Ashaedia the Dragon Lover



Ah! Hey! Stop that! Give that back!” A girl with long light brown hair yelled. A boy with blonde hair was grasping a small, clay dragon that was holding a small glass ball between its paws.
“Ha! No way! You gotta catch me if you want it back!” The boy said, and ran away with it. The girl chased after him. She cornered him in their Science Class. He handed her the little dragon quickly before the teacher saw him. They were early, so they hurried to their seats. The girl gave the boy a hard, stern look. He turned away and the girl said, “You need to learn some manners, Greg.”
“So what? I just like making you mad, Ashaedia.” Greg said. Ashaedia’s hair turned fire red. Greg clapped a hand to his mouth. Her hair turned brown again. Ashaedia placed the small dragon on her desk. Ashaedia was a twelve year old sixth grader that attended Shorecliffs Middle School. She had blue eyes and had a bright but serious personality. Ashaedia was an unusual girl, for she can turn her hair any color she wanted and she has a large interest and love for dragons. The dragon on her desk quivered. In other people’s eyes, it’s just a small clay statue. But in Ashaedia’s eyes, it’s a real being that can change from a statue to a living thing.
It came to life on her desk and the scales changed from silver to blue. Its ruby eyes blinked and became green. The dragon held the glass ball tightly and inside the ball appeared a yellow bird. The dragon placed the glass ball in Ashaedia’s palm. She closed her fingers around the ball and opened her hand again. A small pencil lay on the palm of her hand. The dragon walked onto her hand and grabbed the pencil.
Ashaedia unzipped her backpack and extracted a notepad. She placed it on her desk and the dragon began to draw on it. More students began to show up, and the dragon resumed its solid form. Ashaedia looked down at the half-finished drawing and saw that her dragon was drawing the yellow bird that was inside the glass ball. The small pencil still lay on her desk. She placed it into her backpack and looked up at the teacher, Mr. Reames.
“Okay, class, we will resume our mineral lab. Pair up with your partners.” He said. Everyone began to move around to meet with their partners. Ashaedia carried her dragon towards a table where her two friends, Lily and Amber, waited. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving her dragon on her desk because of Greg. Ashaedia sat down.
“Okay, since we’re all here, let’s start. We were on Pyrite, right?” Lily said.
“Correct.” Ashaedia said.
“Alright then. It has a brassy yellow color,” Amber wrote on a mineral data chart. “And it can’t be scratched easily, so it’s like a six on the hardness scale.” Ashaedia heard a soft hrrr from her lap. She looked down and saw her dragon raising its arms in the air, clearly wanting to be put onto the table. Lily and Amber looked at Ashaedia.
“What was that?” Lily said.
“I don’t know, maybe it was Chad or something. Lily, Amber, I’ll be right back. I need to go get . . . my pencil.” Ashaedia said. She walked over to her desk and grabbed the tiny pencil and notepad. Ashaedia also grabbed her own pencil.
“Hush, Maylor, Don’t hurr. If someone hears you, you’ll give yourself away.” Ashaedia whispered to the dragon. Maylor understood. She handed Maylor the small pencil and notepad. Ashaedia returned to the desk and they continued their mineral lab again.
The school day went by very slowly, and Ashaedia was very glad to come home. As usual, she climbed the stairs to her bedroom to do homework. She turned on her computer and pulled out Maylor and his pencil and notepad. Ashaedia’s screensaver was a picture of a large castle in some snowy mountains. Every time Ashaedia looked at this picture she experiences déjà vu, she always feels like she was there once. Ashaedia took out her homework and Maylor came to life again and drew on his notepad. Maylor was Ashaedia’s Dragon of Inspiration. He hurred and several more hurrs responded.
At least six small dragons crawled out from their hiding places. And they weren’t clay like Maylor, they were real. Scales, eyes, tails, legs, wings, and fire were all real. One dragon was jet black and had yellow eyes and a white belly. It had a slender body and black spikes going down its back and down to the end of his tail. The dragon had a spiky head and on the tail, black and red spikes stuck out and had large black wings and sharp claws.
The second one was lobster-red and had red eyes and an orange belly. He had red horns and his back was layered and smooth and had red wings and he had a muscular body and its claws were as sharp as a knife.
The third one was pure-white and had purple eyes and a faded blue belly. This one also had white horns and had white wings and on the tip of the dragon’s tail were white and purple feathers. It had a perfect body and had claws as sharp as a knife and as white as paper.
The fourth one was small and pink and had purple eyes. She also had horns and it had a fan-like tail and a smooth back and light pink belly and small claws as dull as a butter knife. Sticking out of her back were two small lavender wings and she was frail.
The fifth was dark green and with red eyes and had a white belly. She had black wings and a spiky head and on her elbows was a single white spike and on her shoulders were four silver spikes. On her hands and feet were sharp claws. Her tail was long and on the end, a series of threatening-looking spikes and she was a beautiful dragon.
And the sixth was the largest and was a dark shade of gray and had red eyes. He had large wings and he had a spiky head and his tail was spiky at the end of it. He had four silver spikes protruding from his shoulders. He had the look of a powerful leader and had claws as sharp as a saw blade.
Ashaedia turned around to see her six dragons, waiting for a command. She hurred to them, telling them to fly onto her desk. They outstretched their wings and took flight. The largest one landed on the desk first and crossed his scaly arms. Ashaedia rubbed his scales and the dragon hurred. The other dragons flew onto her desk, all except the pink one. The dragon was flapping her wings frantically, trying to fly. She would only fly about five inches off the ground, then fall down again. After the fifth try, the small dragon folded back her light lavender wings and sat down. The largest dragon looked down at her in disappointment.
“Oh, Gema, that’s right! G’reo still needs to teach you to fly.” Ashaedia said to the dragon. She picked up Gema and put her next to G’reo, which was the pure-white dragon. G’reo was the Dragon of Wisdom, and he’d spend most of his time reading the Book of Dragons. The largest dragon was moving the mouse and clicked on Ashaedia’s picture file. He clicked on a picture of a castle that looked like it was in Africa. The picture was enlarged.
Hrr. The dragon said, pointing at the picture. Ashaedia looked up from her math homework.
“Yes, Guyro, that’s Castle Draconia, that’s where the Dragon King lives.” Ashaedia said. Guyro exited out the picture. Gyro was the Guardian Dragon, for he had protected Ashaedia ever since his last master gave him to her.
When Ashaedia was younger, she was sitting on a park bench alone when a mysterious man had given her Guyro and a book about dragons. The man had told her that she will see her real family one day and that within the book was five dragon eggs. He also told her that San Clemente wasn’t her home and that she needed to escape before a senator sent by a place called Negnio found her. Ashaedia wanted to thank him for Guyro and the book, but the man disappeared. Ashaedia sat there remembering the moment, but was interrupted by the lobster-red dragon.
Hrr! The dragon said, tugging at Ashaedia’s hair. Ashaedia blinked and looked down at the dragon. It was her Guard Dragon, Ganeth.
“What is it, Ganeth?” Ashaedia said. Ganeth pointed at the computer screen. On the screen was a message saying, “You Got Mail!”
“Oh, right. Thank you for pointing that out Ganeth.” Ashaedia said. She clicked on her e-mail and the new message popped up. It was from her friend, Eve Clarkson.
“Hey Ashy! Do you think we can have a sleepover after school tomorrow?” The message said. Ashaedia sighed. She hated it when people called her “Ashy”. Ashaedia looked up at her calendar on the wall. It was Thursday, November 16th. She typed back saying, “I don’t know, maybe we can.” And she sent her reply to Eve. Eve sent another message.
“You know that book you’re writing? Well, Garret is totally copying you! Since your book is called ‘The Lost Kingdom’, Garret called his ‘The Lost Wizard’.” Eve’s message said. Garret was this boy that was Ashaedia’s age and that goes to her school.
He had brown and black hair and he wore glasses. You can kind of call him a friend, for he loved everything Ashaedia loved, but he didn’t love dragons. This made Ashaedia feel uncomfortable around him. Ashaedia felt bad for him because the other kids would tease him, but Ashaedia had this feeling that he likes her. Ashaedia shook slightly and typed a reply.
“Yeah, I know. I read his story and it didn’t make sense to me.” Ashaedia typed and sent.
“Really? How did it start?” Eve asked.
“It started when the Wizard woke up and his village was burning down.” Ashaedia said.
“That’s a stupid beginning.”
“I know. Listen, I got to go, I got homework to finish.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, bye.” Ashaedia typed and sent her last message and began her homework again. The jet black dragon curled up into a ball and blew a smoke ring. Ashaedia wafted the ring away.
“Grussin, you know you can’t do that in the house! The smell can linger downstairs and it’ll smell like I’ve been smoking.” Ashaedia said. The dark green dragon sniffed and covered her nose. She then blew a sweet aroma into the air. Grussin shrugged. Grussin was the Elemental Dragon. He could turn into a dragon with skin as hot as the sun, or a dragon with skin as cold as the Arctic.
“Thank you, Guina.” Ashaedia said to the dark green dragon. She rubbed her scales. Guina flicked her tail. Guina was the Dragon of Emotions. If she felt anger in a specific person, her body temperature would increase and her black scales would turn red. If she felt sorrow in someone, her body temperature would decrease and her scales would turn purple. Ashaedia looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark out. The sun was setting while the clouds turned pink and the sky darkened as the stars appeared. There was this one star that pulsed with a wondrous blue and red light that Ashaedia was fascinated in. In fifth grade she learned Astronomy and how to identify the planets without a telescope. But that star didn’t look like a planet. Could it just be an old star? Was it about to explode? Perhaps an incoming meteor far off in space? Ashaedia has been dieing to know . . .


The New Student

The next morning Ashaedia awoke and found Maylor staring at her with large emerald eyes. Ashaedia was wondering why he looked so alarmed. She hurred to him, telling him to go sit on her night stand for a little bit. He flew onto her night stand and waited patiently. Ashaedia pushed the covers off her and jumped out of bed. She stretched her arms and yawned. She looked down and saw all of her dragons waiting for her.
“What do you guys want? It’s like, 6:30 in the morning!” Ashaedia said, yawning again. G’reo flew onto Ashaedia’s computer desk and snatched Maylor’s writing pad. He handed it to Guyro and he flew onto Ashaedia’s shoulder. Guina flew up towards Ashaedia’s face and asked her to sit on her bed. After she did so, Guyro handed her the pad. Ashaedia stared at it in surprise; a name was written on it:
Tearia
“Who’s Tearia?” Ashaedia asked Guyro. Guyro glanced at Maylor. He was shuffling his feet nervously.
“Maylor, who is Tearia?” Ashaedia asked him. Maylor blew a nervous smoke ring. Ashaedia wafted the ring away.
She is a new student in your class. Maylor said, looking down at his feet.
“A new student? How could you be sure?” Ashaedia asked again. Maylor shrugged.
“Well, which class is she in?”
Your Social Studies class.
“Oh, well, when I get to my class, I’ll look around for a Tearia. Maylor,” Ashaedia said, snapping her fingers and held out her hand. Maylor flew onto. “You will come with me and tell me which one is Tearia, alright?”
Sure thing. Maylor hurred. Ashaedia went to take a shower; got dressed (She takes her clothes she’s going to change into in the bathroom so she can change in there), went downstairs and ate breakfast, got her hair brushed, brushed her teeth, got all her school supplies together, played on her violin for a little bit, then she put away her violin and looked down at her clock. It was 8:00.
“Okay, Maylor, sit inside your pouch and wait there for a minute okay?” Ashaedia said. Maylor nodded and jumped onto her backpack. He unzipped his “secret” pouch. The pouch had everything he did while he was in Ashaedia’s backpack. A small blue pillow was lying off to the side in it and a blanket that Ashaedia had sewn when she first made Maylor. Maylor grabbed his pencil and pad and dropped them inside the backpack.
“Ashaedia! Come on, you’ll be late!” Ashaedia’s mother yelled.
“Oh, we better be off! Goodbye, Guina, Guyro, G’reo, Gema, and Ganeth and Grussin! See you when I get home!” Ashaedia said goodbye to her dragons and waved goodbye. They waved back. She left her room and went downstairs and out the door to her mother’s car. Ashaedia pulled the car door open and entered the car and shut the door. They pulled out of the driveway and towards school.

Who is Tearia? Gema asked.
She’s a sign. A beacon that’s guiding a star towards Ashaedia. Guyro said, and sat down.
Does she have a purpose to be here? Guina hurred. But Guyro ignored her question and blew a ring of blue fire. The center of the fire was empty for one second, and then the next a grayish fire filled the space. A figure appeared in the fire, and it became clear of what Guyro was doing. He was spying on Ashaedia!
She needs no watching over! G’reo hurred angrily.
I know, but I need to know if she is there. Guyro said calmly. He looked back into the fire. Ashaedia was walking across the soccer field towards her first class, P.E. She stopped in a group of students and put her backpack down gently and talked to her friends.


At lunchtime, Ashaedia sat at a table alone and ate her lunch slowly. A girl with long hair was watching her. She had unusual violet hair. A student supervisor walked over to her.
“You better sit down missy. Even though you’re new here, you’ll still receive a referral if you don’t sit down, alright?” The woman said.
“Alright.” The girl said, and walked over to Ashaedia’s table. As she approached, Maylor rattled his scales.
“Um, may I sit here with you?” The girl asked.
“Sure.” Ashaedia said. The girl sat down. She wore a dark blue dress that had a beautiful design of dragons on it. The girl had strange yellow eyes that seemed to stare into your soul.
“So, um, how’s it going?” Ashaedia asked her.
“Excuse me?” The girl said.
“I meant how are you.” Ashaedia pointed out. Ashaedia glanced at her and noticed her ears were kind of pointed, like an elf.
“I like your hair.” Ashaedia said.
“Why, thank you, um –”
“My name is Ashaedia. And yours is?”
“Tearia. It’s a pleasure to meet you Ashaedia.”
Hrr! Maylor said sharply. Tearia looked down at the pouch.
“Oh, do you have a dragon with you?” Tearia asked. Ashaedia’s heart almost stopped beating when she said that.
“I’m sorry, did I surprise you?” Tearia asked politely.
“How do you know?” Ashaedia whispered. Maylor was struggling to open the pouch and glimpse at Tearia.
“I have one too. He’s a clay dragon though.” Tearia said. She pulled open her backpack (it was more like a sack) and pulled out a Maylor-sized dragon. It was a handsome dragon, for its green and blue scales shined like newborn stars and its red-eyed gaze was oddly eerie. The dragon looked kind of bird like, it had four long clay feathers on its elbows and its wings were feathery and lime green.
“This is Geno, he’s my special dragon. He can come alive anytime he wants, watch him carefully because he won’t move much if there’s like a hundred people who don’t believe in dragons around him.” Tearia said. Ashaedia stared at Geno, and she saw his eyes blink and his arm move slightly. She smiled.
“What does Geno do?” Ashaedia asked, pulling out Maylor.
“Well, Phoeno is what my people call a Herati, or Fortune Teller and –” But Tearia stopped and looked dumbstruck. She then leaned closer to Ashaedia and whispered, “Can you keep a promise? Or a secret?”
“Of course, Tearia.” Ashaedia said, putting Maylor on the table next to Geno.
“Ok, come with me.” Tearia said, and grabbed Ashaedia’s hand and led her out of the lunch area. She led her out onto a deserted a playground and under a slide.
“Ashaedia, you have to promise me to never tell anyone this, alright?” Tearia said.
“I will never tell anyone, Tearia.” Ashaedia said.
“Really? You swear you won’t tell?”
“I swear!”
“You swear to Khaine?”
“Who?”
“Do you swear you won’t tell anyone?”
“I SWEAR TEARIA!”
“Okay, excellent, because I’m about to tell you a special secret.” Tearia said finally, and smiled.
“Okay, Ashaedia. Do you know why my ears are pointy?”
“No.”
“It’s because I’m a Shadow Elf.” Tearia said. Ashaedia laughed.
“What?! Ah, Tearia, you’ve got to be joking–”
“No one believes me! I am one! My mother is one! My father is one! Fine, I’ll show you how powerful I am –” Tearia said, and held her hands out in front of her. Her hands glowed with an eerie purple light, and then they burst aflame with purple and blue fire. Ashaedia gasped. Witchcraft! But Ashaedia wasn’t afraid like any other kid would if they saw this happen. Ashaedia grabbed hold of Tearia’s shoulders and shook her. The fire’s light was becoming too bright and anyone would have seen the blaze. Tearia opened her eyes and the fire went out.
“I believe you, Tearia. Please, calm down and tell me more.” Ashaedia said. Tearia sighed.
“I am s-sorry! I have a nasty temper . . .”
“It is alright, Tearia.”
“I don’t have anything else to reveal to you. That’s the prince’s job . . .” Tearia said, standing up.
“Let’s head back to the lunch room. We’ll be late for our next class. Oh and Ashaedia . . .” Tearia said. “Please, you mustn’t tell anyone about my secret. Or about our dragons, it’s dire that the military doesn’t know . . .”
“I have been keeping my secret about my dragons for a long time, Tearia.”
“What? You have more?” Tearia asked, surprised.
“Yes, but their real. And small though. I hope we become good friends, Tearia.” Ashaedia said. Tearia smiled.
“Yeah, perhaps we may . . . aid each other one day.” Tearia said.
“Yeah, hey Tearia, do you think you can teach me how to do magic too?”
“Ashaedia my friend, you can do magic because you believe in the power of the dragons. You seem to be quite . . . powerful in spirit.” Tearia said.
“Really? Wow, thanks.” Ashaedia said. They walked back towards the lunch area. When they got to their tables, Geno and Maylor were gone.
“Ack! My dragon! W-Where did he go?” Tearia said. They looked around and saw that Greg had their dragons. Ashaedia and Tearia stormed over there and had a dispute with Greg.
“Hey, their cool okay? I can’t help it!” Greg said. Tearia grabbed his arm and twisted it. He yelped out in pain and Ashaedia grabbed the dragons. Tearia let go of Greg.
“If you want one so bad, then make one!” Tearia shouted, and Ashaedia and she went back to their table.


