Everyone listened intently. Lilluna flew onto Ashaedia’s shoulder and played with a thin strip of her hair. Ashaedia’s dragons crawled to the middle of the circle. Maylor impatiently blew a smoke ring. Mydia toyed with a dewdrop, eager to here Kurneo’s tale.
“Alright, as I was saying . . . it all started at the Dragon Temple in Faein. The young girl was feeding the dragons when Faein’s neighbor, Negnio, attacked. Now, I heard this tragic story from her father, King Ashnero. The Faein Princess was helping the Dragon Tamers hide the dragons while the Knights of Dragons protected the temple. One dragon was eager to defend the Dragon Temple with the Knights of Dragons, but the princess kept trying to convince the dragon to fall back.
“The dragon she tried to stop was called Gaedin, he was her favorite dragon. He had great blue wings, dark blue and gold scales, a spiky tail, wondrous blue eyes, a gold and dark blue head, and a powerful breath. Gaedin was the most powerful dragon known at the Dragon Temple. He was often called, ‘The Divine Dragon’, because he had won every battle and was a great leader. All the young dragons looked up to him and wanted to be just like him. The army Negnio had sent was called Negnio’s Imperial Army. Soldiers all over Faein came to the Dragon Temple to defend the terrified dragons.
“But it was too late. The army had broken down the barrier and was storming through the gates, cutting down anyone that was a Faein in its path. Gaedin was angered, and let out a furious roar. Seeing the people that took care of him die before him . . . it enraged him. He blew a great breath of scorching blue-white flames at Negnio’s army and most of the soldiers turned to ash and bones. But there were too many of them, and Negnio’s army surrounded them. Gaedin snatched the Faein Princess before she can be harmed and bust a hole in the roof and began to take flight.
“Negnio’s famed and most powerful general, General Zethius, had clung to Gaedin’s tail and was off with them. He was discovered when Gaedin and the princess settled in a faraway forest called Sareneth Forest. Before Gaedin could torch him, Zethius pounced and stabbed Gaedin’s heart. He fell to the forest floor, shrieking in pain . . . and he shed his Fire Tear and turned to stone.” Kurneo looked down at Ashaedia’s dragons. They were paralyzed with shock. Ashaedia’s eyes were filled to the brim with tears. How could someone turn a powerful and majestic being to stone? Prince Kurneo saw the sorrow in Ashaedia’s eyes, but continued.
“But the princess caught Gaedin’s Fire Tear and it got fused with her aura, making her powerful and able to transform into a dragon. Zethius kidnapped her and took her to . . . this world. No one had found or seen her ever since.”
“What was her name?” Ashaedia asked.
“Hmm . . . well, I never learned her name. But she was called the ‘Dragon Savior.’” Kurneo said. Ashaedia sighed and looked towards the ocean.
The sun was setting and the sky was a deep orange color and the clouds became pink. Seagulls flew to their nests to rest for the night as the sun kissed the ocean and turned the blue-green waters to orange-green. Evening was her favorite time of day. But Ashaedia had always wanted to see a new day dawn. Was the sun blue before it fully illuminated the world? Ashaedia pondered this question. She looked over to her right and saw that Kurneo was watching the sunset too.
“My father had read me story about how the sun came to be. A dragon called Goen created the sun. Goen was sick of the darkness that surrounded him, so he built up a powerful breath for five weeks. After five weeks, he flew high into the blackened sky and unleashed his fire; it went far into space, illuminating the universe with a glorious, red-yellow light that only died when the moon rises.” Kurneo said.
Ashaedia could imagine a great red dragon flying into the sky and exhaling a humongous ball of scorching fire. It would be wonderful to experience that.
“Goen . . . that name is very close to Noen’s name.” Ashaedia said.
“In the Ancient Dragongaldr Language, Noen means, ‘purple fire’, which means, ‘as wise as the wisest sage’. These words fit well with Noen, for he is very wise, let alone he was not able to attend school when he was younger. Noen in his free time went to study in the local library.” Kurneo said, looking towards Noen. Noen was telling Ashaedia’s dragons a story about Windella, the Wind Dragon and Flamos, the Lava Dragon. Gareveth was watching Noen with amusement in his eyes.
“What does Gareveth’s name mean?” Ashaedia asked.
“Gareveth’s name means, ‘yellow fire’, which means, ‘filled with courage’. Gareveth is part of Draconia’s Royal Dragon Guard and he doesn’t only show courage, but he shows how much he cares about others. He’s a real happy-go-lucky guy despite how powerful he is.” Kurneo said. Suddenly, Ashaedia heard something yawn behind her. She spun around. Nothing was there.
“What’s wrong?” Kurneo said.
“I thought I heard something . . . I don’t know . . . yawn behind me?” Ashaedia said. Kurneo looked around him. He didn’t see anything unusual.
