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Siegbert hated to feel useless. He did his damndest to avoid being useless, and most days it worked. Today was not one such day.
A skirmish with bandits, Nohrian or Hoshidan, was rarely surprising. Because the fight had been so straightforward Siegbert allowed himself to lag behind the party. ‘Allowed’ more accurately meaning he needed to slow down or he was going to pass out.
He’d been feeling under the weather for days, but he’d been determined to fight it, lest he disappoint his father by allowing a common illness to best him. Besides that, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to visit mother because of a cold. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal until he got ambushed by enemy reinforcements. Since when did bandits have the numbers to call in reinforcements?
Kana, bless him, tried to rescue his big brother. It didn’t work out well. Now Siegbert’s head was swimming and he ached all the way down to his bones. He couldn’t even summon the energy to try and reassure Kana. One of the bandits yanked his head back, and he felt cold steel against his throat. The one in charge was shouting something, and he could see his father glaring at the man.
Kana was crying, and when Siegbert craned his neck to see his brother he could faintly make out blood beading out onto the knife at his throat.
Siegbert had felt useless and ashamed when he was captured, feelings only intensifying when Kana tried to save him, but now ? He was furious. These degenerates had the audacity to hurt his little brother, for what? Gold? Siegbert saw red, he couldn’t hear the shouts on either side of the conflict, just Kana’s plaintive whimpers and a hollow roar in his ears. The blade disappeared, a hand between his shoulderblades bushed him forward and away, and he tumbled to his knees.
Then somerthing in his mind snapped, and it all went away.
Xander hadn’t expected anything to go this spectacularly wrong when his retainers approached him about a group of bandits harassing a nearby village on their route to Valla. Everything was still fairly out of sorts since the war with Hoshido ended officially following the defeat of the Silent Dragon, and it seemed bandits from both sides were taking advantage of the chaos in the meanwhile.
The fight went as expected, until right near the end. Because fights with bandits and outlaws tended to be short and easy, nobody had accounted for the arrival of reinforcements. Now after the fact, with the battlefield silenced by a shrill, fearful wail, Xander was kicking himself.
“Unless you want to hear this one squeal like a girl again, you’ll drop your weapons!” the evident leader of the bandits snarled, coming into view with his youngest son Kana as a human shield, dagger poised at the boy’s throat. Another followed with Siegbert in a similar position, though his eldest was visibly worse off. In the face of his obvious illness, Xander would later wonder how blinded he was by his duties as Nohr’s new king not to see it beforehand. Red-faced and sweating, gaze unfocused and looking like he was barely keeping his feet under him, and he’d come to the battlefield anyways?
“I said drop your weapons, your majesty !” the thief sneered, jerking his hostage back by the hair. Kana cried out, instinctively struggling against his captor. From where he stood, Xander could see blood welling from a shallow wound in his neck with the action.
“Kana, stop!” he pleaded, holding a hand out when he met his gaze. “It’ll be alright.” he promised, gesturing to his retainers to place their weapons down. The words were empty, but he’d do his damndest to make them true.
Before any demands could be made, anything else said, Siegbert lurched forward with a shudder. Purple sparks seemed to be floating off his skin, and when the bandit holding him realized something was amiss he shoved the unaware prince away with a startled shout.
Xander made to help his son to his feet, perhaps dispatch the thief holding Kana whilst they were distracted, until an inhuman cry rang from Siegbert’s chest.
With a surge of magic and a burst of light, a dragon stood where the crown prince had stumbled. Just like his mother, and just like Kana. Their forms were indeed similar, down to the silvery scales and deadly sharp horns. Despite his fear, Xander knew it was a sight to behold. But he also knew of a present danger while his son was transformed without a dragonstone.
This fight needed to end, and fast.
The majority of the reinforcements fled, all bravado gone in the face of an ancient dragon’s rage. Evidently the truth of the princes’ lineage hadn’t spread as far as their mother expected it would.
The bandits had fled, but their leader was not so lucky. He had released the younger prince as soon as he realized the danger, but the damage had been done. The dragon slammed the man into the ground, holding him by the throat with a clawed foreleg. Surely the last thing the unfortunate thief would see was the dragon above him bellowing a triumphant, furious roar.
When the dust settled the dragon prince was shaking his head, agitated noises escaping his throat. Clawing the ground, tail swishing as he swayed unsteadily, it seemed he was being defeated by his own exhaustion more than any damage the bandits could have done, had they been of the mind to attack.
“Sieg, it’s okay, they’re gone!” Kana tried to soothe him as Siegbert’s legs gave out beneath him. “It’s okay, you saved us, you can rest now!” he promised as a distressed warble came from the dragon, head sinking to the ground.
Xander only vaguely remembered giving his retainers orders to pursue the remaining bandits as his son finally gave in to his illness. The same magic flare - strange that it looked so different from his mother and Kana’s when they transformed - leeched away from the dragon form, leaving an unconscious Siegbert face down on the ground.
“Sieggy’s gonna be okay... right Papa?” Kana squeaked as Xander gingerly turned his eldest onto his back. The stress of the transformation only seemed to have expedited the sickness, though he’d known it was severe to begin with – it had downed him as a dragon.
“He will be, with rest.” Xander promised, adjusting his grip to cradle his eldest against his chest.
Siegbert came to with a jolt, fuzzy images assaulting his mind’s eye as he tried to recall what had happened to him. Bandits, an ambush, he and Kana were captured?
With the last thought came a surge of fear as he realized he wasn't alone. He struggled weakly against the arms holding him for a moment before a familiar voice broke through the haze in his addled brain. “It’s alright, we’re safe now. You can rest.” Father, he’s here.
Coherency returned, and with it all the shame he felt at allowing himself to be captured. He’d been a liability on the field. Siegbert hated to feel useless. Every moment spent idle was a reminder of the people depending on him, expecting better of him both as a soldier and their future king. But now he’d not only endangered himself but also his little brother because he had ignored his illness.
“Father, I… Forgive me, I didn’t…” His words were too slow, and he could hardly keep track of what he meant to say besides.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Siegbert. You saved your brother’s life today.” That wasn't a dream?
“If I'd admitted I had fallen ill, I would not have been on the battlefield to endanger Kana to begin with,” he argued weakly. He’d tried to conceal it to avoid disappointing his father , but in hindsight his motivations had been childish and foolish. Now in the aftermath of the fight, he only felt worse for it.
“We all make mistakes, you mustn't punish yourself for it so. I know you’ve always felt the need to prove yourself to me, which I can only assume led us here, but I’m telling you that you have. I’m not angry – just the opposite. I’m so proud of you .”
The words echoed in Siegbert’s mind. It wasn’t as though his father never said them, but all the same he felt it was fair to be shocked under the circumstances. Kana nudged closer to him, speaking up before Siegbert could find a way to argue.
“Papa’s right, Sieggy. I mean, you should have told us you were sick, but that was awesome when you turned into a dragon!” The younger boy’s vehement reassurance was welcome, and the elder prince allowed himself to believe it as Kana launched into a retelling of the conflict, and what happened after he’d transformed.
Even if he hadn’t he at least knew Mother would be overjoyed to find out he could turn into a dragon as well, and Kana would be too when he realized he had found a new dragon playmate in his big brother.
For another time, though, he thought as he allowed himself to sleep again.