“Guyro! Gema! Ganeth! G’reo! Grussin! Guina! I met Tearia!” Ashaedia yelled once she entered her room. Every dragon gave a happy hrrr when they heard this. Maylor jumped out of his pouch and landed on Ashaedia’s bed.
“She has this clay dragon she calls Geno. Tearia says he’s a Fortune Teller. Have you heard of a Fortune Dragon?” Ashaedia asked. Guyro shrugged. G’reo flipped through the Book of Dragons. After searching for five minutes, he found a page about Fortune Dragons.
“Did you find it?” Ashaedia asked him.
Yes, it says that Fortune Dragons are said to bring good luck and to warn their masters of impending danger, G’reo said. Only a person that is or was connected to a phoenix or a Phoenix King can have one.
“What’s a Phoenix King?” Ashaedia asked. G’reo went to the table of contents and ran a claw down the title list. None of the titles said “Phoenix King”.
“Oh, well. But she said that she was a ‘Shadow Elf’. Is that term in there?” Ashaedia asked. G’reo searched for Shadow Elf. He didn’t find one.
“Hmm, well they won’t have a definition in the dictionary or on the Internet. But she used magic to prove it to me! She seemed very eager to meet me . . .” Ashaedia said, sitting on her bed.
Perhaps she’s from another world? Guina said.
“Perhaps she is . . . but I could tell she didn’t look like she lived anywhere here in the U.S. Everyone at school today seemed kind of . . . distraught,” Ashaedia said. “How could that be?”
Maybe they don’t approve of the army? Ganeth suggested.
“I don’t know, but something felt strange in the air. Ever since I got to P.E, there was a strange, I don’t know, buzzing noise? But why would you think the military is the problem?” Ganeth shrugged.
Perhaps it’s a warning that something’s coming. Grussin said, heating up his scales.
“Perhaps it is a warning. Last night I thought I saw a shadow move quickly across my room. It freaked me out! But I didn’t scream.” Ashaedia said.
Hrr, Maidha went.
“Ah, I’m so confused right now, but I’m sure that it’ll become clear to me later.” Ashaedia said, and walked over to her desk and started her homework. The sky was darkening and the stars appeared. Gema looked up at the mysterious star that pulsed a blue and red light. She held up one of her paws as if she wanted to grab it. The star got brighter. Ashaedia looked up at it too.
“Hmm, that’s strange. How’d that happen?” Ashaedia said. She looked down at Gema. Her scales were reflecting the light and little spots of light shone on the walls. Maylor whipped out his writing pad and pencil and drew on his pad. The light blotches looked like constellations. Maylor drew rapidly, and when he finished, Gema crawled under the table and curled up into a pink ball.
“What are you guys up to now?” Ashaedia asked, suspicion running through her. Her dragons shrugged and played around her room until Ashaedia went to bed.


It was midnight when Maylor awoke to find a shadow standing over him. The specter was his height, but when it moved out of his den, it grew to be as tall as Ashaedia. It was shaped like a child in a black cloak. Maylor growled threateningly at it. But the ghost giggled and flew towards Ashaedia’s closet and opened it to find a dozing Gema. She was sleeping peacefully but awoke when the ghost child touched her. Gema snorted and looked up at it.
Hrr? Gema said. She yawned and blew a faint odorless smoke ring. And then she turned around and literally jumped out of the closet. A shadow of a dragon as big as Guyro was standing by Ashaedia’s coin jar. It had a spiky head and feather-like wings. The arms were covered in feathers and its tail was lined with spikes. It climbed down the closet and stood in front of her.
Who are you? Gema hurred.
I am Dragon Spirit. Shall I help you? The shadow said. Gema backed away. The shadow child was standing over Ashaedia, examining her.
Why should I need help from you? Gema asked.
Because we help accomplish tasks. We give energy to the weak. The dragon ghost whispered.
But I am not weak! Why should you help me? Gema said.
I am here to help protect Ashaedia from – The specter said, but flapped his wings nervously.
From what? Gema asked impatiently.
Give this to the Ashaedia. The spirit said, and it reached out for Gema. In its grasp was a letter. It dropped the letter and disappeared. The shadow child disappeared also. Gema looked down at the letter. It was a faded blue color and had a seal with a picture of a dragon on it. Gema decided that she would give it to Ashaedia in the morning.
What was that thing? Gema hurred, and crawled back into the closet and slept the night away. Ashaedia was fast asleep, dreaming about dragons and hearing a wonderful song when a voice interrupted her song.
Hello, Ashaedia. The voice said. Ashaedia tried to wake up, but she couldn’t. A strange force seemed to keep her asleep. It seemed to trap her in her mind.
Who are you? Ashaedia asked.
I am Xerain. Where is the Phoenix King? It asked.
I don’t know. I have no knowledge of a Phoenix King. Ashaedia said. A searing pain entered her forehead. Ashaedia wanted to cry out in pain, but the shriek never came out.
Hmm, you seem to have a dragon scent on you, The Xerain said. And a phoenix scent.
I don’t know what you’re talking about! Ashaedia said. The Xerain pierced through her mind and examined her thoughts.
You have seen a boy that seems to have a phoenix scent. The Xerain said.
That was a mere ghost! Ashaedia yelled.
Ignorant human! The Xerain said, and left Ashaedia’s body.




The Shocking News



The next morning, Ashaedia awoke to the sound of seven sets of rattling scales. Ashaedia yawned and the rattling stopped. And her six dragons began to hum a beautiful song. Ashaedia stood there, staring at her dragons that were sitting on the windowsill. After they restarted the song, Ashaedia closed her eyes and joined in. While they sang, her hair turned dark blue. Halfway through the song, an image of the man Ashaedia saw long ago came into view.
His face became clear and it was easier to identify him. He had short dark blue hair and dark blue eyes. His skin was white and he had a kind smile. He wore a blue cloak and on the front was a symbol that looked like a dragon. Strapped to his belt was a long sword. But in his hand, was a medallion that gave off a blue light.
Ashaedia gasped and fell to the floor. Her dragons stopped singing and came to her aid. Guina blew a sweet aroma into Ashaedia’s nostrils. Guyro stood by the door to listen for anybody coming to Ashaedia’s room. Ganeth warmed her hand. Gema tried waking Ashaedia by squeezing her thumb. G’reo flew to the bathroom and brought back a glass of water for Ashaedia. Grussin sat on her forehead, trying to see into Ashaedia’s thoughts to see what had made her faint. Maylor flew towards the door but Guyro stopped him.
What are you doing? Guyro snapped.
I’m getting information for the Ashaedia. Maylor said. Before Guyro can grab hold of Maylor’s arrowhead tail, Maylor had already slipped through the door. Maylor flew downstairs and only one person was awake other than Ashaedia. It was Ashaedia’s father. He was watching the news on the television. Maylor flew quietly behind him. He perched himself on the round table between the two couches and stared at the television. The weatherman was presenting the weather report. It was going to be foggy today. And then the anchorman came on screen.
“We have some breaking news,” The newsman said. “Residents of Wyward Street are reporting sights of dragons flying around their homes. And I don’t mean balloon dragons or dragon kites. I mean real dragons, bigger than two-story buildings. The residents had described the dragons’ color, a pink dragon, a very large lobster red dragon, and a dragon as white as snow. Mrs. Kindal of Wyward Street says that she would see the dragons one moment, and then the next a flash of white light, and the dragons are gone!” Maylor’s heart was beating with wild excitement. Dragons . . . real dragons . . . it’s a dream come true! The mysterious man that gave Ashaedia Guyro was right . . . the newsman continued.
“Wyward Street residents had also reported some strange-looking people walking around. The residents think they have something to do with the dragons. They’ve seen a teenage girl with pink hair, tan skin, pointed ears, a blue over shirt with a strange design on it, red shoes, purple eyes, a white under shirt, and lavender pants.
“Mr. Robinson of Wyward Street had reported a tall muscular man with a deep tan, red hair, a red shirt with the strange design on it and the sleeves are rolled up, red eyes, brown pants, pointed ears, and red boots. Mrs. Farell had said that traveling with them was a man in white and light blue robes, a blue belt, he had brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a hood, and on top of that, a bishop hat. She said she’d seen him carry around a staff with a blue orb on it.
“And Mrs. Kindal’s twelve year old daughter Emily had said she saw a man with long light blue hair tied in a low ponytail, tan skin, pointed ears, he wore a white cape, white and brown boots, brown over shirt, purple under shirt, and had a piece of leather tied around his head. Emily had said that he had the air and look of a wise man.
“And finally, Mr. Estenburger reported that these mysterious characters had markings on their forehead, cheeks, and noses. What an odd bunch! Camp Pendleton has begun to send soldiers to Wyward Street to find and capture the dragons and possibly draw some blood from them to see where they came from.”
Maylor narrowed his gaze. How these humans call dragons ‘an odd bunch’ . . . dragons, Maylor thought, were majestic and powerful creatures that ruled the earth one time in history along with phoenixes. It’s disgusting how the newsman describes them. Maylor flicked his tail angrily and flew back to Ashaedia’s room. Guyro was waiting for him; he was wagging his tail impatiently. Ashaedia was awake. She was sitting on her bed and on her bed were the young Gema and Grussin. Gema was giving off a pink glow and Grussin was giving off a black glow. Ashaedia held out her hand and Maylor flew onto it.
“They’re coming, aren’t they?” Madison asked her Dragon of Inspiration.
The dragons? Maylor asked. Every dragon eye was on Ashaedia now.
“Yes. But I sense that Camp Pendleton is sending soldiers to investigate and, on the general’s orders, capture the dragons,” Ashaedia said. “We must help the dragons, for I don’t want the dragon’s death to come early.” Maylor told Ashaedia all about what he saw on the television, the dragons, the strange people, and Camp Pendleton sending soldiers to capture and draw blood from the dragons. She put Maylor on her lap and he closed his eyes to rest, and he began to give off a blue glow. Ashaedia frowned and her face darkened. She sighed.
“It seems that the military is consumed by the fact that if they captured and tamed the dragons, they would be able to use them against their enemies. I was afraid this would happen. Why are people, especially generals, so arrogant and violent? I can’t believe that they would capture these majestic creatures and have the dragons fight against their own will. It saddens me to say that our generals are very stupid and might not know what to do with the dragons after they have done their terrible deeds.” Ashaedia said.
Ashaedia! You’re basically insulting your own protectors’! Guyro hurred.
“I know, but I feel whatever they’re doing is wrong. And if our General wants to capture the dragons, than something must be terribly wrong with him,” Ashaedia said sadly. “He’s doing the wrong thing, like how people started to hunt wolves in Idaho. They just wanted to get rid of them because they lost some cattle to the wolves. And our General wants to capture the dragons for their righteous power and throw them away once he’s done, like used tools.” She sighed once more and looked down at Gema. Gema was quivering.
“Gema, what’s wrong?” Ashaedia asked her. Gema shook her head. She was staring at the window. Gema sees a bird sitting by the window, but to her, it feels like it’s radiating a strange energy. But to Gema, for her body is small and helpless, it’s a strong energy, perhaps Chaos energy. She looked up at the window to be sure. The bird was there, and in Gema’s dragon vision, a strange blue glow was coming off the bird. Gema looked up at Ashaedia. Her aura was powerful, and she both shined a blue and red glow. But why? Gema always knew that one being is either made up of chaos or order energy. Why was Ashaedia giving off both order and chaos energy? But the bird was made up of loads of chaos energy. Could it be? No . . . it can’t be . . .
“Gema!”
Hrr!
Hrr-arr!
Hrr?
Hurr-arr-aru!
Gema had fainted. She sank to her knees and fell forward; her wings lay flat against her back. G’reo flew to Gema and tried waking her by blowing blue-white fire on her face. After the fire cleared, Gema still didn’t move, but her face wasn’t burnt. Ashaedia picked up her and cradled Gema in her arms. She sang her a beautiful song that was in another language. But the language wasn’t Japanese, Iranian, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, or any of the modern languages used all over the world . . . it was a language used before technology was invented. It was a song passed down through generations and the song was majestic. After Ashaedia finished her song, she looked towards the window. Gema had awakened and G’reo was draping a blanket over her. And, sitting on the outside windowsill, was a small orange and yellow sparrow.



