YCH from the talented  kirena-kaya, also featuring  prince_borgon's Silva!

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My lungs were beginning to ache, and my wings were growing weary. I had flown longer distances before, but never with as little rest. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when I had left, cloaking the land in a blanket of darkness that lent it a foreboding aura. Without the bustle of the day’s work – especially this far from home – the sounds, and silence, of the vicious wilderness were amplified. Now and then I thought I had caught sight of some creature roaming the land, but they always seemed to dive back into their dens before I could get a better look. The night air was cold, numbing my wings and furthering the difficulty in my flight.

But as the castle finally rose on the horizon, light once again begun to fill the world. People tended their fields and started to fill the streets once more, banishing the eerie darkness from the land. The howling wind gave way to the pleasant trickling of running water and the voices of the busy people below. I surveyed the land, noticing eyes turning skyward at my approach. Even back home, dragons were a rare sight, let alone a lone armoured dragon soaring to the palace. I couldn’t help but wonder what was in their minds. I approached a tall window, though before I entered, I looked up to the guards upon the walls, holding a royal seal high for their inspection. Evidently, they were expecting my arrival, if perhaps not so soon, and I was waved in.

Already, the castle was uncomfortable. Cold stone walls rose all around me, and even the natural light from outside the window seemed to fade quickly into the light from the torches flickering on the walls. People, servants I could only assume, rushed this way and that along the halls, preparing for the morning’s busy work, none of them paying me any mind. It was an unusual feeling, to have happily roamed the halls of ancient ruins and deadly dungeons, but to be uncomfortable within the safe confines of a well-kept castle.
“Can I help you…?” came a voice, insistent but at the same time unsure. I snapped back to my senses, suddenly aware of the elegantly-dressed vixen who had stopped before me. Her dress was far finer than the clothes of the servants throughout the castle, a red and purplish velvet gown, finished with an emerald pendant around her neck.
“Oh!” Remembering myself, I fumbled around for the royal seal I carried, and presented it to her.
She glanced over it briefly, then towards my chestplate, before finally looking back at me with a warm smile. “I do not recognise your emblem," she said. "What king do you represent, sir knight?”
“Oh, no, no, I am not a knight, and I don’t represent any king, I just…”
She looked at me with a slight tilt of her head, then smiled again. “Never mind. You must be here to see the prince. But first, come. Your wings must be so weary after your journey.”