Dragoturkey claws scratched wood. The animal shook Yugo's hand off its back. Automatically, he put it into his pocket.
"Did she say where she was going?" the king asked, and the stable boy straightened his back in exactly the same way dragoturkeys did.
"No, lord."
The other stable boy took Amalia's steed by the woven reins to walk it to its stall.
"Wait" the king said. "Yugo, have you learned anything?"
He shook his head. Claws tapped on wood. The dragonette in Yugo's arms struggled and the boy hugged it closer.
"If she told me... if I went with her..."
"You'd both be in trouble right now."
"Oh, hello."
The eliatrope raised his head to see Adamai standing in the open doorway.
"Anything the matter?" the white dragon asked, hands on his hips. "Cause the kids are getting impatient, there, see?"
With his chin, he indicated the baby Grougal, who at the same moment slipped out of Yugo's embrace and dashed into the forest, nearly clipping his wing on Adamai's head.
"You forgot about the picnic? Hey?"
Before he knew it, Yugo was hugging him.
"So good you're here!" he said "We can look for Amalia from above!"
"What?"
The king nodded. "Good idea. I'll organise the search on the ground."
"Amalia?" Adamai asked, breathless.
"I'll explain on the way" Yugo said, moving back to give him space. Adamai glanced at him, then at the king, whose dark irises twinkled with light, then he shrugged and changed form.
As he thought, the search continued long into the night. Yugo was on edge, hands clenched on the dragon's horns, more fidgety every minute. When Adamai tried to talk, he got curt, distracted answers. When it turned dark and they had to go back, Yugo sniffed loudly, then pressed his cheek to the dragon's back. He made no sound anymore. The moment they were in their room, he fell on his bed and asleep.
Amalia covered her head with her arm. She pulled her knees to her chest, mumbling, and when a hard, cold object touched her foot, kicked at it reflexively.
"Ow! Are you nuts?"
"What do you want, Adamai?" she muttered.
"Morning report, milady" he growled.
Far away in the forest trumpets sounded. Amalia propped herself on one arm, eyelids fluttering. Her hiding place, magically woven into the branches of a carefully chosen bush, was filled with greenish light, shot with gold where a sunbeam managed to squeeze in between the leaves. As to things material, it held a small shoulder bag, a nettle fibre blanket and the princess herself, who was lying on the blanket, but there wasn't enough space for Adamai. He had to squat in the entrance.
"What?"
She pulled her legs underneath herself and scrambled into a sort of sitting position, rubbing her arm. Then she reached for her bag.
"You owe me a kama."
The princess froze mid-gesture.
"He bought it?"
"Girl. Use your ears. Your father bought it."
Amalia's hand fell down on the blanket.
"Really?" she breathed.
"Wasn't that what you wanted?"
"Mhm" she shook, then pulled the bag closer to herself by the strap.
"I sense a note of disappointment."
Scowling, she rummaged in her bag.
"So, are we go for the rest of the plan?" Adamai wanted to know.
The princess bit into an api she got out of the bag and nodded.
"By your house, right?"
"Yes, at noon."
The dragon nodded before commencing the difficult operation of backing out from the mass of thorny branches.
"Adamai!"
"Louder, please. What?"
Amalia ran her hand through her hair.
"I forgot."
The dragon gave a long-suffering sigh.
She decided to leave the bag in her house. It would be there to pick up any time. While she was there, she had a good long look into the mirror on the wall, which told her she looked like a haystack, so she fixed her hair. Then she tossed it into disarray again, pouted at her reflection and smoothed her hair down. I slept in the forest, she thought. Can't look too good. A trumpet called in the distance.
Amalia looked out of the window to see how high the sun was, nodded, and climbed down to the ground to hide in the understory.
"If she was in the house, we'd have found her long ago" Yugo said.
Adamai rolled his eyes. He knew perfectly well his brother hasn't slept well and this, along with the worry, was making him whine, but to explain something for the hundredth time is a difficult test of a dragon's patience.
