The cold bath didn’t really help and neither did the nap. I didn’t actually fall asleep; I stared up at the ceiling for hours. It was a lot to take in. Some Dragon Knight I personally didn’t know wanted to kill me along with my family and I had to stop him? How crazy was that? And of course it would happen to me.
I sighed and rolled onto my side. My eyes caught sight of the drapes covering the wall. Zjarr should be on the other side. She should be here with me instead of wherever she was right now. I missed her. She would know what to do. And if she didn’t know Robin could always help me. But he wasn’t here either.
No, the only company I had was a bunch of dead Dragon Knights coming back to life because of my presence here.
What had happened to my life? I used to rarely get out of the castle and now I hadn’t been home in a long time. How did that happen? But I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. I have seen things I would have never seen otherwise. No way would my parents have let me go to the Elfique Forest if it hadn’t been for Zjarr. I would have never even come near to the Desert.
Sure I would have never been sucked in and been completely cut off from the world above but those were just minor details.
How did they expect me to go and convince all those royals to fight alongside me? Hundreds of Dragon Knights and thousands of soldiers had not stood a chance. How were we supposed to do any better?
I hated this. Being here and not being able to talk to Zjarr about it. Being here and not being able to do anything. I should go and get started; convincing royals to join me in battle wouldn’t be something that gets accomplished overnight. They might know about the prophecy and the temple and whatnot but that didn’t mean they would just help me.
Well some might. Like Kevin. He probably would. And Cyril. He married my sister. He should support his sister-in-law without question, shouldn’t he? Then again, Anne-Belle would kill me if something happened to him; family or not, she would have my head on a silver platter. Who else would help me without too much questions?
I couldn’t think of anyone else. I had no idea how I was going to convince anyone. I didn’t do diplomacies. Ugh, I was going to be such a bad Queen once I would be crowned.
I pushed myself to roll of the bed and landed on a heap on the ground. I stood up and walked to the window. A soft breeze seemed to blow through without end. It felt nice, almost as if I really wasn’t in a cave. But I was. There was no blue sky above my head, only rock. I needed to get out of here. And soon, before I went crazy.
But what if I couldn’t leave like the other Dragon Knights here? No, that wasn’t possible. I had already had this argument with myself. I had a prophecy with my name on it. There was no way anyone would keep me imprisoned here if they needed me.
I left my room and walked all the way down, hoping to find someone. I needed to talk to Sofia. I needed to find a way out of here. Regardless of all the things I didn’t know yet, all the questions that hadn’t been answered yet, I needed to leave this place.
The first person I saw happened to be Sofia so that was good; at least I didn’t have to go looking for her. She was still sitting at the table but now there was no food on it, no plates, not cups; it was completely empty. Sofia was writing something and didn’t stop even when I took a seat next to her, though far away enough so that I wouldn’t read what she was writing down to fast. I didn’t want to pry.
When she was done and did what looked like signing her name at the bottom she rolled up the parchment. She kept it firmly in her hand though. She turned to face me and there was a smile on her face. It took me completely by surprise and whatever I had been wanting to say to her left my mind.
“I know you want to leave, we all do. And that’s okay. Sure it’s sooner than expected but we understand.”
“How… how do you know that?”
“We might still be part ghost but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to close your mind if you don’t want us to know what happens inside.” She smiled broadly. “But I understand. We all do. None of us wanted to be here and would have taken the first opportunity to leave.”
I didn’t know what to tell her. I felt bad all of the sudden. These Dragon Knights had been trapped here for years and couldn’t leave and I had barely been here three days and I already wanted to leave. And contrarily to them I could, or so I hoped.
“Oh you don’t have to worry about us anymore. We get to leave if you do.” Sofia was still smiling. I was lost though. “It is time that Istana Pasir opened up. When you leave so will we; we have the job to collect as much information as we possibly can to help you fight Seelan. You will need it.”
“Understatement,” I mumbled. “But what do you mean when you say it’s time for Istana Pasir to open up?”
