Elemental Heir | ✔️

Chapter 49

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(Dristan's POV)

Golden morning light and the sound of blissful song birds woke me. The sound was irritating. So happy and warm, the opposite of how I felt. I growled as one of my eyes opened slightly. My head immediately began to pound as the bright sunlight pierced my eyes.

I groaned and glanced around myself, unsure of exactly how I ended up outside the Aviary.

I sat up, holding my head in my hands, as flashes from the night before came trickling back to me. Fragments of bourbon, self loathing, and flying through the night skies flashed across my mind.

There were two empty liquor bottles beside me.

Ah, yes... I remember.

I'd been binge drinking since we'd arrived home yesterday. And apparently, at some point in my drunken fit, I'd left the Aviary and flown to the outskirts of the forest surrounding it.

Nausea suddenly hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. Throwing my head to the side, I vomited into the brush. Blood, chunks of fur, and bone came out. The sharper fragments cut my throat and my tongue as they forced their way out of my belly. It hurt.

Apparently, my dragon had been out last night, too. And he'd had a grand time hunting whatever animal I'd just regurgitated.

Rutting hell...

The sound of trickling water became more clear to me as I gathered myself. Standing on wobbly legs, I stumbled my way toward the scent of the fresh stream.

I fell to my knees and used my hands to splash the cool liquid onto my face and neck, cleaning the blood from my mouth. I drank deeply, until my sides hurt, until it felt like I'd throw it all back up again.

Brenya... She must be worried...

I scowled at the thought, shook it out of my mind, and began to look for my weapons belt. I wasn't wearing it, which was strange, because I never left the Aviary without it. But when I got back to the tree I'd passed out by, searched the area in which the empty bottles were discarded, and combed the surrounding area, they were nowhere to be found.

I must've been quite drunk...

I growled with irritation, highly disappointed with myself for being so foolish. Passing out drink in the woods, alone, without my weapons... It did not get any more idiotic than that.

"Looking for this?" An infuriatingly familiar voice asked from behind me.

I snarled as I whipped around to face Ronan. My eyes widened slightly as I instantly realized that he was holding my sword. My weapons belt was slung over his shoulder as he leaned against a tree. He grinned at me as he held my sword lazily in one hand.