Saraphina

By:

Jaimie Landry

Chapter 1

        On my sixteenth birthday it all changed for me. It was soon after Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss gave  me my birthday present that my life comepletely changed. My mother wasn't when they gave me the gift. My entire family had gathered around to celebrate my birthday. This happens for every members' birthday, so its not only mine. My two older brothers, Karl and Takna, had brought their wives and families - only Karl has kids; two - Janieve and Oxird - Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss didn't have any kids so they came alone. Mother and Aunt Agatha are the only daughters of my – dead – grandparents. My father died shortly after my little sister Daniella's first birthday.

        Mother gave me some linen and a 'new' dress. It was worn by another but given to Mother for me. Daniella didn't really like it. Mother believes if I get more dresses and feminine things that I will be more girly. I believe that her efforts are in vain. I will never change. I will always prefer wearing pants and a shirt than a dress. Although I don't own a lot of pants or shirts so I’m forced to wear dresses more often.

        “Thank you Mother. Its very lovely.” I said as I held the dress above the box it had been in so that everyone could see it. The dress was hideous.

        “It is very lovely, isn't it?” Mother said. “Go put it on, Saraphina. I want to see how it looks on you!”

        “Yes Mother.” I replaced the dress in the box and relunctively went down the hall to my room.

        My room is one of the smallest rooms in the house. My bed is along the wall next to the door frame on the right. Across from my bed are my dresser and closet. There is a window right on top of my dresser. The window itself faced the forest that separates our quaint little village from our neighbouring village. We are very secluded from it. However the forest protects our village from bandits and enemies because there are many predatory animals living there and many depressed villagers go there to hang themselves. I know, I've come across a few corpses and I hear the animal cries at night.

        I took the dress out of the box and glared at it. With a heavy sigh I slipped out of the dress i was wearing and tried on my 'new' one. As i was slipping it on my long brown hair got caught in it. I tugged at it as tears came to my eyes thanks to the pain the action brought. My battle with my hair lasted all of three minutes and i came out victorious. I pulled the dress down the rest of the way, straightened out the wrinkles, and then walked out of my room to the front room where everyone was.

        All chattering stopped when I walked into the front room. The boys looked up at me as if I was walking around butt naked. Daniella had a look of horror on her face. Aunt Agatha tried to hide her giggles. Kassy, Takna's wife, looked away quickly to hide her smile. Jenna, Karl's wife, gave me a look of pity. Mother only beamed.

        “You look wonderful!” Mother exclaimed as she stood.

        “Do i?” I asked

        “Yes, come. Look in the mirror.” Mother guided me to the floor to ceiling mirror that she kept in the entrance hall.

        I stood in front of it. I don't know what Mother saw, but it was clearly not what I or anyone else saw. I saw an ugly green dress worn by a very unhappy girl. My hair was no longer kept in the bun Mother had done for me that morning. My pale white skin was flushed. I looked like I had just ran for my life through the surrounding forest from an attacker. My brown eyes glared at my reflection.

        “So?” I asked.

        “See, you look very lovely dear. Men will come after you in this dress.” Mother said as she placed her hands on my shoulders.

        I took that chance to see how we looked like when we stood next to one another. Whereas I looked like I hadn't bathed in days, Mother looked well and clean. Her blond hair was kept from getting in her blue eyes by two hair pins. She wore a fitting pale blue dress and her dark skin looked healthy. I looked like my father and nothing like Mother. I didn't mind that I looked like Father, but I did wish that I had darker skin.

        “Oh come on Clara. Can't you see she's not happy?” Aunt Agatha said as she stood in the hallway with us. I noticed that she held a black box.

        “What do you mean? You like it, don't you Saraphina?” Mother looked at me in the mirror with such a hopeful look that I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth.

        “Of course I do, Mother.” I answered.

        “See. Saraphina likes it. And maybe this dress will help you find a husband.”

        “Mother!” I exclaimed.

        “If you want guys to go after Saraphina then you'd better look outside. Men keep stopping to look at the house. She doesn't need help in that department. Her looks ring them in.” Aunt Agatha said.

        “Hmph.” Mother stood straighter then walked into the front room without saying another word. This made Aunt Agatha and I laugh.

        “She is so easy to tease. I just can't help myself!” Aunt Agatha said.

        “Yes, but please refrain from making her angrier.” I said as I fully faced her.

        I didn't like to look at myself in a mirror, because it reminded me of why men approached me. Or well why they want to be near me. They like me because I'm beautiful. Or so I've been told. All they see are my looks not my personality or my brains, they could care less about those. I wanted my future husband to see beyond my looks and notice my other qualities, like my brain.

        “Come on, let's get you out of that.”

        “Please.”

        Aunt Agatha accompanied me to my room where she sat on my bed as undressed.

        “You having fun?” She asked.

        “Of course I am!” I said as I put on the dress I wore before. It was a beautiful red dress. It fit me perfectly, it was also a gift from Karl and his family.

        “I wanted to get you alone to give you your gift. Please sit.” Aunt Agatha said.

        “um, alright.” I turned around and saw that the black box she held now lay on her lap.

        “This box and what's in it has been passed down from eldest child to eldest child in Tarniss' family at the age of sixteen. Since we cannot have any children we have decided to give this to you.”

        “Why me? Karl is the eldest, not me. Why didn't you give it to him?” I asked as Aunt Agatha passed the box to me. It wasn't as heavy as I had thought it'd be, so it surprised me.

        “Because it's the eldest daughter that receives it. However, both in Tarniss' family and his grandparents' family there are no daughters. And we trust you more than those boys. They stick to every word your mother says and you don't.”

        “True. So, what's in the box?”

        “Open it and find out.”

        Excitement filled me as I lifted the lid of the box. I knew that Aunt Agatha was watching me. On the inside of the box there was some red silk and it was very cushiony. And what was in the box utterly disappointed me. It was a golden-brown stone. It was oval and the size of a small ball. It seemed like whoever carved the stone took extra care. There was delicate vines all over the stone. It was beautiful but not what I had expected. I had expected to find something with a huge amount of worth or value.

        “A stone? That's it?”

        “It's more then just a stone. Hopefully you'll find out soon. Keep it a secret from your friends and family and protect it with your life.” Aunt Agatha got up and left my room.

        It puzzled me as to why Aunt Agatha wanted me to keep the stone a secret. Hearing Mother calling me, I replaced the stone in the box, put the box in my underwear drawer and joined my family in the kitchen for diner. Uncle Tarniss smiled at me and I knew that Aunt Agatha had told him that had given me their 'gift'. That night I went to bed thinking about the day I had, and felt disappointed. Karl and Jenna gave me a sewing kit and I got a cook book from Takna and his family. I looked at my dresser and thought of the stone. I got up. Opened the drawer, lifted the box's lid and lifted the stone.

        'What is so important about this stone that Aunt Agatha doesn't want me to tell anyone I have it?' I thought.

        When I didn't get an answer I put it back in the box and closed the drawer. That night I dreamt about rocks and stones of all colours. The next morning I did my chores and errands all the while thinking about that golden-brown stone. It bothered me so much that I decided to take another look at it and if I didn't like it I'd get rid of it, heirloom of Uncle Tarniss' or not. I marched to my room with determination. I got in, closed the door, got the box out, took out the stone and placed it on my bed. Then I paced the length of my room with my hands on my hips.

        “Why can't I get you out of my head?” I asked the stone.

        As if it heard me it moved. I backed up. I stood totally speechless as the stone rocked back and forth on my bed. If it hadn't started moving I could have dismissed the whole thing. In fact I started to do so, until a crack appeared on it. Then another, and another. More and more cracks were being created until something crawled through the stone.

        'Not a stone, an egg.' I thought as the baby creature turned to face me. I backed up and hit my dresser as I realized what I was looking at.

        “That's not possible.” I whispered. “Dragons are just a myth. They don't exist.”

        But I was staring right at one. Its scales were the colour of the egg. None of its teeth were showing. It had spikes along its neck, back and tail. Only where its neck met its shoulders there were no spikes. The tip of its tail reminded me of a trident because it had two spikes carving outwards on each side of the one in the middle. All its scales were golden-brown. There was on spike on each wing at the same place that bats' claws on their own wings are. Surprisingly the dragon wasn't too wobbly when it moved to one end of my bed. Its claws made no wholes in my bedding which I was thankful for. When the baby looked at me its gaze held me in place. It had beautiful gold eyes. Then it looked away and the trans broke.

        “You won't hurt me, will you?” I asked it. It looked at me and squawked. The squawk was very cute.

        I slowly approached it. I held out my hand once I got close to my bed. It sniffed my right hand then stretched out. I touched its head with my right hand and searing hot pain shot through it. My cry of pain was short lived as the skin around my wrist and lower arm became red. As red as when someone gets a terrible sunburn. Then suddenly the pain and the redness just disappeared. In its place was this gorgeous birthmark looking thing. Spiral vines went around my wrist and stretched along the inside of my upper arm to the inside of my elbow. As I stared in disbelief at my arm and the golden-brown mark i noticed two things. One: the colour of the gorgeous mark was the exact same colour as the baby dragon and the spiral vines were exactly identical. And two: smoke was coming out of the dragon's nostrils.

        A knock at my bedroom door made me jump.

        “Y-yes?” I squeaked out.

        “Is everything alright Sara?” Daniella asked.

        “Yup. Everything's fine!” I said as I looked around. I knew that Daniella would come in anyway to see that I was alright. My voice being a little high probably helped in her decision to go in my room. I saw the ugly green dress and threw it over the baby dragon who protested and I sat in front of it.

        “Hush.” I told it.

        Sure enough Daniella came in, and as she did I hid my right arm behind my back. I didn't want to explain to her my new mark especially when I couldn't even explain its appearance to myself. As she entered my room she looked around with a critical eye, trying to see something out of the ordinary. The baby dragon tried to get the dress off of it and I tried to keep it from being spotted by Daniella. She and everyone else called me 'Sara', the only person that I knew that called me by my full name was Mother. Karl had said it was simpler to yell then 'Saraphina'. I sort of agried with him. Everyone, including me, called Daniella 'Ella'. Well everyone except Mother.

        “Is something wrong Ella?” I asked her.

        “No its just I heard noises coming from your room and you cry out, and I thought something upset or scared you. Like a weird guy coming to your window or something.” Daniella said.

        “Nope, n-nothing of the sort.” The dragon moved again then stayed still. I certainly didn't want Daniella to see it. She'd freakout, scream and that scream would bring on everyone in the village running to my room, and then it would be hunted and killed. Even if it was a dragon, it was just a baby. An innocent baby. And Daniella's scream is really that loud.

        “Alright, if you say so. Oh, that's right! Jugar is waiting for you in the front room.” Daniella teasingly said.

        'Oh great.'

        “I'll be there in a minute.” I said.

        “I'll let him know.” I smiled at her, she smiled back then left my room. Jugar was one of the stubborn men in the village who would not take 'no' as a hint. He also was one of the men from the village that chased me for my looks, he wanted gorgeous kids. He told me so himself when I began to have a woman's figure.

        I got up and removed the dress from the dragon. The baby looked up at me, and it didn't look too happy. Which made me nervous, but when I put the dress in a drawer it seemed to become happier. I turned around, looked at the dragon and sighed. The more I looked at it the more I found it cute and not so menacing towards me. I took the remains of its egg, put them in the box and grabbed the baby. When it started to growl i began to panick. I realized that the growling sounded more like the purring of a happy cat and I sighed of relief. It was happy, which was why I felt like crap when i pushed it under my bed.

        “Stay here, okay? I'll be back soon, I promise. Don't move.” I wasn't certain it understood but I prayed to God that it did. I got up, pulled a bit on my grey dress to make sure it had no ripples, grabbed the matching shawl, put it on around my arms to hide my new strange mark, and made sure that the window was closed, then left my room. I closed the door, took a deep breath, rearranged the shawl to make sure the mark was truly hidden, then walked down the hall to the front room. As soon as Jugar saw me, he stood up. I tried not to groan when he approached me.

        “Sorry for making you wait.” I said to him.

        “Nonsense.” He said as he grabbed my left hand and kissed the knuckles. “I am simply happy that you agreed to see me.”

        “I had no choice.” I pulled my hand out of his and he stood up straight. “So, what brings you here Jugar?”

        “What? I can't come and ask you out?”

        “I don't want to go out with you, nor marry you. I believe I made that clear when you told me why you began spending time with me. Leave before I loose it.”

        “Come on, Sara. Be a woman for once. Women would kill to have my attention.”

        “Then go after one of them. Leave. Now.” I turned around and left. Minutes later I saw Jugar stomp away from our house as I looked out the door window.

        That night I made supper. I made sure that there was left over meat so that I could sneak it into my room to feed the baby. During dinner I wondered whether or not Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss knew that the stone hadn't been a stone but an egg. Then I remembered what Aunt Agatha had said to me when I had opened the box and saw what was in it; “It's more then just a stone. Hopefully you'll find out soon. Keep it a secret from your friends and family and protect it with your life.” So maybe she knew that it had been a dragon's egg and not a stone. I decided right after I remembered what she had said that I would send her a letter and ask to visit her and Uncle Tarniss so I could question them in person. Of course, I realized that I'd have to either carefully introduce the baby to Daniella or bring it with me on my visit.

        Before going to my room that night I bathed, unset the table, and helped Daniella pick a dress for her date that with one of the men from the village and her female friends. It was a group date thing and Mother was happy that there was a man that was interested in Daniella. When I was free to go to my room I had to remind myself to walk calmly to room and not run, and to not check under the furniture on my way to my room. When I was in my room I lighted two of the three candles on my dresser, then got on my knees and looked under my bed. To my complete surprise the dragon had actually listened to. That or it just wanted to stay under my bed. Either way it had stayed put and stayed quiet. When it saw me it quickly got out from under my bed, and I backed up in surprise. I placed the pieces of meat that I had hid in my shawl on the floor. The dragon devoured the meat quickly. Mother hadn't been to exited when she saw my shawl wrapped around my right arm. She backed off when I told her that I had slightly burned myself and that I had quickly taken care of the burn. Stuffing the meat in my shawl and keeping it wrapped around my arm had been a task in itself.

        “I'm going to send Aunt Agatha a letter asking if I could visit her and Uncle Tarniss so we can talk about you and she can answer what exactly I'm suppose to do with you. I can understand why she said to keep you and your egg a secret.” I told it. The only reaction I got from it was a burp. “Excuse you. I wonder....please don't bite me.”

        I slowly reached for it, when it didn't back away or look agressive I grabbed it, held it to eye level, and searched under it to see if it was female or male. I was certain I could tell once I looked. I had to bring it closer to me, and when that didn't help at all I took a risk and held it against me and slowly ran my left hand under it. That was when I felt the uneven scales between its back legs. Well I thought they were uneven until I felt them move and then a wet liquid ran down my hand. It pissed on me. Which both disgusted me and fascinated me. And I was able to tell whether it was female or not. It was male, a baby male dragon. Once it-he was done pissing the scales that I had originally thought uneven, weird, moved. That's when I removed my hand quickly from the dragon. Once I was sure that the scales stopped moving I ran my pissed fill hand along under him, and all the scales were even once again.        

        'It protects its gender. The scales are more than just there for show. They're like fur for cats and dogs. That fur protects their skin from attacks, make it harder to really harm. The scales are there to protect the baby from any harm. Although why hide their gender?' I thought as I looked at him.

        As I realized that the dragon was half the size of my forearm I noticed the smell. My room stunk of piss and bodily fluids that comes with delivering a newborn baby. I should know the smell, I've assisted on three deliveries. Mother was a midwife and she wanted me to be one as well. After the third delivery she resigned to the fact that I would never be one, I couldn't handle the crying babies and I couldn't calm the pregnant mothers fast enough. When I held the babies to clean them they'd go from crying to screaming. So Mother gave that up and let me go back to reading and teaching the village children how to read and care for things, as well as teach them things that their own parents couldn't teach them. As for the things I taught them it was how to milk a cow, sow clothing, cook, and other household things and everyday chores. Our village thrives upon the crops our farmers plants, and since most of our men were soldiers and were often away protecting our country, it was up to the rest of the village to make up for what the army had taken from us. And so the village children's parents were often too busy during the day and too tired during the evenings. Besides, I liked teaching others things. What I didn't like were the whistling, crude jokes, and the leering looks I got from the young eligible men that decided to stay in the village. I now faced a totally different dilemma; cleaning the dragon, and getting rid of the piss and newly delivered smell out of my room. Sounds easy, right?

        It wasn't. Once I held him close to my body he refused to stay on the floor while I get a bucket and warm water to bath it and then somehow get the smell out. And by refuse I mean that he would make enough noise to make me cringe and pray that Mother couldn't hear him, and then he'd move around, try to climb my legs and scratch my room floor. So I couldn't just leave him in my room now. And it didn't help that he followed me to the door. It was also then that I realized that he believed that I was his mother. I sighed deeply, as I looked down at him I knew that my decision had been made. He was looking up at me with those huge golden eyes.

        “Fallow me, but stay quiet.” Now I know its ridiculous to think that he understood what I said, but it looked like he would be quiet. I hoped he would be quiet though. “Alright, let's do this.”

        'Mother, I hope you are not in the kitchen right now.' I thought as I crept out of my room closely fallowed by the baby. We were half way down the hall, almost to the kitchen when I nearly suffered a heart attack. Mother walked out of her room, she was heading to the same room we were.

        “AH!! Mother!” I said in surprise while I simultaneously kicked the baby dragon across the hall and slid under the desk in the hall in front of me. He hit the wall and cried out a little. So I hit the wall I was creeping along and cleared my throat a little.

        “Are you alright, Saraphina?” Mother asked. “My dear, why are you still up? I thought you said you were going to bed early tonight.”

        “Yes, I'm fine. And I will, soon. Just tursty and I thought that I'd wash my...face before bed.” I said.

        “But you just took a bath.” Mother said as the baby dragon began to crawl from under the desk. So I moved from where I stood to stand in front of the desk and discreetly shove the dragon back under it. I was hoping that since I now directly stood in front of the desk, actually it was a dresser, that the dragon would stay put.

        “Yes, yes I did. However I didn't wash my face then, I didn't think I needed to. Until I began getting ready for bed and touched my face and it was-is oily.” I answered with.

        “Oh, need any help wit-”

        “No. I can wash my han-face. You've taught me well.”

        “I have, haven't I?” Mother said proudly.

        “Mmhmm.”

        “Well, then don't let me get in your way honey. And I think that I'll fallow your lead, and go to bed early.”

        “You're not gonna wait up for Ella?” I asked, Mother usually would wait up for her when she went out.

        “Takna and Kassy are here, and doing just that for me.” Mother said.

        “Oh, right. They're here.” I said. “Well then. Goodnight.”

        “Goodnight, honey.”

        As she walked by me, I fallowed her with my eyes and turned when I had to. I watched her go outside to use the powder room. When she closed the door I got down on my knees and grabbed the dragon and stood up. Then I decided that speed was my better option than creeping along the hall and going slow. Besides when I try to go slowly my feet seem to always find all the loose boards and the creaking those boards made would give me away. When I got to the kitchen I placed the dragon on the counter and quickly searched for a big enough bowl or bucket to use.

        “Sara?” Kassy asked, scaring me.

        “Oh, shit!” I exclaimed as I shot up to stand straight and stood in front of the baby dragon hoping that I was hiding him from view. She hadn't screamed yet or faint, so I was guessing that she hadn't spotted him yet.

        “What are you doing?” She asked.

        “Getting,” I saw the bucket under the table and thought: perfect, “that. The bucket. I need it to wash my face.”

        “You're going to use the bucket to wash your face.” Kassy said to me with her eyebrows raised.

        “Yes I am. I like the metallic smell of the bucket. Did you want something?” I heard the baby move to my left and so I moved along with it.

        “No, I just heard someone here in the kitchen and I though it was Miss Clara. I was going to offer that she join us in the front room.”

        “Oh, I don't think that she will. Mother said that she was going to bed and as soon as I wash my face in my room I will do the same.” I said.

        “Oh, alright then. Goodnight, Sara.”

        “Goodnight Kassy.” I moved along with the dragon. Kassy gave me a weird look and then left the kitchen and rejoined her husband in the front room. Meanwhile I ran forward and grabbed the bucket. Then I filled the kettle with water and impatiently waited for the water to heat up. While I waited for the water to boil I made sure to keep the dragon in front of me, hidden from anyone that could spot it.

