The Dragon King's Heart

Dante said it with such determination. He tightened his grip on her hands. Laina wanted to believe him. She really did. But knowing that he was cursed, how would that be possible?

"You promise?" she asked in a whisper.

Dante nodded, "I promise. Even in death, I will never leave your side."

The harsh conditions of the mountains the further up they went, proved to be relentless. It was getting colder with the higher they climbed. At this point, both of them were decked out in their full winter gear. 

"We finally made it!" Laina exclaimed with glee as she entered the cave to escape the snowstorm. 

Dante followed closely behind. 

"That took longer than expected," He commented as he removed his hood. 

They were in the heart of the mountain range now. The real training begins. Dante took off most of his clothes, only keeping on a pair of pants. When Laina turned around she was surprised to see that he had stripped down. 

"Dante, what are you doing? It's freezing! You're going to catch a cold!" She exclaimed as she took off her own jacket and attempted to cover his body. 

The darkened veins were nowhere in sight. Dante already cast a spell to keep them hidden from her. He returned her the jacket at once.

"It's part of the endurance training to withstand the cold," he explained. 

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It was simple. All Dante had to do was to sit in the blizzard and absorb the cold air into his body. As he walked out into the cold, Laina bit her lip. She promised to train with him and that was what she intended to do. 

Laina stripped down to her blouse and pants. She could feel the chilly air against her skin. When Dante saw her, he immediately told her to get back into the cave. 

"No, I said I would train with you. If it means we have to sit in the snow together while there's a snowstorm. Then so be it!" she declared as she sat down next to him. 

Titan watched them both from the comforts of the cave. He sat by the crackling fire, previously set up by Laina before she joined Dante in the cold. 

"Laina, your body won't be able to take it," he warned, worried for her well-being. 

"I'll be fine," she brushed him off. 

She knew he was genuinely worried for her health and safety. Preparing the elixirs for Dante had taken a lot of energy out of her. But she knew her limits. 

"Fine," she relented, "If I really feel like I'm spent, I will go back into the cave to get warm, alright?"

Seeing her persistence, Dante finally relented. Together, the training began. It did not take long for them to build up a routine. Using the few hours of light they had each day, Laina and Dante would go out hunting for the beasts. It had proven to be difficult since the tracks disappeared quickly in the snow. 

They could not rely on scent either, so they needed a different solution. But luck was on their side. After a few days of tracking with Titan, they found one of the beasts they were looking for.

"Are you sure that's it?" Dante whispered to Laina. 

Laina did not respond. She was observing the beast carefully. It was incredibly difficult to spot, due to its snow-white fur and soft padded feet. Against the fresh snow-covered grounds, the beast barely made a sound. 

But something was amiss. While the physical description matched what Lady Wilma had told her, the sizing does not. So did its personality. 

The Snow Mountain Tiger was ferocious and cunning. Yet the one in front of them was playful and oblivious to its surroundings. Could the information had been wrong?

"It's so small," he commented. 

Laina had described to him that the Snow Mountain Tiger was larger than a cottage. The one before them was about the size of a full-grown horse. Just then, Laina felt something cold and slimy fall on her shoulder. 

She froze in fear. She shuddered. Dante carefully turned to Laina. A musky fragrance of saliva and animal fur permeated his senses. It took them this long to realize that the shadow looming over them was not from the tall trees that surrounded them. 

It was a beast. The beast that they had come here to hunt. Together, Laina and Dante slowly tilted their heads up. They gulped. 

"On the count of three," Dante carefully whispered. 

"What count of three?" Laina whispered back to him in a state of panic. 

The tiger did not seem to have noticed their presence. With its keen hearing, it should have been able to hear their conversation. Laina craned her neck to take a closer look at the tiger's features. 

"What are you doing?!" Dante yelled quietly. 

He knew that if they got into the peripheral vision of the tiger, they would be attacked immediately. But Laina realized something unique. The tiger's ears had claw marks on them. 

Large gashes of healed scars. The tiger took a step forward. The smaller tiger heard it and turned to look in its direction. Laina and Dante parted ways as the tiger walked through the trees to get to the smaller tiger. 

"It can't hear us," Laina whispered to Dante as she pointed it out to him. 

He nodded in acknowledgment. Both of them continued to watch the tigers. This was not worthy prey. Seeing the claw marks on the tiger, they came to a realization. 

The mountains had more secrets than they had previously assumed.     

After tracking for a couple of days, Laina and Dante felt as if they were at a dead end. They had decided to let the tigers go, in hopes that they would lead them to the beast that gave the tiger the claw marks. 

"We've been lucky with the clues, but it looks like it has dried up," Laina sighed as she punched a tree trunk. 

Dante looked around them. He narrowed his eyes in hopes of seeing further in the distance. Titan had his nose on the ground, continuing to do his best to sniff for tracks. 

"Perhaps we're going about it the wrong way," Dante suggested as he walked over to Laina. 

"How so?" she asked. 

"A different perspective might do us good," he picked her up in his arms.