This update is so overdue! (It's also very late where I am and I am exhausted, so please excuse any grammatical errors - or feel free to point them out so I can correct them. But I could not wait any longer, I had to get this chapter out for you guys!) Thank you for your remarkable patience with me! :)
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Chapter 19
When Carlos finally emerged from the building he seemed off. He stared straight ahead with his eyes wide like he was in a trance.
"Carlos? Carlos?" Drac asked standing in front of him while Jay snapped his finger's in front of their friend's face. Then he shuddered and blinked a few times before looking up at them seeming confused.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You came out of the building in a trance." Mal replied as Evie nodded behind her.
"The ring. . . " Carlos trailed off looking down at his fist. He opened his fingers and they saw the jade green gem, "It wanted me to destroy her. But she wasn't actually there. It was just a vision, just the ring trying to scare me, to make me mad."
"Doesn't surprise me." Evie said looking like she was thinking back to her talisman, "They must get more power that way."
Three down. One Dragon's Egg to go.
"Guys!" Jay said and they turned to him, "The city is melting!"
They all went on high alert as they looked around and saw he was right. And by the looks of it only the House of Horrors was unaffected.
"Back inside!" Carlos shouted and they ran through the revolving door. But when Drac made it through he saw that they weren't in a department store, instead they were on the base of a dark, foreboding mountain with lightning cracking above their heads as vultures circled above.
"Forbidden Mountain."
"Forbidden Mountain." He and Mal said at the same time. And at the very top something large and round was perched there. Only when the lightning flashed could they see well enough to have even a small clue to what is was. A dragon's nest, which no doubt held the talisman they were searching for.
Jay whistled, "Wow that's a climb."
"Don't worry." Mal assured him with a hand on her hip, "You know the drill. Only Drac and I have to go."
"No." Carlos denied, "We'll all go. You don't have to do this yourselves."
"But this is our talisman." Mal insisted, "And all of you had to get yours alone."
"We're going with you." Evie said with certainty, "At least until the talisman stops us. No arguments."
"You're not getting rid of us." Jay added, "That's how this whole 'having friends' thing works remember?"
Drac looked at the ground and stuffed his hands in his pockets while he stood at the back of the group. He missed Diaval, that bird had become the one friend he always had. Considering he'd started out as his mother's way to spy on her children he was glad to have the bird and wanted this all done with so he could get back to the surface and see him.
"And we haven't been good friends." He heard Carlos say and he looked up to see him walking over while the others stared at Drac with sadness an regret.
"We should have fought harder to get you off the Isle." Carlos said standing in front of him and looking him in the eye.
Drac shrugged, "It wasn't all bad." He said truthfully. It brought him closer to his father. Their father son bonding was an experience he treasured more than all the gold in the Cave of Wonders.
"No Carlos is right." Evie joined in walking over to him too as Jay and Mal followed. "We got swept up in Auradon, tourney, the party committee; it seemed to go by all so fast. We didn't realize just how long you'd been here alone."
Mal walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder, "Never again." She promised, "When we go back to Auradon, - if you want to – we'll bring you too."
"Ben would allow that? After I walked out of the coronation because mother told me to?"
Mal smiled and after a moment of hesitation Drac returned it, the idea of being with his sister again made him warmer inside then any of the fire he'd ever made.
- - LONG LIVE EVIL - -
They trudged through the dead land, the air thick with smoke. Sizzling green slime bubbled through the cracks in the dirt and they helped each other over the acid puddles. No one spoke, Evie, Jay and Carlos all thinking about their talismans while Drac and Mal worried over what was waiting for them when they tried to claim theirs. The Dragon's Egg was the greatest of all the talismans and it's mistress would have all the forces of evil guarding it.
"So is there a dragon here?" Evie asked finally breaking the silence.
"Let's hope not." Carlos huffed as they climbed.
"You guys should wait here." Drac said as they got to the next flat landing along the side of the mountain.
"But there's no magic holding us back yet." Jay argued.
"But if there is a dragon here Mal and I have the best chance of withstanding it." Drac explained, "If we need your help we'll call you, you should hear us shout from here."
Jay nodded, "We got your back. Keep that in mind."