        When the kettle whistled I grabbed it with the dish towel and poured the water in the bucket. I filled again and was jittery and nervous while we were outside of my room waiting for the water to heat up. As I grabbed the bucket to bring it to my room along with a washcloth, soap, and a dishtowel I noticed that I was beginning to care for the baby even though I'd only known him for a few hours. I couldn't carry him and everything else that I needed to wash him and get rid of the smell in my room. So I had to let him walk on his own and fallow me back to my room. I power walked back to my room, put the bucket on the floor, turned around, and urged him to hurry and get in my room. He made it in just as Mother got out of the powder room, which was between my room and Daniella's room, and I closed the door just as she turned around to face my room.

        Getting the dragon in the bucket was petty hard, but after thirty minutes I finally got him in. Then I scrubbed away at his scales, then the floor, my hands, and tried to get the baby dragon out of the bucket. He seemed to like the water, so I let him stay in the bucket while I opened the window to air out my room. I silently thanked Daniella for the  homemade sage, and burned some of it. I felt weird waving around the burning sage to get rid of and cover the smell in my room. After I put out the sage I changed into my nightgown and brushed my hair. As I did so I watched the dragon splash around in the bucket. Once my hair was thoroughly brushed I grabbed the baby dragon and he let me carry him out of the bucket. Then I dried him with the dishtowel, I threw out the water through the open window, and put the bucket on the floor. I waited until the baby had dosed off on my bed to returned the washcloth, dishtowel, and bucket back to their places in the kitchen. Then I said goodnight to Takna and returned to my room.

        When I saw the baby dragon was curled and deep in sleep I had to watch him for a second. Then I closed the door, pushed over the sleeping dragon, climbed under the blankets, and laid down on my side. The baby dragon snuck closer to my stomach and I pulled to blanket at the foot of my bed and covered him. He curled against my stomach and I soon found myself falling asleep. I just prayed that when Daniella would go to wake me up, she likes to do so everyday even though I don't need her to, she wouldn't jump onto me or spot the little guy. The next day I woke up before Daniella could barge in and make a ruckus loud enough to wake up everyone sleeping in the house. I just had enough time to hide the baby under my bed and barricade him under there so he'd stay. He didn't like it, I didn't care, I didn't want him to be found just yet, I wanted to have some answers before making his presence known or not known. And I hoped as I went back to bed to pretend to sleep that the baby dragon wouldn't be strong enough to rip through my bed or destroy the barricade.

        And like every other morning, Daniella rushed into my room and threw herself onto my bed. As she landed on me her elbow hit me in the stomach and I grunted. She had bony elbows when they connected with people. And it hurt.

        “Wake up, Sara! I have to tell you what happened last night with my date and friends!” She said.

        “I'm up.” I said as I fake yawned. “So, what happened?”

        “Oh we had so much fun.” She then went on to tell me exactly what she had done the previous night. Her group date started off like all the others, her and her female friends met up with the guys at the village inn where they had an after supper snack. Once they were all full they had left the inn and went on to the bar, she assured me that they hadn't consumed any alcohol, though I doubted that as she told me to whisper and not talk so loud. They went to the bar to dance, after a few hours they left the bar and all went on an early morning stroll, where they all talked. Daniella had been the last one to be dropped off at home. She didn't tell me what exactly they had spoken about and even if she had I wouldn't have cared. Because the baby dragon was beginning to make some noise, and I was worried throughout her story about the baby dragon.

        Daniella was so happy about her night out that she didn't even noticed the small amount of noise coming from under my bed. And almost as soon her story was told she got up and off my bed and told me to get dressed before Mother would yell for us to get up and to the kitchen for breakfast. Like every other morning. Then Daniella left my room to either go get dressed for the day or go tell Kassy about her night out or both. Either way I was glad that she had left without my prompting her to. Then I got off my bed, moved aside some of my boxes that I never get rid of, and looked at the little guy.

        “I don't think you like staying under here, and I guess I can understand why. I wouldn't like being stuck under someone's bed either. Or well, get shoved under someone's bed. But you have to if you want to say here, with me. And you have to be quiet.” I said to him. “I'm asking you to be quiet while I'm gone, so please sssssshhh.”

        He looked at me and then I replaced the box. Twenty minutes later Mother yelled for Takna and Kassy that breakfast was ready and on the table. While we ate breakfast I asked Mother if I could go and visit Aunt Agatha just before summer. At first she wasn't too happy that I wanted to visit Aunt Agatha after having seen her on my birthday two days ago. But then I told her that my chances of finding a husband would be so much better if I got the chance to travel over to Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss' place. Then she was all for me spending time with Aunt Agatha. After breakfast I wrote a letter to Aunt Agatha telling her that I wanted to visit her and that we needed to talk face to face. Around lunch time I paid the mailman for my letter. He winked at me then continued on with his job. I went back home and spent the rest of the day with the baby.

        As more and more time went by I began to think of the baby dragon as my dragon. The more time I spent with him,  the more I felt like it was mine. And I soon understood that there was an invisible bond between me and him. I began to feel feelings that I just knew weren't mine. Like there were a few times that I felt anxious while I was doing the dishes with Mother, or when Takna and Kassy left I felt free. I liked having my family over and it never felt stiffing whenever they came over or like I was trapped. So these new feelings began troubling me, yet I couldn't exactly tell anyone about them because they were just feelings. And when I began to get use to these new weird feelings I noticed how big the baby had gotten. When he was a week old he was as long as my entire arm. I snuck out with the baby dragon as much as I could and I would walk around with the baby dragon in the forest. It was the perfect place to walk with him since no one actually went in the forest. I found that I liked carrying the baby dragon and he liked being in my arms. However those peaceful times didn't last long. I also took to wearing my shawls to hide my mark.

        Mother came into my room one night to snoop, the night before the baby dragon would be two weeks old. I knew she was snooping because I heard her doing it, and my room door opening woke me up. The creak it made was what actually woke me up. At first I was furious that she had snuck in and was going through my things, then I became panicked as I remembered about the sleeping baby dragon right next to me, and where I had kept the broken pieces of his egg and the black box that it had been in. I prayed that she wouldn't find it, I prayed that the baby would stay asleep, I prayed that she would just do a sweep with the eyes and then leave my room. However no matter how hard I prayed, my prayers would not be answered. Not only did she find the box and egg, but the baby had moved from his original place. He was no longer on my bed and I knew that he was going to the last drawer of my dresser that I had prepared for him. Some nights he slept with me in my bed, other nights he slept in the drawer. I turned to hide him, or stop mother, or well do something before she'd spot him. I could easily explain the egg, but the dragon? That was another story.

        However I was too late. Mother spotted, then she did something that utterly shocked me. She didn't scream like I had originally thought she would. Instead she dropped the box and pulled out the kitchen knife from who knows where she had hid it. The knife and the fact that she had hid it shocked me enough to stop me from moving for a second. I only was brought back from my state of shock when I saw her arm go down in a matter I was all too familiar with. She often did that action to behead chickens, she preferred them fresh. I lurched forward crying; “NO!!!!”

        The knife never touched the baby, I made sure of that. I grabbed Mother's arm and we fought. Her to behead the baby and me to protect him. I never knew that my mother was so strong. She not only fought me off, but she also injured me in her fit of rage. I had looked into her eyes and had seen the anger, the rage. I didn't understand where that rage come from or who exactly it was directed at and why. Mother had managed to cut me on the right side of my face. The cut went from my right cheek bone and down the cheek to my chin. It hurt but I ignored my pain. I didn't care if I was injured, so long as the dragon was unharmed. Smoke came out of its nostrils, but I could tell that it wasn't mad. I don't think he even had those feelings yet, he was just curious. He tried to get to Mother to find out what or who she was. Or well that was what it looked like to me, I still kept it behind me.

        “Move, Saraphina. I have to kill it. We can even cover up that mark like you've been doing. But that thing must die, and it will die by my knife.” Mother said as I decided to hold the baby. “Yes, give it to me.”

        “No, I'll die before I let you kill him. He's just a baby, why must he die?” I asked as I got on my bed and backed up to give some room between us and Mother.

        “It must die, I'll kill myself. If you will not hand it over, then you leave me no choice. I'll take it by force.” Then Mother lurched forward.

        I reacted. I jumped to the side and as I did I realized that Mother was between us and my room door, so I got onto my dresser. As I did I knocked over the candles and anything else that was on it, and I was glad that I had decided to leave the window open for it was stuffy in my room that. The hot weather was coming, so the window was going to opened during the evening. When I got through the window and on the ground I heard Mother yelling, Daniella asking what was going on, and so I ran into the forest. I heard Mother yell at me to return to my room and to hand over the baby to her so she could kill him. When she realized that I would do no such thing, she decided to chase after us. As I ran I didn't care that I wore only my nightgown, I had no shoes, I didn't even pay attention to where I was going. My only goal was to get away from my delusional mother.

        I stopped only when I came upon a cliff, at the bottom of it was a river. As I looked down at the river I saw that cliff wasn't that steep. I hoped that I wouldn't need to do what I was thinking of doing. I knew that Mother was still on my tail since I heard her running after me. I turned to face her and decided to convince her to let me raise the baby and not kill him. I wanted to appeal to her humanity, but when she caught up to us I saw that I had little hope of doing so. But it was still hope, little or not, hope was hope.

        “Ha! Now you have nowhere to go.” Mother thought that I was cornered and so stopped running. “You won't jump, you don't have the courage to do so.”

        “How would you know?!” My grip tightened on the dragon. “Mother, please. Let me keep him. Let me raise him. Please, he doesn't deserve it, he's just a baby. He hasn't done anything bad yet.”

        “I don't care. I will kill it, and you will not raise it. Now hand me the thing, I'll make it's death swift and painless.” Mother said.

        “I see that you will not change your mind. And so neither will I. He deserves a chance at life and that's exactly what I will do. I guess this is goodbye, Mother.” I said then turned around and jumped. The last thing I heard before the water covered me was Mother screaming my name.

        The entire time that we were in the river I held onto the baby. It wasn't easy, but I somehow managed to hold onto him. The current was too strong for me to swim to one side. I might have been able too if I had to let go of the baby, but I couldn't bring myself to. The longer we stayed in the river the harder it was to stay conscious. Then all of a sudden I was submerged and I couldn't tell which way was the surface. My last thought before I lost consciousness was: 'I escape someone who wants to kill the baby only to drown it, perfect.'

Chapter 2

        I noticed three things when I woke up. First; I was alive, that or God was playing some sick joke on me. Second; the baby dragon was alive and alright. And third; there was raw meat next to my head. I slowly sat up, every muscle protested as I did. It was still dark outside, but I could tell that I was in a small clearing as I looked around. I was nowhere near the river, but at the very least I could hear it. Another thing I noticed was that my nightgown was totally dry, which told me that I had been out of the river for quite some time. While I was assessing my surroundings the baby dragon was devouring the raw meat. Either it hunted down the whatever it was and managed to fish me out or someone else did. I was seriously hoping for the later and not someone fishing me out. Because if someone had done so then they saw the baby. If that happened then they either already told someone else and planned to kill the baby like Mother had or kept their mouth shut for fear of being associated with us. Either way I knew that we couldn't stay for long.

        As I stood up I felt immense relief. I don't entirely know why I felt it, or why I felt so safe in that clearing. I just pushed finding the 'why' for later and checked myself for anymore injuries. I had no other physical injuries that I could tell, but I still made the decision to go see a healer at the next town or village. I looked at the baby.

        “I don't think that we can stay here. I also think that Mother won't let us be. I think she'll chase us until she kills you or we're too far away for her to do so.” I told him. He cocked his head in confusion.

        “Ah, so you are awake.” A voice said. I looked around, but saw no other person around.

        “Who's there?” I called.

        “I am.” I couldn't see anyone. Or more like there was no one there except for a cat.

        “Show yourself coward!”

        “But I am not hiding. Look down.” I looked down at the cat.

        “Are you the one that spoke?” I asked it, feeling pretty stupid talking to it. I did not, however, expect it answering me.

        “Yes. I am also the one that saved you and your dragon. Those are very rare way out here.” It responded me. I did the sane thing. I ran backwards away from it.

        “Holy shit! A cat just spoke to me!!!” I yelled.

        “Hush child. I am not just some cat. I am a werecat. My kind is all over the world. Most choose to live in homes with humans. Werecats can change their appearance to look like any cat, big or small, doesn't matter so long as they are feline. I am named Tanekal and I chose to live in these woods. And most importantly, you should really thank me.” The cat said to me.

        “Right, a tiny cat dragged me and the baby dragon out of the river. I mostly am still unconscious. That's the only reason behind this very conversation.” I said.

        “You are very much conscious, human. This is not a dream. I am a dream and yet the dragon is real?” The cat said. It had a point though, I had accepted the baby dragon as real, so why not the talking cat?

        “Thank you for saving us.”

        “You are most welcome. So what drove you to d such a foolish thing? I saw you jump off the cliff.”

        “I had to escape my mother, whom had lost her mind somewhere between dinner and bedtime.” I explained. “She wanted to kill the baby dragon. I couldn't let her harm it!”

        “I see. Well her reaction is completely normal.”

        “What do you mean?”

        “Dragons are worth more dead then alive. And their meat is the most richest meat on earth. It is the most delicious thing on this planet or so that is the humans believe. Doesn't matter that dragons are much more powerful than any human army, once they are dead they are worth millions. However the humans prefer to eat them then to keep them  alive and let them be. That race has been nearly extinct on this continent because of their meat. Your mother most likely has tasted dragon meat before and know its worth. Also there are rumours that the king of this continent will pay dearly and very richly to anyone who produces dragon meat.” Tanekal explained.

        I looked at the baby. He had finished his meal and was now walking around the clearing.

        “I can understand that, but she was so angry not desperate.” I said.

        “I do not know the reason behind her anger. But if I were you I would hide that intricate mark before entering any villages or towns.” Tanekal advised.

        “I would have done so even if you hadn't said anything. Do you know what this mark means? Why it appeared on my arm when I touched him?”

        “I do not know. But I can it is no normal mark.”

        “Well you are a werecat. You aren't exactly normal either.”

        “You are correct. Now you must make a decision. Keep the baby dragon, raise it and protect it, or not.”

        “There is no decision to make. I'm keeping my word. I'm going to raise him and give him a chance at life. That's what I'm going to do.” I said with conviction that surprised me a little. The little guy walked up to me, sat down, and then burped. “Now more than ever I need to go to Aunt Agatha.”

        “I have no idea who this Aunt Agatha is, but it looks like you have a sound plan.”

        “I do now. Well its sort of a plan.”As I shivered a thought struck me. “How long has it been since you saved us?”

        “Two hours or so.”

        With his answer I decided to make a fire, and try to stay warm throughout the night. I had some difficulty ripping off some of the meat from the animal that was dead, but I managed to do so. Then I found a stick and cooked the meat as best as I could. I had to eat while I had the chance, who knew when my next meal would be. I tried to clean out the injury that I had sustained, but without the knowledge nor a first aid kit, I couldn't do much about it. But one thing was clear; I was scarred. As I sat down by the fire, the baby dragon climbed onto my lap and curled up, within seconds he was asleep.

        “Why did you save us?” I asked Tanekal as he curled up by the fire.

        “I believe that you two will change the world we live in. I believe it will be very entertaining. Besides why not save you two?”

        “Oh.” I didn't know what else to say.

        Once the meat was cooked, I was completely warm and starving. Once my stomach was filled, I laid down on the grass disturbing the baby. Which reminded me that I couldn't keep calling the dragon: the 'baby dragon' or 'him'. I needed to come up with a name for the little now that I had decided, and voiced it out, to keep him. And that was the thought I fell asleep with. The next morning I woke up to found that our saviour werecat Tanekal gone. It didn't really surprise me that he'd be gone. The dragon and I finished off the dead animal as breakfast, then started to walk.

        “We might as well find a village so that I can at least get some shoes and some medical help for the injury. My feet are starting to hurt, I'll have to steal a pair I have no money.” I told the dragon. It just looked up at me from the ground. And three gruelling hours later we finally walked out of the forest and onto a road.

        “Which way now?” I asked myself. To my surprise and horror the baby dragon turned left and started walking. “Hey! Stop! Wait!”

        No matter what I said or yelled at him, he kept walking. Whenever I tried to catch him in my arms he would just speed up. I eventually saw that my efforts at trying to stop it were futile so, I gave up and silently fallowed it. I found it cute that he could be stubborn. After an hour of walking down the road a village was within my eyesight. I stopped and bent down to pick up the dragon. This time it didn't protest. I walked into the forest and hid it in a thick bush. He looked up at me and tried to fallow me, I pushed him back under it.

        “Stay here, I'll be back soon. I promise.” I whispered to him.

        'Please stay put.' I thought as I straightened up. I took a deep breath, started to straighten my nightgown then realized that there was no point in doing so, and then got out of the forest and back on the road. I walked into the village and looked around and instantly knew that finding that village's healer and some shoes would take a while. Several villagers stared at me, and something told me that they weren't staring at me because of my good looks. What was very frustrating was when I approached anyone they would just turn around and walk the other way. So the villagers weren't very friendly towards strangers. After the third person walked away from me I began to get mad. So to calm myself down I sat down on a nearby rock, also sat on that rock to give my aching feet a break.

        “Oh dearie, are you alright?” A woman asked.

        I jumped a little for I figured that no one would speak to me. The woman just startled me. I looked up to her to answer her question and I was momentarily stumped. This woman was beautiful what with fair skin, sun-kissed blond hair, big brown does eyes, she wore a form fitting light brown dress, and carried a basket. What added to her beauty was her swollen belly. This woman was clearly expecting a child.

        “Um, not really, miss. I was hoping to find your village's healer, but no one seems to want to help me.” I said to her.

        “Oh, that's just silly superstition. Most people here don't like strangers. They say that strangers bring bad luck. But like I said, dear, it's silly.” The woman said to me. “Wait right here, dear. I'll go fetch Gertrude for you. Although I feel a little uneasy leaving you here all alone.”

        “I'll be alright. I can defend myself pretty well, I'm a pretty fast runner.” I reassured her.

        “Alright. I won't be long.”

        I watched her as she walked away to go and get Gertrude the healer. The mother to be seemed like a really nice woman. I did as she had instructed and stayed put, although I kept my eyes open and watched the villagers as they walked on by and did their daily routines. Each person that walked by and I was in their eyesight they all looked at me and quickly looked away. Some whispered to the person next to them or they would just clamp up. I found it ridiculous that these villagers believed that strangers or newcomers brought on bad luck. But people were easy to be suspicious and didn't like the weird and unusual. I think that the bad luck the villagers were having was no one else's fault but their own. And just as I thought those things I spotted the pregnant woman walking back to me along with another older woman. As they approached me I smiled at them. The pregnant woman returned my smile, the older woman only frowned.

        “You stayed.” The pregnant woman said happily.

        “I stayed.” I confirmed.

        “By the Lord, child. What happened to you?” The older woman asked.

        “You must be Miss Gertrude, this village's healer.”

        “Yes, I am. Now answer my question child. And I would like to know your name, Elane here wouldn't tell me it for she does not know it herself.” Miss Gertrude said.

        “I would prefer not to answer your question here. Is there somewhere more private that we can talk and you can look at my injured cheek?” I asked them. “And my name is Saraphina.”

        “What a beautiful name. Of course there's a place. Can you walk, miss Saraphina?” Miss Elane asked.

        'No.'

        “Yes, I believe so.” I said as I stood up.

        Both women looked at me doubtfully, but they didn't say anything as I began walking. I slowed down to allow both women to lead me to a private place. After thirty minutes of walking through the village we arrived at a house. By that point I didn't care to admire it or to etch it in my memory so I could later think back and describe it to someone. My mind was preoccupied by the growing pain that was coming from my feet, also my cheek began to throb. I can say that the house was one story and had no separate rooms, just one that I suspected was the washroom. Once in the house I was told to sit down on the bed where Gertrude immediately started working her magic to heal my feet and cheek. She worked efficiently, and, most importantly, she worked quickly. She wasted no time on chitchat as she cleaned my cheek. That woman really knew what she was doing, and I think that her age helped a lot. Every time she or Miss Elane would ask me what happened or why I was travelling I told them that I was on my way to Esterhaven to visit my aunt and uncle. I also told them that I had been robbed on the road, I said that I was closer to them then Violetcrest-the village I was born and raised in. They accepted my explanation, especially after I said that Mother and I weren't on speaking terms. My story explained my scar and lack of clothing and shoes.