Dragon Knights

The yellow bird tapped on the window with its beak. Ashaedia put Grussin, Gema, and Maylor on her bed and walked over to the window. The bird chirped happily. She opened the window and the bird flew in. Guyro hissed loudly when the bird tried to land on his spiky back. It chirped and flew away from Guyro when he tried to swat the bird with his long tail. Ashaedia held out her hand, but it landed on her shoulder instead.
“Now what’s your name little bird?” Ashaedia asked. G’reo thought he’d seen a picture of the same bird in the Book of Dragons. In a paragraph on page one hundred twenty-four, it said that the Goddess of Chaos took the form of a bird because she didn’t want to be recognized by humans that scolded her because of her chaotic powers. G’reo stood on his back legs and hurred: Her name is Lilluna.
“Lilluna? That’s a beautiful name. Is it your name?” Ashaedia asked the bird. The bird called Lilluna chirped and flapped her wings as if she was trying to say yes. Lilluna flew onto Ashaedia’s lap. Gema crawled onto Ashaedia’s lap and examined the strange bird. Lilluna flew onto the space between Gema’s pink horns and Gema flapped her wings. Lilluna copied her. Gema was right; this bird had lots of chaos energy in it. But it wasn’t evil, it was kind and cheerful. A loose feather floated down to the ground and Grussin stared at it in amazement. It was giving off a blue glow, even though it was orange. And then it dissolved into purple-blue dust. The phone downstairs rang and Ashaedia’s father picked it up.
“Hello? Oh, really. No school today because of . . . WHAT!? DRAGONS?! That’s preposterous! But – oh, ok. I see. Ok, goodbye.” He hung up the phone and began to climb the stairs. All of the dragons hid and Ashaedia put Lilluna in her wardrobe.
“Don’t chirp, okay?” Ashaedia said to the bird. Lilluna nodded. Ashaedia jumped onto her bed and pretended to read a book called, “The Last Dragon Lord”. Her dad stepped inside.
“Hey, um, you don’t have school today because of . . . dragons.” He said.
“Okay.” Ashaedia said, and he left. The dragons came out of their hiding places and Ashaedia freed Lilluna from the wardrobe. Lilluna flew out and landed on Ashaedia’s computer monitor. She stretched her wings and Gema got under Ashaedia’s blanket and curled up into a ball.
I think Lilluna wants to tell us something. G’reo said. Lilluna chirped. She flapped her wings and chirped some more. Gema poked her head out if the blanket and listened. Lilluna stopped chirping.
Lilluna says she’s here to guide Ashaedia. Gema said.
You know what that bird is saying? Ganeth asked.
Yes. I understand Lilluna. Gema replied. Lilluna sang in approval. She liked it when a being knew what she’s saying all the time. Lilluna chirped some more.
She says that she wants Ashaedia to meet the dragons that were on the television. Gema translated. Lilluna flew towards the door. Ashaedia got up from her bed and opened the door. Lilluna flew out and landed on a hall lamp. The dragons followed Ashaedia. Lilluna chirped a warning.
Lilluna says she wants us to come with Ashaedia, but we have to be hidden. Gema said. Ashaedia went back into her room and came back out with a white backpack.
“Guyro, G’reo, Gema, Ganeth, Grussin, Maylor, Guina, would you mind if you traveled by backpack?” Ashaedia asked. All of the dragons shook their heads and climbed into the back pack. Gema poked her head out of a hole in the backpack. Ashaedia lifted the backpack and it was really light, despite the fact that there are seven dragons in it. Lilluna chirped and flew downstairs. Ashaedia followed and yelled up to her dad, who was in his room.
“Dad! I’m going for a bike ride!” Ashaedia yelled. Her dad said not to be long, and they were off.


“We’re heading towards my school?” Ashaedia asked half-way down the hill towards her school. Lilluna sang and landed on a tree limb to wait for Ashaedia. Ashaedia’s bike was about five years old and the chains were rusted, and she had to ride slowly down the steep hill. Lilluna impatiently pecked at the tree she was waiting on.
“I’m sorry Lilluna, but if I go any faster, my chain will break and the journey will be even slower.” Ashaedia said once she caught up to the bird. Lilluna took flight again. They got to the bottom of the hill. Finally . . . the stoplight marked that they were close. Lilluna chirped happily. Inside the white backpack, the dragons were having a dispute about the tiny backpack they were in.
Guyro, your foot is in my face! Ganeth growled.
G’reo, can you please move your wing so it stops jabbing my thigh? Gema asked politely.
Guina! Ouch! You burnt me! Maylor shrieked. Guina had begun feeling the anger in every dragon and began to heat up. She was so hot; she was beginning to burn a small hole in the bag. When the hole was big enough, she fell through it. Maylor was about to fall through it too when Ganeth grabbed him.
GUINA!! The dragons shrieked together and Ashaedia stopped. Ashaedia opened the bag.
“What’s wrong?” She said. Every dragon pointed to the large dragon-sized hole Guina had made. Ashaedia counted her dragons. Six. There were supposed to be seven. Ashaedia shut her bag and looked behind her. Guina was scrambling to her feet about fifteen feet away from Ashaedia. What an unfortunate place to be unnoticed, many cars passed by this way and in bright daylight it was easy to identify the dark green shape of a dragon. Ashaedia rode as fast as she could without breaking her rusty chain to Guina.
Meanwhile, in a Chevy twelve feet away, a boy spotted Ashaedia going to Guina’s aid. The boy took out his phone and took a picture of Guina before she was picked up by Ashaedia. Ashaedia stood there for a couple minutes, calming Guina by singing to her.
“Mom! Look, a dragon!” The boy said, pointing at Guina in Ashaedia’s arms.
“Marcus, all I see is a girl holding – wait a minute that is a dragon!” The mother said.
“Yup! And I took a picture of it before that girl picked it up.” Marcus said, taking another picture of Guina in Ashaedia’s arms. The mother thought for a moment if she should call the military or not while Marcus videotaped Ashaedia and Guina with his phone.
“Whoa. I’ve never heard that song before. I wonder what she’s saying.” Marcus said. He could hear the ancient song clearly. After Ashaedia finished her song, Marcus stopped videotaping. Just then, a gray Honda pulled up. Ashaedia was just about to put Guina into her bag when she heard a scream. She turned towards the noise and it came from the green Honda. It was her mother.
“ASHAEDIA! YOU DROP THAT THING NOW!!” She screamed. Ashaedia dropped Guina into her bag and picked it up. She ran away, leaving her bike behind. Lilluna flew ahead to lead Ashaedia, and Ashaedia heard a car door slam. Her mother had abandoned her car and was running after her! There was a short cut into St. Laurence Middle School’s playground. Ashaedia passed through the fence, following Lilluna. In the middle of the P.E track, stood three people. Lilluna was flying at high speed towards them. It must be them . . . the dragons . . . Ashaedia thought. Just a little closer and she would be safe and –

WHAM!!!!!

Ashaedia was struck on the side of her head and toppled over. Her mother yanked her off the ground. She had hit her with her heavy purse.
“YOU’RE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE, LITTLE MISSY!! DON’T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME LIKE THAT!! I’M YOUR MOTHER!! AND WHY IS YOUR HAIR BLUE?!” Her mother yelled. Ashaedia had forgotten that her hair was still blue from when she was singing her song in her room. She struggled, but her mother had a strong grip on her. Her mother began to drag her back to the car and Ashaedia’s backpack strap broke. Ashaedia’s dragons flew out to save Ashaedia. Lilluna even attempted to attack Ashaedia’s mother by pecking her ear. Guyro got in front of the mother and roared. Ashaedia’s mother screamed and dropped Ashaedia. Gema tried to trip Ashaedia’s mother, but the mother kicked her hard in the chest. She fell over and laid there for some time. G’reo growled threateningly and slashed the air. Guina blew blue-white fire in the air to show a sign of anger and her scales turned bright orange. In all the commotion, Ashaedia slipped away. She rested against a tree and a hand touched her shoulder. Ashaedia jumped and almost punched the man that had touched her shoulder.
“Please, I am no threat to you. Do not be afraid.” The man said. Ashaedia looked up. He had light blue hair that was in a low ponytail and had purple eyes. He wore a white cape, white and brown boots, and a brown over shirt, purple undershirt, and had a long piece of leather tied around his head. The man had tan skin and a red mark on his forehead. Ashaedia recognized him at once, he was the one Maylor had described from the news, it was one of the mysterious people that were associated with the dragons.
“Please stay safe and keep clear of that crazed woman, I would not like to see you get harmed by her. My friends will take care of her.” The man said. Ashaedia looked towards her mother again. This time her dragons were retreating, and a large muscular man tackled Ashaedia’s mother. She was screaming something about getting a lawyer and that she’s Ashaedia’s mother.
“You’re – not – her – MOTHER!” The muscular man yelled. Another man but he was in white robes ran over to him to help him. He had a staff and raised it over Ashaedia’s mother. The blue orb on the end of the staff glowed, and there was a flash of blue light. The light cleared, and she was gone. Ashaedia’s dragons crawled over to her and sat beside her. The two men walked over to her.
“We have teleported her away so she doesn’t cause any more trouble. I also wiped her memory of what she just saw.” The man in the white robes said. He held out his hand.
“My name is Father Myloros; I am a bishop that works at Pameni Temple.” Father Myloros said. Ashaedia raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? Do you not know where Pameni Temple is? Very well, Pameni Temple is in a kingdom called Faein. Hmm . . . still not familiar? Maybe you’ll remember when we take you there.” Myloros said. “But in the meanwhile, allow me to introduce you to everyone. This is Thania.” Myloros gestured next to the space next to him. There was nothing there. Ashaedia was confused. Myloros read the confused look on Ashaedia’s face and chuckled.
“Oh, yes, I have forgotten! Thania can blend in with her surroundings. Now, Thania, can you please reveal yourself.” Myloros said to the space next to him. Ashaedia thought she saw movement next to Myloros. And then a blue outline of what looked like an eleven-year-old girl appeared. Then a girl materialized before Ashaedia. She had long, silvery-white hair and light blue eyes. The girl wore a long white dress with a gold trim and gold under dress that had a turtle neck. She looked like an angel, but without the wings and halo. Ashaedia saw that she carried a white book.
“Now, this is Thania. She’s from Feloray, a small country off the border of a larger kingdom called Lythia,” Myloros said. Lythia . . . Ashaedia thought she heard of the place before. “She was a young priestess that worked in Castle Lythia when Lythia was invaded by Negnio, a kingdom far east from Lythia and Lythia’s neighbor. She then took refuge in Faein, which is the kingdom I come from. And this is Gareveth and Noen. They come Draconia.” Myloros gestured towards the muscular man and the light blue haired man. Maylor had described these men from the news cast. Gareveth was very tall, and was taller than Myloros. Noen gave a kind smile.
“Hello.” Gareveth and said. His voice was deep. His size was intimidating, but when he shook Ashaedia’s small hand, he had a gentle grasp.
“Hello, how are you?” Noen said. He was a foot taller than Myloros. He had a firm grasp, but he was gentle at the same time. Ashaedia thought she saw the shadow of a dragon in his purple eyes.
“Draconia was also invaded by Negnio. Draconia’s people fled and took refuge in neighboring countries and disguised themselves as merchants and artisans. They had to completely change their diets, their appearances, and their behavior towards humans.”
“Negnio?” Ashaedia said. The man that gave her Guyro had said something about Negnio.
“Do you know something about Negnio?” Myloros asked.
“No, but a man that gave me Guyro,” Ashaedia gestured towards Guyro. “Had said that a senator from Negnio would come and take me away.” Myloros took off his hood and his bishop hat. His hair looked very short with his hood and hat on, but without his hood, his hair was longer, it was about the length of his neck. It was strangely clean, despite not washing it for many weeks.
“Yes, well, Negnio’s senators have been seeking a Faein noble, but I’m not sure who they want and why. We have many nobles in Faein, all living in the great Castle Myteria. An associate of mine that works at Zaveria Cathedral in Negnio is very close to the senators during his work hours. He told me that the senators are planning the assassination of one of the Faein nobles. I can see this happening, because Faein and Negnio are rivals. Sadly, he doesn’t know who they intend to kill. But the way they speak of this noble, it sounds like a young child that’s not too far away from the throne and becoming Queen of Faein.” Myloros said. Ashaedia gasped.
“B-But why would they do such a thing? What do they have against the Faeins?” Ashaedia asked. Myloros sighed.
“Negnio was the second oldest nation in the world and the first founder of Faein, Lucerio, used to be one of their senators. After the Negnio council passed a law about the killing of dragons, the first founder of Faein left because the law wasn’t passed with his permission. So he went north of Negnio and built Faein, where he made the first Dragon Temple. Faein then became populated by humans, and it was made a kingdom. Lucerio was made the King of Faein, and he lived a wonderful life of peace and prosperity, until Negnio sent armies to investigate Faein.
“Negnio had a sudden hatred for dragons and wanted to wipe them out. Lucerio saved dragons and hid them from Negnio society. To protect these dragons, he and his most powerful knights created the Dragon’s Four Riders. The Dragon’s Four Riders were the sole guardians of the Dragon Temple. They protected the dragons for many long years, and so did their children and their children’s children . . . and so on. But after Negnio had found out that Faein was protecting dragons, Faein and Negnio went to war.
“For many years, Faein and Negnio had a terrible relationship. Constant battles, waging wars, and countless lives lost. We tried befriending them, but they still fought us. Their Empress, Empress Sarika, is trying to stop her people from attacking the Faeins. But her senators are always disobeying her, and lead armies into Faein to slay our dragons.” Myloros picked up Gema, who had a sprained wing, and healed her hurt wing. Gema flapped her healed wing and hurred a thank you.
“So, Negnio had a desire to destroy dragons and wipe them out?” Ashaedia asked.
“Yes. And it still does.” Myloros said.
“Ok, well, why are you here?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you here? Were you searching for the dragons that were here?”
“My friend, I have already found them. But I am also looking for their smaller forms. The dragons you possess are the smaller versions of the larger and more powerful dragons.” Myloros said. He sat down on the moist grass. Thania cradled Gema in her arms and sang her a beautiful song. Gema closed her eyes to rest.
“That song . . . it sounds familiar.” Ashaedia said. When she dreamed about dragons, she would hear this strange song’s melody.
“Do you know what the song’s called?” Myloros said, testing her.
“No, I don’t. But I sang a song that was similar to it.” Ashaedia said. Myloros and Thania exchanged surprised looks.
“It’s called Dragongaldr. The Faeins that cared for the dragons sang them dragongaldr when the dragons felt uncomfortable.” Thania said. Gema yawned. Off in the distance, Ashaedia thought she heard something roar. Something huge. Her dragons seemed to hear it too. Myloros raised his staff in the air.
“Shield your eyes, this will be very bright.” He said. The orb glowed faintly, and then a ray of white light shot up into the cloudy sky. The light burst and sparks flew everywhere. The roars grew louder, and Ashaedia squinted at the source. Two figures appeared. They were large with huge wings and long tails. One was jet black and the other was bright pink. They grew larger when they flew closer. And then their shapes became clear. Large and powerful, they were dragons. Dragons! They landed in front Ashaedia. Their bulging muscles, large scaly wings, claws as sharp as diamonds, and paralyzing gaze was spectacular. There was a flash of white light, and when the light cleared, a teenage girl and a teenage boy stood in front of Ashaedia.
“Hello.” The girl said.
She had long pink hair tied back into a low ponytail. The girl had tan skin, purple eyes, pointed ears, and had red marks on her forehead and cheeks. She was the girl that Maylor had described from the news. But Maylor didn’t report another boy. He had short dark green hair, tan skin, red eyes, and had a complicated looking mark on his forehead. But his ears weren’t as pointy as the girl’s ears. He wore long white pants, dark purple knee high boots, a short dark purple and gold cape, a faded blue under shirt, and a dark blue over shirt with a beautiful pattern on the front. The boy held a large knife with a red a gold handle. It was in a blue and gold sheath.
“You’re so shocked. Haven’t you seen a Laguz before?” The boy asked Ashaedia. Ashaedia shook her head. The boy walked over to Ashaedia and held out his hand.
“My name is Prince Kurneo. I am the Prince of Draconia.” Prince Kurneo said. Ashaedia shook his hand and bowed.
“Please, don’t bow down to me. I don’t need the praise. This is Eva, she’s my royal advisor.” Kurneo said. He gestured towards the pink haired girl. She waved.
“Okay, well, my name is Ashaedia. A bird called Lilluna guided my dragons and me here.” Ashaedia said. Lilluna flew onto Kurneo’s shoulder. Kurneo smiled and stroked her head gently.
“Oh, yes. This outrageous bird is quite . . . special. I was looking for Faein’s lost noble when she arrived. She came to Draconia to help me find Faein’s lost noble.” Kurneo said. Lilluna chirped happily.
“What happened to Faein’s noble?” Ashaedia asked.
“Well, it all started in the Dragon Sanctuary in Faein. The young girl was feeding the dragons when Faein’s neighbor – oh, you have been taught about Tellios, right?” Kurneo asked.
“No, I haven’t, Prince Kurneo.” Ashaedia said. Prince Kurneo sat down on the grass. So did Ashaedia. Myloros, Thania, Eva, Noen, Gareveth, and Ashaedia’s dragons gathered around and sat down also.
“Okay, Tellios is a continent that Faein rests on. Now, allow me to begin the tale of the Faein Princess . . .”


