The Fairy King

What lies beneath

That night as I sat by the fire, Gerry came up to sit beside me. For now, we were alone. Bryant was off securing patrols for the night. Jauntize was with his sister to help with anything the newly hatched queen may need. The rest of the clutch sat close by. Xanter was asleep curled up with his mother. The others were scattered around as they prepared the camp. Yet slowly one by one they found the fire, as Gerry began to talk.
“What did you see?” he asked me as we sat alone.
“The pair of you walking toward the door, then you just vanished.” I turned my face to look at him. “It was the scariest thing I had ever had to endure.” Shoving my shoulder against him. “Not knowing if you were ok.” I added.
“Know that feeling.” He grumbled glaring mockingly at me. We chuckled.
“What happened in there?” I asked. Gerry told us:
It was dark. That kind of dark like you just know something's out there watching. I was trying to hang onto the kid and find a wall or something to figure out where we were. Was a little hesitant to just ignite a light source but in the end I had too. It was like we were in a forest but the trees were strange. Super tall and the branches were way out of reach.
There was this long path before us. Without much else to go on we followed it. After some time there was this glow up ahead. Yet as we got closer to it, this heavy weight fell over us. It was like we didn’t really want to go that way, but the alternative was even worse. So we continued.
Xanter clutched that knife you gave him, Raven. Before we could get to the light source the trees moved. They weren't trees after all, they were sentinels.
“What?” I asked.
“A race of Giants that were forced into slavery by an evil magician centuries ago. They haven’t been seen in thousands of years. But they are huge warriors.” I shuddered but told him to continue.
“The branches were actually their weapons.” Gerry went on. “They came down to block our path. The only trouble was they were too big.” He laughed. Using his hands he tried to show us what it was that he recalled happening.
“Giant scratches came down, interlocking along the path. If a full grown elf tried to get through they would have had a difficult time. These blades would have cut their heads off or badly injured them if they had tried to scoot under or around them.
As it was neither Xanter or I were that big. We literally just walked under them. When the sentinels realized their weapons didn’t stop us they tried to pick them back up. But they had buried them deep in the soil. Plus they weren't working together. They ended up fighting each other.
The biggest threat to Xanter and I was getting stepped on. We stayed under the blades where it was safer. After we got past them, well it was like whoever was watching knew we were there.
Things starting coming at us left and right. No sooner had we stepped out of the blades when a wall of fire erupted before us. Xanter has water magic. He has this one really cool spell he is great at, he can make a waterfall out of the moisture in the air.
His eyes glowed and this deluge of water just came out of nowhere above the flames. The stuttered to ash quickly. I picked him up and gave my shoes thicker souls. We walked over the smoldering ground.
As I put him down a giant wind storm came up. We covered our faces with pieces of our clothing. Holding onto each other we just walked forward. It was a bit difficult and we did get blown off course a bit, but I was able to use my magic to give us an anchor to the trail. This at least kept us parallel to it.
Whatever was trying to get at us, it didn't understand my magic. Yet things kept coming at us. We eventually got to a spot of calm. The eye of the storm. Here we took a break. Xanter got us water and I had some food so we ate and talked about what it was we were going through. That little kid is smart.
“Gerry, you don’t know much about dragons, do you?” he asked me. When I explained how dragons were gone from our lands for so long he told me his theory. Having been raised with dragons he knew their abilities better than I did.
The scathes would have stopped an elf, yet a dragons scales could be strong enough to block them if the dragon moved fast enough. This would have either stopped a dragons and its rider or at least separated them. If the dragon wasn't able to get through then depending on the elves abilities, the fire may have stopped him.
Yet if the dragon was the one coming through, in time he would have been able to get out from under the weapons. The fire would have done little to his scales unless he was a water or ice dragon. He paused here to look at me.
“Yeah, I didn’t know there were different types. Apparently all the elements can be found in dragons. What we are used to are called Fire dragons. But there are air, earth and water ones as well. Plus if they mix that gives an even broader range of abilities.” He shrugged. At this point nearly everyone who was not doing anything was circled around the fire to listen to him. I leaned back against a tree, Bryant curled between my legs as I played with a strand of hair listening to my friend.
So with that new knowledge we looked at the traps we had sprung. Each one was designed to either harm a certain type of dragon or help another. As we thought about it, an air dragon would have been able to turn to mist. This would leave the scathes unable to affect them for as long as they held their breath.
The fire could have easy been put out by an air dragon gathering dirt to suffocate it. The wind storm wouldn't have bothered it at all. The traps went on like this. As we discussed it, it became apparent that only an air dragon should have been able to make it as far as we did.