“It has been hidden under the Desert for many centuries. It is time to change that. Besides how else are our dragons going to leave? And where will your guests stay when they are not fighting? This castle has enough room to provide shelter for everyone.”
I nodded but it was a bit strange. I was going to show up in every royal castle extending an invitation to all those who can fight and want to help me out and they’ll get a free stay in the middle of the Desert. Oh yeah, that is so going to convince everyone. Maybe Kevin and his father would let everyone gather at their castle before I somehow lead them to Istana Pasir. Zjarr might see something from the sky.
“Why don’t you go and keep yourself busy this afternoon? It is hardly the best time to appear in the middle of the Desert. The heat would be rivaling with that of a dragon’s flames. It will be best if you leave tonight, after sunset.”
“Uh, okay.” I frowned but walked out into the courtyard nonetheless.
There was another fight going on but it looked less hectic than the one this morning. On closing inspection I noticed it were different Knights. No wonder. Not knowing what to do, I went up the steps to the walls. There were several Knights walking rounds, keeping an eye on the fields ahead. I briefly wondered why they bothered since they were in a cave and nothing would attack them but then I figured it was either out of habit or on the contrary not to forget their habits. And if what Sofia told me was true and the castle would soon be above ground then there would Desert lions to watch out for and Tien knows what else.
They greeted me with a nod when I walked past but didn’t say a word. I didn’t mind. Some of the Knights were more comfortable with me than others. It was only naturel. I walked all the way to the end of the walls where I doubted I would run into anyone. And I was right, there was nobody there. I sat down with my feet dangling off and watched the fields ahead.
What would happen to those once the castle would be above ground? Maybe they would stay the same, there had to be magic on them to even grow anything, right? The ground here was dusty and dry and shouldn’t allow anything to grow and yet they grew lots of different things. Where in Tien’s name did they get all that food from what they served during each meal?
This place had many secrets, many things to discover. Maybe I could find out some more next time I was here. I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do about Seelan. I didn’t know where he was. I didn’t know what he looked like. I didn’t know what he was planning on doing, other than killing my family. I didn’t know anything at all. And I hated it.
Now that I thought about it; maybe he had something to do with that bad feeling I got the other morning when Robin showed up in Sablier. It could be. Who knows? I had been feeling a lot of things since I bonded with Zjarr and even more since this whole prophecy thing started. Things that I usually just pushed to the back of my mind. I figured it was simply related to the magic I now had.
Magic. Maybe I should be working with that a little. I was terrible at it a few months ago when Vadmin tried to teach me simple things. I really should try a few things. It was an important thing to a Dragon Knight, or so I had read. But I never had the need for it because I could always ask the elements for help.
But it sounded ridiculous; a Dragon Knight who couldn’t use magic. I remembered Sofia saying to Robin that her magic was sometimes too much. I would rather have that than not use it at all.
“It has caused Sofia quite the number of problems though,” A voice cut through my thinking.
My head snapped up to look behind me but there was no one there. Had I just imagined that voice? No way, I was sure I heard someone say something. And that voice sounded really familiar. I frowned and turned back to the fields. This whole Dragon Knight thing was messing with my head; it was slowly driving me crazy.
“No it isn’t. You’re thoughts are quite clear actually,” said the voice again. This time I got up from my seat and looked around carefully. “I’m higher up.” My eyes trailed over the towers of the castle, over the roofs and eventually rested on bright green scales.
Ahiga.
Of course, who else would know something like that about Sofia than a dragon that spend quite some years by her side.
Ahiga was curled up on a flatter spot of the roof and looked like he could be sleeping except that he opened one golden eye and stared right at me. What was it with dragons and staring at people like that, not even blinking? He didn’t say anything but I could tell he had been watching me the entire time. My eyes travelled over the walls and the roofs, finding myself a way to join him up there. I got back on the wall before hoisting myself up the roof. I had to pull myself up on a higher roof several times but in the end it was quite easy to join him.
I dropped down in front of him but not to close because even though he was a dragon and I wasn’t scared of him he wasn’t Zjarr. He raised his head and looked more awake now. At first it felt a little awkward sitting there in front of him and I didn’t know quite what to say.