“Hmm . . . well, whatever it was, I’ll be able to – wait, what was that?!” Kurneo said surprised. He blinked. Whatever he saw was gone now.
“What was it?” Ashaedia asked, starting to get freaked out now.
“I . . . I saw a black blur in the shape of a child wearing a cloak . . .” Kurneo said. Ashaedia grabbed his hand.
“Come on; let’s go sit with the others. It’s too scary standing here alone.” Ashaedia said. She led him towards the group. Eva brought over a pile of sticks and closed her eyes. Her cheeks turned a faint shade of red and opened her mouth. She blew a quick breath of red-pink fire onto the sticks. The sticks ignited and Eva had made a fire without lighting the grass aflame. Noen had walked away to find more sticks.
“AAHH!!”
Everyone rushed to where Noen was. He was sprinting back at a great speed. Noen hid behind Gareveth.
“What’s wrong, Noen? What did you see?” Kurneo asked. Noen was quaking with fear.
“I-I saw a black-gray blur in the sh-shape of a child wearing a cloak. The cloak’s hood slipped off, and I-I saw a f-floating head!” Noen said, stammering. Gareveth scanned the landscape. His eyes narrowed and turned yellow.
“What is he doing?” Ashaedia asked Kurneo.
“He’s looking for whatever spooked Noen in infer red vision. We dragons can change our eyesight so we can detect a threat that’s far away, in another country, or in our case . . . invisible.” Kurneo said, and narrowed his eyes too. They turned yellow instantly. After thirty minutes, Gareveth pointed towards a thin tree.
“There . . . I see it. It’s lying against that tree. It seems it got scared too.” Gareveth said. In his vision, the creature looked like it was shaking with fear, just like Noen. But it didn’t look like it could cause any harm. It raised its head and looked around and saw Gareveth staring at him. Gareveth waved at it. It stood up and ran away towards the school. Indeed, it was the shape of some child in a long cloak.
“Noen, when you saw the child’s head, what did it look like?” Gareveth said, watching the specter-like child run towards the P.E room.
“Well, it had dark blue hair and royal blue eyes. It was a boy, but he wore a gold headband. When his hood slipped off, he yelled out in surprise just like me.” Noen said. Myloros chuckled.
“Noen, my friend, it appears this boy was more scared to see you than you to see him. Tell me, did his hair look kind of . . . dyed?” Myloros asked.
“No. It looked like it was naturally blue. If it was dyed, I would have sensed the hair spray.” Noen said.
“Well then! This boy must be from Tellios! No girl or boy in this world would ever grow blue hair naturally. How about we go greet the poor boy?” Myloros said. Kurneo pondered this. Should they see this young one? Or is it just a boy sent by the military to spy on them? But the boy was invisible . . . he couldn’t have been sent by the military because the general doesn’t believe in magic . . .
“Alright, let’s go find him.” Kurneo said. Myloros, Eva, Gareveth, Ashaedia, Noen, Kurneo and Ashaedia’s dragons walked towards the P.E room and opened the door. The room was filled with many rows of lockers. A couple benches sat in a corner and there were showers in the back. Eva, Noen, Gareveth, and Kurneo switched their vision to infer red vision. Eva sighed, but it was a shuttered sigh.
“Eva, what’s wrong?” Noen asked her. Eva closed her eyes.
“I . . . I feel a strong magical presence. Could this . . . boy know how to use tomes? I mean seriously, I feel like something strong is sucking me into this room. It makes my head kind of hurt.” Eva said. Gareveth and Kurneo walked away from them to search for the source. They found the boy, but this time he wasn’t alone.
A man with a lance and a long sword and small daggers stood beside him and he was invisible too. He wore black and gold armor with red symbols on the front. You couldn’t see his face because his helmet was on. The helmet was also black and gold. It had two large gold spikes above the eye holes. A large ruby was on the front of the chest plate, lance, sword, and daggers. He wore a blue and purple chain mail, blue on top and then faded towards purple at the bottom. On his black and gold metal gauntlets was three gold spikes, the first being the smallest, the second being the second largest, and then the third one being the largest. He had two gold and black plates of armor on the sides of his chain mail. The man was talking to the little boy.
“It’s okay, they won’t hurt you. They’re the Dragon Laguz that came to get Ashaedia.” The man said. Ashaedia was shocked to hear that he knew her name.
“I-I know, but I have never met a Dragon Laguz before . . . I guess I’m just afraid to confront them . . .” The boy said.
“I know you haven’t . . . yet. But they are extraordinary creatures that have the ability to transform into a mighty dragon anytime they like! You mustn’t be afraid . . . they are here to protect you and Lady Ashaedia.”
“Um . . . excuse me?”