"Thanks." Drac said appreciatively before turning to Evie and giving her a hug. Mal fist bumped the boys and they wished her good luck.
"Remember what's real." Evie whispered in his ear before pulling away, "It might try to use your fears against you. It might trick you into thinking you're worthless, or alone. Remember that you aren't."
He nodded then turned to his sister, "Ready?"
"Is there a choice?" she asked and they fixed their leather gloves and started the rest of the climb.
Drac was sweating by the time they reached the top and he wiped his forehead to move his green hair out of his eyes and get it off his sticky forehead so he could look around and get a feel for their new surroundings.
The dragon's nest was the size of a small boat made of burned and blackened branches that were twisted and packed tightly, but there was no sign of the egg anywhere. They began to search getting down on their knees combing through every inch. The prickers poked Drac's fingers but he pushed on, he could handle a few drops of blood, though something about the thorns impaling his fingers he found eerily similar to the prick Aurora had suffered from the spindle. He shook his head trying to rid it of that thought, these prickers weren't cursed and he wouldn't fall into an endless sleep.
"It's not here." Mal said frustrated.
"It has to be." He responded not even looking over his shoulder at her as he kept searching.
"Maybe the others got here before us and found it."
"No! It has to be here. If they'd found it this mountain wouldn't be here. Like with the other ones, it would have disintegrated. Keep looking!"
Mal POV
She kept digging through the nest her mind wondering why this egg wasn't appearing. Maybe the talisman thinks I'm weak? She thought. After all, everyone else had gotten theirs on their own, she shared this one with Drac. She had hoped maybe there would be an egg for each of them to find, but if that wasn't the case what did that mean? She wasn't weak, she couldn't be. She was her gang's leader, they looked up to her, she had to be strong. She was strong.
She didn't need anyone, she never had. Okay, yes it felt good to stand together with her brother and her group but that didn't mean she was incompetent when left to her own devices. Her heart felt small in that moment but she couldn't let that stop her. She kept working through the muck until finally, she saw something out of the corner of her eye – something small and purple.
"Aha!" she said quietly to herself and reached for it. She pulled it out of the mud and stood up ready to call to her brother and head back down the mountain. But then something flew by much, much too close to her and she stumbled and fell over the edge of the nest. She barely got a handhold on one of the branches and knew she had to free her other hand. She tossed the Dragon's Egg back up over the side and heard the soft thump as it landed and rolled in the nest. Then she brought up her other hand to try and haul herself up but when she gripped harder thorns stabbed into her palm and she let one hand go and shook it in the air to try and alleviate the sting. She caught a glimpse of what laid beneath her and her heart dropped then she saw nothing but a drop off. Straight down easily one hundred feet.
Drac POV
"Mal?" he called when he heard a dull thud, "Mal?"
He turned and saw a small purple object – the egg. But Mal was nowhere in sight. He walked toward the talisman intending to pick it up and look for his sister when he felt a warm breeze on the back of his neck. Then it stopped, then it happened again. He froze when he realized it wasn't a breeze, it was singular breaths. He turned slowly and only about six feet from him was the large face of a dragon. It huffed again and a cloud of warm smoke exhaled from it's nostrils and into Drac's face. He'd never seen a dragon so big, even the footage of his mother at the coronation had nothing on this beast. It was all black and had large horns that curled along the sides of it's head like a ram. It's eyes glowed orange and it opened it's mouth slightly and Drac saw it's rows of large sharp teeth.
You are not welcome here. He heard it's voice but didn't see it's lips move. He took another nervous swallow and breathed deep. He knew he couldn't chicken out now, he knew this quest would be tough, he just hoped it wasn't have-to-slay-a-dragon tough.
"I am the son of Maleficent and heir to the Underworld –"
The dragon huffed another steaming breath, You are not worthy of my egg, of the power within it. Your lineage is not enough.
Drac racked his mind for an answer, after all, everything the others had told him about these talismans ended up being illusions, so this dragon had to be one too. Evie had said the talisman would try to make him feel worthless to defeat him, Jay said it would try to tempt him. He had to stay strong and fight back. But what the dragon said was true, Drac had always depended on his mother and sister's reputations to get by, and when he returned to the Isle he had needed his father's help before he claimed what was his by his birthright. He'd never really achieved anything on his own.