        “Where exactly am I? Is this village Summerfair?” I asked as Gertrude bandaged my feet.

        “Yes, it is.” Miss Elane answered me.

        “At least I'm still on the right path.” I said.

        'My plan to visit Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss just got pushed ahead. I hope that they'll accept us. It'll take us at least a week to get to Esterhaven, if I had a horse. Two to three weeks without one.' I thought as Gertrude told me that she couldn't bandage my cheek.

        I had thought of sneaking out that night to go and check on the baby dragon, however my feet had been worse than I had thought. Not to mention that Miss Gertrude was sleeping right next to me. I doubted that she wouldn't have noticed me leaving, so I stayed put. I just hoped that the baby dragon would do the same. And when I thought of him  began to think of names for him. I didn't think long about names for him because I was also much more tired then I had originally anticipated I would be. So I fell into a dreamless sleep. The next day Miss Gertrude ordered me to stay in bed all day, and Miss Elane came over again to keep us company. So I couldn't leave until two days after I had arrived in Summerfair. And when I did leave Miss Elane and her husband Horst not only gave me a horse, they also gave me a saddle, reins, harness, briddle, and some money.

        “I can't take all this. I can't take your Pinto, or his things, or your money. Times are tough, you need all this.” I said to Miss Elane and her husband.

        “True times are tough, and we do need these things, however Kodiak hasn't been trained to work in the field like our other two horses, and you need the money more than we do.” Miss Elane said.

        “But you'll need it for the baby.” I insisted.

        “We talked it over. Take it. If you don't you'll be offending us.” Miss Elane said.

        'Dang it. Now I can't refuse them.' So without further obejections I took their offered gifts.

        “Thank you very much, Miss Elane, Mister Horst, and Miss Gertrude. I will take good care of Kodiak and will spend your money very wisely.” I said to them. They all smiled.

        After I said my goodbies to them I went to the village's butcher and baker. I bought as much raw meat and bread as I was comfortable with. Then I had to make it look like I was going down the road in the right direction. A mile and a half away from Summerfair I made Kodiak go off road and into the forest. He and I walked back towards Summerfair, passed it and went all the way to the bush that I hid the baby dragon in. To my complete shock he had stayed put and had waited for me. I smiled and was both utterly happy and relieved to see him. Like really ecstatic to see him. But as soon as Kodiak saw him, he completely freaked out. Went on his back legs, neighed, and tried to walk or run away. It took me an hour to calm him down, and another for him to allow the baby dragon to be near him. During those two hours I apologized to the baby for being gone so long and also found a name for the baby dragon: Tulak. The name seemed to fit him like a glove.

        “Tulak. From now on you are Tulak, the golden dragon.” I told him. It seemed like he liked the name, or maybe it was just the fact that he now had a name.

        After I had set up camp I once again thanked Miss Elane and her husband. Simply because they had also included saddle bags that carried horse feed, a blouse, ridding pants, a coat, and riding boots. The pants, boots and coat were brown and were a little big on me, which was probably why there was also a belt. The boots actually fit me fine, the blouse, shirt was white, and so I decided to wear the under shirt that Miss Elane must have included in the saddle bags along with apples. I swore that night that if I was to ever run into that family again I would repay them for their generousity. They, along with Miss Gertrude, were nice folk. I was lucky to have met them.

        We were back on the road as soon as the sun woke me up, well after I had eaten breakfast and took care of a few other things. When we were on the road I wrapped my nightgown around Tulak, who laid on my lap. He didn't like it and I didn't care. I didn't want anyone to see him and have a repeat of the evening I left everything I knew to raise a baby dragon and question my aunt and uncle. But after three hours of hi squirming, Kodiak neighing loudly and often veering off corse, not to mention the ripping sound my nightgown made I unwrapped Tulak. Once he was freed I got off Kodiak and placed Tulak on the ground. He had became heavier than the night before, and I figured that he wanted to walk on his own.

        “I'll let you uncovered so long as you follow us.” I told him then got back on Kodiak.

        At first he seemed to be angry that I got on Kodiak instead of carrying him, but when I made Kodiak walk, he fallowed. Albeit he did seem to be complaining and I was a little annoyed, which confused me a little. But I just shook it off and concentrated on guiding Kodiak. I could tell that Tulak was a little unhappy by the some coming out of his nostrils, that too I ignored. After two hours of travelling Tulak stopped smoking and looked like he was enjoying him walking on his own, all the evidence I needed to tell me so was him running ahead and coming back to us. His growing joy to the freedom of him walking on his own made me happy. I liked seeing him happy. Or well I hoped that he was happy and not challenging Kodiak to a race or something of the like. That thought made me laugh a little.

        When I couldn't sit on Kodiak's back any longer I got off him and continued on foot. I wasn't use to riding horseback for so long, hell I wasn't use to riding horseback period. Whenever I visited Aunt Agatha it was usually with Mother and Daniella, and we usually went with the family carrage, and there was that one time that we went by foot. So I knew how it would take to get to Aunt Agatha's either by horse or by foot. Despite the reason behind my  going over to Aunt Agatha's, I was actually getting excited and was looking forward to visiting her and Uncle Tarniss. I thought about them, the egg, just how long Tulak must have been in that egg, and food as I set up camp for the night.

        While I ate, after I had fed Tulak and Kodiak, Tulak sniffed around our campsite. Or well it looked like he did so, his nose was to the ground and he walked around with it still there. But since I knew so little about his race he could have been playing or scratching his nose for all I knew. But I hoped that Aunt Agatha had, like, a record of dragon history or something to help me learn more about Tulak's race. I mean she or Uncle Tarniss had to if they had kept his egg safe. It was natural for them to have that sort of thing, but if they did why didn't they also give me them?

        After diner I stoked the fire to keep it going as I slept, then I laid down on my back and stared at the stars. I don't know why I never thought that the night sky was pretty before that night, but the stars made it pretty. Maybe it was because I never really looked at the night sky before then. When it was bedtime, back before I left my home, I usually went straight to bed. And if I did stay up later I always stared out my window to the dark forest. People always feared the forest, I never understood why before, I never feared it. But I began to suspect that it was feared because dragons probably once roamed it, or lived in it, or hunted in it, or maybe all of the above. Maybe they feared it simply because people feared the new and unusual, like Miss Elane had said to me on the day we had met. Again, those were things that I never truly feared. Neither did my father, Mother always said that it was Father's curiosity that had killed him. Mother most  likely had said that to keep us, her children, from asking too many questions and venturing into the forest. I know that I did stop asking questions shortly after she had said that.

        I wondered if it was a dragon that had killed Father. And when that thought crossed my mind I looked over at Tulak and wondered if I too would die at the claws of a dragon. Then I reminded myself that we didn't truly know what had killed Father and that Tulak was just a baby. And I also reminded myself that I was the one raising him and would teach him to love humans as friends and not food. I'd also teach him that he was only allowed to attack humans in self defence and nothing else. With that firm talking to I let Tulak curl up on my side and returned my gaze to the night sky. The stars were truly beautiful that night. With Tulak at my side eirdly producing heat, purring, Kodiak not that far away from us, and the fire crackling I fell into the much needed sleep. That night I did dream. I dreamt about dragons.

        I don't know what the year was in my dream, but I do know that it was a beautiful spring morning. I stood in the middle of a meadow, the grass was a beautiful healthy green, the wind wasn't too cold or too hot when a breeze past. It was pleasant. I wore my favourite spring outfit; my black pants, blue shirt, brown boots, and my hair was pushed back by the hair clips that Daniella had given me for my eleventh birthday. I knew the meadow that I stood in, though I know I had never been there before. I knew that I shouldn't even know where I was, but I did. I was in a forest just a few miles from Merrowport, a village that we'd need to pass through to get to Aunt Agatha's. In fact we had camped half a day's ride from Merrowport. I thought that was probably why I dreamt of a meadow near it, then I heard the growling and the sound of wings beating. A cow shot past me, then another, and another and I was astonished at their speed. Then the biggest creature I had ever seen flew down from the sky.

        “HOLY SHIT!!!!!” I exclaimed as one of its back legs landed an inch in front of me. I didn't have to be a genius to know that the red creature in front of me was in fact a dragon. I didn't move for fear and admiration had frozen me where I stood. The dragon was taller than any tree or building I'd ever seen. The back leg that was an inch from my face? Yeah, that was twice my height. The claws it had? They were as long as my arms. And all I could think of as it grabbed two cows and flew off was: 'Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit' over and over again until it was gone from sight.

        I looked up at the sky again and saw dragons flying freely, without a care in the world. They didn't just look free, they were free. They also looked incredibly happy. And if the red dragon that had just hunted those two cows was any indication, those dragons were huge as well. Maybe the entire race was too. Watching those dragons fly around and live their lives made me happy. And it was beautiful to watch too. Not only was their flying a beautiful show, but they themselves were beautiful as well. Some were red, some orange, others black, blue, and green. It made the sky colorful. I didn't spot a single golden-brown one like Tulak but I didn't worry too much about it, besides I was in too much awe as I watched freaking dragons fly and hunt. Well I was witness to really just two hunts, the second one hunted much further away from me, still it was remarkable. On my right a twig snapped.

        I spun around and had to look twice at what I saw. I had heard of rumours concerning what I was looking at and that humans may not be the only people living in this world, but up until that second I never thought they were true or real. Then I reminded myself of two things, one; I was currently sleeping near a horse and next to a baby dragon, and two; I was dreaming. Convinced that the three elves, because the three beings I was currently looking at fit the descriptions I heard to a 'T', were figments of my imagination. That my mind had completely created them and that I was not staring at living, breathing elves. And the language they spoke, whispered wasn't even english.

        “Dina.” The tall one in the middle said to the other two. I guessed that the one who spoke was the eldest. “Nurta.”

        The two younger ones stopped whispering, but that was not what had my attention. I perfectly understood what had been said, so my mind was creating languages. Perfect, just perfect.

        “Be silent.” The elder elf had said. “Hide.”

        I at first thought that they were looking at me and were hunting me, but then I saw movement in the corner of my eye and looked at what they were looking at. They were looking at the third cow that was now grazing, and acting exactly like a cow would. They were hunting the cow and not me.

        “Lle auta yeste'.” The oldest said to the smallest of the two. The one he addressed looked at him terrified. The oldest saw his expression. “Sii'!”

        “Amin nauva yeste'.” The young male, he was no older than a boy, accepting to go first.

        “You go first.” The elder had said. “Now!”

        “I will go first.”

        Then the boy stood, then he ran towards the cow. But before he even reached the cow he stopped and that was when I realized that he had no weapons on him nor did he hold any weapons. If they weren't out hunting then why were they hiding and why did they whisper? Just what were those elves doing? My second question was answered seconds later. The boy thrusted out his hands, palms facing down.

        “Yala onna en'kemen!” The boy yelled. Just when I understood what he yelled; “Summon Earth Elemental!”, the ground shook so much that I lost my footing. The boy had it worse, not only did he loose his footing, but he fell hard on his butt. His feet literally flew from under him. Which greatly amused the eldest.

        “Tanya nae sai eina!” He said as he roared with laughter. “That was very funny!”

        The cow on the other hand didn't stick around. As soon as the ground stopped shaking it took off like when it had ran away from the red dragon. I watched it go and then looked at the other elves. They were now standing and looking at the elf on the ground at my feet. He looked annoyed and so I guessed that the result he got from saying 'Summon Earth Elemental!' was not the result he had wanted. He also hit the ground with his fist in fustration.

        “Amin hiraetha.” The boy apologized to the ground and the other elves.

        “It is fine. Come, enough practice for today.” The elder elf said.

        “But brother hasn't-” The boy began to protest.

        'So they do speak english. At least I know that I am somewhat still in control of my dreams. Or well sort of in control of them. At least the language spoken in them is still the same one I speak.' I thought.

        “He is not well enough anymore. Come, we go home.” Then the eldest elf looked right at me and said, rudely in my opinion: “Kela.”

        “Go away.” 

        Okay, that was rude. My dream induced, imagined, elf telling me to get lost. Well it was easy for him to say and do. All he had to do was grabbed the young elf by the wrist, turn around, and leave the meadow. I, on the other hand, found that I couldn't move. I tried to get my legs  to go forward, I tried to swing my arms, but my body just wouldn't budge. It's like when that elf spoke to me he also took away my ability to move, or even speak as I tried to do. Now I just stood in the beautiful meadow like a statue. The longer I stood there the more I felt stupid and ridiculous. I don't know how much time passed, but I do know that by midday I could once again move. I did so when another heard of cows came running through the meadow for their lives with two young dragons on their tails. The dragons had to be young because they were the smallest ones I had seen up  to date. They were both pitch black. I moved when the first cow nearly ran into me. Only I didn't move away far enough seeing as one of the two dragons, the one that was leading the hunt, came down right on top of me. Luckily I woke up at the right moment.

        I looked around where I slept. The sun was rising in the far east, our fire had died down and all that came from the spit was smoke. Kodiak was still tied to the same tree branch that I had tied him to the night before. Everything was as I had left it before I fell asleep. Well everything but Tulak. Now he was gone. He wasn't next to me like he had been the night before, he wasn't near the saddle bags smelling the meat that was there, he wasn't bothering Kodiak like I had thought he'd be. I began to worry when I didn't find him near our campsite, and I full on worried when he didn't come to me when I called for him. At least not at first, I had to call his name five times before I got a response. I heard a responding low growl and then twigs, branches that had fallen to the ground, and dried leaves that had also fallen from their trees crunch and snapped. The noise came from behind me and so I twirled around to see my baby dragon. Only what I saw was not what I had expected at all. I saw a dragon the size of a baby horse, this dragon even had horns growing on the back of its head.

Chapter 3

        In hindsight I probably shouldn't have screamed, but what would you have done if you had been in my position? You would have screamed as well. Don't deny it, we both know you would have. My scream startled the dragon and so it backed up pretty quickly, it probably hadn't expected me to scream, I mean even I hadn't expected to scream when I'd see another of it's race. It was only as my scream died down that I realized that the dragon before me was golden-brown, and that I knew it.

        “Tulak?” I whispered to it. The dragon then approached me and I saw that it was indeed Tulak. Tulak had doubled in size over night, like I said before he was the size of a baby horse. His colour was now a little more gold than brown, he was still golden-brown though, his claws were longer, and his wings were twice the size of his body. They didn't look fragile anymore, they looked like they could actually support his body weight now. Everything about him was now at least double the size it had been the night before. I gently touched his nose and he began to purr, the purring noise was also louder. “Good Lord you grew quickly. Don't scare me like that again.”

        Feelings of guilt suddenly went through me then disappeared and were replaced by feelings of excitement instead. Then Tulak turned around and rushed back to camp, he looked back at me twice and I knew he wanted me to fallow him. So I did, and as we walked back to camp I began to suspect that the feelings that sometimes invaded me, and that I knew weren't mine, were coming from Tulak. I wasn't certain and it puzzled me. Also if I was honest, it also scared me a little. However that little fear and puzzlement disappeared when my eyes landed upon a dead baby faun. I was more than certain that it hadn't been laying near the dead fire when I had gone in search of Tulak. And I hadn't gone hunting, for I had no idea how to do so. I thought someone else had done so for us, but that suspicion was killed the instant that I saw the puncture wounds on the faun's neck.

        I took a closer look at it and as I did I also saw the puncture wounds on its back. Then I looked at Tulak and saw fresh blood on his front claws and some fresh blood dripping from his lower jaw. My mouth slightly dropped open in astonishment. There was no other explanation for the blood being there then Tulak having killed the faun himself. He a nearly three week old baby himself had managed to killed a baby deer. Unless he had gotten the blood on him by defending himself against another creature, which equally surprised me. Or the faun had already been dead, Tulak found it and dragged it back to camp. I looked at the ground, there were no drag marks. So it was back to thinking that he had hunted the animal himself, because how else explain its presence there, aside from it wondering onto our camp out of curiosity? Unless Tulak brought it back by air. A closer examination to his wings disproved that theory. Yeah they were bigger, but they were still too thin and weak to carry his body. That was proven an hour after I had buried the dead faun, undid camp, scattered the fire spit and we were back on the road. Tulak had eaten some of the faun, okay most of it and watching him eat it was disgusting, and tried to take flight several times when we were back on the road.

        I did say that he had tried to take flight, not that he actually did. So that told me that he would be flying sometime soon. Maybe not that week, or the one after that, but it wouldn't be long until he did. While we travelled to Merrowport I stayed close to the forest with Kodiak so that we could easily duck in it with Tulak and hide him if We every came across other travellers. We were lucky until we got to Merrowport. Merrowport was a village of traders, and it wasn't surrounded by forest and so it was frequently under attack by thieves and such. In fact thieves often stayed in Merrowport, or so Father had once told me. I had always though of Merrowport as a cute village with charming villagers. They didn't shy away from strangers or blamed them for things going wrong. As a child I liked spending time in Merrowport, and when I got older I loved to look at the many things we could get by trading things. However when we - Tulak, Kodiak, and I - got to it I just wanted to get through it as fast as possible.

        As we walked through the village I felt like every pair of eyes were on us as I led Kodiak through it. Wrapping Tulak in every piece of cloth and clothing I had with me was a challenge, making him stay still so that the dress, under-dress, and nightgown would stay in place and not slip off him was even more challenging, but the worst challenge was getting Kodiak to allow Tulak to lay across his back like a bundle. Me staying on Kodiak's back and having Tulak lay across my lap was not an option. With our combined weight we would have been too heavy for Kodiak, not to mention getting  Tulak on his back would have been impossible. So I had to place him like a big bundle and lead Kodiak. It took an hour and a half just to get him up there. Kodiak kept shying away whenever I approached him with the wrapped up Tulak. And let me tell you, Tulak was not light, he was damn heavy. My arms were actually soar after I finally got him up there.

        Some traders actually tried to get me to stop and let them look at what I was hiding, I wouldn't let them. They would pester me until I would push them away and other villagers, the year round inhabitants of Merrowport, would tell the traders to shove off or they would be banned from Merrowport. And once someone was banned from Merrowport it was impossible for them to return to Merrowport, do some business, or simply get in Merrowport. The simple fact was that every villager would memeries that trader's face and would imidiatly shut the trader out or the banned villager, and they would tell the soldiers that stayed in Merrowport. And no one wanted to be banned from Merrowport because it was a great, perfect even, place to do business. The amount of travellers that past through Merrowport was huge. If you travelled in those parts you had no choice but to go through Merrowport especially if you needed more supplies. Great place for business, but not for hiding a baby dragon as you pass on through.

        Now back when my family would pass through Merrowport we would stay the night there and leave the next afternoon, so some villagers knew me and my family. Some called out to me when they saw me, I waved at them but didn't stop. I did say that I was in a hurry and behind schedule and so couldn't stop and catch up with them. They accepted my excuse. Three hours later we left Merrowport and were back on the road. Still I waited until I couldn't see nor hear the noise that was coming from Merrowport before I let Tulak out of his bidings and on the ground. That day I was not liked by neither of my travel companions. Tulak refused to walk alongside us, instead he stayed in front and I got annoyed vibes from him, and Kodiak often refused to fallow my directions. I couldn't wait to set up camp that night just to avoid their annoyance with me. It was both unnerving and tiresome.

        The next morning I once again woke up to find a dead corpse near me. It was another faun and I saw Tulak dragging it back to camp. And that settled yesterday's mystery of how the other faun was killed and brought be to camp. Because as soon as it was near the dying fire Tulak retraced his steps and a minute later reappeared with him brushing his tail against the ground erasing the drag marks. I stared at him for a bit with wide eyes. For a baby he sure wasn't acting like a normal one, then again he was a dragon and those creatures were myths to me up until a few weeks ago. When he saw that I was awake he proudly saw on his hind legs and proudly showed off his kill. It was as he stared at me with his big golden eyes that I understood that he wanted me to praise him for his kill.

        'Maybe this is how the young ones learn how to hunt.' I thought as I said: “Good job! Look at you! Hunting on your own and bringing it back to camp, not to mention hiding your tracks! Good boy!”

