The white-winged woman led Queen Nalia to Ashaedia. Queen Nalia held out her hand regretfully. Ashaedia shook her hand.
“Hello, my name is Queen Nalia of Humari. I am a –”
“A wolf laguz, correct?” Ashaedia said. Nalia was shocked that Ashaedia knew this.
“Hmph, well, yes I am a wolf laguz. Do you know what a laguz is?” Nalia said, testing her and crossing her arms. Ashaedia had never thought of what a laguz really was, so she guessed.
“A laguz is a human with some animal characteristics that could transform into a specific animal.” Ashaedia said. She hoped that this was the right answer. Luckily, it was.
“Hmm . . . impressive. I would have thought that you would be too ignorant to know much about laguz,” Queen Nalia said, and smiled. “You see, my race of wolf laguz was almost wiped out by humans when we tried to cross Gren Desert in Negnio. We once lived in Gyllia, but we decided to move next to Faein to help them protect the dragons. Negnians were anti-laguz, therefore they call us laguz ‘sub-humans’ or ‘monsters’.”
“That’s ridiculous! And terrible!” Ashaedia said.
“Well, it gets even worse than that – oh, here he comes!” Nalia said, and bowed. Everyone else in the room bowed even the other kings and queens bowed. Ashaedia heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
A man with short dark blue and dark purple hair had walked down the stairs. He had dark blue eyes and a little bit of facial hair on his chin. The man wore long dark red royal finery around his shoulders, a black and gold chest plate, a blue long shirt with a light blue dragon design on the bottom half of the shirt, long metal gauntlets, black and gold armor plates were on his sides, black pants, black and gold metal boots, and two shoulder blades that rested on the outside of the royal finery. One was smooth and had two layers of black armor that rested on his left shoulder, and the other was black and gold and large and spiky. He looked down at Ashaedia (who was still standing), but he just smiled.
“Oh, hello Ashaedia! How are you?” The man said, walking over to her. Some the people looked up and gasped. A maid next to Ashaedia tried to tug her down to a bowing pose. The man signaled everyone to stand. They all stood up. A maid behind the man glared at Ashaedia. The man held out his hand.
“My name is King Ashnero, King of Faein and the Second Dragon King of Faein and a descendant of Lucerio. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” King Ashnero said. Ashaedia was shocked. A Dragon King! Mydia flipped through the Book of Dragons. The term “Dragon King” was in the Table of Contents. Mydia went to the page it was on and read.
“A Dragon King?! Oh my gosh! This is amazing! A King of Dragons! It was all I dreamed about when I was in the other world: Meeting a Dragon King!” Ashaedia said, feeling much excitement.
“And your dream came true! I have never met a single person from the other world that has always wanted to meet a Dragon King such as myself.” King Ashnero said.
“Ok, well, I have something to ask you. Something important.” Ashaedia said.
“Ask away, Ashaedia.”
“What’s a Shadow Elf?” Ashaedia asked. The room fell silent. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And everyone began to whisper to each other. Ashnero glanced at Myloros (who wasn’t whispering anything to anyone) and asked him to come over to them. Ashaedia picked up the Book the Dragons.
“Myloros, I think it’s time to give Ashaedia a history lesson to jog her memory,” Ashnero said. “We shall take her to Pameni Temple.” Myloros nodded and grasped Ashaedia’s hand and led her out of the castle, followed by Ashnero, Marikai, Ashaedia’s dragons, Sethos, Thania, Eva, Gareveth, Kurneo, and Noen.
“Where’s Pameni Church?” Ashaedia asked.
“It’s near the Dragon Temple in the Religion Center.” Marikai said. They went down a long street lined with shops and they past the dragon statue. They turned left and down a street filled with people in white and gray robes. All of them said hello to Ashaedia and Myloros. A man with light blue robes walked up to them.
“Ah, Father Myloros! How are you?” The man said.
“Oh, Brother Oli! I haven’t seen you in a while. Where have you been?” Myloros said.
“I was in Lythia helping to rebuild a church that had been destroyed by Negnian soldiers. I was gone for some time, yes.” Brother Oli said.
“Oh, well we better get going. I need to take Ashaedia to Pameni Church.” Myloros said, beginning to walk towards the temple.
“Ashaedia? You mean the one the king –” But Myloros shushed him. The priest bowed his head and moved along. Myloros and Ashaedia continued towards a large building that looked almost like a ziggurat. Two large dragon statues guarded the oak front doors. But Myloros and Ashaedia passed that great building to a small church that was connected to the large temple.
The small church looked too small to hold much, but once they stepped inside, it was larger than expected. Many rows of chairs stood in front of a stage that had a lectern on it. Chandeliers hung down from the high ceiling and torches were on the walls. The walls were pearly white and a large stained glass window behind the stage had picture of Jesus standing on rock with the sun behind him and a couple of white doves flew around him.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ashnero said. Ashaedia knew that he was talking about the stained glass picture. Indeed, it was beautiful; with the sun shining through the window the picture looked divine.
