Chapter 8: The Boy in The Forest
Ten years ago, Tamara was just a ten-year-old girl, exploring a new, vibrant sector of the Whispering Woods to harvest wild moon-berries and rare dawn pears.
As she neared the northern border where the forest met the rocky crags of the mountain, she heard the harsh rattling of an expensive, unmarked black carriage. Hidden behind a massive oak tree, she watched in horror as the carriage doors flew open. Two large dragon-clan soldiers ruthlessly threw a young boy onto the jagged rocks.
The boy was covered in deep, weeping lacerations, his clothes torn to shreds.
“Stay here and rot, half-breed,” one of the soldiers had hissed before the carriage slammed shut and thundered away, leaving the boy unconscious in the dirt.
As soon as the dust settled, Tamara didn’t think about curses or bad luck. She ran forward, dropping her basket of berries.
The boy was bleeding heavily. He claimed to be twelve years old, but his body was so thin, fragile, and malnourished that Tamara honestly thought he was no older than eight. He looked like a stiff breeze could break his bones.
Using the silver-leaf paste and the herbs Griselda had taught her to prepare, Tamara stabilized him. She dragged his limp body all the way back to a hidden cave near her cabin, nursing him through a violent, thrashing fever that lasted three days.
When he finally woke up, his golden eyes were wild with terror. But Tamara was there, sitting by the fire, wearing her simple leather mask.
“Who are you?” the boy had rasped, backing away. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“I just spent three days wiping your sweaty forehead, so no, I’m not going to hurt you,” Tamara had said smoothly, offering him a wooden bowl of broth.
“I’m Tamara. I live here.”
“I’m… Zain,” he muttered, swallowing the broth greedily.
Because his body was so small and weak, and because Tamara felt completely abandoned by her own bloodline, she placed her hands on her hips and declared, “Well, Zain, since you have no one and I have no one, I am officially your elder sister from now on. I’ll protect you.”
Zain had blinked at her, a strange warmth filling his lonely eyes.
For three years, they were inseparable. They lived like wild creatures, foraging, laughing, and building a world where only the two of them existed. Tamara always wore her mask around him at first. One day, he finally asked her why she hid her face.
“Because I’m cursed,” Tamara had told him quietly, looking away.
“My family threw me away because I have a dark moon on my face. They said it brings ruin.”
Zain had reached out, gently pulling the mask down. He looked at the crescent moon on her thirteen-year-old cheek and frowned. “They are fools. It doesn’t look like a curse. It looks like the night sky chose you.”
During those three years, Zain’s body underwent a terrifyingly rapid transformation. Tamara didn’t know it, but the fresh, pure forest diet combined with the rare medicinal herbs she constantly fed him completely unlocked his stunted royal biology. He began to grow at an alarming rate, his muscles filling out, his aura becoming incredibly powerful.
But their peace caught the attention of the palace.
Zain’s mother, the fierce and bitter Queen Mother, had sent spies into the woods. When she learned that her “disgraceful, weak” son had suddenly grown into a powerful, towering young dragon warrior, she wanted her weapon back.
One winter morning, a battalion of imperial guards surrounded the clearing. The Queen Mother herself stood there, her eyes cold as ice. Zain had fought fiercely, but his mother had held a blade to Tamara’s throat.
“Come back to the capital with me” the Queen Mother had hissed at Zain, “or I will paint these trees with this human girl’s blood.”
Zain had looked at Tamara, tears streaming down his face. “I’ll go,” he whispered. “Just let her live.”
Tamara had screamed his name, but the guards dragged him away into the mountains. She never knew he was a prince. She had always assumed he was just a regular, discarded child of the dragon clan.
Once the soldiers come to take him back— her world went completely dark.