Chapter 17: Bondmates

 

 

 

Chapter 17: Bondmates

 

AND so the royal wedding went off without a hitch. The austere occasion progressed smoothly right to the very end, whereupon the newlyweds stepped out onto the castle balcony amid deafening cheers from the townspeople crammed into the garden below.

“That article wasn’t kidding. She really did get her hair cut short! Poor dear.”

“She’s so brave, too. I don’t think I could manage a smile if it were me.”

“It still looks rather lovely, though! So glamorous and youthful! A very feminine hairstyle, if you ask me.”

“You know, I’d never given any thought to wearing my hair short, but now that Her Highness is doing it, why, it doesn’t look that strange at all! It’s perfectly cute!”

Standing at the edge of the crowd, I grinned to myself. I know, right?

All around me, the Dragonkin were both sympathetic to Patricia’s suffering and impressed by her fortitude. Plus, they were definitely interested in her new haircut.

“Wait... You’ve got short hair, too,” one of the women commented as she spotted me. “It just looks so natural on you that I hardly noticed!”

“Thank you. I’m actually the Princess’s personal hairstylist, and cutting hair is my job. Here—this is her hairstyle, and this is mine.” I handed her a flyer from the thick stack I was carrying in my arms. It contained a how-to guide for Patricia’s bridal hairstyle, as well as my own, plus a few other sample hairstyles befitting pin-straight Dragonkin hair—all prepared in the event that the women of Vaxwald would be looking to experiment with short cuts.

“If you ever decide to have your hair cut short, you can take this flyer with you to the barbershop to show them what you want. Oh, and if you know anyone who’s getting married soon, I strongly recommend that you show them Princess Patricia’s hairstyle.”

“Oh, my! You know, I’m actually getting married next year! That’s why I came—to see the Princess’s hair and gown, you know, for reference. I’m not sure if I’ll take the plunge and cut my hair just yet, but...oh, I do so love having a nice change of pace every now and then!” she replied with a smile.

I had assumed the older women would be more resistant to the new trend, but boy, was I ever wrong. One of the middle-aged women who took my flyer had this to say about it:

“You know, I’ve always thought it would be nice to have short hair. After years upon years of wearing my hair in a ponytail, my hairline’s started to recede, and no matter how well I try to take care of it, it’s always quick to get dirty and lose its shine. All this time, I was afraid of what others would think of a woman who wore her hair short...but now that Her Highness is doing it, I don’t have to worry anymore. I’m going to lop it all off first thing tomorrow!”

In the end, the crowd eagerly took my flyers until none remained.

Patricia and Dario had received the blessing of their royal subjects; it was clear the people of Vaxwald had chosen to entrust the two of them with the future of their country. As a result, love and joy had spread all across the nation in honor of their special day.

As for me, I looked up at the clear blue sky. “Now it’s time to take care of my own business.”

❀❀❀

THE next day, I was walking through the courtyard with my parasol when Ray called out to me from behind.

“Mayna! Going for a walk? The weather’s still really hot during the afternoons. You should try to stay indoors as much as possible.”

“It’s fine. I won’t be out here for long. Aren’t you still on the clock?”

“I’m on my lunch break.” As he spoke, he took my hand and led me over to a shady spot.

“But I wanted to look at the flowers... Oh well. You know, you’re really good at finding me. How’d you know I was here?”

“I just got lucky,” he replied hastily. “Anyway, after the incident with Kirion, it’s looking like we’ll have to hire a new apprentice, won’t we?”

“We don’t have to. I mean, if someone really wants to study under me for some reason, I’m more than happy to oblige, but there’s no real rush to find my replacement. You see, I was talking to Her Highness yesterday, and she said to me”—I paused to put on my most refined and ladylike voice—“‘I know I told you that you were free to go home once I acclimated to Vaxwald, but the thought of losing you pains me ever so much, especially after all that’s happened. It would mean a great deal to me if you’d agree to stay permanently!’”

I thrust out my chest proudly, but Ray simply scowled. “So you’re going to stay here? In Vaxwald? Forever?”

“I’m certainly thinking about it. Unlike Her Highness, I’m free to visit Myulan anytime, so I can just ask for some time off to take a trip whenever the mood strikes. Besides, when someone tells me they want me to stay, I’m inclined to listen. I just wish a certain someone would take a page out of the Princess’s book.”