The Dragon Savior


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. Guyro impatiently blew a smoke ring. Gema toyed with a dewdrop. G’reo plucked a blade of grass and burnt it. Maylor gnashed his teeth. Guina curled up in Ashaedia’s lap and warmed her lap. Ganeth tapped his foot, eager to her 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 Dragons Four Riders protected the temple. One dragon was eager to defend the Dragon Temple with the Dragons Four Riders, 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 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 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.” 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 inhuman 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 little 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 gloves 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 Guyro. Guyro 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. G’reo hurred a surprised hurr as the boy walked over to them with the man. Ganeth blew a confused smoke ring. Why was G’reo 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, 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? Ganeth 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 . . . Wyward Street.” Ashaedia said.
“No, you are not from Wyward Street.” 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.




Meeting Royalty




Why did Sethos hit him in the ribs? Gema asked. Kurneo picked her up and sang her sweet dragongaldr. Gema fell asleep. Sethos and Marikai came back moments later. Marikai walked towards Ashaedia. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a blue medallion. It gave off an eerie blue glow that looked like fire. He handed it to Ashaedia.
“Here, take this. It’s very precious to me, but my father and mother wanted me to give it to someone that I trusted. The moment I looked into your eyes I knew you were the type of person I could trust.” Marikai said.
Ashaedia blushed. None of her friends had said that she was very reliable. Ashaedia felt very special upon hearing these words. Sethos led everyone outside.
“We are going to depart for Faein in twenty minutes,” Myloros said. “We need to pair up in order to arrive safely together.” Ashaedia was about to pair up with Eva, but Marikai grabbed hold of her hand. She blushed again. Sethos was handing out some strange assortments of everyday items found in Wyward Street. He handed Marikai a clean hairbrush.
“Now, Ashaedia, when that brush turns blue, you and Marikai will grab hold of it and you’ll be teleported to Faein. Got it?” Sethos said. Ashaedia looked down at the brush in Marikai’s hands.
It looked kind of battered. Its handle looked like it was chewed away by a dog. Ashaedia looked around at the other items. Kurneo and Eva had a black boot. Gareveth and Noen had a brown basket. Myloros and Thania had a lunchbox. Maylor and Guina held a jewelry box. Ganeth and Guyro had a mitten. And Gema and G’reo had a toy doll.
“Um . . . Prince Marikai . . . what are these called?” Ashaedia asked, puzzled about the hairbrush.
“Don’t you know what it’s called? It’s a Teleport Key!” Marikai said. Ashaedia looked back down at the brush again. How could a hairbrush be a Teleport Key? Ashaedia thought it would be something more . . . impressive looking. Marikai saw doubt in Ashaedia’s eyes.
“Oh, of course you would have thought that the Teleport Key would look more Elven. Well, we wanted to choose an item that blended in with the modern surroundings. So Sethos and me dug around a little and found these items and enchanted them with some Elven Magic so it could take us to Faein. If the Teleport Key got lost and someone found it, they would just throw it away and not notice what it really was.” Marikai said.
Ashaedia thought this through and looked down at the brush again. If someone did find it, they wouldn’t know what the brush was really used for so they would get rid of it. Wow, Ashaedia thought.
“It’s almost time to leave! Everyone get ready to grab hold of your Teleport Key!” Sethos yelled. Ashaedia and Marikai leaned forward over the hairbrush.
“On the count of three touch your Teleport Keys . . . One . . . two . . . three!” Sethos yelled. Everyone’s Teleport Key glowed blue and everyone dived for it. Ashaedia and Marikai touched it at the same time. Everything around Ashaedia spun around her . . . or was Ashaedia spinning? Ashaedia’s feet left the ground and the air around her swirled around her. She felt like she was squeezing through a tight tube. Green ribbons of wind circled them. Ashaedia closed her eyes. Ten seconds later her feet hit the ground. She fell backwards and gasped for air.
“You’ll get used to it.” Marikai said. He held out his hand. Ashaedia grabbed his hand and Marikai helped her up. Once she was up on her feet, she looked around her surroundings. They were on a snowy hilltop. Flowers poked through the melting snow to feel the warmth of the sun. In the distance were large snowy mountains with peaks that pierced through the clouds. Resting on the side of a large mountain was a large castle. Ashaedia gasped as she remembered seeing that castle before. It was the same castle that was her screensaver! Built against a tall mountain, the castle was very beautiful and Ashaedia wondered what it was like inside of it. The castle was a beautiful pearly white and gray color.
“You know, Ashaedia, the King of Faein wants to meet you. He awaits your return in that castle over there.” Noen said, reading Ashaedia’s mind like a book. Ashaedia blinked. She felt like she was in a fairy tale. Her mind was filled to the brim with wonder and excitement and her heart was eager to explore this new world of mysteries and discoveries meant to be discovered. She swayed and fell over but Marikai caught her.
“I think we need to carry her to Castle Myteria. Ashaedia seemed to be so overjoyed that she fainted.” Myloros said. Sethos picked Ashaedia up. Kurneo turned into a dragon and so did Eva, Noen, and Gareveth. Marikai held out his hand and Gema flew onto it. He stroked her head gently and she gave an appreciative hrrr. The rest of Ashaedia’s dragons flew around Marikai. Marikai giggled. Guyro sat on his foot.
Why are you filled with so much excitement if you’ve been here before? Guyro asked Marikai. Marikai ignored him and laughed with joy as Guina landed on his shoulder and whispered a hilarious dragon pun in his ear. Everyone was so surprised to see Marikai in this state.
“I haven’t seen Prince Marikai this happy ever since his last birthday when his parents were alive,” Sethos said. “It appears that His Majesty has made new friends, including Ashaedia. He has never been in contact with cheerful little dragons like Ashaedia’s. I think her dragons sensed the sorrow Marikai felt and wanted to cheer him up.”
“Well, we better get going towards the castle. We’ll be late!” Myloros said, and climbed onto Eva’s back. Marikai was starting give off a wondrous blue light with every little chuckle he made. Sethos grabbed his shoulder and shook him slightly. The blue light went away immediately. Marikai stopped laughing and looked up at Sethos.
“Let us be on our way, Prince Marikai. Climb onto Prince Kurneo’s back so we may continue.” Sethos said. Marikai got up and climbed onto Kurneo’s back. Ashaedia’s dragons flew onto Gareveth and seated themselves on his head. Thania climbed onto Noen’s back. The dragons took flight and headed towards Castle Myteria. In a lonely tree on the hill, a raven larger than a full grown man was watching them. It gave a loud carkk and outstretched its wings and flew to the south.

Kurneo, Eva, Noen, and Gareveth landed in front of the castle in an hour. A large white bridge extended towards the castle gates and into a small city. Several small and large towns surrounded the castle. Thania waved a hand in front of Ashaedia’s face.
“Woo-hoo, Ashaedia? Are you still with us? Hello!! Wake up! We’re here!” Thania yelled. Ashaedia’s eyes flashed open. She sat up to see Grussin on her lap. He was staring up at her with large red eyes.
“Oh, are we here? Is this the castle?” Ashaedia asked wearily.
“It’s the same one you saw in the distance about an hour ago.” Sethos said. Ashaedia looked up at the castle. Yes, they were here.
“I can’t wait to go inside,” Ashaedia said. “I bet it’s beautiful inside the castle.”
“Well, first we’ll have to go through the Faein’s capital, Nassoria. Nassoria rests in front of the castle doors.” Myloros said. Everyone jumped off the dragons’ back. There was a flash of white light and Kurneo, Eva, Noen, and Gareveth were human again. Ashaedia and her group walked along the bridge and into Nassoria. The city was large and bustling with life. When they passed several large crowds, the Faeins waved to them and said a friendly hello and good afternoon. Markets, merchants, armories, restaurants, shops filled with goods Ashaedia has never seen before, trading posts and homes lined the city. Marikai led Ashaedia over to a food market.
“Ah, hello! What would you like today, young ones?” The shopkeeper said when he saw Marikai and Ashaedia approached his stand.
“Hello, my friend here would like to try one of your peaches please.” Marikai said.
“Oh, you haven’t heard of our prized peaches? Very well, here you go,” The shopkeeper gave Ashaedia a plump white-blue peach. “That’ll be six bronze, please.” Marikai dug around in his pocket and pulled out six small bronze coins.
“Thank you. Have a nice day!” The shopkeeper said cheerfully. Marikai and Ashaedia walked back to the waiting group.
“Go on, try it! It’s the best fruit you’ve ever tasted!” Eva said once she saw Ashaedia holding the peach. Ashaedia looked down at the strange peach. What if it tastes horrible? What would she tell them then? But she bit into it anyway. It tasted very sweet, like any peach. But it tasted even better than a peach or a strawberry . . . it tasted terrific!
“Well? Wasn’t that the sweetest thing you ever bit into or what?” Gareveth said. Ashaedia loved the sweetness of the peach and shared it with her dragons as well. They hurred a surprised hrrr as they bit into the blue peach.
“That was delicious! But why was it blue?” Ashaedia asked Eva.
“No one really knows, but some say that God dropped his peach’s seeds and the seeds grew a tree. A countryman of Lythia found the tree and tasted one of the blue peaches. It was delicious of course, and he used the seeds to grow several more trees. Peach trees grew around the world, but then one day the sun dried most of the peaches and their color disappeared, making them a pinkish-whitish color and taking away most of the sweet flavor. Only the peaches that grew in Draconia, Faein, and Lythia survived.” Eva said. Ashaedia imagined God dropping a couple seeds and then the seeds grew into trees.
“Anyway, we should get going. The king awaits us in Castle Myteria.” Eva said. They continued towards the castle doors.
Ashaedia and the group passed a large water fountain with a statue of a dragon standing on its hind legs. Its hands were pushing off a large, sapphire-like stone and its tail was whipped around the front of the boulder. The wings were outstretched and its stone eyes stared down at the passing crowds. Ashaedia looked up at a large landing above the castle doors.
She almost gasped out loud. A black dragon was sleeping on the landing; its spiky head was dangling off the side. It looked like Rayon, but the tips of its wings were blood red and so was the end of its spiky tail. The dragon had a red belly and a flap of red skin hanging off its chin. Its muscular arms and legs looked like the dragon could lift a castle. On its gray horns were specks of gold metal. The sleeping dragon had a gold saddle on its back. It had large black spikes going down its back.
“I see you’ve spotted the king’s mount.” Myloros said.
“The king’s mount? You mean that dragon up there?” Ashaedia asked.
“Yes, but dragons that become someone’s mount is called a Wyvern. If a dragon and a person built a strong bond, the dragon will be in the person’s dept, therefore aiding that person and will except the name ‘Wyvern’ and not ‘dragon’. Many dragons in the Dragon Sanctuary become Wyverns when they feel the urge to help a specific knight protect Faein. Some dragon owners even name their dragon, like how the Faein Princess named Gaedin.” Myloros said.
“Do the knights treat them well?” Ashaedia asked once more.
“Of course they do! They care for them like their own children. I’m sure the king does the same with his Wyvern also.” Myloros said. They walked through the castle doors and into a beautiful garden filled with the wonderful peach trees and breath-taking flowers Ashaedia has never seen before. They passed the garden and through two large oak doors that lead straight into the castle. The doors lead straight into the throne room. Faein’s banner, a red flag with a picture of a black dragon with a gold outline, was above a black, gold, and red vacant throne.
Where’s the king? Guina asked.
“He should be here any minute now. His Majesty was in a meeting with the other nations’ kings’ and queens’.” Myloros said. They waited by the short flight of stairs that led directly to the throne. While they waited, Myloros introduced Ashaedia to some of the guards and commanders of the Faein army. He even introduced her to the Royal Librarian, Persival. Persival was a blue-haired man that had blue eyes. He wore a white and gold cape, a blue and turquoise over shirt, a scarlet under shirt, a green and gold belt, white pants, gold and blue boots, and he carried a white and yellow spell book.
“Lord Persival, do you know when King Ashnero’s meeting ends?” Sethos asked the blue-haired librarian.
“I’m not sure, but if you get the chance too, the abbot at Pameni Temple wants to meet Ashaedia. I believe he wants to give her Goddess Lyllias’s blessing.” Persival said. Myloros said that he would and Persival went back to work.
“Who is Goddess Lyllias?” Ashaedia asked.
“Goddess Lyllias is the Goddess of Protection. If someone is blessed by her name, that person will receive divine protection for exactly five years. It is very rare for someone to receive her blessings, only one may have her blessing if they are needed greatly or if that person is very dear to someone and cannot die,” Myloros said, kneeling down and stroking Ganeth’s head. “Some of us Faeins are polytheistic, but most of us only believe in one god: Jesus the Creator.”
“I believe in Jesus.” Ashaedia asked.
“Good. Now, we’ll introduce you to the Royal Family. Thania, you’re shaking like a leaf. What’s wrong?” Noen asked Thania. Thania was indeed shaking, but she was shaking with nervousness.
“I . . . I’m afraid. I’m only used to Lythian nobles, but I don’t know how to act around Faein nobles. What if I offend the king on accident? I’m afraid to meet the king . . .” Thania said.
“Thania, I’m sure you’ll be just fine. King Ashnero is a kind and honorable man. He accepts mistakes and mishaps, but he won’t go off executing young children because they accidently offend him. He knows when someone says the wrong thing when they didn’t mean it.” Marikai said, patting her back. Thania held her hands together and hoped that this was true.
The stairs creaked as fourteen men and women descended a staircase that led from the conference room. To Ashaedia, these people were fascinating to look at. When they stepped off the last stair, all of the guards bowed down to them.
“Are they the kings and queens?” Ashaedia asked Marikai.
“Yes. Those two men and the women with the elegant white wings are the princes and princess of Sareneth Forest.” Marikai said.
“Sareneth Forest was a kingdom?” Ashaedia asked.
“Indeed, Sareneth was a kingdom for quite some time, until Negnio attacked.”
“Why did they attack them?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, allow me to introduce you and Thania to the royal families.” Marikai said, and led them towards the group of royals.
“Ah, hello Prince Marikai! How do you do?” One of the kings said cheerily. The king that had spoken was a large man with a crimson beard and long mane of crimson hair. He had a lean body and wore a brown, gold, and tan robe and a long white and blue cape with a beautiful gold design hung off his left shoulder, therefore covering his left arm. A dark scarlet sash was tied around his waist and he wore a gold and white belt. He had the look of a mighty lion, but Ashaedia saw something very different about his ears. Ashaedia rubbed her eyes and checked again. His ears weren’t human ears, they were lion ears! Ashaedia looked down at his feet. They were huge! His feet were in large brown sandals. Ashaedia looked up at him in complete awe, and the king laughed heartily.
“Oh, yes, I need to introduce myself,” The king said, and held out his hand. It was as big as a large bowl! “My name is King Cailehis, King of Gyllia. My countrymen and many others call me the Lion King.” Marikai grinned.
“King Cailehis, can you show Ashaedia and Thania why they call you the Lion King?” Marikai asked politely.
“Why, of course! Just stand back and give me some room.” King Cailehis said. Everyone backed away. He cracked his knuckles and closed his eyes. It was very silent inside the whole castle. After about five minutes of silence, Ashaedia and Thania were starting to get confused. But before they can ask if he’s going to do something, King Cailehis threw his head back and roared like an actual lion. His roar seemed to make the castle tremble in fear. The throne room was flooded with a bright white light, and the light cleared away.
Standing where King Cailehis had once stood was a crimson lion that was larger than any lion Ashaedia had seen. The lion smiled. Ashaedia couldn’t believe how big its teeth were. They were larger than a saber - toothed tiger’s tooth!
“Is that . . . could it really had happened?!” Ashaedia said. It was amazing. A man transforming into a lion . . . incredible and unheard of.
“Oh, yes, King Cailehis is a Beast Laguz. There are four types: cat, tiger, wolf, and the strongest, lion. Beast Laguz can’t live as long as the Dragon Laguz, but they do live long and enjoyable lives and a large life span.” Eva said. Cailehis walked around the room in circles, stopping once in a while to flex his claws and give a tired growl. Ashaedia and Thania walked over to him and pet his large and fluffy head. Thania and Ashaedia scratched him behind the ears and Cailehis gave an appreciative purr. He transformed back into a man and stretched his burly arms and yawned, showing many sharp teeth.
“Transforming takes a lot of energy out of you. But there are a few laguz that can stay transformed for as long as they want, like myself,” Cailehis said. “But it does take some time for a young laguz to do so if they have that wonderful gift. Oh, have you met Marikai’s uncle? Ah, here he is now.”
Cailehis pointed towards a man that was walking down the stairs. He had light blue eyes and long dark blue hair. The man wore a long black cape with a red trim at the bottom and it bore the Aelia symbol on it. He had dark blue and gold armor and a red ruby was in the middle of the chest plate. The man had the same gloves that Sethos wore and he carried a sword with a gold handle and a blade with a terrifyingly sharp point. His long black and gold metal boots had the same small, medium, and large gold spikes on the back of the legs. He seemed to give off a strange faint blue glow. The man looked down at Ashaedia, Thania, and Marikai as they approached him and he smiled.
“Ah, Marikai how was your journey? I’m glad that you came back in one piece.” The man said.
“My journey was fine, thank you, King Malikinth.” Marikai said. The man called Malikinth frowned.
“Marikai, you don’t have to call me that. I’m your uncle, and you’re not some peasant that needs to call me your king. You can just call me Uncle Malikinth, okay?” Malikinth said.
“Yes, Uncle Malikinth.”
“Good, now who do we have here?” Malikinth said, fixing his gaze on Ashaedia and Thania.
“This is Thania, she’s from Lythia and she volunteered to help rescue Ashaedia. And this is Ashaedia.” Cailehis said, waving a hand towards Ashaedia. Malikinth looked down at her. Ashaedia thought she saw his eye color flash to violet for a second. She blinked and rubbed one of her eyes. But his eye color was blue again. He held out his hand.
“Hello, my name is King Malikinth of Aelia, uncle of Prince Marikai, the brother of his father, King Contius, and son of Aenarion the Great. It is an honor to meet you both.” Malikinth said, and shook their hands. A man with large brown wings walked up to them.
“King Malikinth, King Caylodor would like to speak to you.” The man said.
“Oh, really? Where is he?”
“He’s gathering his things in the conference room.”
“Very well, I’ll go see him. Marikai, why don’t you introduce Ashaedia and Thania to everyone else?” Malikinth said.
“Yes, uncle.” Marikai responded, and Malikinth walked back up to the conference room.
The man with the brown wings held out his hand. It was covered with white bandages, but his hands showed no sign of bleeding. Ashaedia thought this man looked kind of like pirate. He wore an open long green and teal over coat that went down to his knees (his left sleeve was rolled up), a large brown, black, and gold belt, a red piece of clothe was tied around his head and larger piece of clothe was attached to his belt, a necklace with three red-tipped feathers, a gold loop earring on his right ear, white pants, and green and black boots. The man had a scar across his face and chest. He had brownish-yellowish eyes and long, wild black hair and pointed ears and a tan.
“My name is King Tivarion, and this is my wife, Wynne.” King Tivarion said, shaking their hands and gesturing towards a woman with large brown wings that was walking towards them. She had blue eyes and short brown hair. The woman also had a scar across her face, but she had a kind look in her eyes. She wore light brown gloves, a brown top, brown belt, and white pants and brown boots. The woman had pointed ears also and she had a perfect tan.
“Oh, I see you’ve already met my husband,” The woman said. “Dang it, Tivarion! You beat me to ‘em! Anyway, my name is Queen Wynne. You must be Ashaedia! The council has been talking ‘bout you for some time. Their dieing to meet you. And you must Thania! The brave little sweetheart that helped rescue her. How was that world? Never been there before. Was it . . . different?” Wynne asked.
“Oh, yes, quite different. They’ve got these metal things called ‘cars’ that the people travel around in. They don’t fly on dragons or use horses to go anywhere!” Thania said. Wynne and Tivarion gasped.
“Hmph! Well, if we laguz went over there, we would ‘teach’ them a flying lesson or too, right honey?” Wynne said, flicking back her hair and flapping her wings.
“So what type of laguz are you?” Ashaedia asked.
“We’re hawk laguz,” Tivarion said. “We live on an island kingdom called Phinoeis. Our neighbor, Kivlos, is inhabited by raven laguz. The Kivlosian King, King Nesilian, was supposed to attend the meeting but I guess he was ‘busy’.”
“You can never trust a raven, only if you know that he or she will actually listen to you,” Wynne said. “Have you met Queen – hey, wait! Don’t go!” Wynne shouted. A woman with long silvery hair was walking away from the chatting group and turned around. She had green eyes but a scarlet clothe was covering her left eye. The woman had white wolf ears and a long white wolf tail. She wore a black sleeveless top, a gold necklace, a scarlet skirt; a gold sash went across her chest, black sandals, and a clear white clothe covered her right arm. The woman had tattoos down her arms and legs, but it wasn’t modern day tattoos such as a picture of a pony or something like that. It was a beautiful, swirly design and it didn’t look like the paint was used by a tattoo needle. Her tattoos looked like they were just painted onto her skin. The woman walked out the door without saying a word.
“Oh, that’s typical Queen Nalia. She’s the Queen of Hyteria. Hyteria is a kingdom in the desert east of Faein. She is known as the Wolf Queen. The wolf laguz don’t live with the other beast laguz in Gyllia.” Wynne said. The woman with the white wings chased after Queen Nalia. She finally caught up to her.
“Queen Nalia! What you doing? You stay . . . meet Ashaedia.” The woman said, grabbing hold of her hand and started dragging her towards Ashaedia.
“No, I don’t want to meet a . . . human! I despise them because they almost annihilated my whole wolf clan! You should too! Humans almost destroyed Sareneth Forest and the Falcons along with it!” Nalia shouted.
“Ashaedia different. She love animals. She sing dragongaldr. Ashaedia kind. She no threat –”
“Fine! I’ll meet her. But if she’s nasty, I’m leaving.” Nalia said, and the woman with the white wings led her to Ashaedia.


