𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐎𝐚𝐭𝐡

With Or Without Pride

The next morning, Thereya woke up late and found her servants already in her chambers cleaning her dirty clothes and rearranging the furniture. She rubbed the crust from the corners of her eyes and ran her fingers through her tangled hair. She looked outside the window and shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand before asking the servants, "What are you doing?"

"We are putting away your dirty clothes for a wash, Princess," one of the servant girls replied.

"Don't I have hands of my own?" Thereya responded sarcastically.

"But a Princess shouldn't..." one of the servant girls tried to explain, but Thereya cut her off, saying, "Yes, I shouldn't, but that doesn't mean I won't do it." She took the clothes from the servant girl's hands and added, "You are free, go." The servant girl who was holding her dirty clothes moments ago bowed slightly, and they all quickly left her chambers.

Thereya let out a deep sigh as she leaned on her bed frame, feeling exhausted. She then grabbed a larger basket from under her table and began gathering her dirty clothes, placing them inside the basket. She lifted her head and gazed at the dragon egg resting on the fireplace, feeling a mixture of love and worry deep inside her heart. Thereya cared for that egg as if it were her child.

Thereya was busy putting her dirty clothes in the basket when her stepbrother Jace entered her chambers. "What are you doing, Princess?" he asked, looking down at her. She replied sarcastically, "What does it look like I'm doing?" Jace's tone was somewhat arrogant when he said, "To me, it looks like you are doing a servant's job." Thereya retorted, "There is no such thing as a servant's job. If you can ride a fire-breathing lizard and claim the skies, then you can wash your clothes, brother. I'm sure of that." She picked up the basket and walked past Jace outside of her chambers.

Jace was somewhat stunned by her response. In the corner of his mind, he knew that what she was saying had some logic to it but at the same time, he felt like his pride was hurt.

"Why did you do that? To prove that you are better than me? To win the favor of my mother and Daemon?" Jace asked, following Thereya down the hall. "Believe me when I say that my father and your mother are the last people I would try to impress." Thereya shrugged and a slight grin formed on her face.

Thereya had been holding back a scathing insult, but eventually, she couldn't control herself and spat out the words like venom. "You may believe that you are extraordinary, simply because you are a Prince, but let me enlighten you. You are nothing but a single black sheep among a whole flock of white ones."

Jace felt his anger growing as his hand clenched into a tight fist. Thereya noticed and glanced at his fist before meeting his eyes with a smirk, knowing she had successfully provoked him. Jace didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she had gotten to him, so he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. She then walked outside towards the shore, but before she could leave, Thereya stopped and asked him, "Are you coming with me to learn something, or are you just going to stand there like a dog?"

Jace took a moment to consider, but eventually nodded in agreement, his anger driving him to follow Thereya. They made their way towards the sea, arriving around noon. The sun beat down on them, and every drop of water that touched their skin quickly turned to salt.

"Why did you decide to wash your clothes in the sea?" Jace complained, taking a seat on the rocks. "You had water back inside the castle. It would be so much easier. Now we'll only get sunburned."

Thereya ignored his complaints and continued to kneel by the shore, washing her clothes in the salty water. "Using salt can reduce bacteria and odor more effectively than water. You don't know anything, do you?" she chuckled as she explained.

"But why couldn't you send the servants to wash it?" Jace asked, still battling over the idea. "We are all servants to someone. Servants serve the King and the King serves the throne. We are all stuck in this never-ending cycle of repetition. But what knowledge and worth do we have if we don't know how to serve each other? People with too much pride will die first. They are too proud to ask for help or to lend a hand. Serving others humbles us." Thereya replied, choosing her words carefully.

"I have never seen a Princess serve a servant before." Jace scoffed.

"Now you have," Thereya replied as she wrung out some of her clothes. Jace was quiet for some time watching Thereya wash the clothes. She had a castle behind her but she behaved like a peasant. Never in his mind would he imagine doing what he just did. Jace kneeled beside Thereya.

"Teach me how to do it... It will be faster," he said, avoiding eye contact while reaching his hand out. Thereya smiled and handed him some clothes as she showed him how to rub the dirt off and clean everything properly.

"You seem to like the sea... Why... Reminds you of Dorne?" Jace asked curiously trying to make some small talk.

"Well... Yes, but at the same time, not just because of that. We come from the sea. My mother believed that before we were born, we were in the sea. And when we die, we should be buried in the sea so that we can be reborn," Thereya said.

"I didn't know that... In our family, when someone dies, we burn them. So they can go with a dragon rider's death," Jace replied, and Thereya started chuckling mockingly.

"What? What is so funny?" Jace added feeling slightly offended.

"That is not a dragon rider's death. Being eaten or burned by a dragon is humiliation. Then that would mean that any person you burned down or fed to your dragon had a dragon rider death. No. A true dragon rider's death is dying on the back of your dragon or dying with your dragon. Defending what's yours and who you love. Fighting bravely. Now, that is a dragon rider's death," she said with confidence that what she said is true and no one else could convince her otherwise.

"Maybe you are right. But still, it is a tradition," Jace said, turning his head away while washing the clothes.

"And I shall respect it. Don't you think otherwise, brother," Thereya chuckled, which made Jace smile. He was glad they could finally be on better terms than they used to be. Somewhat, he was glad he got to wash those clothes.

"Thank you..." Jace said quietly.

"For what?" Thereya asked, even though she knew the answer already.

"You know... Just... Thank you..." But Jace's pride was still there.

"I know." She didn't pressure him to say it and let it go with a nod. The way Jace looked at Thereya changed. He felt warmer around her, and he looked at her with amusement. Every time he would speak to her, he would learn something he didn't even hear of before, and he was glad he got to learn from her. Even though he wasn't ready to admit it yet.