The Firelands

Chapter 28 - Farathra

7thday of the third Month, Winners Moon

2:30 am

The Caverns Dan Day Lore

Farathra stared at him for a moment, then suddenly threw her head back and laughed. "Ah," she said, nodding, "so that's it, that is what is strange about you, makes you different from the elves in my family's memories."

"Yes, I suppose it is," Zedkiel said.

"And you say that you might be what awaits me?"

"It is possible."

"And why is that?"

Zedkiel blinked as he looked at her, Farathra looking back at him, waiting for his response.

"Why?" he copied.

"Yes, why? Why should that concern me? Do you forget that I am born from a flight of rogue dragons? Do you forget that rogue creatures are no longer affiliated with their realm? I have heard of the Dragon Knights, of the Dragon Child, of that Realmlore, but why should any of that concern me? Why should you concern me?"

"Are you really rogue?"

Now Farathra blinked, frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Are you really rogue?" Zedkiel repeated.

"I don't understand, what else would I be?"

"Well, for dragons, the status of rogue is gained by choice, exile or madness. You are none of those three from what can I tell. You were born to a rogue flight, you yourself were not exiled. It does not sound like you chose it – how could you when you have never left here? And I do so hope you are not mad. So, my question again, are you really rogue?"

Farathra just looked up at him. "There is nothing else I can be," she said simply.

"You could be a dragon of the Dragon Realm again. Could travel there, find a new home with—"

"No," she said, looking away in defiance. "Certainly not. I shall not leave this place, this is all I know."

Zedkiel was quiet for a moment, then bit his lip before crouching down, watching her. "Are you scared to leave? Because this is all you know?"

"Do not ask questions like you could possibly understand, little Elf blood, it is most irksome."

"But I do know."

Farathra looked at him.

"I do know. Look at me, I am eighteen years old, I also happen to be a Crown Prince and a Dragon Knight, I come from the Kingdom of Liandol and, until Love's Moon this year, merely last month, I had never once left my palace."

Farathra just continued to stare.

"And I doubt I would have ever been allowed to leave unless Fate had intervened. I understand my eighteen years do not compare to your hundreds, but the knowledge is the same, the knowledge that you have no knowledge of the world out there, other then what you have been taught of course. But teaching is not the same as experience. And no experience is a frightful thing."

Farathra looked away and Zedkiel looked around the hall again, glancing back to the exits.

"Are you not lonely?"

"Lonely? Certainly not."

"Even though your breed values family? Do you not miss them?"

"What of you? Do you not miss your family?"