“So… people are paralyzed with fear when you roar, huh.” I said, feeling stupid the moment the words left my mouth.
“Yes they do. Very much like your own dragon. Though she is young so it probably hasn’t the same effect as when I roar.”
“I don’t doubt it for a second,” I mumbled. “Why is age so important for dragons? Age and size for that matter.”
“The older the dragon the wiser the dragon. The bigger the dragon the more intimidating the dragon. It is as simple as that. Not many people know this but dragons do have their own laws. They are born with them and thus don’t need to learn them but we still have them and respect them. The eldest and wisest dragons have more importance amongst us and amongst the Gathering of the Chosen.”
I frowned, wondering why dragons would want to be involved with humans except if they were bonded. But I didn’t get to ask the question because Ahiga kept explaining.
“If a dragon is bigger, and thus more intimidating, other will bother him less out of fear. Not all dragons want to be involved with other dragons and humans. They mostly live in the remote parts of the Dragon Mountains, like Isen. He was born between the highest peaks; he never knew many another dragons than his own mother.”
I could already see it before me. Though I hadn’t met Isen yet I could see the small ice blue dragon in front of me with big golden eyes. It looked adorable though I had no idea if a baby dragon looked the way I imagined it.
“So was size very important for Isen? Or on the contrary not so much because he did become involve with humans?”
“It was important for him. Isen isn’t fond of humans. He tolerates Knights because he is bonded but beside from Priam it is rare that he talks freely to a human.”
“But what about Sofia? If Priam married Sofia, wasn’t he sort of inclined to like her to?”
“I said it was rare, not impossible. Though you seem to think that just because a Knight likes someone the dragon will instantly too, which isn’t true. You might have noticed this with your own dragon; she doesn’t like the elf very much even though you do.”
“I keep hearing my name,” Another voice cut in before I could comment on what Ahiga had said, “And I decided to see why that was.”
This time I instantly the voice was in my mind though my head snapped towards where it came from. On top of the steep roof to my right a dragon was perched but its neck was extended almost entirely and its head was a lot closer to me than I expected. I stared right into two golden eyes, which stared right back at me intensely. Seeing the dragon’s head so close to me while I didn’t expect it made me scream; I couldn’t help myself, the scream was past my lips before I knew it.
The dragon closed its eyes and pulled back its big head as if my scream caused him pain. When I had gotten over the shock I closed my mouth and the dragon opened its eyes again. They were still focused on me although they looked a bit more annoyed.
“Blanchefleur, are you alright?” Yet another voice though this one spoke the words out loud. Turning my head once more I saw Priam climbing the walls to come up to meet me on my flat piece of roof. Once he was next to me, he grinned, his eyes going from the dragon to me. “Did he scare you? He’s good at that.”
“Just a little. I hadn’t expected him to be so close.” I confessed.
Turning back to the dragon I figured that he must be Isen. I took a close look at the dragon and immediately noticed he was different from Zjarr and Ahiga. The only two dragons I had ever seen had a big body with a long slim neck and tail, wings that folded but not entirely and would have looked more liked winged cats if they hadn’t been covered in scales with spikes along their spine and horns instead of ears.
But Isen looked different. His body, from head to tail, was slim and lean. His head seemed thinner than Zjarr’s but his horns were longer and looked more dangerous. His front legs seemed a little longer than his hind legs though it didn’t seem odd at all. As Isen sat down on the narrowest part of the rooftop the claws of his front legs dug into the roof a little below him while his hind legs seemed to fold. His tail curled around him, making him look like a cat nonetheless. His scales were an icy blue color though his throat, stomach and the underside of his tail were completely white; there was no doubt he would completely blend in in the high mountains.
He folded his wings neatly and rested them on either side of his body like a bird would, which was strange sight because Zjarr could only fold her wings a little but never entirely. And it was only than that I noticed that the spikes at the end of his wings were, apart from the very-sharp-looking spike at the end of his tail, were the only ones he had; there were no spikes along his spine. Instantly I thought about how easy it must be for Priam to sit on his back; he didn’t have to worry about his own dragon killing him by mistake.
