Dare To Love A Dragon

Ander's p.o.v

I looked out the window to the children playing in the garden. The feeling of jealousy of their freedom was familiar to me but at least I get the chance to watch them like this. It might not be much but it is something more than a prince can ever ask for.

The day began just all my other days, waking up and getting ready for the day with the help of my butler and have my morning lessons and a one-hour break. The lessons were boring, as usual, my tutor keeps teaching me things that I have no interest in only because my mother wants me to be the greatest king Arimelari has ever seen.

If anyone asked me I would say that my mother should just continue to rule the kingdom. Even though she is a woman, she is doing a great job at ruling the kingdom. The way she handles everything was praiseworthy and I would never let a chance pass by without telling her that.

I averted my eyes from the children playing in the garden and looked to my left. My eyes happen to catch the king's palace, the only place in the palace that I am not allowed to go to. The King, my father, the only man in that I have never met.

He stays in his palace all the time and when he comes out mother always looks for a reason for me to be away from the palace. Not just her but even uncle and aunt won't let me anywhere near the king. I don't understand the reason they don't want me to meet the king but the weirdest thing is that even the king has never asked to see me.

"I am his son so why?" I asked out loud. The question that has bothered me since the very day I was old enough to understand the things that go on around me.

"Maybe you should ask your father that?" I heard the same reply that I have heard each time. I turned my head from the window into my room, by the bed sat the nightmare that I can't seem to get rid of. I don't know why it's here or why it won't leave me alone. It just taunts me from morning to evening.

"Why are you here again?" I asked him.

"I was bored and watching your miserable life is a good hobby since it is the only thing I can do," he replied in a bored tone of voice.

"Then why don't you leave me alone and move on?"

"Can't do that, I can only do that if you release me," he said. The same stupid answer that he gives me each time that I ask him. He is just as annoying as everyone in this palace. Just like everyone else, he finds it interesting to be mysterious with me. He never tells me anything straight to my face, he always has to give me a piece of a puzzle and not the whole of it.

'Why would I hold on to a ghost?" I asked him irritated of asking him the same question every time.

"That is a question you should ask yourself," he replied to me and I threw a vase at him but it just went through him and fell to the ground and broke. "I think you missed," he taunted with a smirk on his face.

"Tell me why you won't leave me alone Francis?" I asked him again but he just watched me enjoying how worked up I get whenever he was around. That is another strange thing in my life is the ghost that only I can see and talk to. Everyone else in the palace doesn't see him and I am helpless to find out about his life because for no apparent reason his name is forbidden to be mentioned in the kingdom.

If I asked around about him I will get in trouble and if I don't then I will never get rid of this annoying ghost from my life. The weird part is that he says that I am holding him captive and that he is still not dead just shattered, I have no idea what that means but he won't explain no matter how many times I ask.

All I know is that his existence irritates me to the core. His name ignites this anger in my heart for reasons I don't understand.

I release a deep breath and calm down and go back to staring at things outside the window before I lose my mind talking to a dead man.

"Alexander," I heard him whisper with my super hearing. It is said that he knows my father but he would never tell me anything about him. He just calls his name at random times of the day or night like my father was a distant memory he was trying to hold onto.

"Why do you keep calling out to him like that? His palace is right there, why not go to him?" I asked him for the who knows how many times. And like each time I'm sure he will give me the same reply. First, he will sigh then he will say, 'I am stuck with you until you release me, I can't leave your side.'

I heard him sigh and then he spoke, "Cant until you release me I am stuck here by your side. Even if I go to him, he won't be able to see me or hear me," he said and sighed again.

It's sad how much I share in common with the ghost, we both yearn to meet the king but can't due to reasons the two of us can't control. We both are trapped in a life that neither of us wants but are helpless to anything about it.

"I got to know that you will be leaving the palace, shouldn't you be happy about that?" the ghost asked me.

"I don't know why I should celebrate that. I am being sent to a school to live there for years only to return when I am old enough to take over the throne," I replied.

The school in question was built for me by my mother and I love her for thinking about me like this but I don't know about living at home for such a long time. I will be in the company of my aunt and uncle who are very great people but I only have one mission in life. That is to find out what happened in Arimelari sixteen years ago. According to the history of my kingdom, things in Arimelari became dark right after I was born and that is when the king changed.

The only mystery that made my life the way it is today is what happened back then, I have gathered all the books from back then but the records of that time have been erased. It is as though someone doesn't want me to find out what had taken place during that year.

There are rumors in the palace that my father hates me and that he swore to kill me if I ever appeared in front of him. But, strangely, a father would say that about their child for no reason. So what is the reason that I have never met my father and what is it that happened during my year of birth that made him hide away from me?

"Then refuse the offer if you don't like it. Who knows that doting mother of yours might agree if you shed a few tears," Francis commented.

"If that were the case then she would have agreed when I asked her to see my father," I said to him. The truth hurts but I can't change it so might as well accept it for now until I have all the facts and I can understand why all this is happening.

"Darling are you awake?" I heard as the door was being pushed open. Turning my head in that direction, a smile adorned my lips when I saw the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world.

"Hello mother," I greeted her and stood up to welcome her into the room.

"I came to see if you are all packed. There hThereeen some changes to the plan and you have to travel to the school today," she said to me.

"What has happened mother?" I asked worried that something bad might have happened to her.

"I am okay and so is everything but your uncle had to push the opening date of the school to tomorrow so you must leave today," she said and clapped her hands twice. The servants came into the room and she instructed me to pack my belongings as she and I had some tea.

I watched them pack my things not missing the ghost unpacking what they had already packed.

"Stop that," I said to him.

"Stop what?" my mother asked.

"Nothing mother," I told with a weak smile. "Stop that Francis," I scolded and realized that I had uttered his name out loud and turned around to meet my mother looking at me with her eyes wide open. 'I'm dead.'