Getting Blessed


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 Hyteria. 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 gloves, 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! G’reo flipped through the Book of Dragons. The term “Dragon King” was in the Table of Contents. G’reo 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 Temple?” 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 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 Temple.” 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 Temple is connected to the Dragon Temple. The tunnel that leads into the Dragon Temple is used as an emergency exit in case Pameni Temple 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.


A Shadow Elf and Light Elf Lesson



Are you okay?” Marikai asked her. Ashaedia rubbed her foot.
“I-I don’t know. I keep getting spiked by an invisible . . . thing.” Ashaedia said quietly. Marikai picked up the Book of Dragons for her and held her hand.
“Come on, let’s go see Sister Lura. She can –”
“I’m sorry, Prince Marikai, but we don’t have much time left. We must take Ashaedia to the library without any delays.” Sethos said.
“But Ashaedia is getting attacked by something –”
“Marikai, I know you care if Ashaedia is getting injured, but we mustn’t –”
“This thing could be the one causing Ashaedia to breathe that weird fire and whatnot! It could have injected a serious illness into her!” Marikai yelled. Ashaedia shuddered. Ashnero sighed and knelt down. He placed a hand on Ashaedia’s foot and his hand glowed a white light. Ashaedia’s shoe mended and the hole that the invisible creature left on Ashaedia’s skin healed.
“There . . . she is healed, Marikai.” Ashnero said. Marikai was surprised to hear a hint sadness in his voice.
“King Ashnero? Is there something wrong?” Marikai asked.
“I cannot bear to watch two beings of the same race yell at each other. That is how war is started . . . first, a fight . . . second, a war . . . and third . . . separation.” Ashnero said. Marikai blinked and looked up at Sethos. Sethos closed his eyes and to Marikai’s amazement, he shed a tear.
“I’m so sorry Sethos . . .” Marikai said quietly, and looked down at his feet.
“No, I should be the one saying sorry, Prince Marikai. I should’ve considered your feelings towards Ashaedia.” Sethos said.
“Uh?” Ashaedia said, confused.
“Hhh!” Marikai hissed.
“Anyway, let’s head down towards the library, shall we?” Sethos said. Marikai nodded. Everyone said their last goodbyes to Abbot Tylu and they went to the library.


They finally made it to the library and Myloros opened the door. It was huge! It was the biggest library Ashaedia has ever seen. The library had a high ceiling, many rows of large and small books, wood tables and comfy chairs and oil lamps sat near the check-out desk, and a small weird contraption stood on one of the tables.
“What’s this?” Ashaedia asked, walking over to the weird device. A couple of mugs sat next to the contraption. The thing looked like a coffee dispenser.
“Oh, that old thing? It’s tea dispenser.” Thania said. She took a mug from the table and placed it under what looked like the facet. She touched a small green square on the front and tea came out the facet. Once the tea had filled the cup, a small tea bag dropped out of the facet and landed perfectly in her tea.
“Wow, even scientists couldn’t think that one up.” Ashaedia said. She grabbed a tea mug and placed it under the facet. Ashaedia pressed the green button and the tea came out smoothly and the tea bag dropped into the tea. She lifted the tea mug up to her lips and drank. It was just perfect!
“Whoa, that’s the best cup of tea I’ve ever tasted.” Ashaedia said. Thania smiled.
“Indeed, it is the best cup of tea you’ve ever tasted.” Thania said.
“I’ll say it’s the best tea ever!” Ashaedia said again. Thania smiled. Myloros went over to a large book case and searched for a book. He found a book with a dark red binding and he pulled it out of the bookcase. Myloros opened the book and walked over to Ashaedia, Thania, Gareveth, Kurneo, Eva, Marikai, Sethos, Ashaedia’s dragons and Ashnero.
“Ashaedia, you know how you asked what a Shadow Elf was? Well, this is the book that describes one and other things too,” Myloros said. “I’m going to read to you a little story about how they became to be.”
“And why is this important?” Ashaedia asked.
“It’s important because if we teach you now, you won’t ask later. And this will a bit more . . . enchanting and exciting than the regular school lesson.” Myloros said. Ashaedia sat down on one of the chairs and so did everyone else. Myloros sat in a chair across from Ashaedia’s and Marikai sat next to Ashaedia.
“Oh, and you might want to open up your Book of Dragons.” Myloros said. Marikai handed Ashaedia the Book of Dragons and she opened it to a random page. Myloros dug around in his pocket and took out a pair of blue spectacles and opened up his book to the first page. Ashaedia guessed that he was looking at the Table of Contents. Myloros flipped to a page and he cleared his throat.
“Oh, where shall we start . . . ah, here, I shall start here. All right, the story of the Shadow Elves start off here on Tellios. Aenarion the Great had defeated his enemy, General Fredrick Ghoven and established Aelia. He was crowned king and he soon fell in love with a seeress named Mirethia and they had two sons named Malikinth and Contius in the year -4458. As you know, Malikinth is Marikai’s uncle. After Aenarion died, Malikinth was said to become the next Phoenix King. Contius was said to become the King of Aelia, which he did.”
“Wow, Malikinth and Contius are really that old?” Ashaedia asked. Malikinth only looks about twenty-nine years old!
“Indeed, Ashaedia. They are about six thousand nine hundred and eighty years old. Elves can live for a very long time.” Myloros said.
“When Contius was old enough to travel, he went to explore new lands and discovered many things. He soon found a woman named Lona. Lona was a beautiful woman that soon became his wife. But back to Malikinth. The Asyran Court didn’t believe Malikinth was suitable to be the next Phoenix King. They thought him as – Prince Marikai?” Myloros said. Marikai was covering his ears.
“I don’t want to hear this part! It’s terrible!” Marikai said. Myloros sighed.
“Very well, Prince Marikai. I will tell you when that part is over, now then,” Myloros said, looking back down at his book. “The Asyran Court thought him as a warlike thug, an Elf that settled disputes with war and violence. Malikinth, like his father, possessed a short temper. They instead appointed Baneron, the Prince of Tyslia, as the next Phoenix King. Prince Marikai, you may listen now.” Marikai opened his eyes and pulled his hands away from his ears.
“The Asyran Court had Malikinth be the general of the Elven Army. He was a fine general, both powerful and kind. Malikinth was even invited to Baneron’s coronation. He tried becoming friends with Baneron, but somehow Baneron saw him as an ‘eerie presence’. Baneron ordered his men to keep an eye on Malikinth and report any mysterious actions. Malikinth at that time was practicing Sorcery in order to heal his allies and attack his enemies from afar. Baneron’s spies reported his actions as ‘sinister’ and ‘dark’, and Baneron commanded his men to capture Malikinth and bring him to court.” Ashaedia closed her eyes and imagined this scene.
“When Baneron’s soldiers attacked, Malikinth’s soldiers defended their king and fought a bloody battle against their own kind. The Elves that didn’t serve Malikinth called him, his family, his supporters and followers, and soldiers the Shadow Elves. The Shadow Elves respected the other Elves, and wanted to call them the Light Elves. But the Light Elves didn’t listen to the Shadow Elves. They called them the ‘Followers of Darkness’ and ‘Khaine’s Warriors’.
“A lot of the Light Elves are polytheistic like us humans, but many of us only believe in the one God Jesus. The Light Elves believed in a Dark God named Khaine, but they worshiped Khaine as a God of War. They worship a god named Asyran. The Light Elves fought the Shadow Elves for many years, constant incursions; recent wars, bloody battles, and conflicts between King Malikinth and King Firoh have been very deadly.” In Ashaedia’s mind’s eye, she can see the whole battle happening. The Elves fighting each other . . . Malikinth and Firoh flying high into the sky on dragons and battling each other . . .
“Their wars against each other were ruthless and pointless. King Firoh thinks Malikinth was the one that had killed his son Baneron. Malikinth’s followers believe their king did not kill Baneron. And Baneron was not killed by Malikinth. A man from Negnio assassinated Baneron because he had a pure hatred for Elves. He slit his throat in the middle of the night and Malikinth was accused for the crime.” Myloros said.
Ashaedia looked down at the Book of Dragons. The pages were glowing gold! Ashaedia felt the book get heavier, and she turned to the Table of Contents. A new term had appeared in the Table of Contents: The Shadow Elves and Light Elves Age of War.
“Whoa, how’d that get there?” Ashaedia said.
“It seems that your book has added a new term, Ashaedia. Books like yours collect information and add it into their Table of Contents. These books are called the Tomes of History.” Myloros said.
“Cool.” Ashaedia said.
“As I was saying . . . Malikinth is hated by the Light Elves and Firoh is hated by the Shadow Elves. Though Firoh is the Phoenix King, the Shadow Elves say he got the power illegally. In order for an Elven King to become the Phoenix King, they must pass the Godly Trials. The first trial is The Passing. The king must pass through the godly Flame of Asyran in order to go to the second trial. The Elven King must march through the flame and if they arrive on the other end unscathed, they will go to the Demon’s Liar.
“The Demon’s Lair is the home of a terrible beast that the king must destroy. The beast is a Daemon of Nuryle. Nuryle is a realm that is filled with horrible monsters and unspeakable beasts that carry large amounts of Chaos Energy. The king must withstand the large amounts of Chaos Energy because the Elves, like the Falcons, will faint if they take in too much Chaos Energy. If the king slays the beast, he will move on to the last trial.
“The last trial is the Trial of Khaine. The king must defeat the ‘Dark God’ Khaine in order to become the true Phoenix King. If he succeeds, the king will be crowned the Phoenix King and will be given the ability to transform into a mighty phoenix.” The pages in Ashaedia’s book glowed gold again, and it got heavier and the pages turned to the Table of Contents. In the Table of Contents was yet four new terms: The Godly Trials, Khaine the God of Shadow and War, The Phoenix King, and Asyran the God of Light and Peace.
“I got new terms!” Ashaedia declared. Marikai looked over into her Table of Contents.
“It’s very important if you have the Godly Trials and those two gods in there and of course the Phoenix King. It may help you later on.” Marikai said.
“Hmm . . . perhaps they will.” Ashaedia said. Myloros closed his book.
“And that is our lesson for you Ashaedia.” Myloros said.
“It was enchanting . . . I imagined it in my mind and it looked all so clear while you read to me . . . I saw Khaine . . . the battle between Firoh and Malikinth . . . the long wars that the Shadow Elves and Light Elves suffered.” Ashaedia said. She heard a loud cough come from somewhere in the library. She looked past Myloros and saw what looked like a child that was her height in a long dark green cloak. The back of the cloak had a white vine and wing design, two wings were connected and in the middle of them was a sixteen-pointed star. The vine design was so beautiful, the vine pattern climbed up on the hood. Myloros turned around and saw it too.
“That design . . . it must someone of the Elven races, perhaps a Light Elf or a Shadow Elf . . .” Myloros said. Marikai squinted at the figure. And then he got up walked towards it.
“Marikai! What on Earth do you think you’re doing?” Ashnero said. Marikai ignored him and tapped on the person’s shoulder. The person turned around.
“Oh, h-hello Prince M-Marikai.” The person said.
“Hello, Tearia.” Marikai said.
“Hhh! Tearia?!” Ashaedia gasped. She ran over to her.

