The Fall of a Kingdom

Dragon + Forest Sprite + Baby = Family?

"I could help, ya know?" Aurora giggled, she loved messing with Dreg. He needed to loosen up and stop being a stuffy old man.

She followed closely behind, though she already knew where he was heading. Everyone in this forest knew of Dregs cave, if she was into jewels and gold it would be heaven. Dragons and their treasure, it is something she never fully understood as she was more into the living aspects of nature and did not understand the appeal of the cold dead rocks.

"You can ignore me all you want, but I am not leaving. I am invested in this personally." Aurora smiled as she saw Dreg glance over his shoulder before huffing in annoyance.

"What, do you expect us to play family?" Dreg growled in frustration. Why him? Any other creature could have taken care of this squishy creature, but she had to direct the boy towards him.

Arriving at his cave, he immediately walked inside and headed down the tunnel to the right. He was really luck when he found his cave, it was sectioned off into multiple natural branches all varying in size. To the right was the main living quarters and also where he kept his treasure.

Looking around at all that was his, he felt a sense of pride, he had not been able to bring anything with him when he went into hiding so what he had now was his alone. Looking down into those Aquamarine eyes he knew exactly where he would put her.

Against one wall was a pile of jewels, their sizes and colors ranging. His favorite had always been the sapphires, topaz and aquamarine. Using his other front claw he pushed the pile into an almost bowl shape, once pleased with the outcome he placed the little newt into it. Her eyes were brighter than even his favorite jewel, and as he looked down on her she did not break eye contact once.

Why wasn't she screaming and crying? Was there something wrong with her? Could she be sick or something?

He surprised himself thinking those questions. Who cares if the little newt is sick, it should not have been his problem. He started to feel guilty, maybe he should ask Aurora to look at her.

Sighing he turned to go find the Sprite only to see her standing less than 5 feet away smirking. "Already giving up Dreg? I'm not sure if I can still offer my help for free." Dreg could see the mischief in Auroras eyes and knew that whatever she asked for he would have to comply.

"I have three conditions to me helping you," She started holding up three tiny green fingers. "The first is that you teach her how to communicate properly as she gets older, as I will be too busy for such things. Second, she will need to know how to survive by herself before you let her leave. Do not send her out before she is ready, this is very important. Lastly, I am moving into your cave, I will take one of the smaller caverns on the left tunnel. That should not be a problem though since you are too big to even get into a couple of them."

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down before answering, he looked deeper into her eyes hoping to catch even a hint of her plan. "Do what you must to make sure the newt doesn't die then." With that he walked out of the cave, a trip to the top of the mountain should help him clear his head, or at least that is the plan. This was going to be torture, his cave, his home, the one place he could escape into for solitude would no be only his anymore.

Watching Dreg walk away Aurora made her way over to the Princess and whispered so that Dreg would not hear her, "He needs you just as much as you need him, he just doesn't know it yet. Don't worry Ill get him to call you something nicer too!"

She stared into eyes, that seemed like they held the answers to the universe. She could feel a force just below the little girls skin that could either save or end the world. She could feel Ice.. but there was something else too. That was the real reason she decided to stay at the cave, because she knew as the girl got older she would need someone there to help with the magic inside of her.

Whatever may come they really would be a family from here on out.