        I felt like I was praising a dog, but Tulak seem to beam even more so I guessed that I had done a good job praising him. Then he went right on eating the deer while I fed Kodiak and ate an apple and some bread. The apples that were left were beginning to bruise, thanks to them bumping around in the saddle bags, and the bread was starting to stale. The meat that was left in the other saddle bag would last me another two days, and then all I'd have left to eat for the two remaining days of travel until I'd arrive at Esterhaven would be apples and bread. After breakfast I once again buried the remainder of the faun and scatter the burned wood, then we were back on the road. We'd have to pass through one more village before we'd arrive at Esterhaven and that was Remaple. Luckily this village was more scattered, its inhabitants didn't live so close to one another like in Violetcrest, Summerfair and Merrowport. So I wouldn't have to pretend that Tulak was baggage, and  Remaple had more trees and places for Tulak to hide in case he had. As in its name Remaple mostly sold maple to neighbouring villages and travellers that passed on through it. It had the most maple trees, in fact most of its inhabitants lives in the maple forest around it.

        Unfortunately we had to stay in Remaple that night. It always took two full days and a night to go through Remapl. But that meant that we were even closer to Esterhaven and Aunt Agatha. I had to leave Tulak and Kodiak alone while I booked a room at Remaple's inn, I tied Kodiak behind the inn and fed him. As Tulak had proven he could now feed himself, still I told him to be careful while he hunted for his diner, told him to stay away from the villagers, not to attack anyone, and to stay in the big bush behind Kodiak once he was done and would return to sleep for the night. I don't know how much he understood, but I hope that he understood not to be spotted by anyone else other than me and not to harm Kodiak. I figured that they were becoming friends, but I also figured that if Tulak would become really hungry he'd go after Kodiak. Hey, Tulak was still a hunter, and I believed that he would onto bigger game once he himself would be bigger.

        Once I was satisfied that he would be careful I went inside the inn and to my room. It felt so good to take a proper bath, to be clean after staying in the same clothes for three days straight, and to have my clothes cleaned. And it was heaven laying in an actual bed for the night. They were luxuries that I allowed myself to have that night, and as I lay in bed I thought back to the last few days and how much things had change in a span of a few days. How I turned my back on my immediate family to care for a creature that could one day kill me, accident or not. I doubted that Tulak would accidentally squish me to death or eat me, there was one thing that I did not doubt and that was the size he would eventually grow to. It was evident to me that Tulak would one day grow to be bigger than Kodiak, or even my old house. And that he would physically and mentally, if what I saw that morning was any indication, grow at an incredible pace. As I drifted off to sleep I wondered if he would once again double in size overnight.

        To my relief, when I saw him the next day, he was the same size that he had been the night before. And Kodiak was unharmed, which was a bonus. It also looked like Tulak had eaten so I fed and brushed Kodiak, I had bought a brush for him the day before, then I went back in the inn to feed myself. When I felt refreshed and ready to take on the day, we resumed walking through Remaple. And by “walking” I meant ducking in and out of the maple forest to avoid villagers and other travellers. There were more people out and about that day then there had been the previous one. Yeah Remaple's villagers lived farther apart from one another, but that didn't mean they didn't leave their houses and walked around. They were only human, and humans can't always stay indoors, even hermits came outside once in a while. So that last day that we were in Remaple we played hide and seek with its inhabitants. To be honest it was both a little challenging to hide myself, a horse, and a dragon baby, but it was also fun to do so and exciting. It was the most fun I had since my sixteenth birthday.

        By the time we had left behind Remaple and were back on the open road I was laughing and smiling. I had managed to scare a few villagers when Kodiak would just emerge from some part in the forest and we'd gallop across villagers working. They'd jump a mile in the air, then yell at me. While they were too busy with yelling at me, Tulak would zip across the trail and into the forest that Kodiak and I were in. Those angry villagers were too busy with me to notice that a baby golden-brown dragon had just ran in front of them. It was also fun having Tulak chase us, I believe it was also relieving for Kodiak as he ran. He'd been tense and making him run was a good way for him to release all that tension. While we were on the open road and I was still smiling I looked down at Tulak when I felt even happier. He seemed to be happy that I was smiling.

        “Yeah, Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss has some explaining to do. Like a lot. Don't you agree, Tulak?” I said to him. My reply was a light growl. “I completely agree with you.”

        He looked a little confused, but he still happily fallowed us. By the end of the day I was use to riding Kodiak and had an extra bounce to my step. One more day of riding Kodiak and we'd be at Esterhaven, and the glorious thing about where Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss lived was that their house, property was just on the outside of Esterhaven, they didn't even really live in Esterhaven just outside of it. That meant that no one bothered them and that their place was completely surrounded by forest. And there's a river right by their property, so that meant that Tulak could run around freely on their property. Another thing to look forward to once we got there: no more hiding him in my clothes, ripped or not.

        I had more trouble falling sleep that night then the other nights, and it had nothing to do with the lack of meat. Yes, I had been given money, but I didn't have enough left over to buy meat. After I paid for my room at the inn I only had left over to buy another small loaf of bread. When we had left Remaple I had no more money left to spend. I was too excited to sleep right away anyway, and I didn't really care. For the first time since we set off for Aunt Agatha's I didn't worry about Mother finding us or anything else. That night I truly believed that once we'd get there they'd make all my worries and problems go away. I was deluding myself since life never worked out like that. But I refused to believe that I was doing so. So most the night I went from laying on my left side, to laying on my right one, to laying on my back, to my stomach, and repeat. When I did finally went to sleep my previously clean clothes was now a little muddy, but mostly had a lot of dirt on them. That night I had no dreams, like the previous night, although if I did have them I didn't remember them which was probably a good thing since I tended to obsess over my dreams and what they meant. Like I had done so with the one with dragons and elves, I believed that it had some sort of deep meaning.

        I woke up before the sun did the next morning. Actually I had been the first one awake. Both Kodiak and Tulak were still sleeping, and so I took my time doing my morning business and eating my last apple for breakfast. I still had a whole day of ridding ahead of me and when I'd arrived at my destination I'd be starving. The bread I left for snacking while travelling, for a second I thought that I could have some of what ever Tulak would bring back, but then I looked in the direction that had buried the rest of what he had eaten the night and I remembered how he had ate everything but the bones and decided against sharing his kill. Besides I had heard him growl when Kodiak had wandered in his direction while he ate, I don't think it would have been a great idea for me to try and take some meat for myself. Also I had nothing to cut the meat with, I doubted that I was physically strong enough to rip the meat off the bones. So I dismissed that idea entirely.

        I waited a little impatiently while Tulak hunted and Kodiak ate after they had woken up on their own. By the time they had woken up, did their business, ate, and we were back on open road it was mid-morning. Not to mention I was a little irritable, I could see our goal in my mind, it was so close yet so far away. And that was seriously annoying me. And my annoyance was picked up by both Tulak and Kodiak, that sixth sense and all that, and so they themselves were annoyed. So we each annoyed one another that last day. Thinking back on it now, I find it funny, but back then I didn't find anything funny. Nothing that happened, or delayed us was funny. Because Kodiak was annoyed he stubbornly often refused to move to help hide Tulak when we would come across another traveller. And because Tulak was annoyed he'd run away from the dress and nightgown I'd try and drape over him. And their refusal to do as I told them further annoyed me and so I'd stomp my feet and growl at Tulak to stop moving and stay still, then I'd tug on Kodiak's reins. I had to make him lay down like I had just before we had entered Merrowport.

        By the time I could actually see Esterhaven it was already night and I was mad. Mad at how long it had taken us to get to Esterhaven from Remaple, mad at Mother for trying to end an innocent baby's life, mad at Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss for not telling what the stone had really been (by then I had convinced myself that they had known that the stone really had been Tulak's egg), and mad at myself for getting irritated in the firstplace. But I was determined not to spend another night outside, so I kept us going. I didn't bother to head straight to the inn in Esterhaven, instead when we got near the first building I pulled Kodiak's reins to the left and for the first time that day he didn't protest he just fallowed my command. Tulak fallowed us, I tried to fallow the barely used trail up to Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss's house. Like I said I tried to fallow it, but it was hardly visible in the night with no light to eluminate it, so we often veered off coarse. It was Tulak's golden-brown scales that would direct Kodiak back to the trail, when we'd go off it he'd stay on it. He sometimes had to growl to get my attention, and despite how dark it was I could somewhat see him and so made Kodiak fallow him instead.

        The walk from Aunt Agatha's to Esterhaven normally took three hours and a half, by horse back it normally took an hour or so, so Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss never went into town unless absolutely necessary. Doesn't mean the people of Esterhaven didn't know them or of them. They did. Aunt Agatha had married Uncle Tarniss when she was seventeen and he nineteen. Back then Uncle Tarniss was an officer that had been hired by the Violetcrest mayor to protect the villagers from the bandits that use to live in the forest. Him along with Father not only got rid of the bandits but they also had spotted large predators that could indirectly do what Uncle Tarniss had been hired for. Mother met Father through Uncle Tarniss, they had been the best of friends and when Father had gone to Violetcrest to visit his best friend he met Mother as she, Aunt Agatha, and Uncle Tarniss spoke to one another. Mother was nineteen when she had met Father, a year later they were married. I never knew Father's age, I just fighured her had been around the same age as Uncle Tarniss was back then. Anyway, the ones to have married first was not Mother and Father but Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss. Three months after they were married, Mother and Father got married. Father decided to stay in Violetcrest with Mother in the home that she and Aunt Agatha had grown up in. While Mother had been pregnant with Karl, Father built the house that I had been raised in. Uncle Tarniss had decided to move back to Esterhaven where he had grown up, and Aunt Agatha had fallowed. Both men, Father and Uncle Tarniss, had agreed with Mother that family was important and Uncle Tarniss and Aunt Agatha would go down to Violetcress for every birthday. Well Uncle Tarniss went to Violetcrest whenever he could. Being a soldier meant that he was at the beck and call of the king of Aslington, he still is but he has more free time now.

        Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss lived in his parents' home until they died from crashing their carriage during a rain storm. Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss built their own house just outside Esterhaven. From what I could tell they loved being secluded and so far away from nosey neighbours. Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss had no children because they couldn't have kids, they tried many times but Aunt Agatha still bore no child. Apparently it was on them both for a while, but they accepted things and continued to be husband and wife. Their marriage, as well as Father and Mother's was not out of convenience but of love. I too hoped to marry out love one day, but that particular dream was put on hold. It was such a relief to see their house two hours later that the weight that I had on my mind and chest just disappeared altogether, and my spirits were lifted once again.

        Their house hadn't changed since I had last seen it, well except for the fact that it was dark inside. There was not one source of light coming from the house that I could see. Then again their house was a three story one, basement, main floor, and second floor. The basement was were Aunt Agatha stored the extra wood for their chimney, and her art supplies, she was an artist. The main floor had a parlour room, a living room where she and Uncle Tarniss spent their time together, a kitchen, the bathing room, and a dinning room. The second floor was where their room was as well as two other guest rooms, there was also the powder room. Their outhouse was a little further than the main house on the left just behind it, and on the right of the house was the barn where they kept their three cows, chickens, and two horses. If they ever needed meat they either hunted in the surrounding forest or they went into Esterhaven to buy some and a few other essentials.

        Now I had said that Aunt Agatha was an artist and Uncle Tarniss had been in the army (a soldier) when they had met and married. Uncle Tarniss didn't stay as a soldier, he later became the army's top healer, his mother and father had been Esterhaven's healers, and so he had learned from the best. They had been very much in demand and so was he now that he was the army's top healer. I was proud of my family members and what each had accomplished. Mother was an expert on plants; poisonous, medicinal, edible, she knew them all and had passed that knowledge down to Daniella and I. I was just glad that we had reached our destination before I ran out of food and would have been reduced to eating plants. Aunt Agatha's paintings were in high demand, she painted beautiful scenery and was a master at making tapestry. Father had become Violetcrest's law enforcer and could find any and all missing children, wives, husbands, and grandparents. When Father had died Karl had taken over his job, he wasn't as good as Father had been, but he still had the highest rate at finding missing people and killers, his wife was wonderful at keeping all his files and documents in order. Takna enlisted in the army and was sent home when he had been injured to his knee, its completely healed now but he had a slight limp in his walk, and so he helps Karl manage Violetcrest's criminals. Takna's wife was the best weaver in all of Violetcrest and happily managed their children.

        I got off Kodiak and walked him over to the barn, I tied his reins around the barn handles then walked to the front door. Tulak fallowed me to the front steps and I was too tired to make him stay with Kodiak. As I knocked on the front door I honestly hoped that Mother hadn't figured out where I had gone and if she had I hoped that I had beaten her to getting to her sister's. I knocked on the door again and waited. While I waited I hoped that someone was home, and while I hoped that the animals in the barn began making noise. I figured that they could smell Tulak and knew exactly what he was. I knocked again and stepped back. I was getting worried and so Tulak climbed the stairs and stopped on the last one before he could get on the small front porch and gently rubbed his head against my thigh in an effort to comfort me. Just as I decided to sleep in the barn and try again in the morning the door opened.

        “Sara-oh. My. God.” Aunt Agatha said as she opened the door ans saw Tulak and I. Her short blond hair resembled a rat's nest (I had once seen one, disgusting little creatures), she had dark circles under her brown eyes, and she wore her blue robe. She looked like she had been sleeping before I woke her up, which was what she probably had been doing. Its what I chose to believe that she had been doing before I disturbed her. “It actually hatched. What happened to your face? So it was a golden one. Why are you looking at me like that?”

        “You knew. You knew that the stone wasn't a stone. I mean you did say when I opened the box that contained it that it was special. You knew and you didn't even leave so much as a manual or guide lines on how to care for him. And I hope that Mother isn't here.” I said to her angrily.

        “Clara? Did she do that to your cheek? And no, she isn't here.” Aunt Agatha answered. “Come inside and we'll talk.”

        “After I put Kodiak in the barn.” I said.

        “Who?”

        “A pinto that I was given to travel with.”

        “Oh. I'll lend you a hand.”

        Together we got Kodiak settled in a free stall, and by we I really mean her. I had tried to go in and help, but Tulak fallowed me in and made the other animals inside the barn nervous and so waited for Aunt Agatha outside. I constantly looked at the surrounding woods trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. But I might as well have been looking for a needle in a haystack. My eyes and I hadn't been trained to detect those types of things, hell I still couldn't hunt. I tried to do that that morning while Kodiak and Tulak slept and it just didn't  go right. My impatience probably hadn't helped at all. Once Kodiak was comfortable and fed Aunt Agatha locked the barn door and began to walk to the house. She stopped when she noticed that I was alone.

        “Where is it?” She asked a little panicked.

        “He went hunting for his diner. Don't worry he'll leave your livestock alone. He prefers fauns and other easier game. Birds that can't fly don't interest him and horses and cows are way to big for him to take down on his own. Its what I learned from watching him hunt this last week. And he doesn't go after humans.” I explained. “Don't worry he'll be back soon and most likely will bring his meal along with him.”

        “So its male. Does he have a name?” Aunt Agatha asked as she looked at the woods trying to find him. I smiled tenderly.

        “Tulak. I named him Tulak.”

        “Good name. Its a sroooo.....” Her voice came to a faltering stop when she saw Tulak draging back another faun up to just in front of the house.

        “Watch what he does next. Its ingenious.” I said as Tulak left the dead faun then raced back into the woods. We waited a few minutes and he reappeared swiping the ground with his tail to erase the tracks dragging the dead faun had done. “He even covers up his tracks so that no other animal or person fallows them.”

        “You're, uh...right. It's ingenious. D-does he do that every time he hunts?”

        “From what I observed, yeah.”

        “And he's just a baby, right?”

        “Yup.”

        “Tarniss always said that they were intelligent.” She mumbled as she sat down on the front steps. “Tell me what's happened, Sara. And leave nothing out.”

        So I did. Well there were a few things that I left out, I didn't tell her that Tulak had pissed on me soon after he hatched or that he'd been nameless for the first two weeks of his birth. But I told her everything else, Mother attacking him and injuring me, me protecting him, my lunacy jump off the cliff, my meeting Tanekal the werecat, and everything else that happened to us on our journey. And all the while I spoke she listened without interrupting me and Tulak ate his meal. When he was done we had been sitting in the silence for a while. I had ended my story when he was half way done with his meal.

        “We'll go inside once we've buried the bones. There I'll reheat what I had for super for you, after you'll bathe and get some sleep. We'll talk more in the morning. Unfortunately shortly after we got home Tarniss had been summoned to Ashmill to heal some foolish new recruits and I fear that he won't be back anytime soon. Still I'll send him a letter about your arrival tomorrow. I also fear that Clara will arrive here tomorrow, so as a precaution I'll have you and Tulak stay at Tarniss's cabin. It's where he keeps the sick travellers that stop by. Don't worry I clean it out every two days.” Aunt Agatha said as she stood and walked over to the remains.

        “Thank you Aunt Agatha.” I said as I fallowed her.

        “Don't thank me yet, Clara is relentless when there's something she wants. I may not be able to get her to leave here as fast as we'd like.”

        “That, I don't doubt.”

        Together we buried the bones, however this time Tulak helped dig the whole. He had fun throwing the dirt in the air. He watched us place the bones in the whole and cover them with the dirt. Once that was done we entered the house, Aunt Agatha worried that he wouldn't fit in, I didn't. He was small enough to roam around their house. When we entered were in the front hall, the first two door room that was on the left was the parlour room, further down the hall opened up into the living room, the doors several feet behind the couch led to the dining room, and the door on the left wall led to the kitchen. And the door across from the couch, next to the fire place, led to the bathing room. Between the parlour room and the kitchen were the stairs that led to the second floor and the door right next to stairs opened up to the stairs that led to the basement. If anyone who would be led to the dining room looked up they'd see a small porch with four doors. The first door led to their room, the second room next to theirs was the powder room, and the next two rooms on the powder room's left were the guest rooms.

        Aunt Agatha didn't hesitate. She led Tulak and I, after locking the front door, straight to the kitchen. As soon as she was inside the kitchen she began heating up the soup, chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies for me. Once they were warmed up she prepared me a bowl and a plate. While I ate she wrote her letter to Uncle Tarniss and Tulak explored the parts of the house that he could. When her letter had been written she went to prepare her bath for me and I finished my meal. After tasting a warm meal at the inn in Merrowport I craved for another, and now that I had I vowed to learn how to hunt. I became sick and tired of eating apples and bread as a meal.

        I bathed with Tulak in the room sniffing around and Aunt Agatha constantly pocking her head in the room to see if I needed a anything. She was happy to lend me one of her nightgowns and hand me towels. I could tell that Tulak made her a little nervous, which was very understandable. But I nearly lost it when she asked if I could leave Tulak in one of the guest rooms and shared her room. I reminded her that Tulak was still just a baby, and that he'd been sleeping next to me since he was hatched. I also said that he wouldn't harm us, then chose the farthest guest room from her bedroom, let Tulak in, went in myself and closed the door. I looked around the room. The decor was simple, neutral, the bed was in the middle of the wall I faced when I walked in, there was a dresser right across and in front of the bed, and on each side of the bed were nigh tables, on top of each one were candles in candle holders. And to complete the room was a window in the middle of the right wall. The room was cozy, and I mentally thanked Aunt Agatha for having the bed done.

        That night I dreamt of another meadow, though this time I had no idea where this one was located. And the surrounding woods were totally quiet. Normally one would hear a bird chirp, or wings flapping, or any animal sounds. But there was not one sounds, there wasn't even a breeze. And the stillness actually was scaring me, I found it unnatural, a forest had have life in it. As soon as that thought crossed my mind I knew something was deeply wrong.

        “Indeed something is deeply wrong, my dear.” A voice I knew all too well said.

        “Father?” I asked as I turned around and searched for him. “Father? Father!”

        “Hush, child, there's no need to shout. My hearing is not impaired.”

        “Oh, sorry. Where are you Father? Is this really happening? Is this really all a dream?”

        “I know you are full of question, daughter, and demand answers. But our time here is limited. Honey, stay strong and never falter. Trust Tarniss and Agatha, they will help you.” Father said.

        “Help me with what? Why me?”

        “Because of you lineage, I am so very sorry. I never wanted to bring any of my family to be dragged into all this. I should have listened to my mother and Tarniss, I never should have left.”

        “Left? Left what?”

        “My father had been right, I was a nadorhuan. I tried to go back, to restore things as they were, fix what I had done. That didn't happen.”

        “Father you are not a cowardly dog. You never were.”

        “So much that you do not understand my child. So much that you do not know.”

        “Then tell me, make me understand, talk to me like you use to, Father.” The ground shook, and there was a breeze.