Tearia’s Message

Tearia!” Ashaedia yelled once more. She embraced the Shadow Elf girl. Tearia smiled and laughed heartily. She patted Ashaedia’s back.
“You’re lucky that the librarian isn’t here yet. He would have ushered you out.” Tearia said.
“Heh, whatever. I’m just glad to see you again!” Ashaedia said. She let go of Tearia.
“Oh, have you tried the tea that this thing dispenses? It’s the best!” Ashaedia said. She led Tearia towards the tea dispenser and handed her a mug.
“Put the mug under the facet and press the green button.” Ashaedia said. Tearia placed the mug underneath the facet and pressed the green button. The tea came out smoothly and the tea bag dropped out of the facet. Tearia lifted the mug to her lips and drank. Ashaedia noticed that Tearia’s face was unusually pale, but when she sipped the tea her face gained some color. Marikai touched her cheek.
“Tearia, you’re as cold as clay! What happened to you?” Marikai asked, beckoning Tearia to sit down. Tearia sat down at gulped down some tea.
“I’m . . . so sorry, Prince Marikai . . .”Tearia said quietly.
“Why are you apologizing to me, Tearia?” Marikai asked.
“I have failed . . . I’m so sorry . . . I was captured –”
“WHAT?! YOU WERE CAPTURED BY THE MILITARY?!” Marikai shrieked. Tearia wept.
“Prince Marikai! Please, don’t shout . . . allow Tearia to speak . . .” Ashaedia said, actually addressing him as “Prince”. Marikai slowed his quickened gasps of shock and closed his eyes.
“I am so sorry Tearia . . . I shouldn’t have yelled at you . . .” Marikai said. Gema crawled onto Tearia’s lap and hurred to her softly. Guina sang her sweet dragonsong. G’reo gave Tearia a tissue. Tearia said thank you to him and blew her nose into the tissue.
“No, you have all the rights right now to punish me, Prince Marikai . . .” Tearia said.
“No I don’t Tearia. It’s not my job to punish people. But I don’t want to punish you.” Marikai said softly. Tearia wiped the tears from her eyes.
“Thank you, Prince Marikai.” Tearia said, and smiled.
“Tearia, what have the military done to you?” Sethos asked her. Tearia sat back on the couch.
“Well, I was captured by the military when I was on a walk. When they captured me, they took me straight to the General. From afar, he looked like a kind man, but when you’re up close to him, you can see the evil swirl around in his brown eyes. In his eyes was a tint of red. I called him the Devil’s Servant and stomped on his foot. He yelped out in pain and bounced on one leg, rubbing his foot.
“That sinister man laughed and told me that I would be suitable to join his army. I said I would never betray my own kind. He laughed again and this time it was a laugh I have never even heard in my entire life. It was a deep, distorted laugh. The laugh basically chilled me to the bones. He ordered his soldiers to take me to a room with nothing in it but a table and two chairs. After I was imprisoned in that cell, they interrogated me. Fredrick ask me questions like, ‘Where’s the Phoenix King’, and ‘Where’s the Dragon King’. A lot of the questions were ‘where’ questions, but I refused to answer him.
“But they didn’t let me leave that dark depressing building unscathed. That dastardly general had one of his soldiers do this to me! I guess he didn’t want to do it himself because he’s afraid to see blood.” Tearia said, and rolled up her sleeve. Eva almost puked. On Tearia’s arm was long bloody cut. Ashaedia gasped.
“I’ve tried to heal it, but I’m not that powerful enough yet to heal minor injuries like this. His soldier used a survival knife on me. I was suspicious with him when he first asked me the question, ‘Where’s the Phoenix and Dragon King’. I was wondering how he knew what a Phoenix King and Dragon King was. He’s does have an . . . eerie and mysterious aura about him,” Tearia said. “Oh, and he wanted me to pass on a message to King Malikinth.”
“What is the message, Lady Tearia?”
Everyone nearly jumped and turned around. Malikinth was standing in the doorway, white-faced and (if possible) very pale.
“Oh! Hello, Your Majesty!” Tearia said. Malikinth walked towards them and Tearia bowed. He gave Tearia permission to stand. Malikinth held Tearia’s injured arm and touched her scar. Purple flames snaked around Tearia’s cut, weaving in and out of her skin. The flames perished and Tearia’s arm was healed.
“Thank you, King Malikinth.” Tearia said. Malikinth sat down in one of the cozy armchairs.
“Tearia . . . what did the General want us to know?” Malikinth asked. Ashaedia heard worry in his voice.
“He wanted me to tell you – Queen Nalia? You’re here too?” Tearia said. Nalia had walked into the library, followed by King Cailehis, King Tivarion, Queen Wynne, the three white-winged Sareneth Nobles, a tall bald man with a dark green mustache, a woman with long emerald green hair, a young girl with semi-long purple hair, and a woman with long dark green hair.
“We all need to speak to Ashaedia, but I heard that that dreaded General guy has a message for us?” The woman with the long dark green hair said. She wore a long dark blue dress with a black under dress that had a turtle neck. A long black veil with a beautiful gold design on the sides hung off her shoulders. She had soft red eyes and on the right side of her forehead was a red mark that looked kind of like a sharp but rounded lightning bolt. The woman walked over to Ashnero and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.
“Hi, honey.” The woman said sweetly, but quietly.
“Hello, Amidia. Have you met Ashaedia?” Ashnero asked the woman.
“Oh, I suppose I haven’t yet. That’s her right?” Amidia said, pointing towards Ashaedia.
“Yes, that’s her. Ashaedia, I would like you to meet my wife, Amidia.” Ashnero said. Queen Amidia held out her hand.
“Hello, Ashaedia. It’s very nice . . . to meet you.” Amidia said.
“And it’s nice to meet you too, Queen Amidia.” Ashaedia said, and shook her hand. Tivarion and Wynne sat in the last two vacant chairs. Amidia walked behind a large bookcase and came back with a chair. She put it next to Ashnero. Amidia sat in it and crossed her arms.
“Okay, this is what the General wants to tell you all,” Tearia said, walking to the middle of the circle of people. “But it’s more of a threat though.” And Tearia cleared her throat.
“He wanted all of the rulers of Tellios to know that if they don’t return Ashaedia to her home in San Clemente, the General will issue an attack on Faein.” Ashnero and Amidia gasped.
“But why would he attack Faein first?” Amidia asked.
“I’ll get to that in a moment, but allow me to finish the message.” Tearia said, and Amidia kept quiet.
“Now, the General will attack us if we don’t return Ashaedia to San Clemente. He also said that if we don’t give him the Shadow Blade of Khaine, he will place a bomb on Tellios and blow our continent to pieces. I don’t understand! That General seems to know everything about us! The Dragon King . . . the Phoenix King . . . the Shadow Blade of Khaine . . . how does he know all of this?!” Tearia said, throwing her hands up in despair. “I want him to die a slow and painful death! I hope he will live a terrible afterlife in the pits of the underworld!”
“Tearia, you might not want to say that just yet.”
Everyone turned around to see a man with long blonde hair standing in the doorway.
He had brown eyes and pointed ears like Marikai, Sethos, Tearia, and Malikinth. The man wore an emerald cape with a hood, an emerald long undershirt (it went down to his ankles), a light blue and gold over shirt (it went right underneath his knees), golden shoulder blades, a blue and gold belt with a red ruby in the middle, a brown pouch was latched onto his belt, two plates of blue and gold armor rested on his sides, black and white boots, and gold and blue wrist guards. Malikinth swore quietly.
“Oh, hello, Malikinth,” The man said. “It’s nice seeing you . . . again.”
“Firoh, we must work together now. Even though we are enemies, we must work together to protect our Elven families and species.” Malikinth said. The man narrowed his gaze.
“Well Malikinth, King of the Shadow Elves and ‘Son’ of Aenarion, you seem to have a larger heart than most of your kind.” Firoh said. Sethos quickly stood up, pushing back his chair. His eyes were filled with rage, and he lunged forward but Malikinth wrapped his arms around his waist and yanked him back.
“Don’t you dare – insult us –” Sethos gasped angrily. Firoh stepped back.
“This proves that our kinds cannot be united!” Firoh said, shaking his head. “You are too violent and we are too kind –”
“King Firoh, will you please sit down and listen to the message?” Marikai said, very annoyed. Firoh pulled a chair up and sat in it next to Cailehis. Malikinth let go of Sethos and Sethos sat back down in his own chair.
“Anyway . . . the General said that if we don’t give him the Shadow Blade of Khaine, he will destroy Tellios and its people. But I think we shouldn’t give it to him, whether he destroys us or not. And it’s our job to protect Ashaedia from him.” Tearia said.
“But why would I need protecting from him?” Ashaedia asked.
“According to his criminal records, the General of the U.S was accused for crossing into the world of Tellios illegally without a proper escort from a knight of Tellios and he attempted to assassinate the Emperor of Ralkero, Emperor Kero Franos. The General attended his coronation when he attempted to murder the great Emperor Kero Franos. He killed one of the royal knights and wore their armor in order to get close to Emperor Kero Franos. The General attempted to push Kero off the balcony, but when one of guards notice the General getting ready to shove the emperor off the balcony, he seized him and threw the General down onto the floor.
“The guard removed the General’s helmet and gasps filled the palace, followed by a scream. One of the maids had found the body of the dead knight and they sentenced the General to death. But the General escaped Tellios and, unfortunately, passed information about Tellios to the army. He said that Tellios was a land filled with bloodthirsty savages that has a hunger for war, and the whole continent of America believed him.
“The General led a team of scientists’ into Tellios and had them take samples of rare flowers and trees to see what type of environment we ‘savages’ lived in. Their tests showed that our environment was healthy and untainted. The scientists’ were confused. If we ‘savages’ lived on Tellios, Tellios would have been a barren wasteland with no sign of intelligent life. It would just be a land of cave-dwellers.
“But after the scientists’ found the Light Elven kingdom Sapherial, they declared that intelligent life did exist on Tellios. But the General told the president that the scientists were lying and they wanted to protect us. The president, of course, believed him and made him the General of the American Army. The General has been leading his armies into Tellios to attempt to destroy us. Oh, and to answer Queen Amidia’s question, the General wants to strike Faein first because we have dragons.” Tearia said. Ashnero was pale with disgust and anger.
“How do you know all of this?” Cailehis asked.
“Oh, a Shadow Elf spy is keeping watch over that general for me. I’ll say he’s quite resourceful.” Tearia said.
“Has the military discovered that an Elf is spying on their general?” Ashnero asked.
“Nope. He blends in perfectly with the soldiers.” Tearia said.
“Amazing! I can’t believe that we have a spy watching that military! How long has he been there, Tearia?” Malikinth asked.
“He’s been there for about ten weeks. He’s been sending me letters to me with reports of the General’s activities.” Tearia said. Firoh raised an eyebrow.
“Hmph, he sounds like a very sneaky boy, isn’t he? Hiding in the shadows by day and moves with the darkness at night?” Firoh said.
“Those words define him well.” Tearia said.
“If you don’t mind me asking . . . what’s his name, Tearia?” Marikai asked.
“His name is Ultheron, but in the other military he goes by Joseph. He’s an assassin apprentice in the Shadow Elven Army. Ultheron was assigned to spy on the military.” Tearia said.
“Well, I hope Ultheron is alright, being there all alone.” Ashaedia said.
“You can say that again. He has no one that’s an Elf to talk to. The soldiers there call him ‘Silent Joe.’” Tearia said.
“Yeah, and it must be terribly hot there too. Being on the west coast is exciting and all, but when the temperature is almost one hundred and ten degrees and the sun is beating hard on the face, we Elves tend to pass out because of the extreme heat.” Sethos said.
But it wasn’t blazing hot out or a perfectly sunny day.
It was a stormy day on the west coast of California.


Camp Pendleton, 4:00 p.m, Ultheron’s
Dormitory


The weather outside was horrendous. Thunder rumbled loudly while lightning flashed across the sky, striking trees and sometimes setting them aflame. The oceanic waves were sized up from fifteen feet to thirty feet high and the many rip currents whirled around in the dark and murky waters, stirring the sand up from the rocky bottoms and lifting them into an underwater sand tornado. Waves crashed onto the dull beach, spraying mist into the damp air. The clouds overhead were blackened by lightning and poured rain on the west coast of California. It mostly hailed but it also rained.
Camp Carelton had the worst weather though.
In a dormitory in Camp Carelton near the General’s Quarters, a teenage boy with long dark purple hair and yellow eyes was sitting at his desk and writing a letter by candlelight. The letter said,
Dear Tearia,
How’s the weather on Tellios? The weather here is terrible; a helpless bird almost got zapped by a bolt of lightning. Well, at least there are no tornados! Anyway, I have some surprising news about the General. Call me a dog all you want when you hear this. The General doesn’t seem to have a . . . I don’t know . . . human scent upon him? He does have a little bit of human scent on him, but he has some sort of alien-like presence. No, not the type of outer space alien, but the type of scent and presence of a being from another dimension.
He has an eerie yet powerful aura that seems to follow him wherever he goes. The General would be a normal man for a couple of days, but then he would be all sinister and somewhat evil for a couple of weeks. I might have hypothesized a theory to all of this. He might have been possessed by something. Whenever he speaks at meetings, his voice would be strangely distorted. One time when he was talking to me, I saw an orb of red light dance around in his eyes. At that moment, a wave of evil washed over me! I felt something pierce through my mind, inflicting a terrible headache upon my skull. Something tried to see into my thoughts but I forced it out somehow.
The thing that was controlling the General must’ve had another of its kind go after me! After the conversation, I ran to my dormitory and began to write this letter to you. I hope all is well on Tellios. Is Prince Marikai and King Malikinth well? Please tell them I shall return to Aelia soon.