“Who?” Ray quirked a brow as though he sincerely wasn’t sure who I meant.

I closed my parasol and pointed at him with it. “You, obviously! I know you’re only trying to get me to leave because you’re worried about my health! I admit, your erratic behavior really threw me for a loop at first, but now I’ve got you figured out. I’ve read Tales of Tribal Romance, you know.”

In the story I read, Dragonkin and Flowerfolk were depicted as polar opposites. Nevertheless, the protagonist discovered his Bondmate was a Flowerfolk, and the two fell in love.

After they moved in together, the Dragonkin’s strength proved to be a bit too much for the Flowerfolk, and he often inadvertently injured her. He couldn’t even hold her hand without being mindful of his grip; he had to handle her as though she were literally a flower. Not even flower fairies are that fragile.

But the biggest problem was the Flowerfolk’s sensitivity to extreme temperatures. Vaxwald’s four distinct seasons were very stressful for her; she often collapsed from heat exhaustion in summer and was practically bedridden in winter. In the story, Vaxwald suffered a record-breaking cold wave that buried the entire nation in a thick blanket of snow. The Dragonkin were all used to it and could leave their houses just fine, but the Flowerfolk wasn’t so lucky.

Worried for his Bondmate’s safety, the protagonist kept the fireplace blazing at all hours of the day and night. Each day, he cautioned the Flowerfolk to stay indoors while he went out to collect firewood. But one day, while he was out buying groceries, a sudden blizzard blew in, delaying his trek home. Having noticed that he was late, the Flowerfolk grew worried and left the house to find him...but the winter winds were so harsh that she quickly grew too cold to move.

By the time the protagonist finally returned home, he found his beloved Bondmate dead on the side of the road. The story concluded with him holding her corpse and sobbing openly. All told, it was a tragic tale.

“You don’t want me to be here when winter rolls around. You want me to go back to Myulan, where the weather is mild.” Framed in this context, Ray’s unfriendly behavior made total sense. “Look... Tales of Tribal Romance is fiction. It’s not real. I told myself, ‘He’s a Dragonkin; surely he knows that.’ And the idea of you actually believing that I’m going to freeze to death was just so ridiculous, I was convinced it had to be some kind of misunderstanding. But when I thought about how you acted back when I had heatstroke...or your behavior towards Kirion...it all started to point toward you being extremely overprotective of me. In which case, it was possible you had started to see Tales of Tribal Romance as a cautionary tale.”

I glanced up at him. It was kind of embarrassing, since I was basically accusing him of being in love with me, but it had to be done. I was sick of him jerking me around all the time; I needed to get to the bottom of this mystery.

“Mayna... I...” Ray hesitated, his expression conflicted.

“I’m not asking because I want you to date me or something,” I continued. “I just want you to know that if you think you can drive me out of Vaxwald over this, you’ve got another thing coming. I’m not as weak as the Flowerfolk from the story; I won’t freeze to death that easily. And for that matter, I can hold hands with anyone just fine. I mean, look at them! Do these hands look that fragile to you?” I held up my perfectly ordinary hands.

“Yes, they do,” Ray replied without hesitation.

“...You’re just saying that because of my injury!”

“Even if you weren’t injured, I bet I could break them if I squeezed hard enough. Besides, how can you say for certain you can endure our winters when you don’t even know what they’re like? I concede that this chapter from Tales of Tribal Romance was set in North Vaxwald, but we still get a decent amount of snowfall here in the capital...and flowers can’t bloom in the snow. But all that aside, I simply can’t take you at your word. Not after you’ve already succumbed to heatstroke once!”

Evidently it was his turn to go on an impassioned tangent. “I only got heatstroke because I was doing a lot of work with fire and curling irons for hours straight,” I muttered.

“Well, you never should’ve agreed to do it in the first place,” Ray snapped. “I don’t care if it was a request from the Queen—with your talent, you should’ve found some other way to meet her demands.”

“Nngh...”

“You have zero self-awareness when it comes to your own physical limits. You think you can do anything a human does. That’s what worries me. I can never trust you when you say you’ll be fine!”

I had no comeback to this.

“And it’s not just summer and winter you’ll have to worry about. A good eighty percent of the year will have temperatures in one extreme or the other. And you’ll have to endure it over and over. Every. Single. Year. Do you get that?”