        “This place is falling apart. I can longer hold it together. No, that is not right. More like this is a lasting memory, a tiny part of my soul. It is now being reunited with the earth of which we were born on, walk on, lived on, I can now fully go home and be reunited with my father and apologize. Lle maa quel, and lle ume quel and continue doing so my dear. I am sorry that we did not have more time together.”

        “Father? No! Don't go! Please! I don't want you to tell me that I look good or that I've done well!”

        “Aa' menle nauva calen ar' ta hwesta e' ale'quenle.” Father whispered.

        “Aa' menealle nauva calen ar' malta.” I whispered back with tears in my eyes. Even in my dreams my father was killed. I woke up to Tulak gently rubbing his head against my wet cheek. I did something to him that I had yet to do: I hugged his neck and allowed myself to cry a little. Once I decided I had cried enough I got out of bed, saw that it was morning, changed into the clothes Aunt Agatha had laid out for me; black pants, a white shirt, a white under shirt, clean undergarments, and I put on the brown boots I wore the day before. The I left the guest room with Tulak fallowing me, we had just gotten on the first floor when I saw that Aunt Agatha was at the door, over her shoulder I saw whom had knocked: Daniella. My heart felt with the knowledge that Daniella most definitely had not travelled all the way there alone. I turned to run into the kitchen to escape through the back door, I heard it open.

        'Shit.'

        Mother was in the kitchen.

Chapter 4

        I had to admit, Mother's plan had been well thought out. She'd send Daniella to the front door to occupy Aunt Agatha and she herself would enter through the back door blocking both exits and essentially trapping me inside. Although well thought, the doors weren't the only exits the house had. I looked at the living room windows, those wouldn't do, one; they were too far away and we wouldn't have the time to open them and slip out through them unnoticed, and two; they didn't open. So I quickly turned around, confused Tulak, and raced up the stairs. I thanked the Lord that the stairs didn't creak and that Tulak fallowed me up the stairs. We reached the top of them just as Aunt Agatha turned around having heard noise from the kitchen and Mother saying: “Where is she? Where is she Agatha?!”

        “Clara? What are you doing? Where's who?And why'd you enter through the back door? It's very rude to do so.” Aunt Agatha said as I opened her bedroom door, got in and quietly encouraged Tulak to hurry inside. I closed the door just as Daniella said: “Its terrible Auntie, Sara ran away!”

        'If only she knew.' I thought as I looked around Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss's room. The room looked just like the guest room I had slept in the night before, except the window was above their bed, and their room was more personalized, there was clothing male and female laying on the made bed.... 'Oh shit.'

        Mother and Daniella couldn't know that I had spent the night there. I needed to tidy the room up, last night I had thought that I'd have the chance to do so before she'd get there. She'd arrived earlier than I had anticipated, and I was about to open the door wide enough to see if I could sneak into the guest room and tidy it up a little, at the very least make the bed, however hurried footsteps climbing the stairs and Mother saying: “I know she's here, she wanted to visit, this is the place she would have come to.” reached my ears, so I couldn't. Instead I ran to the window, unlatched it, slid it open (the windows were the types that slid upwards and not those that could be pushed open), took several quick deep breaths, climbed out and silently thanked Uncle Tarniss for having the idea of putting a roof over the back porch.

        “Come on, hurry Tulak.” I whispered. I had to partly drag him out the window to get him to climb out onto the roof. Then I closed the window, walked to the edge of the roof, and then had to back up. My breathing quickened and shortened at the same time. “Oh God. Okay, okay, okay, okay.”

        I closed my eyes and ran, when I was airborne and falling I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. I hadn't had to do that when I jumped off the cliff because I had something to cushion my 'landing', I didn't have a river to land in when I jumped off the roof. When I landed on the ground I made sure not to land directly on my feet and roll. I again silently thanked Uncle Tarniss for teaching me that when I had gotten myself stuck in a tree on the edge of the forest back in Violetcrest. I had climbed the tree to save our neighbour's cat, and just as I got near it, the damn thing jumped out of the tree on its own. Daniella had to go fetch Uncle Tarniss, Karl, and Takna to get me down. It had been Mother's birthday, and the whole thing had been embarrassing. And still to this day my brothers laugh about it.

        As soon as I had done one full roll I stood up straight, turned around to tell Tulak to jump so I could catch him, only to have him hit me as he landed and we both fell to the ground. Have you ever had a dragon crash into you? No? Well let me tell you this; It. Hurts. And sadly that wasn't going to be the only time that that would happen to me. I pushed Tulak off me, got up and race for the woods. I had thought of hiding in the barn or the outhouse then I figured that Mother would check those places too. So we ran for the woods, Tulak easily passed me, since I had no idea where Uncle Tarniss's cabin was we had to hide out in the woods and wait for Aunt Agatha to come out and either tell me or show us the way to the cabin. And I hated waiting once I found a good place to hide, and be able to watch the back door for my mother. So, yeah we hid in bushes just slightly inside the woods facing the back of the house. Thinking back on it, it wasn't the safest or smartest place to hide a golden-brown dragon from someone who was hell bent on killing it. I believe what kept us safe from being found was that Mother was no hunter like I was at that time. She had no tracking skills despite her knowledge on plants, and I was thankful for that that morning.

        I stayed squatted next to Tulak for half an hour before I saw Mother storm out the back and went to look inside the outhouse. I was glad I hadn't decided to hide there. Mother had been fallowed by Aunt Agatha and Daniella. I couldn't hear what they said to one another but as Aunt Agatha fallowed Mother around the outhouse she dropped what looked like a sheet of paper. Had that been done on purpose? Was that for me? Either way I decided that I needed to go and grabbed that sheet of paper. Again, I probably shouldn't have done so as soon as they entered the barn. But I did. As soon as Daniella closed the barn doors I stood up and ran with all my might to the outhouse. I didn't even look at what was on the sheet of paper I just grabbed it and ran back to the woods. I stopped half way there when I noticed Tulak running towards the barn. He probably remembered Kodiak being there, or Mother from the night she attacked me, either way I couldn't let him get to the barn. I changed my coarse to intercept him. I had no immediate idea on how exactly I was going to do that, but I had to stop him.

        The idea came to me when I realized that I would never be able to stop him with my non existing body strength. I don't think he liked the way I stopped him, I know I didn't. But it was the only thing I could think of doing, and as I connected with his body I thanked Karl and Takna. They had always played rough with me and often tackled me to the ground, up until I went to Mother crying and muddy one too many times. She put a stop to their rough playing and tackling me to the ground, but thanks to that I was able to stop Tulak. That's right, I, Saraphina of Violetcrest, tackled a dragon to the ground. I doubt I would have been able to do that to a dragon older than Tulak was, but it worked on him. We once again connected with the ground.

        “You can't go into the barn, not while Mother is here.” I whispered to him. Come on, we get be here when they leave the barn.”

        I had to grab him by the left horn and pull him after me to get him to fallow. We re-entered the woods just as Mother walked out of the barn. She did not look happy. In fact I had never seen her so unhappy and angry. I thought it best not to stay put walked further into the woods. Once I thought it was safe to finally take a look at the sheet of paper. Aunt Agatha had written directions to Uncle Tarniss's cabin. Basically we had to travel north, Aunt Agatha was kind enough to have written: Or just fallow the red flowers I had planted when Tarniss had first built the cabin. They are red tulips, I planted them next to a tree, then bush, then tree, and so on. I had planted them not to loose my way back home. Tarniss had laughed at me but we had to use those flowers to get back after we had picked the spot for the cabin. Also you'll come across the river, you have to cross the foot bridge that I had insisted upon having. I'll entertain your mother for as long as I can. Everything you need to know about Tulak and his race is there, as well as information on your tattoo. Don't worry, the cabin is fully stocked. I'll see you when I can.

        Like Aunt Agatha had written in her not, I looked for the red tulips. Once I found the first one I looked for the other and so on. Actually there wasn't just one red tulip where Aunt Agatha had written they’d be, but a patch of them. She must have planted more once the older ones died out then let nature take its course. They led me to the river, I had to grab Tulak's left horn to keep him from going in the river, I learned that he loved to swim, and crossed it using the foot bridge. On the other side I looked for the next red tulip. It took a while to find one, like, a half hour. And when I did I felt proud that I had found it, that I hadn't given up looking for it like I wanted too after ten minutes of searching. But I looked back at Tulak and I continued to search. He represented that I was changing, that I could do other things then sow or any other things that society expected of women. And I like that change, so I continued to search for a patch of red tulips.  

        Once I, along with Tulak, found the red tulips we continued on to the cabin. We finally came upon on it when the sun was high in the sky and harshly beating down on us. I was exhausted from the hike, not use to it, and highly dehydrated. Tulak looked totally fine, I on the other hand was sweaty and the clothes I wore stuck to me. As did my hair, which annoyed me the most. So when I saw the cabin I became relieved. So I picked my pace. The cabin looked like any other cabin, it was small compared to their house and all on one floor. Maybe there was a basement, but if there was, there was only one way to find out if it had one and that'd be going inside and look around. And that's exactly what I planned to do, go inside the cabin and refresh myself. I walked up to the door, turned the doorknob, pushed at the same time as taking a step and walked right into the door. My nose was the door's first victim, then the rest of my face and the front of my body. I was relieved that there was no one else around except for Tulak. Or well I thought we were the only ones there. But I wasn't looking at the surrounding woods, nor did I know how to search for something out of the ordinary in the forest.

        My attention was on the locked door than the surrounding forest. It never occurred to me as we hiked to the cabin that the only door would be locked. And apparently it hadn't occurred to Aunt Agatha to warn me in her letter that the door was locked. So I looked around for a spare key for over an hour, and I also confused Tulak as I was on my knees and hands searching for a key. I probably looked ridiculous to him and anyone who would for some reason or another walk by the cabin and see me. I gave up on the key after searching for that hour and instead tried one of the front windws. When neither budged I tried one of the windows on the left side of the building. As soon as I saw them, three windows, each well spaced between each window, I realized that I had a whole other obstacle; height. Even if I got one of them opened, getting in through one of them would be nearly impossible. The bottom of the windows, the windows seals reached my chin, and back then I hardly had any upper body strength. I still tried each window as I thought that having those windows so high helped keep the cabin from being broken into. And there was nothing outside the cabin to help someone from breaking into the cabin. I made an 'aha!' smile as the middle one slid open an inch.

        Even though I hadn't spotted anything to step on to help me climb inside, and knew that there wasn't anything laying around, I still looked for something. When I didn't find anything I stomped my foot and looked at the open window and placed my hands on my hips. An idea struck me as Tulak walked under the window and lightly growled at the grass. It was a stupid one, and a dangerous one, but it was the only one I had.

        “Tulak, come here.” I called out to him. He looked at me, then happily walked over to me. I walked over to the opened window and he fallowed me. Then I forcibly made him stand under the window. “Okay, now its very important that you don't move. Just stay still. I hope you understand that I want you to stand still. And I hope that you can withstand my weight. Alright, here we go.”

        Getting onto Tulak's back was both scary, and challenging. He kept moving and, well have you tried standing on a three week old golden-brown dragon? Its not easy. There are the scales, the spikes on his back, and the fact that he couldn't in fact withstand my weight for too long. So I had to open the window the rest of the way and get inside all in one go. Pushing the window open was the easy part, climbing in was the hard part. I had to jump off Tulak to be able to get a part of my body inside the cabin. Actually I thought I could jump and pull all of my body through the window. I was proven wrong, I got my upper body through. At my hips my arms gave out and I fell. My legs hit the side of the cabin while my elbows hit the small desk under the window on the inside. And I hit my funny bones on both my arms, so it hurt. I also cried out in pain. I hadn't thought that there'd be anything under the window inside the cabin. I should have, but I didn't. So while the window seal dug into my gut I pushed the desk aside. I managed to push the left corner away before I couldn't stand the pain in my gut anymore and so I pulled the rest of myself into the room I was partially in.

        “Urgh.” I grunted as my body hit the floor. “Ow.”

        I laid there a minute before getting up, then I got up and left the room. I walked to the front door and was glad that the cabin would be big enough for Tulak to roam around the place. The 'main' room was both the living room and the kitchen, the room I had just gotten out of was most likely where the sick stayed, and so the room next to it was the room Uncle Tarniss stayed in when his patients would stay overnight. The place was cozy and warm even though no one had been staying in the cabin for a while. I unlocked the front door and walked around it to get Tulak. He was staring at the window I had gone through.

        “Tulak.” I called to get his attention. He looked around at me and then rushed over. When he reached me I rubbed his nose and the side of his face and I noticed that he was generating heat. More accurately it was his scales that were generating the heat. It made me worry and so I powered walked back into the cabin with Tulak fallowing me. Aunt Agatha had written that Everything I needed to learn more about dragons was somewhere in that cabin. As soon as I closed and locked the door I went on the hunt for those documents. I figured they were documents, you know like how the information I needed was written on paper. They weren't in the guest room, or Uncle Tarniss's room,or in the kitchen/living room. I spent the rest of the day looking for those paper and didn't find them. I should know, I turned the place upside down looking for those papers, it was as I was cleaning up that I spotted the trapdoor. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't had moved the carpet in the middle of the living room while I searched, it was as I was replacing it that I saw the trapdoor.

        'So there is a basement. Maybe that's where they are.' I thought as I looked at it. “Now, how do I open it?'

        I walked around it looking for a latch or something to help open it. I would have missed the latch facing the couch if it weren't for Tulak. He seemed to want to help me look, that or he felt like clawing at the wooden floor. Either way, the scratching got my attention and just as I was about to tell him to stop when I spotted the latch. It happened to be in front of him. He stopped clawing the floor when he noticed me staring at him, Tulak even backed up sheepishly. When I touched the latch there was a clicking sound, which I thought was a little weird. I looked at Tulak.

        “Here we go.” I said to him, he just cocked his head curiously. It was cute, really cute. “Alright.”

        I pulled on the latch, and the trap door fallowed along with it. I opened it the whole way and gently laid the door on the folded the carpet. It was so pitched black that I grabbed three candles, one was in a candle holder and so I lit that one first then returned to the open trap door. I looked inside once again, held out the lit candle so I could see, and saw stairs leading down. I then climbed down on the first step, and then slowly went down the stairs with Tulak nervously fallowing. I nearly tripped over three times going down those stairs, at the bottom of them I walked right into a table near the stairs. With the collision I made with the table it moved and scrapped along the stone floor.

        “This place better be organized at least. If its a total mess and makes no sense then I'm going to be so pissed because its going to take a while to go through it all.” I said to myself and Tulak.

        I walked along the table and saw candles in candle holders and decided to light them and any other candles that I saw. Within seconds the basement was lit and I didn't need to hold the candles I had brought along with me. I placed those on the table I had walked into. Once I could see clearly I looked around. There was three large tables, not including the one I walked into that was pretty small, along the first three walls you would see walking into the basement. On each table were papers and books, each neatly piled. I figured Aunt Agatha had something to do with the tidiness, she was a bit of a neat-freak. And along the wall behind be, I had to turn around to see it, were cabinets. Four to be exact, and they were pretty large. And each one had something written on it in a language that I didn't recognize but could read it.

        Yp'sn was across the doors of the first cabinet on the right. It meant 'Rider'. Pypgpn was across the doors of the second cabinet. It meant 'Protector'. Nyrn was across the doors of the third cabinet. It meant 'Warrior'. And Msyuym was across the doors of the last cabinet. That word meant 'Dragon'. I walked up to the first cabinet and ran my left hand across the beautifully written words. Whoever carved those words had taken special care to do so. Part of me believed that it was Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss that had carved the words on the cabinet, another part believed that someone else had done so.

        “Rider,” I said as I traced the word with my left fingers, “Protector,” I did the same with that word, “Warrior,”  again I repeated the action, “and, Dragon.” I scuffed and smiled. I looked back at Tulak, he was sniffing the tables. “Its like they knew that we'd come.” I said to him.

         I went back to the first cabinet, the 'Rider' one, and opened it. Inside there were white, grey, and black riding shirts of different sizes hanging on hangers. Under them were whips and reins, there was also some sort of small leather belt. I picked it up. However it was too small for any woman to wear, it was way too big to be a bracelet, and way to thick to be a necklace. As I put it back in its place I notice other ones like it,except in different sizes and colours. They were either brown or black, I also found other reins of different sizes and colours, black and brown. There were three drawers at the bottom, each held riding pants and gloves of different sizes.

        “Or at least they expected someone like us anyway.” I said to Tulak as I closed the doors and moved on to the one next to it.         

        Inside the cabinet that had 'Protector' engraved on it was similarly built to the 'Rider' cabinet. Except there were no reins, or weird leather circles, and riding clothing. There was clothing inside, but there were no pants. They were dresses, again each where a different size and different colours, this time more than three. There were white, brown, black, green, red, and golden ones. They each were soft to the touch, each had beautiful white vines on them. They were pretty dresses that even I would wear them. Under them were shoes that matched each dress. In the first drawer were daggers of all sizes, which surprised me. Some where as long as my forearm, and others as small as my hand. Some were straight and double edged, others where sharp on one end, and others were curved. I closed the doors to that cabinet and moved on to the next one.         

        What was in the 'Warrior' cabinet were things that one would expect. I understood that each cabinet had been designed and built the same. However in the 'Warrior' cabinet there wasn't any clothing. There were swords, curved, straight, double edged, skinny, large, one side sharpened. Just like the daggers. There was also a bow. There was chest armour instead of clothing. In the first drawer there were pants of all sizes and in the next two drawers was the rest of the body armour, a quiver, and in the last drawer there was arrows and arrow heads. I closed the drawers and the cabinet doors, then I stepped back and looked at the four cabinets.

        “They prepared well.”

        Tulak growled. I hoped that meant that he was agreeing with me and not that he was hungry. I looked back at him and then the tables full of information. It was high time I learned more about Tulak's race. So I picked the middle table, pulled out the chair, sat down and pulled over the first pile of paper and books towards me. Even the damn papers and the title on the books weren't written in the English language. They were written in the same language that was on the four cabinets. It frustrated me a little until I realized that not all the paper and books were in that language. The crossed out words, miss spelled words, and the little side notes told me that these were translations. I took the first book that I saw with the title: Aslington Dragons. And opened it, I thanked all the stars that I knew how to read; English and other unknown languages that I seem to know how to read.

        The first chapter was an introduction type of chapter. It spoke about several different types dragons, hundreds even. It also spoke a bit about the hunt for dragon meat but promised to get further into details in another chapter. The next three chapters were the one that had my attention, for it was what I was most curious about. Chapter one was about the colour of dragons' scales, how big they get and their intelligence. In the race of the Aslington dragons there were only six different coloured scales; red, orange, blue, black, green, and gold. The other five were the ones most spotted and were the reason behind humans fearing them. A few of them attacked and or kidnapped young beautiful woman. The dragons that either killed or attacked humans were usually because they either ran out of their own food supply or did so in self defence. As for kidnapping the beautiful young women it was so they could either have a trophy or just because they wanted to. Now as for the golden dragons, they are the rare of the rare. There was only a handful of gold dragons every thousand years or so. It also said that it was the gold dragons that lived the longest and were the largest of the Aslington dragons.

        The next chapter was about their diet. A whole chapter on a dragon's diet. The author of the Aslington Dragons book went into great detail on their diet. Dragons mostly ate large game, never humans. They preferred cows, large deer, horses, mouses, and so forth. If a dragon killed a human they never ate them. Which was both terrifying and relieving to know. Then the author went into great details of how the dragons hunted. They'd fly down, grab their pray, bring it back to near its nest, then eat it. And if it was a female dragon whose eggs had just hatched she'd rip the hunted animal a bit and let her babies kill and eat it. And the baby dragons would not learn to hunt until they were two months old and able to fly on their own. However the gold dragons were different. They never ate anywhere near their nests, or caves to protect their homes and eggs. And their babies would already be hunting by the age of two weeks old. They would kill babies of their eventual big prey, would take the baby whatever once it would be separated from its mother and then drag the baby away, bite its neck and snapping it killing the prey. The baby gold dragon learned to cover the drag marks the same way that its sex was hidden, it was already imbedded in its system. It didn't have to learn to hunt and cover its tracks, it already knew how to do so. Like it would know not to eat near its home when it'd be an adult.