He raised his palm and lit the green fire in his hands. Maybe a display of magic would be enough to show the dragon that Drac did have something worthwhile within him. But at the sight of the green flame the dragon reared back, opened it's maw and launched a blast of red fire. Drac fell back and shielded his face with his hands. The fire blasted right over him, the heat making him feel like he'd spent all day on Auradon's beach and gotten a sun burn. If this dragon was an illusion then it was a really convincing one.
When the fire stopped Drac pushed himself onto his elbows and the dragon brought it's face right to Drac's. He tried to crawl back but the dragon effortlessly stretched it's neck out further and kept eye to eye with him.
Amateur magic. It sneered. It's no wonder your friends left you. Forgot about you. Why your sister was always the favorite child. Why your father chooses to hide rather than associate with you. You are weak. You are worthless. You are noth-
"Enough!" Drac shouted at his wits end. He stood and stomped toward the dragon making it's neck curve as it drew it's head back and away from him. "I am not nothing! I refuse to be nothing!"
He felt his hands burn like that day Audrey had been mocking Mal. Only now that feeling spread through more than his hands, it warmed his whole body from the inside and even without seeing it he could feel his eyes glowing green.
"I've been walked over and stepped on my whole life. I've had to hide and be afraid. But that's what makes me strong, not weak! I made Maddy and her friends run in fear of me! I have magic on a magicless island! I didn't crumble without my mother and my sister, now I rule their old turf! My father may have helped me get it but I'm the one strong enough to keep it! And I will not be bullied by anything or anyone, and I won't be bullied by you!"
There were wisps of green magic that started appearing around him as he grew angrier with the dragon. Like little waves of green light in the air around him. The dragon stared at him for a long moment and he stared back. Then it bowed it's head one last time before it flew at him covering him in darkness under it's wing. Drac blinked and the darkness was gone, and so was the dragon, like it had never been there.
Mal POV
Mal's legs were kicking wildly in the air. She'd tried as hard as she could to get up into the nest but she just couldn't. I can do this. She told herself. I can do this. But her hands were starting to burn and she knew deep in her heart that she couldn't hold on much longer. Why did she always insist on doing everything herself? She was an idiot, that's why.
You've held on this long haven't you?
She had the blood of a dragon, just like her mother, just like her brother.
Don't you?
Her fingers were starting to feel like they were about to fall off. She was the daughter of Maleficent, she told herself but it brought little comfort or gave her the push she needed to get herself out of this. She didn't want to be like Maleficent, maybe she was completely fine with just being herself, being Mal.
Aren't you? Isn't that the whole point? Who else are you supposed to be?
One hand slipped again this time making dirt fall into her eyes.
Maleficent would never admit to needing or wanting anyone, and had been transformed into a lizard because she didn't have enough love in her heart. But Mal was not her mother, while she was stubborn, and way too proud, she was still very different from Maleficent. And right now she couldn't be ashamed to admit she was wrong, or that she couldn't do this alone.
The branch she was hanging onto began to rip off the cliffside, some of it's roots tearing off.
She had thought that since Evie, Jay and Carlos had gotten their talismans alone that maybe she was too weak to do the same, and that's why her brother was there to help her. But she'd been wrong. The others had needed to discover their own inner strength, after always following a leader, following Mal, they'd needed to be tested to see what they could handle alone. But Mal didn't need to be tested that way, she already knew that she was strong. But what she didn't know, until now, was that as strong as she was, she could always use a hand. Literally.
Maybe that was my test after all –
Strength didn't have to mean facing danger alone. Strength came from trust, friendship, loyalty, and family.
"Drac! Help!" she called.
A moment later she saw his face looking over the edge of the nest at her. Immediately he leaned over the side and grabbed her remaining arm that was holding on for her life. He helped pull her up and back in where she'd be safe and she collapsed onto the mucky nest as she caught her breath.
"Thanks." She panted, "Did. You. Find. The. Egg?"
"Yeah." He nodded and left her side to retrieve it from the ground. He took it in his hand and they both looked it over. "But why is it purple?"
"It still has to hatch." She answered with more air in her lungs now making it easier to talk. "But let's get out of here before the mountain collapses."
Almost like it heard her the ground began to rumble and shake.