Dragon Princess

Chapter 17: Sufferings End

Aralia

I crawled over Cronus's body to Grea on the ground. She was breathing, but she was losing a lot of blood through the wound in her shoulder.

My head was pounding from the fall, but the cut had stopped bleeding. I grabbed her arm and waist then swung her over my shoulder and dizzily got up. I walked to the edge of the doorway and dropped again to my knees.

I pulled her outside of the room and I felt my magic returning to me. I placed her head on my lap as I healed the wound on her shoulder and any internal damage in her neck.

She groaned and her eyes opened. She looked up at me then sat up slowly and moved to sit on the stone steps. "You killed him didn't you."

She said this as a fact and not a question. I nodded and she continued, "I-I thought I could do it, but the rage was to hot inside of me. He killed my father-our father-and I swore to avenge him."

I let out the breath I had been holding finally hearing the truth. It didn't surprise me that my biological father had lovers before my mother, but Grea seemed more then just a love child of this man.

"So you knew him, our father?" I asked cautiously.

She nodded and placed her head in her hands, "He was a good man, a great ruler of my people, until the Cronus's soldiers came and killed our warriors, burned our villagers and enslaved my people. This was 50 years ago, I was only a child, but I remember the screams and the flames. My mother pushed me and told me to run into the forest, but I hid and watched as they slaughtered her and captured my father."

She shook her head as if trying to get rid of the grief, "He was a good man," she repeated.

I didn't know what to say, honestly I didn't know much about the elves enslavement, and now I wish that I had remained nieve.

I close my eyes for a moment trying to find my centre, but all I find are images that play behind my eyelids. I open my eyes and right in front of me is a guard carrying a ebony, blue eyed, screaming girl.

I do not feel threatened, I know they are just memories. The screaming girl is me, what I had done to piss the king off this time was a mystery to me.

I look behind me towards the door and I move so I am in front of it. I place my hand onto the scratched and chipped wood almost feeling the panic of the young girl as she is trying to claw her way out of the cell until her fingers are bleeding.

Shade

I casted a locators spell with the remainder of hair I had pulled off of Aralia when I had first "met" her when she was about to be executed. The lock of hair in my hand began to glow and it burned away to golden ashes that began to create a golden band only you could see.

The thin line shimmered and pulsated and I followed it knowing it would lead me to her. It lead to a spiral staircase that lead to one of the towers. I heard the muttering of talking and I let out a breath recognizing it to be Grea's.

I walk up the steps until I reached the top: the gold band shattered. I saw Grea sitting at the top with her head in her hands and Aralia looking sadly at the cell door with her hand placed on the chipped wood.

Grea looked up at me, "I'm guessing the fighting is over."

All I do is nod and slip past her and kneel beside Aralia to realize that silent tears were streaming down her face.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I guess I didn't have to. She look at me with her sad eyes and said, "These scratches on the door were from me as a child. I would claw at it until my fingers were bloody. I would be locked in here for days because I disobeyed an order or for just any reason my fath-Cronus could think of. I just feel and see the memories of this hated child who wonders what she did wrong."

She takes her hand from the wood and looks away to the Kings corpse, "Now he can never hurt anyone again." She whispered.

She stood up and I only watched her as she picked up her sword and slammed it down on his neck. Cronus's head rolled away from it's body causing the crown upon his head to fall off.

Aralia knelt down and grasps the head by it's hair and hold it up before me, "Let us show the people that their suffering has ended."