The Dragon Knight; The Secrets of the Desert

The Secrets of the Desert (Chapter 12)

After a while we calmed down and Daniel looked at me. Not just a look but more like a stare, like he was taking me in for the first time in a while, which was true. Still, there was something about his clear green eyes looking me over. I couldn’t help but compare them to Robin’s mirror like eyes. They looked friendly and I could see the spark of happiness in them, whereas Robin’s seemed to always watch me with a lot of worry. But maybe that was my fault.

“I don’t doubt that you could do it. Rule this Kingdom, I mean,” Daniel finally said with a smile but sincere smile. “Knowing that you would someday rule has never really bothered me because you acted like it was never going to happen but now, I can see that you changed. You seem… serious, something I am not used to seeing on you.” He smiled again but still didn’t move his eyes away from my face, which was a little unnerving.

Somehow I could handle dragons staring at me with their piercing gaze, I could handle Robin and Haizea staring at me unblinkingly for a long time, but I couldn’t handle my best friend looking at me the way he was now.

“How have I changed? Sure I feel that with this prophecy hanging over my head I had to grow up a little but honestly I don’t feel different,” I admitted.

“You have changed,” he reassured me. “The girl I grew up with thought of everything as a game. Now with what you told me about how you react to the news that they might take your throne away from you, and how you, along with other royals and elves and deceased Dragon Knights, have to face some evil in the east or whatever; I feel like you have grown up.” Of course he had to say that in some mockery proud tone just to annoy me.

“Shut up,” I told him bluntly, looking away from him uncomfortably.

“Seriously Blanchefleur, how can you now see that you changed? Sure, if you look in the mirror you’ll see the same girl with her strawberry blond hair and the same green eyes. But you don’t look like a sixteen-year-old anymore; you look more serious now, making you look older. Becoming a Dragon Knight has been good for you.”

I smile at him, knowing exactly what he was trying to say. It weren’t my looks that had changed; I still looked the same, maybe a little tanned from the days in the Desert and Sable Sucré but something in my eyes had changed, even before I got sucked up by the biggest sand pit on the continent. When I was still with the elves, fighting with them every day, learning more about the Great War, learning about Sofia and Ahiga through the dreams of her memories, and lying as much as I had, I had seen myself change in the mirror. There was something different about me. Daniel was the first to point it out, that was all.

Maybe Robin hadn’t noticed the change, and neither had Zjarr, because they had been with me the entire time. I wondered if my parents had noticed in the few minutes they had seen me. And what about Vadmin and Sir Jamshid? Mages and elves had always struck me as the most observant; if so, wouldn’t they have easily noticed?

“Okay, let’s change the subject. Explain to me again how Robin is actually an elf; I didn’t quite get that.”

I was grateful for the change although I tried not to show it too much. Instead I rolled my eyes, “Before he and his father came here a Mage called Svadilfari put a spell on them to make them look a bit more human. When we triggered the prophecy, either Varteni or Tien broke the spell, making him look like himself again. Pay attention,” I scolded but smiled nonetheless.

“And you went to the Elfique Forest for some sort of potion that would make him look human again, right?” He asked, looking just a little confused. I nodded. “But since you came back out of the Desert you want him not to take the potion anymore. Why?”

“With this prophecy, I just feel like he shouldn’t hide what he is. It is about a girl, a dragon and an elf; I think that if why one of the Goddesses broke the spell, to reveal that he is the elf. If he took the potion again to look like his ‘human’ self it would feel weird. I… I don’t really know how to explain it; it feels wrong, that’s all.” Daniel seemed to understand though and I was glad he did; as my best friend he had come to understand me even when I couldn’t put my feelings into words.