"Dally was checking there. Besides, it's a good observation point where we can meet if we get separated. And-"
"So what, if Amalia isn't there?"
Yugo glared at a dead trunk across the path, opened a portal and strolled to the other side.
"Hey, wait!"
Adamai scrambled over the log to plop onto the ground behind his brother. He had lots of bark under his claws, and it was really uncomfortable.
"And you don't know she isn't there."
Yugo blinked, as if seeing him for the first time in his life, then rubbed his neck, thinking out loud "Because she might have just got lost... and she could go to the house then. Ugh, you're right. I'm not thinking clearly."
"You said it" Adamai muttered, trying to shake the bark out.
"Maybe we should leave someone there? To wait for her?"
Great Dragon, thought Adamai, have mercy.
"It'll be faster to just go and see. If we don't find her, we can send someone later. Yugo!"
The dragon patted the eliatrope's shoulder, and the boy turned his large, clear brown eyes at him.
"Stop blubbering."
"I'm not" Yugo smiled. "Thanks for helping me."
"Erm, no drama, please" the dragon shuffled his feet in the dry leaves. He suddenly felt sort of sweaty.
"We're almost there."
"Mhm, I can see the house. Come on."
Adamai shot a discrete glance at the sun, right at the zenith. There was a rustle in the leaves.
"Yugo..."
"Yeah?"
Belatedly, he saw a flash of red. Just a piwi. The bird rummaged in the dead leaves some more, hopped a couple of hops, then spread its wings to fly to the nearest branch and stare at them, head tilted, from there. Adamai shook his head.
"What does wakfu tell you?"
"Not much. There's a lot of living critters here, we're in a forest. Can't distinguish anything. You?"
"Mmm, not really" but a sensitive draconic ear did catch a rustle in the ferns, and it was something larger than a piwi. A twig snapped.
"Did you hear this?"
"What?" Yugo turned and froze.
Surrounded by leafy branches, bending a bough down, Amalia stood before them, flushed, tousled, but hale, straight like a young tree.
"Amalia?"
"The dragoturkey got spooked and threw me off in the middle of the forest" the leaves rustled when she let go of the branch, walking up to them. Yugo held out his hands, but hung them down at his sides momentarily. He looked at Amalia, worried.
"Are you okay?"
"I fell on some leaves. Ii!" she shrieked, because Yugo suddenly hugged her with all his strength, breathing in the smell of earth, moss and the flower she had in her hair, and he undernote of a girl's sweat. Amalia's hand stroked his back, very gently, as if she wasn't sure whether she should touch him.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Err... it's fine..."
Adamai cleared his throat, rather loudly.
"Are we waiting till we grow roots here, or do you want to go back?"
"I'd really love a bath" there was something odd in Amalia's voice. Yugo let go of her reluctantly. It made him feel sort of cold, so he took the princess's hand.
"Come on already" Adamai moaned.
For the entire walk back to the palace Yugo never let go of her hand, not even when they had to cross a really narrow footbridge over a rapid stream where they couldn't walk alongside. He simply went first, leading Amalia, looking at her over his shoulder all the time.
And he kept asking how she was.
That felt nice. It's been a while since Amalia was the centre of so much attention, so she drank the feeling like dry moss drinks water. Adamai might have been rolling his eyes, but what counted was Yugo looking at her as if she was the greatest treasure in the world. As if he couldn't believe he'd found her.
When she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a fluffy towel, Yugo was waiting in the hall. Together they went towards the princess's rooms. Amalia glanced at him exactly in the moment Yugo looked up at her. She went red as an api and hid her smile behind the fabric.
"Here we are" Yugo said.
Well, they were. Time to say goodnight.
Amalia turned the knob, but didn't open the door. Her other hand kept kneading the wet, cold towel.
"See you tomorrow."
"At breakfast" she nodded.
"Get lots of sleep" Yugo's voice was brimming with care and fondness, and yet Amalia suddenly felt cold. She put the towel on her shoulder.