        I looked back at Tulak. It explained why he knew how to hunt without me or another dragon teaching him how to. Or how to cover up his tracks. I hoped that Tulak wouldn't one day grow to seventy feet high. But just because his kind were usually the largest dragons didn't mean that he himself would become that large. I really hoped that he wouldn't. And I also hoped that he would live a long and happy life, just like any parent hopes for their child. I just wouldn't pressure Tulak into marrying. The thrid chapter spoke about a dragon's attack, self-defence, their age, and finally their habitat. It mostly focused on their attack and self-defence. The way that one would think a dragon attacked was the way they did; fire they produced and their claws.

        'An Aslington dragon attacks with its fire , claws, and tail. Contrary to popular belief a dragon's fire does not in fact come from their stomach. The fire they create comes from the flammable venom they produce. Dragons secrete a piece of iron pyrite in their lower jaw. When they release the venom, they jiggle their jaw and thus creates sparks from the pyrite. Like a chain reaction the sparks then ignite the venom and so creates the fire they spit out. Their fire is usually used as a weapon to either attack other dragons or on occasion burn down cities. There is no explanation as to why smoke comes out of a dragon's nostrils other than its annoyed or angry, if either run. Their claws are used to shred their enemies. Their tail used to swipe their opponents, a swipe from a dragon's tail could easily kill just like its claws and fire. They also use their tails to stab like an arrowhead, the spike there instantly killing its target. Unless the target dodges the tail. And as for their self-defence, their scales protect its body, the horns on the back of its head. Their bodies are nearly indestructible. There are places that have no scales on the dragon's body, like between the side of its body and its legs or its wings and the inside of a dragon's mouth. However no human has ever been fast enough to impale a dragon in its mouth. Every Aslington dragon have the same attacks and self-defence mechanisms, even the gold dragons. If dragons have additional claws, they use them.'

        I looked at Tulak, he laid down behind me and was asleep. It was no brainer as to what the scales, spikes, and horns were used for. One would have to be an idiot not know that. I returned to the book and resumed writing and memorizing the information before me. It also said the normal life expectancy for a dragon was from 250 years to about 500 years. Golden dragons could live up to 600 years and some to a  thousand years. In order for a dragon to live so long it has to be a skillful hunter and be very healthy. No wonder the gold dragons lived the longest, they ate and hunted far away from their homes and so made it harder for other dragons and people to kill them and make their hunting harder. Aslington dragons lived in caves where they usually horded gold inside their caves, and they loved anything shiny that's worth of value. Or well it applied to most dragons, some didn't always fallow that. The type of dragon that didn't always live in caves, horde gold or took anything shiny of value were the gold dragons. They seem to challenge the ways of the dragons and did things their own way.

        The fourth chapter talked about the hunting of dragons. Humans had began to hunt them when this book had been written and translated, over the years someone had updated it. At the beginning humans just stole an egg or two when both the parents had gone off to hunt. Back when the humans began to hunt the dragons food was scarce for both dragons and humans. One human let the baby dragon hatch one day and out of sheer desperation killed it and fed its meat to his family. From then on humans hunted the babies after they had hatched. Then the humans moved on to older dragons, their meat was the richest, their scales became in high demand and so began the war between humans and dragons. Both races nearly drew each race to near extinction. Humans repopulated Aslington faster then dragons, and they prevented dragons from repopulating by going after their eggs and so their race nearly died out in Aslington. Another for humans still being around was thanks to the gold dragons that fought their own kind. It didn't say why they did so, only that they had done so.

        And the last chapter spoke of the humans that had been smart enough to let the history of Aslington and dragons to continue on telling those that seek the truth the truth of what had happened. That there were some humans that were tasked with keeping the truth of our past safe. And it also spoke of other races, aside from dragons and humans, that also roamed this earth alongside us. It didn't say which those races were or where they supposedly roamed. I put aside the book and began reading some papers. I would have continued to read and absorb the information if my stomach hadn't made some noise. I decided to put reading some more aside and got up. The chair scrapping against the floor woke up Tulak, and when I climbed the stairs to the main floor he fallowed me.

        Like Aunt Agatha had written, the kitchen had been well stocked. All it missed was some meat. But with the ingredients that were there I was able to make some stew, minus some meat. While the stew was cooking I let Tulak go out and hoped that he would be discrete in his hunting. And just as I decided to fallow him into the woods to get him and make sure he was alright, he reemerged, then went to hide his tracks. That time I went along with him. I brushed away my own foot prints with a branch that still had its leaves on it, so it was like I was brushing the forest ground with a broom. When we got back to the cabin and the dead baby cow, the stew was done and the sun was setting. I wouldn't allow Tulak to bring the dead animal back inside, and so I watched him eat his dinner then buried the rest of it. Once we were done burying it we went inside so, I, myself could eat.

        It had taken the rest of the day to read that book on Aslington dragons. I figured that I had read enough for that day and so when I went back in the basement it was to blow out the candles, all but one so I could find my way back upstairs. Again Tulak fallowed me wherever I went. Once I had closed the trap door I wondered how the books, papers, and the cabinets hadn't smelled like something that had been boxed for a while. Then I figured that Aunt Agatha somehow aired out everything that was down there. After closing the trap door I replaced the carpet and finished cleaning up. When everything was back where they belonged I heated up some water for the bath I planned to take. An hour later the bath was ready and I was in it, it was relaxing. When I had bathed, and wore one of Aunt Agatha's smaller nightgowns, I sat on the couch that faced the window on the right of the door if you stood facing it outside, it was on the left of the door if you stood facing it inside. Then I sat watching the woods for a bit before laying down on it and falling asleep.

        I woke with a sore neck and my left leg was hurting from sleeping on my left side all night long. What had woken me up was the front door lock being unlocked. I sat up fast just as the door opened and Aunt Agatha walked in. Tulak growled as she entered the cabin and I had to give it to Aunt Agatha, she didn't show any fear only mild annoyance towards him growling at her.

        “Hello Sara. How'd you sleep?” She asked me as she went to the cabinet in the kitchen and placed the basket that she had brought with her. “I brought meat, bread, and some vegetables.”

        “I slept worries that Mother would find this cabin and try to kill Tulak. And I dreamt that some giant living breathing being tried to squash me to death. So I didn't sleep so well.” I said to her.

        “So you read the Asligton Dragons book. Its the only book, thing down there that Tarniss would let me read. He said it was so I knew how to defend myself against dragons. I have no idea how any of that knowledge would actually help me defend myself against dragons.”

        “True. That knowledge won't help you defend against a dragon. It'll help me since I'm raising one.” I said as I stood.

        “Has Tulak grown since last night?” Aunt Agatha asked as she looked at him.

        “Tulak stop growling at her. And he probably did. He does look a little bigger today.”

        “I guess that's normal. Any way I don't have long. I had to leave Clara and Daniella while they slept last night to bring you the food I brought over and see if you guys were alright. I can't stay long. I left them a note saying that I'd be back from getting groceries from the town, so we have a few hours.”

        “A few hours to talk?”

        “No, a few hours to begin training.”

        “Training? Training for what?”

        “To protect Tulak and this land.”

        “Excuse-me?”

        “So go get dressed. Wear pants and a shirt. I want you down here in ten minutes.” When I didn't move she gave me a look, and I decided not to question her no more and went to go and do as she said. Fifteen minutes later I emerged from her room wearing black pants, a white shirt, and brown boots. “Good, now eat this. Then meet me outside, bring Tulak.”

        She gave me a sandwich then went outside. I saw no other option than do as she instructed. Once I had eaten and braided my hair back I left the cabin with Tulak. Outside Aunt Agatha turned into a commando and immidiately ordered Tulak and I to run from the cabin to the tree she had tied a red ribbon around the trunk and back. She told me to stay on the small path on the ground. When I asked her how many times I had to do it she said: “As many times as I say no go!”. I was winded by the time I returned to the cabin, she said that I was too slow. She made me run to the damn tree twenty times, and each time I ran – jogged – to the tree I tripped over the uneven ground. I fell ten times over on my way back to the cabin. Tulak loved the running. I didn't. Then when Aunt Agatha said that I had ran/jogged enough she told me to do thirty push-ups then thirty sit-ups. By the time I had done all that she had asked me to do, I was drenched in sweat, I couldn't breath normally, and I had trouble getting up from the ground.

        “I was expecting better from you, Sara.”

        “You have met me, right? I am the least athletic person in the family. I would get winded from running away from some of the men that chased me back in Violetcress.”

        “Still, I expected better. You will do the same exercises tomorrow and so until you are not so sweaty and out of breath. I've got to go back and you need to learn more about what you need to do for and with Tulak. You need to read more about our land's history.” She began to walk away. “And I'll know if you skip your workouts.”

         I asked myself how exactly she'd know that then I realized that I would be far worse off than I already was. Besides I liked the idea of being in good shape, however I didn't see how running, doing push ups, and sit-ups would help me protect Tulak. Seeing how I had no one else to help me understand Tulak's race, and that Aunt Agatha seemed to know things that I didn't I decided to do as she said. So once I went inside the cabin I wiped my sweat off and changed into a light green dress. I figured that the clothes that was in the guest room was for the patients and so would be alright for me to borrow. Once I was dressed I made a snack then went downstairs.

        This time I had decided to read from the stack of papers instead of a book. Some were in English others in that weird language. The papers I read about spoke about what exactly a protector's job was. Protectors protected dragons from hunters, be them human or not. They were to hide their weapons and kill like an assassin, and they were also tasked with passing on the knowledge that was left behind  for them. They protected ancient traditions, languages, and ancient civilizations. Their job sounded pretty cool actually. It sounded like something I could easily do, and it sounded really easy to do. Then I came across a sentence that made no sense at all: Protectors are pretty, smelly, and Sandy and Elly are gorgeous. So I had to go and see the original writing. It took twenty minutes to find it. I skipped most of the info until I got to the sentence that had made no sense. Pypypyl hps pr n han tg pr myw mnm han pywpol wnym m lpyg mnm han mmij mhyr hu yntm lpynm lgyz huom trympn pr hyl. The correct translation for that sentence was: Protectors had to use their looks to bring down their target's guard and strike down their enemies before they could spread secrets they'd learned to others.

        I found that a lot of the original writing had been somewhat mistranslated, and so I spent a good portion of that afternoon writing down the correct translations and retaining nothing or very little. I had to think often and to go to other translations to see if I had it right before writing things down. So my mind was a little all over the place. And if I was being honest I would say that I was having fun translating, don't get me wrong I loved to read, but sometimes it would get boring and translating those texts gave me a challenge mentally. When I called it a quits that night I was pretty satisfied. Tulak seemed happy as well. Before I went to bed I made sure that the leftover bones were buried and that each window and the front door was locked.

        I woke up early the next morning and did the same exercises. Then I had a snack and went down to the basement to resume translating. And that had become my knew routine; wake up early, do exercises, eat snack, translate texts until evening, eat dinner, bury the leftover bones from Tulak's meal, bathe and go to bed, then repeat. By the time we'd stayed at the cabin after a week Tulak's shoulders reached my chest and it was getting harder to get him inside. Not because he didn't want too, but because he was getting too big to fit through the door. And we got another visit from Aunt Agatha, this time she told us that Mother had decided to continue on after she had thoroughly searched Esterhaven and Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss's property. Mother had told Daniella to go back to Violetcrest on her own and to stay with Karl and his wife. Both Aunt Agatha doubted that Mother would leave Esterhaven without checking the woods first so we had a limited time to continue my training before Mother would find the cabin. Unless you knew to fallow the patches of tulips then it would take weeks of searching the woods before anyone would find the cabin.

        “Have you continued your reading?” Aunt Agatha asked as I caught my breath. I had just done my morning workout with Tulak.

        “Not really. I spent most my time translating. A lot of the English translation is wrong.” I said, this shocked Aunt Agatha.

        “You....you can read the original texts?” She asked.

        “Yeah, weird right?”

        “So you know what is written on the cabinet doors and such?”

        “Sure. Why? Is that uncommon?”

        “Uncommon? Uncommon?I'd say it is. What does the writing on the cabinets say?”

        “Rider, protector,warrior, and dragon. And in that order.”

        “Oh, Lord. Oh my God. I don't believe it. You're her, the person. Oh oh oh oh. I knew it, I knew it. He wasn't human. Oh it should have clicked before, you all do have this unnatural beautiful and connection to others and the earth. Tarniss always said that I was imagining things.”

        “What are you about?!?”

        “Your the one.”

        “One what?” I said as she began to scare me. “You're starting to scare me Aunt Agatha.”

        “They say that a child born of two races, not confined to any of the four categories, partnered to a golden dragon would one day walk this earth. That child would unit the broken bonds between rider, protector, warrior, dragon, and would once again lead them through battles and bring peace to the races.” She answered, and that clarified nothing. “Ooh its destiny!”

        “Destiny?”

        “This changes everything. Your training for one. And of course a gold dragon would choose the person of legend.”

        “You are still not making any sense. Who is 'they'? Born of two races? What two races? And what do you mean that Uncle Tarniss lied? What'd he lie about? Speaking of him, have you heard from him yet?”

        “Later, today you will not read or translate, from now on its the same workout in the morning and combat training the rest of the day.”

        “Pardon?”

Chapter 5

        Aunt Agatha refused to explain anything. Instead she went down to the basement and brought up almost all of the swords of the Warrior cabinet. When she grabbed a sword and told me to do the same, I knew she had lost her mind. She then said she hadn't and that I would have to pick up a sword to defend myself seconds before she attacked me. Tulak growled and I ran to the pile of swords and grabbed one. It didn't feel right, but I had no time to think about it, because Aunt Agatha left me no room to think. She yelled commands and I tried to listen as well as guard myself. It didn't work too well, she bested me several times. My arms hurt, as did the rest of my body. But Aunt Agatha would not let me rest or catch my breath.

        Even when she said that practice was over, it didn't feel like it was. My hands wrung and were red. Aunt Agatha saw my red hands and said that the sword I had taken was not the one for me. I agreed, then I grilled her to tell me everything she knew, who 'they' were, and what exactly was going on. All she told me was that I would learn the answers in due time, I gave her a look. She then said that she didn't know whom exactly 'they' were, just that she had overheard Uncle Tarniss and Father speaking about that legend a few times. She said that she was as clueless as I when it came to what was going on. I suspected that she knew what was going on and didn't want to tell me just yet. And that was all she would tell me, we spent the time from after diner to just before bed choosing the right sword for me. I kept going back the golden hilt, double edged, and slim sword. Its sheath was golden-brown, like Tulak's scales, with gold swirls on it. And it did feel right when I held it.

        “Tarniss once said that that sword was once owned by the first human that fought for peace between the dragons and humans. There's also an engraving near the hilt.” Aunt Agatha said as I made my choice. I looked at it.

        “Huh, you're right.” I said as I read it. It was also written in the same language as the documents in the basement. Tut mi; Loyal one. “Loyal one, is that its name?”

        “No, its a trait of the wielder. Or could be that the forger just loved saying it.”

        “So could be there for any reason.”

        “Basically.”

        After that Aunt Agatha put away the swords, then went to bed. Too tired and exhausted I went to bed as well. Tulak stayed in the living room. The next morning Aunt Agatha woke us up, fed us, then gave me the belt to hold my new sword and told me go run. That week was full of exercising in the morning, eat something and drink water, then do sword play until evening. I often indirectly hurt Aunt Agatha when I would fall or trip, and never even touched her with my sword. I began to think of the sword as my own at the end of the week, and also by the end of the week Tulak was too large to fit through the front door. And so he had to sleep outside, and I had to sleep with the guest room window open. He slept under the window, and I had to often tell  him that I was alright. He wouldn't let me sleep in at all and wanted to spend his day with me, his surrogate mother. After a week of swordplay Aunt Agatha introduced me to daggers. More specifically, throwing daggers at a tree trunk. I never once hit the mark, even after a whole week of practising. I had no problem stabbing things, but I was always scared of either hitting Aunt Agatha or another living innocent creature. I still ended up scratching her, she also tried to get me to catch flying daggers. I never touched the hilts of those daggers, I always caught the daggers by the sharp parts of the dagger. Aunt Agatha got me to choose two daggers to keep I chose the two hunting knives. They seemed more badass and were easier to hold and throw. She spent the next week teaching me self-defence, all I can say about that week was that I was not made to punch someone. I never hit were Aunt Agatha instructed me too, and I went to bed every night tired and bruised. Aunt Agatha had less bruises than I did, but I still managed to get in some hits. The less said about my archery lessons, the better.

        “Where'd you learn all this stuff Aunt Agatha?” I asked her two nights before Tulak was two months old. If I had known what she had known that night then maybe things would have been different, or maybe I would have made things worse. Who knows?

        “Tarniss. He always believed that the dragon egg would hatch this generation, that one of Jonas's children would be the one to hatch and raise the baby dragon in the egg. I never really believed him, but he and your father still trained me. They offerd to do the same for Clara, she refused. She never knew about the egg and the legends and everything that I knew.”

        “Have you two ever eaten dragon meat before?” I asked.

        “Mother and Father had once stumbled upon a dying dragon and its baby. They killed both, told the king about the mother, gave the adult meat to the king and fed Clara and themselves the baby meat. Back then I refused to eat baby anything an I had thought it wrong to eat a baby dragon.” Aunt Agatha said. “We had seen Mother carry the baby dragon in, and shortly after the whole thing there was put a price for dragon meat and anyone that would hunt one would be richly rewarded. I doubt that the new king of Aslington, King Vicktor, even nows about dragon meat. His father had been a selfish bastard and was behind taking all our men for battles just because he could. Ever since King Vicktor became king its much more relaxed.Men can now choose their own professions and women can do farm work and such.”

        “Father was never in the army.” I pointed out.

        “King Philippe didn't like to have injured, old, or sick men in his army. If they didn't meet his requirements then he refused those men and gave them what he believed to be the shittiest jobs. Your father never met the requirements, so he stayed in Vilotcrest.” Aunt Agatha explained.

        Tulak growled from outside, reminding us that it was getting late. So we each said goodnight to one another then went to bed. The next morning my body was sore, and it hurt a little, but by then I had gotten use to the pain and it wasn't as bad as after the first week. Tulak greeted me when I went outside wearing the black pants, white shirt, and brown boots from the Rider cabinet. I was amazed at how big he'd gotten in just two months. He was now as big as a horse, and could now fly. He was never airborne for more than two hours, and could carry off his prey. He now ate baby whatevers that were no longer newborns, they were at least six or so months old. I was proud of how much he'd grown, physically and mentally. He was smart and getting even more, and Aunt Agatha said that me getting invaded by emotions that weren't mine was normal with having a dragon around. Despite having so much info on the race, Aunt Agatha said that they were still very mysterious creatures.

        While I went out on my run, Tulak flew over me and kept me in his eyesight. When we got back to the cabin Aunt Agatha was not outside, but someone else was. A young man, he couldn't be older than me actually, stood in front of the door waiting. Him standing there wasn't what had me stop in my tracks, and he didn't look surprised to see Tulak land next to me and he didn't react to Tulak's growl. What had me stop was that he looked just like the three male elves I had dreamt about when I had first left Violetcrest two months ago. Except he looked different. He had the pale skin, but whereas the elves I dreamt about had white hair, his was blond. He kept it tied back, he wore black pants, black boots, and a black shirt. He had daggers strapped to his thighs, held a bow, and had a quiver with arrows in it strapped to his back. There was also a side bag strapped to his back. His gorgeous blue eyes held my brown ones. What broke his spell was Aunt Agatha coming out of the cabin.

        “Good, you're back. You can carry this, its too heavy for me to carry. I had to drag up the stairs.” Aunt Agatha as she dragged a black bag that could fit a child inside. “I thought we'd have more time. We don't. Grab the bag, we have to go. Like you Clara got help.”

         “Mother? Aunt Agatha what's going on? Who's he?” I asked not moving.

        “You have told her nothing?” God, even his voice was smooth. The only thing that ruined it was the arrogance it held.

        “I told her everything she needed to know at the time. Sara grab the bag, we're leaving.”

        “I'm not going anywh-”

        “Grab the fucking bag now. We have an hour head start, we don't have the time I'd like.” I had never heard that tone come from Aunt Agatha. She sounded really angry. I grabbed the bag. I easily put the strap over my shoulder while Aunt Agatha went back in the cabin to grab the other bag I saw through the door. Instead she past it and went down to the basement.

        “What are you doing?” I yelled so she could hear me.

        “Setting the cabin on fire, burning everything.” She yelled back.

        “What!?” I exclaimed.

        “You need to hurry.” The male elf said. Aunt Agatha ran back up the stairs, grabbed the second bag, and momentarily stopped.

