The Clash of the Dragons

The Clash of the Dragons Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

I sat, gawking at my parents. I could see him smiling slightly at my reaction. I wanted to slap that smirk of his silly, stupid, rich,boy or dragon, whatever he was' face. I stood up abruptly, and stormed out of the room before anyone had a chance to stop me. No one attempted to. I was glad to go away.

I stormed past the caves and collideds with my best friend Emerald. She's a head or two shorter than I am, but she righted herself promptly. She laughed and looked at me, expecting me to laugh along with her, but her laughter died out as soon as she saw my expression.

"Jade, what's the matter? You look so pale, and you never make that face without something being wrong. What is it?"

"I'm engaged." I was basically choking down my tears as I spoke.

"Come with me." She tugged me down the corridor after her and we left the caves behind as we stood on the mountains rim, looking out to the human cities below. I envied them. How they lived, without having beds in caverns that freeze during winter and grow to a stifling 90 degrees during the summer. Then there was marriage. They could wait till they were old enough to get engaged, and to someone they actually loved, be married. How they could do so many other things, it overwhelmed me.

"Now tell me," Emerald said, looking into my eyes with a fierce determination that would scare off anyone except me, "What's this about marriage?"

We talked about it for what seemed like forever. I noted her facial expressions as they changed. Determination to find out what was going, to anger, to fury.

After this long talk, she looked about ready to kill someone or something, just to get her out of steam.

"Those jerks. Those complete idiots. Marriage is something that you choose to do, and if it's to the right person. If you can't be happy with it, you're better not marrying at all." She ranted until she was panting and then some.

"It's like walking on broken glass. Each time you step, pain attacks you so you stumble." I mused to myself.

I never expected her to yell right in my ear:

"EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN!!!!"

I think I went deaf after that.

 After we had finished talking, night had settled in and we had to get back to the caves, so we got up and started to follow the path back to the caves. Then a faint glow to my left caught my attention and I stopped. Emerald crashed into my back, and rubbed a mark on her head, and turned to stare at me. She followed my gaze to the silvery glow emanating from the left. I grabbed her hand and dragged her along with me over to the left. I pulled her over to the light, but bushes were in our way, so I pushed them aside and continued on. The next thing we saw was amazing.

It was an iris garden.

Not just any iris garden, it was a sun and moon iris garden. Half of them glowed golden light and half of them glowed a silvery moon color. They were wild iris, and that added to the splendor of the place. I felt at peace in this place, and it looked like an iris rainbow. That seemed the perfect name for the place, so I silently named the place. Emerald looked like a little wide-eyed dragon gazing up in wonder. I chuckled to myself. This place made me safe and free from the drama of the dragon community. Emerald was beaming, and the enchanting scenery was almost time-stopping. It seemed like we were there for hours. It turned out to be hours when we came back to the cave. Mother and Father had waited up for me and wanted to talk to me about the engagement.

"You think your mother and I want to marry you off? No, no, Jade, you have it all wrong." my dad told me.

Mom continued. "You know the gens tenebrarum? He is the future leader of that race as well as the war dragons. It's the best we can do to save our race of dragon. If you don't go through with this, we might all be killed.