"Uhm."
Yugo stood there still, looking at her, so with her elbow she opened the door and backed out into the room.
"Bye."
"Goodnight."
She shifted from one foot to the other, hand on the door panel, while Yugo rubbed his neck, flushing.
"Erm, I'll just" he waved his hand, but stayed where he was.
"Goodnight, Yugo" said Amalia. As softly as she could, she closed the door, then hung her towel on a peg.
"I can hear you standing there, you know?"
"No, you can't hear me going" Yugo said behind the door. "Erm... goodnight, then."
Amalia waited till his steps on the resin floor went away. Then she plopped onto the stool at her dressing table. Seeing herself in the mirror, she groaned. Nightmare. She dragged her brush over her hair, still wet-ish and tangled, tugging at a snarl which wouldn't go apart. Amalia stood up, combed her hair roughly with her fingers and, brushing it, began to walk around the room.
Suddenly the curtain in the balcony exit billowed.
"Knock, knock."
"Can't you get in by the door, like normal people?" she growled, turning back to the mirror. Her hair was still tangled.
"I am a dragon" said Adamai with dignity and went into the room, dragging the curtain behind him like a cape.
"These wings aren't there just to look good."
He flicked the curtain off them.
"I was going to bed, what do you want?"
"Just came to see if milady is happy with the service provided."
Amalia pulled at her hair. Impatiently, she clicked her tongue.
"Yugo's wrapped 'round your finger, and tomorrow night, I never told you that, there's going to be a party for the heroes who saved the missing princess" Adamai flashed his teeth, like he was sitting for a portrait.
"I'd call this a success."
"Yeah..."
The dragon looked her over, then shrugged.
"I see, you need your beauty sleep. I bow before thee" which he did, tipping an imaginary hat, and left through the balcony. Wings fluttered.
Amalia fell onto her bed, dropping the brush. The lamp at the dressing table was still lit, but she didn't have it in her to stand up.
"Thank you very much, Renate, but no."
The sadida pouted and Yugo, who sat at the princess's right, couldn't help snorting over his plate. Amalia swallowed a sigh.
"Really, I've had enough cocoa, thanks."
"It's nutritious! An entire night out in the forest! I wouldn't be surprised if you fell ill, darling. You have to take care of yourself."
"Yes, yes, I know" muttered Amalia, pushing her mug away.
The breakfast was ending, thankfully. The pile that Canar and Renate have been stacking in front of their princess was threatening to topple: two round jugs that held cocoa, little bowls emptied of nut paste and fruit salad, plates and glasses. Renate was holding the third jug tight with a very determined expression.
"Really, I might burst any time now" Amalia slumped in her chair, eyes closing.
"So, are we going anywhere?" Yugo chimed in merrily. It was an odd sort of merriment, artificial, but maybe that was her imagination?
"I can't get up."
Chairs started getting pushed back. The courtiers, full of breakfast, were leaving to start their usual activities.
Somebody pulled Amalia's hand, so she opened an eye.
"Wa-hey!" Yugo effortlessly pulled her up.
"Mmm... Where do you want to go?"
The boy tilted his head, looking at her through the blonde fringe. "Where do you want to go?"
Plates clinked in the servants' hands.
"I don't know" Amalia said, surprised. There was so much she wanted to tell him, to show him, to do together, and now she couldn't think of anything.
"How about visiting Eva and Dally?" suggested Yugo. The new parents took their meals in their rooms now, so they wouldn't have to leave the baby.
"Mhm."
"Or we could just take a stroll and catch up."
"Why not?" Amalia muttered. The hall was emptying slowly, the residents of the palace chatting in small groups, but the words of their conversations blended to make a sort of drone. Amalia had no idea what they were talking about. Yugo energetically waved at Alibert, who was at the door, Chibi on his arm. They both waved back. A servant girl, less and less gently, was persuading Renate to give up the cocoa jug.
Yugo gave her a light pull and Amalia followed him to a side garden.