        “You've gotten stronger in one month.” She said in amazement. “This proves it so much more.”

        “Proves what? And why the hell are you burning down the cabin?”

        “To protect everything in it. Zaos, lead the way.” Aunt Agatha said to the elf.

        “Wait, wait, wait. You know this...elf?”

        “Talk later. We have to leave now.” Zaos said. Then he began to walk into the forest. Well more like jogged, and Aunt Agatha fallowed him.

        “We'll talk when its safe. For now let's just fallow Zaos.”

        “Who exactly is Zaos?”

        “I said we'll talk later.”

        The only reason that I fallowed them was because I was curious and furious at the same time. I wanted to both give them a piece of my mind, and to severely question each of them. Mainly Aunt Agatha. But questioning them and running with the load I had was not possible. We were going too slow to both Aunt Agatha's liking and Zaos's liking. I wanted to know what kind of help Mother had gotten, why they were so worried, and yeah the longer we jogged the angrier I got. I hated not knowing things, I hated that Aunt Agatha wasn't telling me everything. And that was why I stopped jogging and put the bag I held on the ground. Tulak stopped as well, Aunt Agatha didn't want him flying around and be spotted.

        “It's later and I am not taking another step until I am told what is going on. I don't care if its from the elf or you Aunt Agatha, but I will be told the truth. And you better hurry if we need to be hurrying.” I said angrily. Aunt Agatha stopped and looked back at Zaos. When he stopped as well she looked back at me.

        “We don't know who is helping Clara, but that person is skilled. And your mother was spotted at the river. Zaos said that she had spotted the red tulips and was fallowing them. When she'll find the cabin everything that's in the basement will be destroyed. Sara, if your mother had gotten down there and found the cabin it would be the end for you and Tulak. Clara is far more dangerous than you think and the only person that could calm her down has been dead for fourteen years.”

        “Mother wouldn-”

        “Look at what she's already done to you. You had the sense to run away from her and to get to me and Tarniss. You don't know your mother like we do. Jonas was a blessing, and I was relieved when they got married and had Karl. I thought that the person she had been before meeting Jonas had been completely gone. Then you told me what had happened that and I knew that she had reemerged.”

        “And him?”

        “A son of a friend of the healer and Jonas.” Zaos said as he surveyed the woods.

        “How do you know my father?” Instead of answering me, he looked at Aunt Agatha.

        “Does she at least know what she must do? What category she falls under?”

        “'She' is standing right here.” I said angrily.

        “She knows without my saying it. Now-” There was a whooshing sound and Aunt Agatha grunted. My eyes widened in surprise and mortification. An arrow was embedded in her chest. Then there were repeated whooshing sounds and I was tackled to the ground by Zaos while Tulak growled viciously at our invisible assailants. I heard more arrows penetrated Aunt Agatha.        

        “Order your dragon be quiet. He'll give our exact position away.” Zaos harshly whispered. But I couldn't move or say anything. All I could see was Aunt Agatha and the arrow in her chest. My hands shook uncontrollably. Seeing as how I wouldn't move or tell Tulak to be quiet Zaos got up, pulled me to my feet, shoved the bag I had placed on the ground towards to Tulak, bent down and grabbed the bag that Aunt Agatha had held. “Vanya sulie, voronwer.” He whispered to Aunt Agatha.

        I watched him close Aunt Agatha's eyes, then he grabbed the bag at Tulak's feet and put his head through the the strap, so the bag hung around his neck. I wakled over to Aunt Agatha's dead body and fell to my knees. She was dead because I had refused to go any further. She was dead because didn't wait until we were safe somewhere to talk. She was dead because someone and Mother was after me. The shaking my hands were doing then spread all over my body, my breathing was becoming more shortened, and Zaos grabbed my upper arm and dragged me away from her. He didn't bother to say anything, not that I would have listened to anything he had to say.

        When we left Aunt Agatha Tulak fallowed us, still growling viciously. I looked back at Tulak and he stopped growling all together. Then I felt sympathetic feelings invade my body, as well as comforting ones. Those feelings did nothing, I wanted to feel nothing and so I didn't. Right then I rejected those invading feelings with everything I had. Two hours after the attack Zaos let my arm go and I quietly fallowed him, I didn't think either. I was just a walking corpse right then. Actually all I did for three days after Aunt Agatha's death was eat, sleep fitfully, and blindingly fallowed Zaos. I knew nothing of him except that Uncle Tarniss and Father apparently knew him and that Aunt Agatha trusted him. For all I knew he could have led us into that attack and would lead me into one, or rape and kill me. All I knew then was that I didn't care anymore. Tulak stayed right next to me for those three days, he even refused to let me go to the bathroom on my own. Somehow Zaos knew that Tulak would fallow us and that was why he made him carry the bag I had been suppose to carry.

        I probably would have stayed in that same funk longer if we hadn't run into Daniella. Actually 'run into her' wasn't quite right, what was better to describe it was Zaos and Tulak hearing things I clearly couldn't at the time. Zaos forcebly pushed me down behind some sort of bush and silently drew his bow and notched an arrow. I wasn't fazed, having seen him draw it to hunt game, not until I saw what he saw. Tulak made no noise, didn't growl at all which was probably why Zaos only notched the arrow and didn't shoot it. My breathing became a little more laboured and I stood up. The person that they stared at was my little sister Daniella, except Daniella didn't look like her self. Before Zaos could say or do anything I ran towards her while calling her name.

        “Sara!” She cried when she saw me, then she too ran towards me. When we met we sort of collided and I fell to my knees along with her. Then we both burst into tears, and were incomprehensible. So we cried until we couldn't produce another tear and just hiccuped. Daniella wiped her cheeks. “Mother was looking for you, why did you run away?”

        “Run away? Mother did this to me. She wanted to kill Tulak, she's gone insane! She's hunting me, you're in danger. Why are you here anyway? What happened to you?” I asked her.

        “Mother wanted me to go home to Karl on my own. I did as she told me, but then I saw Uncle Tarniss on my way home. He's dead, he was dead on the side of the road a-and then some man grabbed me and asked me if I was Clara and Jonas's daughter. I said no and, and, and I wanted to tell Aunt Agatha but he took me.” Daniella said as she trembled. The next part she whispered. “And he did things to me. It hurt so badly.”

        “Was this man named Richards?” I hadn't even heard Zaos walk up to us, but I did see when Daniella saw Tulak.

        “I thought he was crazy when he spoke about dragons.” She said wide-eyed as she stared at Tulak. “I guess he wasn't.”

        “I need to tell you what happened to me after my birthday. But after we get you cleaned up.” I said as I looked at her dress. I didn't recognize it and so she'd gotten it sometime in the last month. It was light blue and white and ripped. It looked like someone had ripped it apart with their own hands. The sleeves barely hung on to the dress, the bottom was gone, the front was so ripped up that we saw the under-dress, she looked like she wore rags actually. And her hair was loose, she had bruises on her cheeks , arms, and legs from what I could see. And as for what she had on her feet; nothing. Her feet were bare, there were scars and more bruises. “Come on, they won't hurt you.”

        She let me steer her to the river while Zaos rummaged through his own bag. When we got in the water I had Daniella sit in the water. I walked out of the river, took off my boots and sock and placed them on the dry ground. When I returned to Daniella, Tulak waltz right into the river up until he had to swim. I was about to rip off a piece of her dress when I saw the bruises on the inside of her thighs. Zaos gave me the washcloth he had been searching for then he turned around and watched the trees and bushes while I made Daniella stand and strip out the ripped dress. I threw the dress out of the river along with her under-dress. Then I made her strip out of her undergarments and pulled her further into the river. I cleaned out her cuts and scrapes and gently spoke to her about things we had done together when we were children. Once she was cleaned we got out of the river, I hadn't really thought things through before throwing away the dress.

        “Check the bag I carried. It should contain clothing.” Zaos said. He still faced the forest, Tulak still was in the river swimming.

        'Its like he read my mind. Creepy.' I thought as I checked the bag. And low and behold there was clothing in the bag. I frowned, I recognized the clothing inside the bag looked exactly like the clothing I wore. They were the clothes from the cabinets, I might have seen them only once but they were beautiful clothing, especially the dresses. I grabbed the green one and the under-dress that had been in the bag. There was also my sword, the conjal hunting knives I had chosen with their sheaths, the bow, arrows, quiver, and two additional amethistine daggers along with their sheaths. And judging from the extra leather around the sheaths they could be strapped to an arm or leg. Very useful, just not what I needed right then. I closed the bag after I took out the green dress and under-dress.

        “Here, you can wear this until we get back to Violetcrest.” I said to Daniella. “And you can wear my boots.”

        “But what about you?” Daniella asked as she grabbed the under-dress and Zaos turned around.        

        “You are not going back to Violetcrest. It will not be safe and I do not fully trust this Daniella. She could be a spy for our enemies.” Zaos said harshly.

        “You do not tell me what I will or will not do.” I said just as harshly to him. “I have to tell my brothers of Uncle Tarniss and Aunt Agatha's death-”

        “Aunt Agatha's dead?” Daniella asked unbelieving.

        “Give her privacy! Turn around!” I told Zaos.

        “You do not tell me what to do either.”

        “Do you have no decency?”

        “I do but not towards potential enemies.” He said glaring at Daniella. She moved to stand behind me and turned around. My guess was that she was getting dressed.

        “Daniella is my sister, she-”

        “And your own mother hunts you down.” He got me there.

        “What? What does he mean that mother is hunting you? Who is he anyway?” Daniella asked in a small voice. “And I am not a spy.”

        “You knew about dragons, I can only guess what else she knows.”

        I turned around and faced Daniella. “What do you know, Ella? What has the man who harmed you say to you or in your pressence? And you were alone with Mother until you got to Aunt Agatha's, what did she say to you?”

        She looked at me with hurt in her eyes. “You doubt me? You saw my bruises, my injuries. You trust some gorgeous man over your own sister?”

        “The bruises could have been staged. Its very easily done.” Zaos said.

        “You think I would hurt myself?”

        “Why not?-”

        “Mother did this to my cheek. And Aunt Agatha is dead, killed by her and whoever is with her hunting us.”

        Daniella squared her shoulders. “I am no spy. All I know is that the man never said what his name was, talked about meat directly from dragons and how it was fun to hunt them, and Mother had told me that you had ran away when I asked her where you were when I could not find you the second morning after your birthday. And that is all I know.” She said the last part as she glared at Zaos. Suddenly I felt my trust in her and her word doubled, I could tell that she wasn't lying. I looked back at Tulak, he was no longer swimming but standing in shallow water (by his standard anyway) and was looking at us. I looked back at Daniella.

        “I trust you Ella.” I said. As I said that I saw her shoulders slightly shaking, so I pulled her against my body. “I'm so sorry I questioned you like that.”

        “What happened to you? To Mother? To Aunt Agatha? Oh God, we have to tell Karl and Takna.” She said, her voice was muffled by my shoulder.

        “You can't. You do that and you will put targets on them and their families. What happened to your aunt and uncle happen to them as well.” Zaos said. “Do you want that to happen to them as well?”

        “No. Ella, he's right. Maybe we can send them a letter or something, tell them that we're staying with an old friend of Father's.” I said. “The less they know, the better.”

        “You trust this man?” Daniella asked as she backed out of my arms.

        “Tulak does, and that's good enough for me. He doesn't trust many people. At least I don't think he does. Besides I'd be dead if it weren't for Zaos. Finish getting dressed, then we'll eat and drink water and continue on.”

        “Okay.”

        I helped her get dressed in the green dress and insisted on her wearing my boots. She conceded when Tulak growled a little warning us that something was coming our way. Zaos told me to grab my bag as he replaced the heavier one around Tulak's neck and we were back on track. I had no choice but to grab the bag. While we travelled I told Daniella what had happened to me in the last two months. We both became quiet when I got to Aunt Agatha's death, then I said we saw her. Then she told me what had happened to her in the last month, she didn't go into details over what the man who had grabbed her and probably killed Uncle Tarniss. She said that she had been kept in a room with no bed, no dresser, there was nothing but a bucket and some straw. The room itself had been made of stone. So it had been cold each night. The first week she'd tried to get out but the beatings she received for doing so were the most hurtful.

        “So how'd you escape then?” I asked her.

        “I remembered how to throw a punch, Takna taught me how to when he learned that Mother let me go out with the men from the village. He said that it may save me one day, I never thought that I would actually have to use it. I escaped when the young man who brought me my meals brought breakfast four days ago. I thought about what you would do if you had been in my position, you'd fight. So I punched him, ran for the door, closed it and then ran down the hall. I went out the first door I saw. I had been lucky, it was the door that led to outside. Then I ran and didn't stop. The place where I was kept was completely surrounded by forest.”

        “I am so sorry you had to go through that. You should have never gone through it.”

        “If you are telling the truth, you've been running around a forest, then you should eat. Little, by little, or you will get sick.” Zaos said from in front of us. Daniella and I were between Tulak and Zaos. Zaos led us and Tulak covered our tracks. He slowed down enough to hand Daniella the last of his apples. “Eat one, eat the other Sara. You both need your strengths since you are our weak links.”

        “Excuse-me? We're what?” I said a little insulted.

        “Weak. Daniella had been lucky and that's it. No tracking skills, no physical strength. You are no better.”

        “Amin delotha lle.” I hissed at him.

        “What did you say?” Daniella asked.

        “So you do speak elvish, good.” Zaos sped up a little. “And you don't have to like me, just continue fallowing.”

        “I'm sorry, did you just say 'elvish'?” Daniella asked. “Are you an elf? Elves aren't real, they're just rumour, part of stories.”

        “So are dragons, yet one is walking right behind you.” Zaos harshly said.

        'Doesn't like to be called part of a story.' I thought. 'Good to know.'

        “R-right.” Daniella said in a small voice. “Are you sure that Mother was the one after you, maybe it-”

        “Mother was the only one who stayed behind.” I interrupted her. “Zaos, where are we going?”

        “You will see when we get there.”

        Daniella scoffed, she didn't like not being in the know. And neither did I, however we didn't have much of a choice. We didn't know the woods we were walking through, and since neither of us actually knew where we were we didn't know how to get back to Violetcrest. Or anywhere, besides I couldn't just go back home with Tulak and aome assassin on my ass. I hated to admit it, but Zaos had a point; we just couldn't go back, it would put the peopl there at risk. At least not until we dealt with the threats chasing us.        

        “You trust this Zaos, if that's even his real name?” Daniella asked me.

        “for the last three days he has been protecting Tulak and I, not to mention made sure I ate and stayed hydrated. He didn't have to, but this man kept me alive. I was sort of out of it those three days, and I wouldn't have done anything except starve myself or get myself killed.” I answered her. “Besides I doubt that Tulak would let him be near me if he was an enemy.”

        “One; he is no man, and two; Tulak wouldn't know better, he's a two month old.” Daniella said.

        “Human or not, Zaos is a man. And Tulak is a dragon two month old. They grow quickly and are highly intelligent. Dragons do, I don't know about elves. And they both can hear you!”

        She didn't say another word, but her body language sure did. She stomped her feet a little as she walked, her shoulders were once again squared, she crossed her arm, and her face was in a small scowl. She only moved her arms when I urged her to eat the apple she held, and then I did the same. We travelled the rest of the day on foot. When I made camp with Daniella's little help-she screamed when the sparks of the fire went up in the air and tripped over a root when she tried to make a spit-Zaos kept a look out. Once we had our fire going and the meat from the day before's hunt was cooking I took out the weapons that I had chosen as mine that Aunt Agatha had packed for me. Then I looked in the bag that Tulak wore.

        “Well, no wonder it was so heavy.” I said I rummaged through it. “She packed the armour. All of it.”

        “Who packed what?” Daniella asked as she looked at the weapons I had laid out. “And do you even know how to use these?”

        “A little. I trained a bit with each weapon. At the cabin I stayed in with Aunt Agatha there was armour and those weapons. More actually. And she packed those that I  chose to use, the armour that would fit me, and the leather reins, straps and whatever these are.” I held one of the leather rings.

        “Oh.”

        “Those are used to ride a dragon.” Zaos said.

        “I'm sorry, to do what exactly?” I probably heard him wrong.

        “Ride the dragon.”

        And he was serious about it too. He wasn't kidding about me or anyone else riding a dragon. And then it made sense. There four types of 'jobs' for those that fought alongside a dragon: rider, protector, warrior, and dragon. That's what those words that had been carved onto the cabinets that were now ash meant. Rider; that person rode a dragon like one rides a horse. Protector; they would protector the dragon race and its history by any means necessary. And warrior; they fought along side the dragons like a soldier. However the one that confused me the most was the title 'dragon', did it mean it was for the dragons or was it something else entirely?

        Once we had eaten, Zaos had insisted on seeing what I could do. He called me pathetic and had said that he had expected much more from me. According to him, my swordplay was an insult to every swordsmen out there, my knife throwing and fighting with the daggers was pitiful, my hand-to-hand combat wouldn't even be able to fend off a drunkard who was getting a little too frisky, and my skills with the bow and arrows was both hilarious and worse than insulting. Daniella was very angry with him on my behalf, I won't lie I was a little insulted by his words, but I appreciated his honesty. And since he called me pathetic in several different ways, that just fuelled my want to kicked his ass and prove him wrong. And I wasn't planning on giving up on that anytime soon.

        “I do not trust her.” Zaos said while Daniella slept. I was putting my weapons away while he spoke and so looked behind me. He was watching her sleep.

        “Well I do. Look I know that Mother is after us, but that doesn't mean every member of my family is the same. Just look at Aunt Agatha, she risked her life helping me. And...she...lost it.” As I spoke I felt my throat close off with emotions that I had to fight to keep from fully surfacing. I couldn't afford to be emotional right then. Tulak whimpered and I went over to where he lay to comfort him. He had liked Aunt Agatha very much, next to me, I believe that she was his other favourite woman.

        “You may be right. Until we reach our destination, every evening we will spar.” Zaos said.

        “I beg your pardon?”

        “No need to beg for it yet.”

        “I am not going to train with you every night!”

        “You will and you must. You have to hone your skills if you are going to continue being with Tulak.”

        I hated it when he made sense. So from then on, every night after diner I sparred with Zaos. He was worse than Aunt Agatha. On top of rudely giving me pointers on swordplay, he would insult me every chance he got. Which happened just as much times as I fell or injured myself in a humiliating (for me, hilarious for him and Daniella) way. He refused to teach me archery until we would arrive at our destination, his reasoning was that he didn't want to go searching for the arrows. And he also, rudely and snobbishly, said that he didn't want to waste arrows. I couldn't wait to get to where we were going so I could say goodbye to the jerk. Only as luck would have it, that didn't happen.

        We travelled for three weeks straight. We marched in I-don't-know-how-many forests, crossed more than five rivers, and don't ask me how many fields of grass we walked on because I wouldn't be able to tell you to save my life. All I know is that when I spotted other elves darting across bushes and trees, and fallowing us I guessed that we had gotten to our destination. That and the archers, that I could see, pointing their notched arrows at us told me we'd arrived. When an elf, female, walked out of the giant bush facing us I heard Daniella's intake of breath. I didn't blame her, I couldn't, not with how beautiful the female elf was. She wore a simple yellow and white dress, a belt that held the two swords hitting her legs as she walked, her hair was pulled back in a braid much like mine but hers looked more like a gorgeous fish's tail. She had the same pale skin tone as Zaos, either they were related or all elves had the same skin tone, and her eyes were the most softess green I had ever seen. She briefly looked at Daniella and I, her eyes widened when she took in Tulak and his size (he'd grown in three weeks), and they shun when she laid her eyes on Zaos.

        “Nae saian luume', Zaos.” She greeted. “Ya naa tanya?” She asked looking at Daniella and I.

        “Vedui', nae saian luume'.” Zaos greeted back. “Sara ar' he seler', Daniella.”

        “Acutally, my full name is Saraphina.” I corrected him.

        “Right.” Zaos mumbled.

        “Mani?” The female elf asked.

        “Amin said tanya my quanta essa is Saraphina, il Sara.” I asked her. “Mani naa essa en lle?”

        “Aerilaya.” She said.

        “Aerilaya is the head guardian of the elven village near here. She is a fellow warrior.” Zaos explained.

        “Tel sigithatch?” Aerilaya asked.

        “Haba.” I said. “Essa “Tulak”.”

        “Tulak. Quel essa.” She looked at him, then at Zaos. “Tula sinome, Zaos.”