Finally I tried to gauge his size. He appeared quite large from where he was sitting though, if I had to guess, he was smaller than Ahiga. But he was probably faster than the green dragon if they raced. Isen seemed to be made for speed; he must have been a fast flyer. A feared hunter of the high mountains. No doubt this dragon despite his size and different built was just as dangerous.
I was kind of in awe.
“You might have guessed it already but let me introduce you.” Priam said as he dropped down on the flat roof next to me. “Blanchefleur, this is my dragon Isen. Isen, this is Blanchefleur, the girl from the prophecy.”
I raised my hand and gave a small wave barely getting out my greeting. The dragon inclined his head slightly, his golden eyes never leaving me.
“Imagine the shock it was to me when I learned not all dragons looked like him.” Priam laughed, snapping me out of my trance.
“It must have been even more of a shock than it is for me.” I nodded.
There was one thing I didn’t quite understand. Ahiga had said size was important for dragons, especially those like Isen but the pale blue dragon wasn’t that big as I had imagined. He couldn’t have been much bigger than Zjarr. Maybe he was big for his sort of dragon. He was built differently it would only be right that standards were different. Just like elves didn’t consider a hundred years of age very only though humans did. I wanted to ask if it really was that way but I didn’t want to offend the dragon and for once I didn’t just blurt something out.
“I am glad you do not mention it aloud, though I can confirm your thoughts; that is indeed him it works. Amongst those who are like me I am bigger than most.”
My head snapped up to where Isen was perched on the roof. He sat there, looking like a cat, staring down at me, his golden eyes still fixed on me and not once going to his own Knight. Had he just read my thoughts? Wasn’t the door back in place to keep everyone out?
“That door you use to keep others out of your mind does not work on me, young Knight. I can hear every single one of your thought when I am close enough. It is something only my kind can do. Though like you reasoned the day your thoughts had offended the elves eldest Princess; your thoughts are your own and you should not have to apologize for them. Think whatever crosses your mind, don’t worry about me.”
He went silent but kept his eyes on me. I almost sensed he wanted to add that although he didn’t care about what I thought it wouldn’t keep him from listening. And right as I thought that his face seemed to relax and I could hear a little rumble of laughter coming from him.
“I like this one; she is very much like the blond Knight.” Isen chuckled, if it could be called that.
Priam raised an eyebrow and looked from his dragon to me. His expression clearly said what is he talking about? And had he ask his question out loud his tone would have been suspicious. But he didn’t ask his question and turned his attention to his dragon.
“Could you at least try to call Sofia and Blanchefleur by their names?” He asked annoyed. “He rarely calls anyone but the dragons by their names.”
“Oh. Well if he doesn’t want to call me Blanchefleur he can call me young Knight; everyone else does so I don’t really care anymore.” I shrugged. “And I don’t know yet if I’ll like him; for now he seemed a tiny bit scary.” When I met the icy blue dragon’s eyes I quickly added, “No offense.”
He nodded like he had heard it before and it didn’t even affect him anymore.
“So, why did my dragon come up?” Priam asked, genuinely curious.
“Oh, it’s a bit strange.” I scratched the back of my head. I didn’t really wanted to go back to how he came up, especially not if he was looking at me so fixedly. It was uncomfortable. I had gotten used to Zjarr staring at me but another dragon was a different matter.
From there on Priam led the conversation, talking about all kinds of things. How the continent was when he was first alive, how his first months with Isen had gone, meeting Sofia, war, ending up here and living in a sand castle for a very long time. Basically he told me his whole life story. And none of it was boring because he had the same gift as all Knights; he knew how to tell a story. I was surprised to learn that he was from what was now Emeraude, the lower parts of the Salji Mountains.
