Back at camp [ONE OF-STORY Purple Dragon Girl] pt. 3

Back at camp, the firelight danced low and sullen between the rows of worn leather tents, each one a relic of battles past. Your old legion company, grizzled and lean, had welcomed you with the quiet nods of men who no longer wasted words. Familiar faces, older now, scarred and silent, still carried the weight of the Empire in their eyes.

She—the girl with dragon’s blood—had taken to the tent without hesitation. That should’ve been a warning.

When you stepped through the flap, the scent of ash and warm scales met you. She was already sprawled on the legion bed you had arranged for her, her blue eyes glinting in the dark. She looked entirely at home, like she’d always belonged there. Not just in your tent, but with your company. With you.

“You have a way of slipping into things you shouldn’t,” you said.

She smiled, but it wasn’t soft. “I only go where I’m needed.”

The sun would rise too soon, and with it, the old man’s voice—gravel-edged and sharp with suspicion. He’d want to know where you found her, what she was, and why you brought her here, into his camp, under his banners.

And he wouldn’t ask twice.

You remembered the way his eyes had narrowed when he saw her dismount behind you earlier, bare feet hitting the earth like a challenge. She didn’t flinch under his gaze. That unnerved him.

It unnerved you, too.

You remembered the way his eyes had narrowed when he saw her dismount behind you earlier, bare feet hitting the earth like a challenge. She didn’t flinch under his gaze. That unnerved him.

But for tonight, the tent was still, and the past no longer mattered.

Only what came next.