Dragons V.S. Mermaids

Chapter XIII

I backed up from them and shook my head.

“Ashley, Shadow may have been our greatest enemy, but he is our greatest weapon against Karo.” Tom said.

“How do you know that Shadow won’t go mad and attack villages?”

“I’ll be going under extensive training in order to control him.”

“What if you can’t? He’s powerful.”

“Hence, the training.”

            I then left only to be followed by Matthias. I stopped short of the castle gate and started crying. I felt Matthias touch my shoulder.

“Ashley, I don’t like it as much as you do.”

“It’s not that.” I sobbed. “I just got you back, we’re married, and now you’re bringing back Shadow?”

“He’s the only chance we have to beating Karo.”

“No! I am not letting my husband turn to evil when we possibly have a child on the way.”

            He hugged me and I broke down. Maybe I was paranoid, but he was right. Shadow was our best chance of reclaiming our kingdom. I tried to recover, but I couldn’t knowing the fact that Shadow was going to come back. That was a nightmare in itself.

            Over the next few weeks, Matthias underwent the training in order to control Shadow and I was brought to speed on which of our allies were captured, enslaved, in hiding, or dead. Karo was furious with my escape and was searching the globe for me. When word reached him that Matthias and I were married…I would have loved to see the look on his face. The sad thing was that he wanted me as his queen, but he lost that battle. It was the small things that counted as victories for us. Speaking of little things, wedding presents came in from everyone in the Elf Kingdom and our allies in hiding. The strangest one was from Melody. She gave me a white dress. She said that it was enchanted and would grow as I would when I was with child. That would save me a dress to buy. The other gifts were mostly things one would expect. Cards, money, and household items.

            One night, out of curiosity, I took a pregnancy test. I wanted to know and I couldn’t bear to wait any longer. The test was negative. Crestfallen, I threw the test out and went to bed. Matthias showed up about half an hour later, back from his training.

“Ashley? Are you okay?” he asked.

“I took a test today. It was negative.”

“Ashley, I’m sorry.”

            He then wrapped his arms around me and I cried. I knew we could try again, but it was supposed to be our time for a child. After that episode, Matthias said he was gaining more and more control of Shadow. He was getting to the point of where he could change at will. The final attack was coming soon and we freed most of our allies and enslaved villages. We were making so much progress in so little time. We had three more military camps to destroy, seven death camps and eighteen slave camps left on the map that Marissa gave us. Matthias was back into his leadership position. I could only imagine how great a king he would be. The death camps were our main concern if the Old World’s history taught us one thing it would be not to let the death camps stand in war.