When he was done with his own life he got interested in mine though with every answer I gave him to his questions I got the feeling that he already knew all about me. Maybe he had been watching me all my life along with Tien knows who else. Well Tien was probably one of them. All this time Ahiga pretended to be sleeping though I was sure he was listening to every word that Priam and I spoke. Isen remained on the roof as well, though at some pointed he lay down more comfortably, allowing me to see just how different his body really was.
The sun began to set over the Desert, slowly darkening the cave. Priam was looking out over the fields while I admired the glittering of the remaining rays of light on the dragons’ scales.
“You are leaving tonight, aren’t you?” Priam spoke the words softly but there was no need to speak them louder. I nodded. “That is why Sofia has been busy writing all afternoon. Letters, letters for so many people. I don’t know exactly what she wrote down but I’m guessing she wrote one for each royal family you will have to visit. And letters for all of us, to give to the person in charge, wherever we go will go.”
“Where will you go?” I asked softly. I don’t know how he was feeling. His voice was empty of any emotion. Was he happy to finally leave this cave or on the contrary was he reluctant to leave it? Everything had changed; nothing was the way he had known it. If it had been me I would have been scared if only a little.
“Don’t worry; I will look after him.” Isen said solemnly, reading my thought once more.
“I don’t know. Sofia has always been in charge of things here, in some way. It was her dream; it became a nightmare for us all but still. She decided who did what, made sure we all had something to do and made sure everything was divided equally. I guess she will be in charge now once more and will tell us where to go and what to look for.”
We stayed on the roof a little longer, until someone called us down. Priam sighed as if he didn’t want to move but he got to his feet without a word and climbed the roof to Isen. He got on the dragon’s back and before I knew it the icy blue dragon had taken off. Ahiga got up as well though he seemed to be waiting for something.
“Well, young Knight, wait are you waiting for? Are you going to get on or climb down yourself?” For a second I stared at the green dragon; was he offering me to get on his back? Then I grinned and easily climbed on and settle between two spines. This wasn’t so different from flying with Zjarr.
He pushed off of the roof and soared through the air for a moment before going back down and landing in the courtyard. I thanked him and hurried into the dining hall where everybody else was already seated. No one spoke as I took my seat at the table; there was no doubt in my mind that they already knew that I was leaving soon. Did they all know that the castle would open up to the sky after I left? Did they know they would be leaving as well? I had no idea just what exactly they knew other than that I was leaving.
Some took a few sips from their wine, others just looked ahead. It seemed like an hour had passed before Sofia finally spoke up next to me.
“The sun has set over the Desert; if you are sure you want to leave you should do it now. You came in just after sunset; you should leave just after sunset. It is the easiest way. Are you sure you want to leave already?”
She looked at me with those big green eyes that could have been the same color as Ahiga’s scales, there was something in her eyes that reminded me of my mother; always worried but also proud to see me doing things on my own. Maybe I reminded not only Priam of their daughter but her as well. And as I looked at her I couldn’t make words come out of my mouth. All I could do was nod.
“Okay then we will show you were to go.”
For around the table all Knights got up. It hadn’t occurred to me that they would all come. Some had not even said a word to me; they didn’t necessarily hold a grudge against me for being stuck here it probably had more to do with the lack of time. They had all made me feel welcome, sitting around the dining table, and now they would all show me the way out together. In some way they were opening the doors for themselves as well. Once I was gone they could leave.
Sofia handed me a bag with rolled up parchment inside. The letters she had been writing all afternoon. She led the way to a tunnel on the side of the castle. It was as dark as the first tunnel I had been in and once more the darkness didn’t seem naturel. It scared me just like it did then.
“This tunnel, although long, will eventually lead you back to the Desert. You should hurry though.”
I wanted to ask her why but decided not to. I didn’t need to be told to hurry; I knew I would go through there as fast as I could. “Isn’t there a torch I could take with me though?” I asked, eyeing the darkness as if something would jump out and attack me.
“Sorry, but you’ll have to do with what we had; magic and elements.” Sofia said apologetically. I nodded and immediately asked Light to light the way once more. The floating light ball appeared at the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for me to move.