“Pameni Church is connected to the Dragon Temple. The tunnel that leads into the Dragon Temple is used as an emergency exit in case Pameni Church burnt down. Abbot Tylu wanted to meet you and bless you . . . but I guess we can see him before we hit the books.” Sethos said. In Pameni Temple there were many doors that led to many places, but Myloros knew his way around. They went through a white door and down a hallway lined with paintings of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Myloros turned right, then left, left again, and right. They arrived at a wooden door that had a cross above it. Myloros knocked on the door.
“Come in.” A man’s voice said. They entered and the man that had invited them in stood up.
“Ah, Father Myloros! It’s a blessing to see you return safely from your journey.” The man said. Myloros bowed his head.
“And it is a blessing to see you, Abbot Tylu, well. Has your illness subsided?” Myloros asked.
“No, I’m afraid, it hasn’t. But at least it’s not contagious! That’s the good news about my illness. And good afternoon, Your Majesty.” Abbot Tylu said, bowing. He coughed into his brown sleeve. Ashaedia saw that his eyes were a little red and his gray hair was kind of messy. Abbot Tylu wore a brown robe and wore a cross around his neck.
“Well, I’m just glad that you’re recovering.” Myloros said.
“Yes and this must the young Ashaedia you’ve spoken about?” Abbot Tylu said.
“Indeed, Abbot Tylu. You requested that we bless her with Goddess Lyllias’s blessings?” Myloros said.
“Oh, yes, of course! Let us begin. Just let me get my Bible . . .” Abbot Tylu said, going to his drawers and rummaging through them. He took out a blue Bible and opened to a page that had a ribbon in it. Abbot Tylu took his glasses off his desk and went to the page with the ribbon.
“Can you all gather in a circle and hold hands please?” Abbot Tylu said. He joined them when they made their circle and held hands with Ashaedia. Everyone bowed their heads and closed their eyes.
“Dear Lord, we ask for your lovely friend, Goddess Lyllias, to bestow her protection upon this young and valiant girl, Ashaedia. She needs her divine protection and your support in order to accomplish challenging tasks that awaits her. Please, my Lord, may she be blessed by you and Goddess Lyllias. In God’s name . . . Amen.” Abbot Tylu said, and everyone else said amen. A faint ring of blue light surrounded Ashaedia. It disappeared and appeared again above Ashaedia’s eyes. The ring floated down Ashaedia’s body as if it were scanning her and vanished again. Ashaedia glowed white and then the white glow went away. She felt something stab her on the arm.
“OW!” Ashaedia yelled. She felt empowered with some strange energy that seemed to flow through her veins. Ashaedia felt like she can do anything. She felt a warm sensation enter her heart and travel through her whole entire body. She felt like she can breathe fire, like a dragon.
“How do you feel?” Marikai asked, ignoring her painful cry.
“Ow . . . I feel . . . different.” Ashaedia said. She placed a hand on her tummy but she removed it quickly.
“Hhh! My stomach! It . . . I-It’s as hot as a burning fireplace!” She gasped. Ashnero looked down at her stomach. It was glowing a strange blue light.
“Hmm . . . Abbot Tylu, have you done the wrong prayer?” Myloros asked. Abbot Tylu scratched his chin.
“I’m sure I did the right one. I wonder if Dranos was listening to our prayer. After all, he is the Dragon God. Perhaps he wanted to help Ashaedia also.” Abbot Tylu said. Steam was beginning to pour out of Ashaedia’s nostrils. She covered her nose to stop the flow, but the steam was beginning to tickle the inside of her nose.
“Oh, no, she’s gonna blow!” Thania said. Ashnero quickly opened a window and led Ashaedia towards it.
“It’s alright . . . once you sneeze the fire will subside . . .” Ashnero said softly.
“NO! The trees!” Abbot Tylu yelled, but it was too late. Ashaedia sneezed loudly and a jet of blue-white fire jetted out of her mouth and towards a bundle of trees. The flames lapsed over them, but when the fire disappeared, the trees looked untouched. In each of the trees was a large, single blue, white, and gold flower sat in each of the trees.
“Uh? I thought the trees would be torched. But that fire didn’t harm the trees or its surroundings . . . that’s quite rare. I think she was blessed with Nature Fire.” abbot Tylu said. Ashaedia pulled her head out from the window. She sighed and a little stream of smoke poured out from her nostrils.
“Well, the fire and the smoke should disappear in a while.” Abbot Tylu said. Ashaedia nodded.
“We should get going to the library,” Myloros said. “We need to meet Persival there.”
“Very well, goodbye everyone. And goodbye, Your Majesty.” Abbot Tylu said, and bowed.
“Goodbye Abbot Tylu. May your illness go away.” Ashnero said. Ashaedia was just about to pick up the Book of Dragons when something stabbed her foot.
“Ow! What keeps doing that?” Ashaedia cried. She looked down at her foot. It wasn’t bleeding, but the mysterious sting left a large cut on Ashaedia’s foot. The hole it had made was in the shape of an isosceles triangle in her shoe.
It looked like the tip of an arrowhead tail.