My best wishes,

Ultheron

P.S. If Ashaedia’s there, tell her the story of Mirethia and Galain.

Ultheron sealed the letter within an envelope and turned around in his seat. Beside his bed was a gold perch, and dozing on the perch was an unusually large raven. Ultheron got up out of his chair and walked over to the raven. The raven stirred, and jerked awake. It gave a tired carkk.
“Take this to Tearia, Nesilian,” Ultheron said. “And your reward will be your freedom. But after you deliver the letter, come back here so I may lift the spell. Understood?”
The raven gave a loud carkk and snatched the letter with its beak.
“Good. Now,” Ultheron said, walking over to the window and opening it. A couple of rain drops floated into the room and landed on the wooden floor. “Go deliver the message. Quickly . . . and swiftly.”
The raven spread its large black wings and in one wing beat, the raven was out the window and flying into the storm.
There was a knock on Ultheron’s door. Ultheron closed his eyes and screwed his face up in concentration. His hair got shorter and turned brown. He opened his eyes as his ears got more rounded and freckles appeared on his tan face. Ultheron’s eyes flashed violet, and then they turned blue.
“Come in.” Ultheron said. The door opened and a man wearing an army uniform with blonde hair and brown eyes was standing in the doorway. He stepped inside.
“Oh, hello, Joseph,” The man said, walking towards Ultheron. “The General’s deploying us for Tellios. I heard it’s going to be a wild ride getting there. Did you get deployed?” The man said.
“Indeed, I did,” “Joseph” said, gesturing towards his desk. A note lay on the wooden surface. It said:

Joseph U. Marike
You have been deployed for
Tellios
December 5th, 2010

“Have you been deployed also, Nate?” “Joseph” asked.
“Yup, I have,” Nate said. “And I’m actually excited to go. Just imagine it, Joseph. A world separate from ours . . . trees with sapphire-like leaves and flowers as pink as an amethyst. Clear blue rivers flowing down waterfalls . . . I’ll tell you this: If the General wants to blow the place to pieces, I’m going to pick a fight with him. When we get there, I’m going to search for a pretty little flower for my lady. Well, see you around, Joe.”
And Nate left.
Once Nate was gone, Ultheron walked over to the open window and watched the rain fall by. He snapped his fingers.
A shadow of a small bird-like dragon appeared on his desk. A red outline appeared over the dragon and it materialized before Ultheron. It had four long ruby feathers on its elbows. The head was spiky and red like the rest of its body. Its long red tail had a series of threatening spikes on it and the eyes had an emerald gaze. The wings were feathery and dark red. The belly was orange and on the tip of its tail were two long red, blue, orange, and yellow feathers. It hurred a happy greeting.
“Did you do what I wanted, Galo?” Ultheron asked the small dragon. It smiled and hurred, “Yes, I have.”
“Good, now you are free. You may return to Firoh.” Ultheron said.
But I want to help Ashaedia more! We need her . . . Galo said sadly. He lowered his wings and did a puppy-dog face. Ultheron had to admit, it was kind of cute.
“Oh, all right. But if you want to help her even more you should go back to your master.” Ultheron said.
Okay! And with a flap of Galo’s wings, Galo vanished once again.


The Stone Dragon



Where are we going?” Ashaedia asked. Ashaedia, Marikai, Sethos, Ashaedia’s dragons, Myloros, and Thania were once again riding on the backs of Kurneo, Gareveth, Noen and Eva southward. King Ashnero, King Firoh, and King Malikinth were riding on their own dragons while the Laguz Rulers followed behind them either on the ground or in the sky.
“We’re taking you to Sareneth Forest, home of the Falcon Laguz and the resting place of Gaedin. We want you to meet him.” Marikai said.
“What? You mean Gaedin?” Ashaedia said, confused. How could she be introduced to a dragon that was turned to stone?
“Yes. And don’t think this is a waste of our time ‘because it’s not. We want to give you little tour of Tellios.” Sethos said.
“No, you mean a big tour.” Ashaedia said. She looked over the side and saw that they were flying towards a lush forest. They landed in a clearing at the edge of the forest and everyone hopped off their dragons and the Laguz transformed into humans again. One of the men with the white wings clapped their hands together.
“Okay, I’ll lead the way –” The man said, but was interrupted by Thania.
“Hey! You haven’t introduced yourself and your brother and sister to Ashaedia yet!” Thania said. The man bowed his head.
“Ah, yes I forgot to introduce myself and my sister and brother to you, Ashaedia,” The man said, and held out his hand. “My name is Prince Raylu of Sareneth Forest. This is my younger sister, Princess Lillina, and my older brother, Prince Rafial.” Princess Lillina walked up to Ashaedia with her eldest brother, Prince Rafial.
She wore a long white dress with long sleeves. A gold sash was tied around her waist and connected to it was a long flowing piece of white clothe. Lillina had beautiful green eyes and long flowing light blonde hair that shone like stars when the sun’s glare hit her hair and pointed ears. She wore brown slippers. She looked like an angel with her long white wings.
Prince Rafial wore a long white and gold cape that draped over his shoulders. He wore a long white over coat that split near the bottom middle and long white dress-like pants and long sleeve shirt. A gold and blue sash was tied around his waist and he wore white boots. Rafial had green eyes and pointed ears and long light blonde hair like his younger sister.
Prince Raylu wore a vine-like band around his head. He wore a gold and white long sleeve undershirt and a long white overcoat that split at the middle half point. Raylu had a light bluish-greenish belt, long gloves that didn’t cover his fingers, and boots. He had, like his younger sister and older brother, long flowing light blonde hair, green eyes, pointed ears, and long white wings.
“Hello, Ashaedia. How are you?” Rafial said, and shook Ashaedia’s hand. “Such a lovely day, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s very bright and sunny today.” Ashaedia said. Lillina walked up to her.
“Hi Ashaedia, you well? I Princess Lillina. It’s pleasure to meet you” Lillina said, and shook Ashaedia’s hand. Lillina’s sentence and incomplete, but Ashaedia understood her perfectly.
“Please forgive her lack of speech, Ashaedia. She’s learning how to speak the modern language.” Raylu said rather bluntly. Ashaedia nodded. Perhaps she can teach Lillina some English later. Ashaedia decided to ask.
“Um . . . Princess Lillina?” Ashaedia said. Lillina snapped to her attention immediately. Wow, Ashaedia thought. If Lillina is this polite, it would be easy to teach her.
“Do you think I can teach you some . . . modern language?” Ashaedia asked her. Lillina smiled and nodded. And then she turned to Raylu. She spoke to him in a beautiful but somewhat fast language that Ashaedia kind of recognized. When she first met Marikai and Sethos, Sethos spoke to Marikai in this language. After Raylu and Lillina finished their conversation, Raylu turned to Ashaedia.
“Lillina said that she would love to learn from you. Her old teacher had retired.” Raylu said. Ashaedia blinked. She, Ashaedia, a twelve year old girl, teach a Laguz Princess English? For real? Ashaedia considered this for a moment, and smiled.
“Yes, of course, Princess Lillina. If you don’t mind me asking . . . who was your old teacher?” Ashaedia said.
“He name Narluke. He’s a Raven Laguz. Narluke old. He about eight hundred years old,” Lillina said, her smile turning into a frown. “Narluke kind, but he retired from teaching me. He live far away. In Kivlos.” Ashaedia imagined what Narluke looked like. A wrinkly face, kind smile, graying and thinning hair, large feathery black wings, fair skin, and black robes seem to fit Narluke’s description. Raylu and Rafial led everyone into Sareneth Forest.
The forest was so green and full of life. Chipmunks’ and squirrels’ scavenged the ground for seeds, nuts, and acorns. Occasional blue jays and red robins soared over Ashaedia’s head and landed in their nests in the trees. Stags and deer would prance across the dirt path that Ashaedia and company walked on. Wild hares hopped through the grass and sniffed at Ashaedia’s foot and Ashaedia would bend down to pet them on their heads. Once she was done, the hares would hop away into the grass again. Ashaedia would sometimes see clouds of gold dust float through the air. Was it pollen blown by the soft breeze? Or tiny golden butterflies? Perhaps bees? A gold cloud of the strange dust floated right up to Ashaedia’s face and floated there for a moment. Ashaedia saw that amidst the dust was a small humanoid figure. Ashaedia identified the figure as a female because of its long blonde hair. She wore a white dress and bright green eyes and sticking out the back of her dress were two beautiful golden butterfly wings. With every wing beat the wings would drop a large amount of gold dust. The small girl had a strange resemblance to Lillina.
“That’s a forest fairy, Ashaedia.” Rafial said. Ashaedia looked up at him and the fairy flew away. Rafial smiled.
“You’re a very curious child, are you not?” Rafial said. “I was the same when I was young.”
“Yes, I am very curious, but my curiosity can sometimes lead me to peril.” Ashaedia said.
“Well, curiosity can be a good thing and a bad thing. The forest fairies protect Sareneth Forest along with many other magical creatures like the Sareneth Centaurs. Forest fairies protect an animal’s spirit when the animal passes away. They seal their souls within Spirit Jars. The Spirit Jars are made to help transport the animal’s spirit to Heaven. Once that is done, the fairy that protected the spirit is free to do whatever he or she wants. But if the Spirit Jar breaks, the fairy will be punished by the High Fairy.” Rafial said.
“What’s the High Fairy?” Ashaedia asked.
“Oh, Ashaedia, you are so full of questions. The High Fairy is the leader of all fairykind on Tellios.” Ashnero said. The forest fairies flew around them, sometimes perching themselves on Ashaedia’s shoulder and whisper into her ear. Ashaedia couldn’t understand their soft language.
“What are they saying?” Ashaedia asked while they walked on. Raylu looked up at a group of fairies. They were huddled close together and were whispering to each other.
“They’re whispering about you, Ashaedia.” Raylu said. The whispers grew more frequent and much louder when Ashaedia and company got near a spring. Small orbs of white light were floating through the air above the water’s surface. They had white wings that produced white dust.
“What type of fairies are those?” Ashaedia asked.
“Those are Healer Fairies. They enchanted the spring so that any hurt animal or person that steps into its clear waters will be healed instantly.” Rafial said. A healer fairy strayed from the beautiful spring and flew towards Lillina. She held her hand out and the fairy landed on her hand. Ashaedia looked at it closely. Its feet weren’t visible and a she couldn’t make out a body in the white orb. The small fairy was beating its wings softly. Lillina pointed towards a small waterfall at the mouth of the spring.
“There. Gaedin there. He sleep peacefully in sapphire.” Lillina said. The healer fairy flew off of her hand and perched itself on the top of Ashaedia’s head. It was as light as a feather; Ashaedia could carry the little fairy around all day and not notice it. She walked in the direction where Lillina pointed to with Marikai. Marikai had been very silent and pale during the ride to Sareneth Forest. Ashaedia had been pondering his strange silence. Was he ill? No, he didn’t look ill. They approached a sapphire statue. Ashaedia crouched down and saw that it was a dragon.
“Do you like him?” Marikai asked. Ashaedia stared into the dragon’s half-closed eyes. Sorrow washed over her. The thought of this dragon enduring a slow and painful death was unbearable to think about. She pet Gaedin’s large snout and thought she heard a muffled hurr from within the petrified dragon.
“So this is him?” Ashaedia said.
“Yes, this is him. Gaedin, the Divine Dragon of Faein.” Marikai said rather sorrowfully. He knelt down beside Gaedin and pets him also on the snout. The strange guttural hurr continued. Marikai smiled and stood up.
“There was a rumor that Gaedin was a descendent of the most powerful dragon that lived on Earth. His name was Galain, but he too was turned to stone.” Marikai said.
“Who defeated him?” Ashaedia asked.
“No one did, for he was too powerful and divine to be destroyed by a human’s blade. But he died of old age,” Marikai said, his smile turning into a frown. “But I will tell you his fable later. Let’s go rejoin with the others.” Marikai helped Ashaedia up and together they walked back to the group. A forest fairy was relaxing under a shady leaf when he spotted Marikai and Ashaedia walking along the dirt path. He wore a golden tunic with white pants, white sandals, the usual gold wings, and a gold hat that looked almost like a replica of Robin Hood’s hat. The curious little fairy jumped off his leaf and floated after them.
“Alright, time for the trip to Sapherial.” Rafial said once Marikai and Ashaedia approached him.
“Sapherial?” Ashaedia said.
“Yes, Sapherial is an Elven Kingdom near the forests of Arylorn.” Sethos said.
Yes! Gema hurred happily.

Chattering Students

Back in the modern world at Shorecliffs Middle School, many students whispered about the strange disappearance of Ashaedia and the newest student, Tearia. Gossiping girls and talkative boys huddled in groups and guessed the reasons for Ashaedia and Tearia’s disappearance. At first period P.E, a group of boys talked endlessly about why Ashaedia hadn’t been to school in a while.
“Is Ashaedia sick?” Bolt said. Bolt is a tan Spanish boy with black hair and black eyes. He wore a black Hurley shirt and blue jeans.
“Nah, no one can be sick for two weeks, unless they had cancer.” Chris S. said. Chris S. is a Mexican boy with short black hair, tan skin, and black eyes. He wore a grey shirt with a skeleton leaning with its back against a dead tree on it and dark blue jeans.
“Maybe she went on a trip.” Said Mitch. Mitch had black hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. He wore a green T-shirt and blue jeans with holes on the knees.
“Or maybe the ‘dragons’ took her away to Dragonland.” Steve said. Steve is a tan boy with black hair and brown eyes. He wore a green and yellow Element shirt and beige shorts.
“Yeah, right.” Payton laughed. Payton, a surfing fanatic, had somewhat curly blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He wore a black-striped blue Volcom shirt and blue Levi jeans.
“You never know! She could’ve been eaten by them!” Steve said.
“But what about Tearia? She like, disappeared like the Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four on the second day of school!” Spencer said. Spencer is a little bit taller than the other boys. He had short wiry brown hair and dark brown eyes. The clothes he wore were a grey Vans shirt and dark grey plaid shorts.
“What about her? She was weird!” Conrad said. Conrad was Spencer’s height but had brown hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a plaid jacket with white fur on the inside and a long sleeve brown shirt and dark brown jeans.
“Yeah, Tearia was weird. She looked liked she just jumped out of a video game.” Chris Riley said. Chris Riley was different than Chris S. He had brown hair and brown eyes. Chris Riley wore thin black glasses, a black and grey jacket, a black Hurley shirt, and dark blue jeans.
“I know right? She always wore that weird dragon dress. And her ears! They were pointy, like an elf!” Josh said. Josh had brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a purple jacket with white drawstrings, a blue Rip Curl shirt, and blue jeans.
“I know! Sometimes I would think that Tearia was an elf.” Garret said. The boys argued over whether Tearia was an elf or not, while the girls talked more about Ashaedia.
“What do you think happened to Ashaedia and Tearia?” Lily asked. She was more worried about Ashaedia’s disappearance than the rest of the girls.
“I don’t know, maybe they both went on vacation.” Amber said.
“But they can’t go on vacation! All of the airports and highways were closed off because of the dragons!” Lily said. Anna sighed.
“You actually believe in that dragon junk?” Anna asked. Anna had black hair, perfectly tan-brown skin, and black eyes. She wore a black shirt, blue jeans, and a hot pink polka-dot necklace.
“Ashaedia could’ve been whisked away by the dragons.” Morgan said. Morgan had light brown hair and green eyes. She wore a white and grey shirt, blue jeans, and a silver bead necklace.
“Maybe that’s what happened to her! And Tearia too! Maybe they were walking home together and . . . BAM! The dragons swooped in and took them somewhere! But where . . .” Lily said, trailing off and sitting on her black backpack.
“What? Tearia disappeared? And Ashaedia too?” Danielle said, eavesdropping on the group. Danielle had a somewhat deep voice. She had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a pink jacket, black pants, and a grey shirt.
“Yeah, Tearia disappeared with Ashaedia.” Amber said.
“Huh, well, I always knew Tearia was weird and up to no good. She must’ve played hooky,” Danielle said. “Why should I care if she’s gone missing? It’s not my business –”
“Because she’s a new student! I care if people are missing!” Lily argued.
“You’re just jealous because she impressed Mr. Chung with her mad violin skills.” Sarah said. Sarah had light brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a grey jacket with a white hood and blue jeans.
“No! She just gets on my nerves sometimes!” Danielle objected.
“Oh yeah? Then name one time that she bothered you.” Sarah shot back. Danielle was about to yell back, but no complaints about Tearia came to her mind. Tearia was practically the greatest 6th grader violinist in the history of Shorecliffs Middle School when she played a song that her father taught her called The Golden Griffin. Sarah was right . . . she did have mad violin skills.
“Okay . . . maybe I am jealous of her! But I can’t help it!” Danielle admitted.
“Yeah you’re so competitive Danielle when it comes to Orchestra.” Sarah said.
“I know . . .” Danielle said. The rest of the group talked about Ashaedia and Tearia while Lily and Amber slipped away into the girl’s locker room.
“I want Ashaedia to come back . . . I miss her!” Amber cried.
“I know right? And I really wanted to meet Tearia. She seemed pretty interesting.” Lily said.
“She wore that pretty dragon dress all the time and I wanted to know where she bought it.” Amber said.
“I think she said her mom made it.” Lily pointed out.
“Oh . . . well, if we get to know her better maybe her mom can teach us how to knit our own dresses.” Amber said.
“Yeah, that’ll be cool.” Lily said. The bell yang, signaling the time for class to start soon. Their P.E teacher, Mrs. Patrick, walked out of the P.E teacher’s office.
“You two better get out on your numbers in a little bit. You’ll be late.” Mrs. Patrick said.
“Yes, Mrs. Patrick. Come on, Amber, let’s go back to class.” Lily said, and two friends walked back to their P.E class.