I walked to the entrance and took a few steps inside before turning around, looking at all the Dragon Knights who had been stuck down here for so long. “There is one final question I have about Seelan,” I started, “If he is from Fullmåne, why does the prophecy say that evil rises in the east?”
Sofia smiled as if she was pleased I had figured that out. “Because he doesn’t live in Fullmåne anymore. Evil will rise in the east again. Now you must go and hurry. I’ll tell you more when you come back.”
Before I could ask her to be more specific with her answer, the ceiling began to rumble overhead, the walls seemed to shake. My eyes went from Sofia to the ceiling and back. The blond Knight was still smiling as the first rock fell on the floor at my feet. I took a step back but some more rocks were falling. That was what she meant when she said I had to hurry; the tunnel was collapsing.
“Hurry. We will see each other soon.” Sofia yelled over the noise and before I knew it I was running away from the Knights.
Just like the other tunnel this one seemed endless, I probably ran for several miles, the light ball lighting the tunnel just a few steps ahead of me. I was slowly running out of breath and of energy. My side hurt because I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. More than once I paused for a few seconds. I had gotten ahead of the collapsing part of the tunnel but as soon as I stopped it seemed to catch up with me and I would have to run even faster.
Once I had run to Fullmåne from the castle because I didn’t want the guards to stop a horse leaving the castle. Of course they had seen me run but they hadn’t sent anyone after me until I made it to the city. Once there I couldn’t stop running because otherwise the soldiers would catch me with their horses. Eventually I had run all the way back to the castle, chased by soldiers on horses. They could have probably caught me easily but they humored me. I was eleven at the time; I had honestly believed I had run so fast they hadn’t been able to catch me.
Now running down this tunnel deep under the Desert that was what it felt like. The collapsing tunnel was the group of soldiers following me; it could easily catch up but seem to stay behind to give me a chance to make it to the safe haven that had been the castle and would now be the Desert. But it was also just as tiresome.
I had no idea how far I would still have to run or how long I could run. I was close to breaking down. I was even tempted to just sit down and let the tunnel catch up just to see what would happen. But I didn’t. I kept my eyes on the floor in front of me so that I wouldn’t trip over some sort of rock somewhere. That would be something that could easily happen to me; trip over a rock and die in a collapsing tunnel.
But then the tunnel ended and I was… trapped in a cave! I screamed out of frustration and desperation. The noise of falling rock was getting closer and closer. How was this possible? Sofia couldn’t have possibly shown me the wrong tunnel. But there was no way out. My eyes took in the walls, hoping to find a way out but there wasn’t one.
Behind me the tunnel collapsed and event eh cave started to crumble. I put my arms over my head so that the rocks would hurt me and pushed myself against the furthest wall. I was out of breath and extremely angry that I would die somewhere under the Desert.
When the ray of moonlight hit my eyes I was surprised as first. The light was different from the light ball in the middle of the cave. I could almost feel it on my skin. It felt cool and reassuring. Looking up I saw the hole in the ceiling of the cave. And though it I could see the dark sky.
An unnatural urge took me over, pushing me to get closer to the sky. Before I knew what I was doing I was climbing up the wall to the hole above my head. It was hard; I must have been running for several miles and for a long time. My arms felt like jelly and could barely pull my body up. I felt the cool rush of air hit the skin of my arms as soon as they were out of the cave. With the last bit of strength I had left I pulled myself out of the ground and onto the sand.
The change was immediate. Everything was silent; even the cave down below had gone silent. When I raised my head to look at the hole it was gone. But I didn’t care. The wind ruffled my clothes and somewhere in my mind it registered that there had been no wind at Istana Pasir. My eyes took in the moon, the beautiful silvery moon, and the stars.
A smile slipped onto my face as I closed my eyes and decided that I could sleep now.
The last thing I remember was my name being called. An not out loud; in my head.
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Happy New Year to everybody!! =) I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and got everything you wanted. And maybe some of you did get to see fireworks the 31st... I wish I had but nooooo they only fireworks they have here is for July 14th. But whatever.
Hope you liked it =)
~~ Bye ~~