With no way to defend myself, I sulked silently. How did this conversation turn into a lecture? What had I done to deserve it? This wasn’t what I wanted at all!

Finally, I just couldn’t take it anymore. “Oh, for crying out loud! I know the summers will be hot and the winters will be cold. I know that the seasons will keep repeating every year. I’m prepared for that! I’m going to take care of myself! And I know I’m not as strong as a human in some aspects. I’m not going to overestimate myself! Happy?!” Then I reiterated my point: “Like I said, if you think you can drive me out of Vaxwald ‘for my own safety,’ I’m sorry to say, it’s not going to work! I have a perfectly good reason to stay here!”

“To support Princess Patricia?”

“That’s part of it, but there’s more to it than that.” Summoning up all my hope and determination, I confided, “I want to style hair not just for Her Highness but commoners, too. Going forward, we’re going to see an increase in women who want to wear their hair short, and I want to give them all a nice cut...so I’m thinking about opening my own shop close to the castle. I want to ask each of my clients what they want, and then I want to make that happen for them. I want to help polish the women of Vaxwald until they shine!”

As I spoke, I could feel joy welling in my chest until I was practically gushing.

“And I know the job’s too big for just one person, so I want to train an apprentice or two, and I want to forge connections with other people in the industry—crafters that make hair ornaments as well as other barbers—and I want to create a handbook full of how-to instructions for cutting, braiding, and styling!”

My voice was steadily growing louder and louder.

“I know the shop and the handbook are still just pipe dreams, but I’m planning to work towards them, bit by bit.”

Filled with excitement at my prospective future, I looked Ray straight in the eye.

“So you see, I still have so much I want to accomplish here in Vaxwald. I won’t ask you to support it, but please don’t fight me on this. I refuse to go back to Myulan. Not yet,” I finished with a proud smirk.

Ray stared at me in wide-eyed surprise for a moment, then clapped a hand over his face and fell still. Seconds ticked by.

“Uh, Ray?”

When he finally lowered his hand, after what felt like an eternity...his eyes were shining with the same excitement I felt. “I can never compete with you,” he sighed, his smile conflicted. “How can I possibly tell you no when you sound so giddy?” Wrapping his arms around me, he continued, “You’re always so quick to flush all my hard work down the drain, you know that? Do you know how hard it was to tell you that you weren’t my Bondmate? To leave your side? No...I was so hostile to you, you couldn’t possibly have known.”

“So I am your Bondmate!”

“Of course you are.” At last, Ray had finally admitted it. “You were right—when you first told me you were a Flowerfolk, I immediately thought of the Flowerfolk chapter from Tales of Tribal Romance. As much as I wanted to take you home with me to Vaxwald, it just didn’t feel right. I didn’t want to put your life in jeopardy.”

I was willing to concede my inability to handle extreme temperatures, but no matter what, I refused to believe that merely existing in Vaxwald over the winter was going to kill me. Maybe if I wandered around outside for hours and hours without a coat or something—but I would never do that. Plus, the castle came equipped with fireplaces.

“You’re so paranoid,” I muttered.

At this, Ray pulled away slightly, then looked directly into my eyes. “I was worried about more than you freezing to death,” he explained. “As I said earlier, in Vaxwald the weather is harsh in some form or another for a majority of the year, and you would have to endure that for years on end. When I thought about how miserable it would make you to have to live here, I just couldn’t bear to do that to you.”

“I get that,” I replied, half-annoyed. Trust me, I got it the first time.

“So then I thought about moving to Myulan to be with you...but I hail from the aristocracy, and as an only child, I’m expected to inherit the family legacy. Our bloodline has served the royal family for generations now—I can’t just throw all that away. Besides, just as you have your loyalties to the Princess, I too wish to serve His Highness. He’ll make a great king one day, and I want to be there to see it.”

“I can relate.” This time my reply was sincere. Besides, I could never ask him to throw away his career, much less his heritage—especially for someone he barely knew. Had he done so that early into our courtship, it would’ve made me really uncomfortable.

“Besides, had I actually thrown my life away to come to Myulan, I would’ve been too ashamed to face you. Perhaps I could find a different job soon enough, but even then...I don’t want to disgrace myself in front of you if I can help it.” He pulled me back into his arms, more tightly this time. “You can’t know how bad it hurt to force myself to leave you. I had to tell myself it was for your own good or else I couldn’t have managed it. And yet...despite my noble sacrifice, you turned up in Vaxwald as part of Her Highness’s dowry...” Ray grumbled.