“Ashaedia!”
“AH!”
The boy jumped up and ran behind the lockers. Ashaedia ran behind the lockers to find him. The man in the black and gold armor snapped his fingers and he became visible. The sight of him appearing before them scared Eva a little. She had have never seen a man like this before. The man stared down at Maylor. Maylor hurred a threat at him. The man laughed.
“Oh, it appears we have not met before,” The man said. “I’ll introduce myself in a little bit. I just need to get His Majesty.”
“His Majesty?” Ashaedia said, poking her head around the corner. The man walked past her towards where the boy sat. He held his hand and helped him up. The man spoke to him in dragongaldr and the boy removed his cloak. Mydia hurred a surprised hurr as the boy walked over to them with the man. Maylor blew a confused smoke ring. Why was Mydia so surprised to see this young boy?
“This is Prince Marikai. He is the Prince of Aelia. Prince Marikai was worried about you, so he demanded that he’d travel here to see you,” The man said to Ashaedia. “And my name is Sethos.” Prince Marikai looked only twelve years old, Ashaedia’s age. He wore a dark blue cape bearing the Aelia symbol on it that looked like a phoenix and a dragon beside a large wave, a blue and gold chest plate, a blue and gold shirt, navy blue gloves, dark blue pants, dark blue and white boots, a brown belt, and he carried a ruby handled sword.
“Um . . . h-hi . . .” Marikai said. His voice was kind of shaken. Ashaedia felt bad for him. He must’ve been real shy to talk to a Laguz.
“Hello, how are you?” Ashaedia said, and held out her hand. Marikai shook her hand. Ashaedia put her other hand over his.
“It’s ok. I’m not a Laguz, I’m human just like you –” Ashaedia said, but Marikai wrinkled his nose in disgust. He jerked away.
“Did I offend him?” Ashaedia asked Sethos. He took off his helmet. His hair was long and silvery white just like Thania’s and he had dark blue eyes and had pointed ears. He spoke to Marikai in dragongaldr again.
“It seems you have. But he’s very sensitive when someone calls him a human. You see, Marikai isn’t human. He’s a Shadow Elf, just like me.” Sethos said. Ashaedia was confused. What the heck is a Shadow Elf? Ashaedia has been wondering what they were ever since Tearia told her she was one. Before Ashaedia could ask, Sethos spoke again.
“Some of the Shadow Elves share their homes with the Beast and Falcon Laguz in Sareneth Forest. Some Shadow Elves spread out and traveled to far-off lands, building kingdoms and civilization. Prince Marikai’s ancestor and grandfather, Aenarion, was the first founder of Aelia and was appointed king after defeating the Shadow Elf’s enemy . . . this world’s famed General.” Sethos said.
“But how could that be? We have a General right now.”
“Excuse me?”
“At the military, we have a General.” Ashaedia said again. Sethos and Marikai exchanged nervous glances.
“My father and mother’s murderer is . . . alive?!” Marikai said his voice cracking.
“What?” Ashaedia said.
“His mother and father were murdered by the General. Ever since Marikai was forced to watch his parent’s death, he despised humans with a never ending hatred.” Sethos said. He sighed and sat down on a bench. Marikai buried his face in his hands. He sighed loudly.
“Tell me, Ashaedia . . . do you support the military?” Sethos asked.
“No, I don’t. I knew that the General was up to no good when he sent his soldiers to capture Noen, Gareveth, Eva, and Prince Kurneo.” Ashaedia replied. Upon hearing these words, Marikai lifted his head and stared at Ashaedia. She walked over to him and held his hand.
“I am so sorry for calling you a human. I didn’t know . . . I’m terribly sorry for what you’ve gone through.” Ashaedia said. Marikai saw that she was shedding tears. He stood up and stared into her eyes.
What’s he doing? Mydia hurred.
“He’s looking into Ashaedia’s soul to see if she really meant her apology,” Sethos said. “We can peer into someone’s soul to see if they are lying or telling the truth.” Marikai stood there for a long time, staring deep into Ashaedia’s soul. Ashaedia felt very light-headed after awhile, and she swayed a bit. Marikai broke eye contact with her by blinking and held out his hand.
“I didn’t get to properly introduce myself, so . . . I’ll start over. Hello, my name is Prince Marikai of Aelia; it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Marikai said. Ashaedia shook his hand and smiled.
“My name is Ashaedia, of . . . well . . . San Clemente.” Ashaedia said.
“No, you are not from San Clemente.” Marikai said, smiling.
“What?”
“You are from–” But before Marikai could say where she was from, Sethos elbowed him hard in the ribs.
“Ow! Sir Sethos! What was that for–?”
“I need to talk to His Majesty for a moment please.” Sethos said. And he guided Marikai out of the locker room.