Camp Pendleton, 5:00 am,
Ultheron’s Agony

Wake up, Maggots’! Time for Tellios!” The Sergeant yelled, waking all of the sleeping soldiers. The Sergeant stormed down the hall, banging and opening doors yelling, “WAKE UP! TELLIOS TIME!” at the peaceful soldiers. He burst into Ultheron’s room and pulled his covers away. Ultheron woke up immediately.
“Ah! Is that you, Nate? Gosh, I’m only in my shorts –”
“WAKE UP, MAGGOT! TIME FOR YOUR TRIP TO TELLIOS!” The Sergeant yelled in Ultheron’s face.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll get up! Just let me get my clothes on –” Ultheron said.
“ONCE YOU’RE DONE, GO TO THE TRUCK GARAGE! YOUR JEEP MATES ARE WAITING FOR –”
“JUST LEAVE AND DO YOUR DUTIES!!” Ultheron yelled angrily. The Sergeant stopped his announcement and looked down at Ultheron. He stared at him with a hard, cold stare, and left his dormitory, grumbling about Ultheron’s behavior. Once the Sergeant left, Ultheron leapt out of bed and pulled on his soldier uniform. He looked out the window. It wasn’t even light out yet! Ultheron sighed and walked over to the wood chest at the foot of his bed. He opened the chest and pulled out a Sniper Rifle. There was a knock at his door.
“Come in.” Ultheron said. Nate entered.
“Hey, Joseph. Better hurry up. The others are waiting.” Nate said.
“I was just about to get going right now.” Ultheron said. He and Nate walked out of Ultheron’s dormitory and to the Truck Garage. The Garage was filled with the shouts of excited soldiers and the loud rumblings of the many jeeps being put into drive. Ultheron and Nate’s jeep was in the far back. They hopped into their jeep: Nate hopped into the driver’s seat and grasped the wheel. Ultheron climbed on top to where the turret was. The whole garage fell silent suddenly. Footsteps were heard and the General appeared in front of the army. He looked around at his men, and cleared his throat.
“We shall depart for Tellios in about thirty minutes. But I want to explain why I am deploying men for this mission early,” The General said. “I am deploying you all early because I have uncovered some information about our enemy that made me deploy you immediately. Our enemy, Tellios, have been sending men from its ranks to spy on our government and on me. These men can turn into dragons or are able to use them as their mounts. A prince by the name of Prince Marikai is our target.” Ultheron gasped, but no one heard him.
“Marikai is our target because the government and I see him as a great threat. He has a large amount of power that he can use to destroy us. This boy might be about twelve years old, but he can destroy a whole continent. Marikai holds a power that we want. And we can take it away by capturing him and use it for our purposes. Once we take his powers, we can both release him and let him die slowly or execute him. Marikai is the . . .” The General said, but he trailed off. He looked around the room and his gaze floated onto Ultheron. Ultheron knew he was staring at him. The General pointed at him. Everyone turned to his direction.
“You . . . come here.” The General said. Ultheron knew he had to obey. He climbed out of his jeep and walked towards him. His footsteps echoed through the dead quiet garage. Once Ultheron had approached him, the General stared hard into his eyes. Ultheron saw the red orbs in his eyes. He winced as a migraine bombarded his mind. A raspy, bone-chilling voice rang in his ears.
I shall destroy you from within . . . you are one of them . . . The voice said.
No . . . you shall not destroy me . . . I have repelled you before and I shall do it again! Ultheron said to the being. He screwed his face up in concentration, but that voice laughed an evil laugh.
I am stronger than that weaker Xerain. You cannot repel me, The being said. I shall reveal you!
NO! Ultheron pleaded, but it was too late. He screamed in pure agony and fell to the floor. Ultheron gasped for air, and his hair turned from its short brown hair to his original long dark purple hair and his ears became pointy again. He felt like he was being chocked by an invisible adversary. The being inside his mind was cutting his oxygen!
“P-PLEASE! RELEASE ME!” Ultheron screamed. The soldiers gasped and pointed at Ultheron’s writhing figure.
“What’s happening to him?!” Nate yelled over Ultheron’s cries of distress.
“I don’t know! He just suddenly fell and started screaming!” A soldier sitting in the back seat shouted.
“Look! He’s changing! His hair! It’s . . . It’s purple!” A soldier from the other side of the room yelled. Ultheron stopped screaming and gulp down large amounts of air. He looked up at the General. The General was giving him a sinister smile. Ultheron’s eyes flashed violet and the room was filled with surprised screams and yells from all of the soldiers.
“HE’S AN ELF!!” Nate cried. Ultheron’s eyes flashed back to his original eye color. His vision was beginning to become blurry and unfocused and then normal again. Nate ran over to him and bent over to examine him. Ultheron saw tears streaming from his eyes.
“Nate . . . please . . . help me . . .” Ultheron gasped. Nate shook his head, and his sad eyes became an angry glare. He seized Ultheron by the throat and held him in a headlock. Ultheron gasped and kicked, but Nate held him tight.
“What do you want me to do with him, General?” Nate said. The General smiled.
“We shall hold him as a hostage. For now, handcuff him and place him in the back of your jeep. We can use him as bait or a reason to hand over Prince Marikai.” The General said. Nate shouted for handcuffs and a soldier gave him a pair. He let go of Ultheron’s neck and held his hands close together. Nate put the metal rings on Ultheron’s wrist and clasped them. He guided Ultheron back to his jeep. Ultheron was literally thrown into the trunk.
“Wait! Nate, you don’t have to listen to him! He’s being possessed–” Ultheron said, but Nate slammed the door in his face. The door’s impact with Ultheron’s nose almost broke it, and blood trickled out of his nostrils. It was worthless to persuade Nate or any of the soldiers to believe that the General is possessed by a being called the Xerain. Ultheron sat there in pain and despair while the General gave the rest of his announcement. Once he was done, the jeep’s engine turned on. Ultheron heard the enormous garage door slide open, and the green army jeep rumbled forward.


“Where are we?” Ultheron asked the soldier closest to his small prison.
“What do you think, ‘Joseph’? We’re at Oxnard and on our way to Yosemite Mountain!” The soldier replied bitterly. They had driven for about seven hours and Ultheron was starting to get hungry. He would wonder if the soldiers would feed him some scraps if they ever stopped at someplace to eat.
“What?! You hungry or somethin’?!” A soldier named Lyle shrieked, clearly very annoyed. Lyle must’ve heard Ultheron’s stomach grumble loudly.
“Y-Yes . . . I am quite famished –”
“Well, maybe you won’t be very hungry anymore once we get to Yosemite! We’ll feed you to the bears and wolves if you get too annoying!” Lyle said.
“But I can’t control my stomach’s rumblings!” Ultheron argued.
“Now you watch yerself boy–” Lyle pulled out his combat pistol and pointed it at Ultheron’s chest. “One more outburst like that and I’ll–”
“Lyle! Point your gun away from him! The General said that if we kill him without permission he’ll do terrible things to our families!” Nate yelled. He had seen Lyle point his gun at Ultheron through the rear-view mirror. Lyle pulled his pistol away and pocketed it. Ultheron sighed with relief.
“Thank you, Nate.” Ultheron said, but Nate didn’t listen to him. He sighed and looked out his small window. Ultheron wished he could be on the turret right now; he would love to feel the wind rush past him and through his hair, but here he was, imprisoned in a stuffy supply compartment.
He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds outside of the jeep and blocked out the chatter of the soldiers. He could hear the first chirps of doves. Then a coyote’s howl off in the distance. A bobcat’s satisfied purr. The woodpecker pecking eagerly at a tree full of bugs.
But something else caught his attention. Was it a young girl crying? An image was appearing in Ultheron’s mind. It was the image of a three headed black wolf with paralyzing yellow eyes. Its tail was like a large tad pole tail but it was dark blue and lime green. But something was attached to its back. A girl’s upper torso? It couldn’t be! A teenage girl’s torso was attached to the wolf’s back! She had long blonde-green hair and eyes as blue as the sea. She was beautiful, but why was she weeping? The wolves had lain down and the girl stopped crying. She looked in Ultheron’s direction. The girl opened her mouth to speak and –
“Hello? Are you awake?” Nate’s voice interrupted Ultheron’s vision. Ultheron opened his eyes and saw that Nate had stopped the jeep.
“Uh? Are we here? At Yellowstone Park?” Ultheron asked.
“Yes. We are here.” Nate said. Ultheron looked out his window. Yes, they have indeed arrived at Yellowstone Park. They were parked in a parking lot filled with the many army jeeps. The trees swayed gently in the wind while everyone got out of their vehicles. Once Nate had exited his driver’s seat, he went to the trunk and opened the door. He grimaced when he saw the dried bloodstain where the door had made contact with Ultheron’s nose. Nate helped Ultheron out and steered him towards where the large group of soldiers formed a circle around their General.
But the General didn’t know he was being spied upon by not Ultheron, but a very large raven.
Nesilian the Raven looked down upon the army of men in green. He glared at the General and then down at Ultheron. His glare shifted to a sorrowful and panicked stare once he stared at Ultheron. Nesilian let out a loud carkk and he was off, flying high into the blue sky.


Nesilian’s Sudden Appearance

Sapherial was called the Land of the Sapphire Trees. Ashaedia saw why this was so. The land of Sapherial was filled with sapphire trees of all kinds: Ash, Oak, Maple, Cedar, and many other trees all in the color of sapphire or light sapphire. Ashaedia and company traveled to Sapherial’s capital, Mayu, and landed in the city square. All of the citizens that passed by steered clear of the four great dragons’ descent and the laguz kings and queens entrance. The citizens stared in awe as Firoh and Malikinth descended on their dragons. When they hopped of their mounts, all of the residents bowed before them.
“How come they didn’t bow down to you guys?” Ashaedia asked Ashnero.
“Elves are very loyal to their kings and queens. They will not bow down to any foreign ruler even if they demand them to bow. The Elves will stubbornly disobey and say triumphantly, ‘We are the followers of Aenarion. We will only bow down to our mighty Phoenix King. Only we have the Faith of the Phoenix. You can destroy us, but our loyalty will always be in Asyran and the Phoenix King.’” Ashnero said.
“That’s correct.” Firoh said.
“The Shadow Elves will always have their loyalty in their king and Prince Marikai.” Malikinth sneered.
“Oh yeah? Say that to a Light Elf’s face –”
“Will you two please get along? Honestly, for both of your sakes, you need to work together! Be friends until we save Tellios, please?” Ashaedia pleaded, stepping between the quarreling kings. Firoh and Malikinth stopped their bickering and looked down at Ashaedia. Her pleading eyes softened their hearts a notch. Malikinth sighed.
“Ashaedia’s right. We must unite our people in order to protect this world. If we don’t do so, we will fall to the hands of darkness. That is why I have been asking you to rejoin our people so we may fight our enemies as a large group and not a shattered army,” Malikinth said, and held out his hand for Firoh to shake. “King Firoh, will you accept my offer?” Firoh looked down at the waiting hand, but he shook his head.
“I am sorry, King Malikinth, but I’m afraid cannot accept your offer yet. I need to get along with you. I need to learn that I can trust you.” Firoh said, and Malikinth lowered his hand.
“That is a wise choice, Firoh. I would have done the same thing if you were to propose me such an offer. You never know . . . I can betray you at any moment and pounce when the time is right.” Malikinth said. Firoh laughed.
“Oh, Malikinth, I wouldn’t even think that you would do such a thing after asking me to rejoin our people. But I really do doubt that you’re the type of Elf to betray so quickly.” Firoh said heartily. Nalia yawned.
“Oh, I’m bushed. I’ll wait here while you guys take Ashaedia on the rest of the tour.” Nalia said.
“No, Nalia. We have to stick together. Like a pack of wolves. You’re capable of walking around a lot.” Cailehis said, folding his arms.
“But I’m exhausted! And I have to carry Rafial everywhere when we travel great distances! And how come you’re not burning up under all that red fur?” Nalia whined.
“Nalia, don’t act like you’re fifty years old. You’re not a little laguz anymore.” Cailehis said.
“Look, how about I take Ashaedia on the tour while you guys can hang out and rest up.” Marikai suggested. Sethos glanced nervously at Malikinth.
“I don’t know about this, King Malikinth. What if he gets lost or kidnapped?” Sethos said.
“Sir Sethos, I’m sure Marikai is capable of not getting lost. And the odds of getting kidnapped? Look around you. Would these kind Light Elves even try to steal a Prince of the Shadow Elves? I think not. But thank you for the concern.” Malikinth said. Sethos stared at the passing Light Elves. Yes, the odds of getting kidnapped in a city like this is very unlikely, Sethos thought. The Light Elves would wave hello to them when they passed the large group.
“Oh, alright, but you be careful, Prince Marikai. Don’t wander out of the city limits, understood?” Sethos said.
“Yes, Sir Sethos.” Marikai said, and he and Ashaedia ran away from the group.


“So where are we going?” Ashaedia asked. Marikai and she were dashing down a white-tiled street filled with numerous crowds of Light Elves. They weaved in and out of a sea of white-robed mages and turned a corner down yet another crowded street.
“We’re going to my favorite place to relax. I thought I could show you it before we leave for Faein again.” Marikai said. He led Ashaedia down the street and stopped in front of a large white marble building. It kind of resembled the Lincoln Memorial, but instead of President Lincoln sitting in his stone throne at the front, a large brown door with an entwined vine design on it stood at the entrance.