was surely bound to happen if Naomi didn't allow Baeron to feed it as often as she supposed she should.

However, the little dragon did look healthy enough, so she didn't bother. Besides, if Ardha ended up dying of starvation one morning, she would always have someone else to put the blame on.

Naomi shook her and closed the door behind her. She didn't have time to waste on the little dragon's hunger issues. She had better, far more important things to think about. Things that would surely benefit her more greatly than she could ever imagine, and might probably get her dungeonised.

But it will be worth it, she thought with an excited grin.

"Ardha. Did you know that the first son of the King of Oroden has Shade blood in him?" Naomi rhetorically asked the creature in a low tone as she placed it in its crib. "What does that even mean?"

Ardha stared up at her temporary master, obviously clueless. But Naomi only needed her ears, not her mouth.

"Does it mean that he has the mark but no power? Or it means that he doesn't have the mark, but he has some abilities?" she pondered in excitement. "I bet it's the latter, it has to be. I need a fool with usefulness not an idiot with nothing."

Naomi quickly changed into her nightgown and blew out the candles that Baeron had probably lit while she was away. Bless his darling soul.

Jerking off her shoes and ignoring her slippers, Naomi proceeded to reach under her bedding and pulled out a letter. A letter of utmost importance. Just looking at it made her grin deviously as she stood by the fireplace, the only illuminating light in the room. She swiftly turned towards the crib where Ardha was perched, staring at Naomi.

Noticing her guardian's delirium, the blue dragon stood on the edge of her crib, wings halfway spread as if wanting to fly straight for Naomi again.

"He's going to help me Ardha, because he won't have a choice." She paced rapidly, thoughts running up and down in her head. "I have no doubt that he wasn't raised in that castle. Being part-Shade? No way. His mother is probably dead but before she might've told him a neat story about his real father. He might've gone to Oroden for a confrontation and the king might've believed him because he knows he can't keep his royal sausage to himself, hence allowing his bastard son to stay in the castle!"

Naomi couldn't stop grinning nor pacing. "This is such great news! Not the mother's death, of course, but the bastard prince would know what it's like to live like a Shade, and would have immense sympathy for a very innocent and pitiful princess' maid like myself."

She spun towards Ardha's crib and presented the most innocent and adorable look she could muster, but she in turn faced an empty cot.

Naomi knew not to panic because the pain-in-the-neck was surely rummaging through her dress pocket for a new trinket. And truly, when she looked to where she had thrown her dress, Ardha was digging into her pockets.

"Ardha! I'm trying to show you something important." Naomi marched towards the stubborn creature. "Pay attention to me!"

The little dragon pulled out a gold coin from Naomi's pockets before she looked up at the Shade. Her eyes gleamed with elation.

"No." Naomi reached down to snatch the object from between Ardha's teeth. "No stolen goodies for you if you don't regard my presence in this chamber. Got it?"

She then waited for a sign of acknowledgement from the dragon before she picked her up and flopped them both on the bed.

Naomi sighed in contentment. Holding the letter close to her chest, she turned her head towards Ardha, who only stared at her from the right.

"You have no idea how excited I am, Ardha. Who knew a bastard could be the cause of such happiness?" Naomi propped herself on both elbows and reached out with her left hand to scratch under the creature's chin. "I'm finally going to get out of this boring and annoying hole and have an adventure with my life."

The dragon closed its eyes and completely leaned into Naomi's palm, scraping its rigid blue scales against her skin.

"I wonder how he looks like, his name, age, all of it. Will he be handsome?" Naomi's dubious grin widened. "Oh Ardha, if only you knew what I was thinking right now you wouldn't look so calm at all."

Ardha only purred in response and gradually dozed off. The Shade, seeing as the dragon had finally fallen asleep, collapsed on her back and stared up at the ceiling. Darkness had slowly begun to dominate her vision after hours and hours of indulging in reverie, and Naomi gladly gave in with a huge smile on her face.

But before she succumbed to sleep completely, Naomi wondered if the bastard prince would be anything like the other Shades from her kingdom; serious and prideful yet caring and hardworking. Or, the Supreme forbid, a slimier version of King Rhys.

However, the dream Naomi had that night told a whole new, very weird, and very different story.