“That wasn’t my choice! She asked me to come with her!” I argued.

“Do I send you back to Myulan, or do I support your dream...? I just don’t know,” he muttered, burying his face in my shoulder. Soon, however, it became apparent that he’d found his answer. “In my head, I know the correct answer is to send you home, but you just look so happy when you’re talking about your dreams here in Vaxwald...and I can’t just turn a blind eye to my Bondmate’s feelings. I can’t.”

I stayed quiet and let him work it out for himself.

“When I left Myulan, it was easier. You didn’t have strong feelings for me, so my absence didn’t pain you.”

“If I cried and begged you not to go, would you have stayed?”

“Well, if you were serious about it, then yes, I imagine I would have. Probably would’ve left my family name and my title to people I could trust. Likewise, I can’t exactly disregard your wishes this time around, either. I know you’re serious about making your dreams come true, and my only option is to support you.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

He laughed and straightened up. “When you’re having fun, I have fun. When you’re happy, I’m happy. And if I’m being honest, I would do anything for you.”

“What if I wanted to hike up a snowy mountain?” I teased.

“I would stop you, obviously,” he answered with a grin. “But if you honestly, sincerely, desperately wanted to go, then I’m sure I’d end up caving eventually. And if we did end up going, I would take every single precaution to ensure you won’t freeze to death.”

“Well, fortunately for you, I don’t have a burning desire to hike up a snowy mountain at the moment.”

Unless I hear of any rumors that mountain-dwellers have especially healthy hair or unique hairstyles or something like that. Then all bets are off.

“Anyway...I just wish you would’ve been honest with me right from the start. You should’ve just told me you were worried about how a Flowerfolk would fare in Vaxwald. Then you wouldn’t have pissed me off the way you did.”

I scowled slightly.

“And so what if I ended up in Vaxwald? Instead of telling me to ‘get out,’ you should’ve just cautioned me against the extreme weather conditions so I could make my own informed decision.”

“Even if I had, would you have chosen to leave?”

“...Well, no... I came here to support the Princess,” I mumbled.

“I knew better than to try to talk it out with you because I knew you weren’t fully conscious of your weak constitution,” Ray explained, his arms still wrapped around me. “Even now, you think I’m simply ‘paranoid’ or what have you. Had I been straightforward with you, you would’ve merely laughed it off.”

At this, I stayed silent...because I knew he was right.

“And I only lied about you not being my Bondmate because I felt it was the right thing to do. If I continued to let you think I was a good man, it might have hurt you more when I left you.”

“Somebody’s full of himself,” I snarked...but he simply grinned as if to suggest he knew precisely how good-looking he was.

“Oh, please. Be honest—after five days together, you were already interested in me, weren’t you? Any time I drew close to you or smiled at you, you’d always turn red...right here.” He grinned as his fingers brushed my ear.

“Grrr! Quit teasing me!” I growled, embarrassed (and blushing) but not actually annoyed with him.

“I’m not teasing you. It’s just cute, that’s all.” Then his tone turned serious. “I’m sorry I upset you. I just thought it’d be best if I made myself into the bad guy before I left Myulan. And I admit, I’ve been acting coldly toward you here in Vaxwald because I hoped it would encourage you to go home. I wanted to piss you off.”

“Too bad for you, I’m not the rage-quitting type. I’m far more professional than that.”

“You’re right. I was naïve, and I underestimated your devotion to your work.” His expression shifted to a confident smile. “So, seeing as you initiated this conversation, can I take this to mean you’re ready for what happens next?”

“What do you mean...?” His bright smile put me on guard.

“You made me admit that you’re my Bondmate. Then you told me about your ambitions for the future and asked me not to fight it. Thus, my only option is to accept that you’re my Bondmate, love you with all my heart, and support you as you work toward your dream.”

“I mean, that’s not your only option,” I mumbled shyly.

A big grin crept up on his face. “I’m warning you now: a Dragonkin’s love for his Bondmate is rather intense. And I’m done holding back.”

Suddenly, it felt as though I had inadvertently awoken a sleeping dragon...and my smile stiffened as I realized there would be no escape...