𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕚𝕝𝕧𝕒 ― ♛

Of course, she was fucking running.

Aleks had expected it, and his long stride didn’t even have to break into a jog to keep up with her. She was swift and fast, he would give her that and it was most likely her Silva heritage breaking through. He could only imagine what she would be like once she was returned to her home world -- where the limitations and barriers of this one hindered even his own power and potential. He could hear her panting breaths, the slam of her shoes against concrete, practically screaming her location to him as he continued to follow her through the campus until they reached a populated courtyard. He rounded the corner just in time to see her rush towards a large group of students, waving her arms frantically, her voice nearly out of breath.

He only waited, knowing there was no one who could help her.

The slam of the doors behind him echoed across the courtyard, as if it were a toll sealing her fate. He watched the other students attempt to peer over her shoulder at him, only to find nothing but air. Aleks watched them laugh and dismiss her, shrugging off her pleas for help easily, which in return only caused the princess to break into a run once again.

He cursed under his breath and rolled his eyes before he started following her once more.

She had run right towards the iron gates that sealed in the campus, not exactly a smart move and a tactic he would surely have to warn her about once they returned to Silva. Since she had cornered herself against the bars, it didn’t take long for him to close the distance between them -- to appear right behind her on silent footsteps. To face his future queen with a sneer on his face as shadows threatening to pool across his body.

Gotcha.

He was over a foot taller than her and he could have sworn his neck was the size of her thigh. Such a small, frail little thing. How she would survive in her homeland, Aleks had no clue…

As she warned him to stay away, he could only curl his lips into a smirk. She had spirit, he would give her that. “You need to come with me,” was all he told her, deep voice laced with power and warning. He didn’t want to play this game anymore and they were running out of time. The longer he stayed here… the harder it would be to return to Silva once again. And he had no desire to stay in this rotten cesspool of a world. Even though his own wasn’t much better, he at least was able to stand at his full potential and not some shell of the creature he was here.

She wouldn’t come easy, he figured that much. So, pulling back his hood and revealing the sharp, determined planes of his face, Aleks bent down and wrapped his arms around her legs, only to hoist the girl up onto his shoulder. Thrown over him like she was nothing more than a sack of flour. “Sorry, Princess,” he murmured without any hint of regret and quickly turned on one heel, ignoring her outbursts that rattled through his ears. Water… he needed water to conjure another portal.

Aleks turned away from the wrought iron fence and began to trek towards the garden behind the ancient building, all the while attempting to keep his hold on the flaying girl across his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and quickened his pace, ducking into the shadows and brushing through the foliage. He was given an order to retrieve her -- not to make nice with the girl. She was nothing more than a chance at his freedom, and he wouldn’t risk it.

They came upon a small pond filled with koi fish of various colors. He dug into the belt across his waist, searching through a small pocket until his hand landed on a thin, pencil-like device made out of obsidian. His moonshard. With one hand, he bent down to the water and gently pressed the tip onto the surface while whispering the portal commands in the ancient, Silvian language -- something that had been dead for thousands of years, except for the Drache. The water immediately froze over, although the koi beneath continued to swim freely, unknown of what was occurring on the surface.

Shoving the girl off of his shoulder, not bothering to catch her landing, Aleks leaned towards the water and whispered one more word.

“Silva.”

And then the water cracked. And cracked. And cracked. Spreading the earth apart, shattering the pond completely.

Aleks couldn’t help but smile. He still had it.

He then glanced over his shoulder at the lost princess before wrapping his arms around her once more and holding her squirming form to his chest. A little unprofessional for his own kingdom’s princess, but they were running out of time, as well as his patience. He would be able to explain more once they were back on home soil.

With her against him, Aleks finally allowed himself to glance down at her eyes, to see the fear in them. He once drank terror like water, thrived on the unknown like the monster he truly was. His grey eyes flashed as something that had once been so dormant inside suddenly rekindled. Fire ignited within his chest. The dragon had been awakened.

And he was ready to go home.

He didn’t give her another glance as he flung them both through the portal, leaving the human world once and for all.