Now here I am stuck with a water elf. I have my magic but it is more to help me than others. We tried to think of what other traps we may face. But the kid was young and wasn't sure what else could be out there. He told me all he knew about air dragons, which wasn’t much. He said no one had seen an air dragon in a long time. Plus all the knowledge of the air dragons were destroyed when your mom used the dragon sword.
But this got me thinking. What if Countesta is an air dragon. She could have laid these traps or had her son and his magician rider do it. It would mean that only she could break through the obstacles, as long as she thought she was the last of her kind.
We went on. A few more traps came at us. Using what little knowledge I had of wind magic I was able to fly us over or through most of it. Good thing the kid was so small.
Here he stopped to smirking into the fire.
We then made it to this door. We thought it may have been the same one you lot were by. This one sat in a glade of trees and flowers. We walked up to it. There was no obvious sign of how to open it. We tried different things. Having not been one to use wind magic too much before my resources were running a bit low.
Then the kid just took that knife you gave him, sliced open his palm and pressed it against the door calling out his mothers name, then yours and then Queen Rowan. The door imploded like a bomb went off in the kids hand.
Inside we found stairs leading down, so we went down. We had just gotten around the first bend when water came rushing down at us. The kid wasn't strong enough to stop it all and the stairs weren't wide enough for it to go around us, so he sent it above us. It was like we had this river umbrella. (Here he laughed again.)
Xanter is quite young and never really had to use his magic continuously for long periods of time. As he grew tired we got rained on. I picked him up to get to the bottom of the stairs as quickly as we could. Just made it before he lost all control. Luckily there was a door that held the water back.
“That was where you found us.” He added turning to me.
We had just gotten there when we saw the glowing light. We took our time to get up to it. Mostly we were afraid of more traps. By this point we were both getting tired. It was a surprise when we reached the nest and nothing else had happened.
We stood staring at it afraid to touch the eggs in case one of them triggered more issues. Which it did. Xanter couldn’t hold back. It was like he was mesmerized. He reached out to touch one of the eggs. As soon as his hand passed through the invisible barrier, he screamed in pain.
I watched as his hand fell to the egg. It shook violently trying to get free to help him. There was this mist that was surrounding him. He just stood there screaming. I tried everything to reach him but nothing worked. I yelled at him to get out his knife, thinking it might help.
It was like watching in slow motion. He used his other hand to get the knife free. Once he held it up the spell broke. The knife, it shattered. The blade exploding. I covered his face to try and keep it from hurting him, but I think it was doing the same.
I think he still has the handle but whatever that last spell was, it was strong and that kid faced it alone. The knife, it protected him and allowed the dragon to hatch. He had just pulled the baby down from the clutch of eggs when you arrived, Raven. He turned toward me.
“That knife had the power of kings behind it. I’m glad it was able to save him.” I said.
“My son has royal blood in his veins. He is a dragon knight now. He had his own power and the protection of his melee. Though not yet born, that bond is strong.” I looked up to the Queen. She carried the sleeping dragon in her arms.
It was white like her mother. Yet where she had had blue spikes this had purple. The tips of her wings were also the royal color. I smiled as she settled down beside me.
“Well I am glad you can remain Queen of your Dregoom.” I said.
“You are the king of the realm. You must set up more dregroom's future queens will hatch. Especially since we have such a king.”
“Will they though?” Bryant asked. Ryukyu turned her golden eyes to him. He leaned forward to talk to her. “it is my understanding that a dragon mates for life. That mate typically reflecting that of his melee.” He said. She laughed. It was a glorious sound like bells blowing on the wind. I smiled.
“Good thing Allerra is a female then!” I laughed. Bryant turned to look at me, his blue eyes wide, mouth open slightly.
Ryukyu grinned. “Good thing you had a twin sister.” She punched my arm playfully. “Xanter can carry on the royal blood line.” She added.
“His dragon isn’t a queen though?” Gerry said.
“Who knows what his children’s dragons will be.” Ryukyu stated.
“Hold up let's back up a bit, what did you mean by that?” Bryant yelled at me. I blinked what was he talking about. I heard a chortling laugh in my head. Oh right! I pulled him back to me.
“Elves and dragons mate for life.” I reminded him. “Or have I become too boring for you?” I asked. He snorted. Leaning into me his mouth found mine.
“There is nothing boring about you.” He whispered.
“Good, because I think it’s time we return our dragons to their home land. It’s time I go home.” I said.  I could picture it a land wild and free. A place my kingdom could grow in peace.
“When it’s time we will have to set up dregroom’s in the fairy lands to help protect those that are our allies.” They all agreed.