        She and Zaos walked away so they could talk in private. I could tell by the way Aerilaya's arms were moving that she wasn't too happy with Zaos. And yes, I took a little pleasure in him being scolded.

        “Since when could you speak elvish?” Daniella asked.

        “Since forever apparently. The language just comes naturally to me.” I said while I watched the visible archers.

        “Edanea?!” Aerilaya yelled.

        “They don't seem to like humans too much.” I said mostly to myself. I saw her then look at us when Zaos responded to her outburst. Then Aerilaya approached us.

        “Jonas tinu? Yuuyo?” She asked me. I nodded. She broke into a huge smile. “Yallume!”

Chapter 6

        Apparently being Father's daughters was a huge thing in Wyvernview, it was the elven village that Zaos had taken us to. We were given the best rooms at the village chief's house, which also coincidentally was Zaos's childhood home. We were treated even better when the villagers learned that I had been raising Tulak, the gold baby dragon. We were celebrities in that village. Wyvernview was just any other village that I had come across except that the vegetation was healthier, it was bigger than any village I had ever seen-some might even call it a city, and mostly elves lived there. There were a few humans here and there, and some half-elves, but it was mostly populated by elves. And it was easy to see that the female elves were treated equally to the male ones. And each elf I saw carried a weapon, be them either swords, daggers, or a bow and arrows, they all had some sort of weapon. Females, just like the males. But most carried a sword and a bow and arrows.

        As for finding out about where Zaos had lived as a child, it wasn't from him, but the village chief himself. The village chief was Zaos's father, but he looked like her could pass off as his older brother. When I made that comment, he laughed and said that elves and half-elves aged at a slower rate than humans. A wizard lived the longest for he, or she, used the magic of nature to prolong their life. Daniella, on the other hand, was more surprised that the Chief spoke English. He confirmed that not many elves living in the villages in the country did, since they were well hidden from humans or any other races. However the elves that lived in the big cities, espacially Crystalden their capital and where their king and his family reside, spoke fluently in English. Zaos's father, Delmuth, had learned the language to impress a female elf when he was Zaos's age. That elf later became his mother, she learned the language so that they had something else in common. When Daniella asked where she was, Delmuth stopped talking and I changed the subject. It looked like he had lost her and Daniella and I both knew how that felt so we didn't press for more. Instead we asked if Zaos had other family. Delmuth had siblings, but they hardly spoke, too busy with their own families and jobs. They did, however spend as much time as they could together. Zaos had and older brother named Galan, he became part of Toror' Taur'ohtarie, and their younger siblings-Nary, younger sister, and Fylson, younger brother-still lived at home. Nary wanted to become a cleric of the royal crown and so trained everyday with the one that was in Wyvernview to train future clerics. And Fylson wanted to become a ranger.

        By the way Delmuth spoke about his children, we knew that he was proud of everyone of them. I even told him that he was lucky to have the other three, Zaos not so much. He laughed and said that Zaos wasn't always so rude, I gave him a look which just made him laugh all the more. Zaos didn't appreciate the fact that I had said that, I didn't care. He had called my younger sister a spy and saw her while she was indecent. And let me tell you, it wasn't the only time that I caught him seeing us while we were either indecent or in a compromising and embarrassing position. That just fuelled even more my want to get back at him. To really punch him and know that it hurt him. Zaos made a snarky comment and I retaliated with one of my own. It led us to throwing insults to one another in elvish. What stopped us from continuing our insulting one another was when the food was brought in. It smelled great, looked like shit, and tasted great. I have no idea what I ate that first night, but I loved it.

        Daniella and I spent the next week recuperating from injuries our feet had sustained throughout the journey. Daniella refused to wear my boots the entire time so we switched, a few days I wore only my socks and she the boot and then we'd switch; she'd wear the socks, and I, the boots. So when we got to Wyvernview we both had terrible blisters on our feet. I also had to heal from the scars I got from sparring with Zaos, and Daniella had to also heal from the additional bruises she got from me. No I never injured her when I would fall or something, she just wanted to learn more self-defence. So I did hand-to-hand combat training with her. Zaos would comment on our terrible forms, show us some punches and how to stand and that was it. While we were bedridden I wrote to our brothers, once it was written I asked Delmuth if could mail it for me. If he couldn't I said I'd understand. He promise that he'd try.

        In the letter I wrote to them I mentioned that Daniella and I were fine and hidding from a man (not really a lie), that both Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss were dead (again, no lie), and that Mother had taken the news wrong and that I had no idea where she was (that last part, too, wasn't a lie). I told them that there had been a man that had attacked Daniella and I on our way back to Violetcrest to tell them the terrible news about our dead family members. I said that we had been to scared to continue travelling, especially when we noticed that the same man that had attacked us was fallowing us, and so went back to Esterhaven where we had met an old friend of Father's that Aunt Agatha had once spoken to me about. I said that the friend was named Zaos of Ashmill and that he was trust worthy since even Uncle Tarniss knew him. I told them, in the letter, that I couldn't tell them where exactly we were for fear of someone connected to our supposed attacker and would tell him where we were. I also said that it would be safer for them and their families if they didn't know (not a lie) and that I would contact them soon after they'd receive my letter. I sent them my love, then sealed the envelope that I put my letter in and gave it to Delmuth.

        Zaos looked more like his mother, not that I had ever met her, but it was clear that he looked more like her than his father. First of all his father had black hair and  green eyes and his skin was darker than Zaos's. They were the same height, both a head taller than me (Daniella's chin reached my shoulders). Galan didn't live at home so I had no idea what he looked like. But Nary had her father's eyes, light brown hair-the combination of black and blond, and had a little darker skin than Zaos. Fylson had his father's black hair, blue eyes, and the same skin colour as Zaos. He wore similar clothing as Zaos, I suspected that he also had the same weapons as the other elves in the village; bow, arrows, sword. Nyra wore a beautiful silk red with pink swirls, she had gone in the house to greet us and to get more clothing. She stayed with the other cleric trainees. I found it a little unfair that the entire family was good-looking, and entirely support of one another and their choices.

        Since the first day that Daniella and I were ordered to rest and stay in bed, Zaos wouldn't go into the room we used. Instead he mostly stayed outside with Tulak, the elves of the village would crowd him and want to touch his scales and it'd freak him out. So Zaos did crowd control and walked around the house and near it with Tulak. Tulak never went far from it, and refused to do so. Eventually Zaos just let Tulak be. When we were finally given the a-okay to leave our beds and walk around the village, we were given new clothing. And by 'we' I mean Daniella was given knew clothing and I just took out the clothes that Aunt Agatha had taken from the cabinets and put them on my side of the closet that Daniella and I shared. Once we both had changed, Daniella in a light pink and white dress with pink shoes that matched, and I in the brown riding pants and boots, and grey shirt, we were given a tour of the village. And I loved it, I felt welcomed. Sure everyone wanted to see the golden-brown dragon and its surrogate mother. I heard a lot of the elves whisper amongst themselves, wondering if I was the 'one'. I didn't think I was 'the one', and I seemed-aside from Zaos-to be the only one that thought so. Then at diner I learned that I was going to resume training all day long like I had done so with Aunt Agatha.

        “Zaos tells me that you have some training in different types of fighting. We'll see how good you are tomorrow morning.” Delmuth said during diner.

        “Sounds like I have no choice and like I'll have some much fun!” I sarcastically said.

        “Being positive is a good thing.”

        “Mhmm.”

        The next morning Zaos walked in and woke me up with: “Get up, training starts in thirty minutes.”. It was such a lovely wake up call. At least he waited for me in the hall while I got dressed in the same outfit of yesterday. Then I went out to get breakfast and met up with Zaos. Tulak was already awake and happy to see us. Zaos walked between  Tulak and I, I had the good sense to grab my weapons. I felt like a badass with all the weapons I had on my person. The quiver was strapped across my back, it was full of arrows, I held the gorgeous white bow with light grey vines on it and the quiver, the arrows were white, I wore the leather belt with the sheath and sword in it, I had both knives strapped around my thighs in their sheaths, and the two daggers strapped around my calves hidden in the inside of my boots.

        “So where are we going?” I asked Zaos.

        “The training grounds. You will train along with our young. The beginners” Zaos explained. I don't know what was more insulting; the fact that I would learn everything I needed to be taught alongside children, or that Zaos was calling me a beginner at fighting. “You'll have instructors, depending on how well you fight anyway.”

        “Um, I don't have the best of luck with instructors. I tend to hurt them....or....get them....So what's the first thing they'll teach me?” I asked just as my left foot stepped on air. “Ah!” I fell forward face first in mud, or well I hoped it was mud. I decided it was.

        “How to walk and look at where you're going apparently.” Zaos said continuing on. Tulak stopped at least. And to make the whole thing even more embarrassing, aside from the arrows spilling out of the quiver, was that everyone that was awake and out doing whatever they were doing saw me fall into the mud. Some giggled, others laughed, and others cried out: “Tanya noe sai eina!”.

        “The gentlemanly and nice thing to do would be to help me up and pick up the arrows! JERK!!!” I yelled at Zaos's back. What made me angrier was that I saw his shoulders shaking in laughter after I had wiped the mud out of my eyes, and off my face.

        “Hurry, or you'll be late. And you don't want that.” Easy for him to say.

        Once I had most the mud off me and the arrows all back in my quiver, I ran after Zaos. The arrows were now no longer white, but more of a grey colour. The rest of the walk to the training grounds was in silence, and my embarrassment just kept on growing as other elves saw the state my clothing was in. And when we got to the training grounds, we were not only late, but everyone there turned and looked at us when one of the instructors recognized Zaos and called out to him. That and it was hard not to notice Tulak, he was now close to the height and size of a small cabin. So he was hard to miss, and his golden-brown scales were very eye-catching.

        “Ikatane, lle ier lye winya hirao.” The male elf whom had called out Zaos's name.

        “Uma.” I confirmed.

        “Lle ier telwa.” He said to me as he got closer to us.

        “Amin hiraethe ten' tanya.” I apologized. He looked at Zaos, impressed.

        “You were right. Her elvish is flawless. She is indeed part of our race like you suspected.” He said in perfect English. “I am Armin, Zaos's only good friend.”

        “Wait, what does he mean by that? That I'm part of your race?” I demanded.

        “You don't know your own lineage?” Armin asked me.

        “Apparently I don't know shit about anything and it seems that that was how they wanted it to be.”

        “'They'?”

        “Jonas's friends. The ones that were tasked with training her after his passing.” Zaos said. “Aerilaya will not wait any longer, she'll answer your questions.”

        At my confused look Armin said: “Aerilaya will be the one to train you. Here she comes.” I turned around just as she called my name.

        “Lle ier telwa.” She said.

        “Armin hiraetha ten' tanya.” I repeated.

        “Uma, lle ier.” She said. Her look said that I would also pay for my tardiness. She wore black pants, shirt, boots, and she only wore her sword. It was larger than mine, and I decided that I never wanted to be on the receiving end of a swing of that sword. “Malwa amin.”  

        She turned around and at the looks I got from both male elves, I fallowed her. When we got to an empty field Aerilaya made me strip of my weapons. She said that I had to learn things about my own body, every muscle, bone, and most importantly my physical limits. Then she made me run around the entire field until I couldn't even stand up. It was punishment for being late and making her wait. After thirty seconds of a break, she made me stand. When I reached for my sword and she swatted my hand away from it.

        “N'uma megil, n'uma tiricmaeg, n'uma sikil, n'uma cu, n'uma pilin. Ere paur, quenat.” She instructed.

        I spent the next three hours being thrown, punched, kicked, elbowed, kneeded, strangled, and every time I was on the ground-thrown by her-she'd say: “Au'!”. Again, and again, I'd get back up and she throw me back down again one way or another. She'd tell me to get close, to attack, and to watch what she would do to defend. After I'd get back up from being thrown to the ground as she defended herself against my clearly pathetic attacks, she would then instruct me to defend and she'd attack and I wouldn't see the attack coming. We went back and forth like that for three hours before she decided that I had earned my break, she gave us a thirty minute break. I took the chance to eat an apple, drink some water and question her. Zaos said that she would answer my questions, and I had questions.

        “Do you understand English?” I asked her. She nodded. “But you don't speak it?”

        “N'uma.” She said. “ Ere' Eldalie.”

        “I may speak it fluently, but it's still easier to speak English. I guess you picked up on it throughout the years, huh.” She nodded. “Did you know my Father?”

        She nodded. Then she told me how she knew him. No she didn't come across while she guarded Wyvernview, or when she went on a journey. My father wasn't even human, Aerilaya had trained alongside him. My father was not only a guard, a warrior, he was an elf. And not just any elf either, he had been a prince. His father was the younger brother to the current western elf king, King Llarm, and his mother – my grandmother - still lived in the castle in Crystalden - the capital city of the western elves. My grandfather, Zabbas, had been a priest in the western elven army, and my grandmother, Amkissra, was one of the oldest clerics in the castle. Tulak's egg had been laid in Crystalden, and it was Father who had taken it from the castle. He had believed that to keep it safe, he had been the one chosen to care for the egg and protect it by its dying mother, was to take it out of elven country. Amkissra had warned him not to take the egg out of elven country for a great destiny would fall upon one of his descendants and great despair would fallow once things started going into motion. It had been recorded in the cleric library. But he didn't listen, he took it out of elven country when he left. He gave it to his best friend for safe keeping after he found out that Uncle Tarniss was a keeper of history and healer.

        According to Aerilaya, Father had never planned on having children to prevent from what Tulak's mother had fortold. But then again he never had planned on meeting Mother and falling in love with her. When he found out that she was pregnant with Karl he tried to reach out to his parents for help. To protect his unborn child, still angry that he had left, Zabbas, ignored his plea for help. Aerilaya said that that was the last time anyone had any contact from him or anyone else from the outside world. Until just after my sixteenth birthday when I reached out to Aunt Agatha for answers. Aunt Agatha then sent a letter for help to protect me and Aerilaya and Delmuth sent Zaos to do just that. Then Aerilaya said that the break was over, and she resumed handing me my ass. When the sun began to end she said training was over for the day. She expected me to get to the training field that the beginners trained at with Armin, without my weapons.

        “Why? So I can be treated like a beginner? To be laughed at by the kids there, because its obvious that they've been doing this far earlier than me.” I said as I picked up my weapons. My body was beginning to hurt, more than when she hit me during the day.

        “N'uma. Esta eithel sina lome.” She said then walked away.

        “Right. And how am I suppose to get back to the chief's house on my own?” I asked her retreating form.

        “Tulak.” She responded with. Said dragon looked at me.

        “Right, he'll get me back there.”

        Surprisingly he did get me back to the house. Our progress went agonizingly slowly, by the time we had gotten to where I had last seen Zaos that morning my body hurt. And when we got to the house I had to stop every five feet. And when I got inside everyone in the house took one look at me and tried to keep from laughing. My look said: go ahead, try and laugh. No one did. And there was another guest there that night; Armin. I waved at him, he waved back with a giant knowing smile on his face. I began to dislike him, both he and Zaos had known what I would go through that day and from the looks everyone there, minus Daniella, they knew too. And no one warned me. I took a breath.

        “Lye ier elandili.” I said to Delmuth. “But you already knew that. Aerilaya said to pass along the message.” I didn't want Daniella to know of Father's origins, at least not yet. “I did, and now I'm going to go prepare a cold bath. And then soak in it.”

        “I already prepared the bath at Sir Delmuth's request. And I suggest you don't go in the bath naked.” Daniella said. “But what happened to you?”

        “Training.” I said then went to the bathing room. As soon as I entered the room I saw what she meant when she told me not to bath naked. Not only was it filled with cold water, but also full of ice. I got a change of clothing, returned to the bathing room, stripped out of my dirty and sweaty clothing and eased my body into the icy water. “ooohoooohoooh, eeeheeeehee, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo,hoo. Holy shit, its cold.”

        But after ten minutes of soaking in the tub in my underwear, my body began to ease up, as well as the pain. I stayed in it for forty-five minutes, and getting out of the bath had been just as challenging as getting in. I dried myself and warmed myself up before I got dressed to eat dinner, chat a bit, then go to bed. That night I learned that Armin had gone home from Crystalden for a visit and to tell his parents and closest friends about his engagement to his girlfriend that lived in the city. In fact he had brought her home to meet his family and best friend. While there he decided to help out to train the future warriors when Aerilaya had asked him to, because she decided to train me personally. Zaos agreed to meet her the next morning, and then said that he might go on by to see how my training was going. He just wanted to see me get my ass kicked and then laugh at me. I told him that if he did go to watch me just to laugh at me, I'd make Aerilaya, Armin, and Delmuth tell me every single embarrassing story or thing he'd ever done in his life. He said that he would wait until I was ready to have an audience other than just Tulak and my teacher watching me. After dinner, and after I congragulated Armin on his engagement, I went to bed.

        The next morning I woke with my body in pain. For a second I couldn't even move, the pain was too much to bare. I grunted, and exhaled my pain. I was beginning to really dread training with elves, trained warriors period. I gritted my teeth, moved the blankets off me, sat up, and slowly swung my feet and legs over the bed to stand up. I might have grunted and said 'oh, God, it hurts' the entire time. Who knows? Who was keeping track of that? I sure wasn't. I got dressed; black pants, grey shirt, brown boots, hair braided back, ate two apples and two slices of bread. Then I went outside, Tulak was already awake and had eaten judging by the left over bones. I grabbed them and buried them, then went to meet up with Aerilaya. I said good morning to Armin and the kids then jogged over to the field that she waited for me.

        “Lle ier no' coiasira. Quel.” She said. Then our day began.

        When I asked about the four categories, and what Father's mother had warned Father, Aerilaya said that she didn't know the specifics of the warning or the dragon warriors. That's what she called me, a dragon warrior. She said that when she deemed me worthy to no longer be trained, we would travel to Crystalden so that I could directly ask my only living grandparent all the questions I had. When I asked her why she had said 'at last'  when we had first met, she said that the village had been expecting me ever since Aunt Agatha had asked for help to protect and train me. She also told me that when Armin and his fiance would return to Crystalden, he would inform the king and queen of my arrival and training, and to expect my arrival to Crystalden soon. The way she had said that made me think that I had no say in that, then she said as much.

        I trained vigorously for hand-to-hand training for the next two weeks. Then Aerilaya told me to bring along my daggers, and so we then split the day with hand-to-hand training in the morning and fighting with and throwing daggers. At the end of the week I was told by Delmuth that Tulak was now old enough and strong enough to carry me when he flew. At three months old he could fly for hours, fly off with his dead prey, bury the remains, and so my flying lessons with him began. We weren't allowed to practice flying in the village after we crashed into a herb house. Turned out that there was no spikes where his neck connected with the rest of his body, and those thick leather necklace looking things? It was to put around the last spike on Tulak's neck, turned out it was pretty sensitive after three months. I had to attach the reins to the sauntry, its what Delmuth called it, and had to attach one of the leather straps that I had mistaken for short reins the sauntry. That strap was to go around Tulak's neck to secure everything and keep it all in place. They laughed at me when I asked about the saddle. There was none and I was told I wouldn't need one. I didn't even know why until I got on Tulak's back.

        It felt natural, and once I sat there I didn't move. And by that I meant the scales I sat on kept me in place like a saddle would do. And as soon as I thought that I wondered who would was caring for the animals that Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss had. That brought on a worry for Kodiak and if he was being fed. I wondered if anyone from Esterhaven even knew about them being dead. I wondered if my brothers had gone over to Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss's house. Which was why I decided to write to them after diner that night, Delmuth had sent my previous letter. This time I decided to ask for a reply from them, I'd make up a return address. No an even better idea  struck me, and as it did I began to smile. I continued to smile as I looked over to Zaos. After the crash of the day before, we were in the field I trained in during the day for lift off and the landings. I was just bout done with putting every leather thing together when I heard a growl. I turned around, my smile disappeared, and all I saw was golden-brown.

        “Ah, shit.” Were the only words that left my mouth before the front of Tulak's chest hit me. Luckily for me, Tulak hadn't been flying fast, so we slid along the ground for at least ten feet. Tulak also brought along the dirt and grass that had been under us.

        “Saraphina!!!” I heard Aerilaya and Zaos yell. Well it was muffled by the dragon on top of me and the dirt in my ears. But I was prettty certain, that that was what they had yelled. I felt momentary panick and guilt, then Tulak got up. It hurt so much more having him crash into me then than when he'd done so when he was just a little under a month old. He moved aside so Aerilaya and Zaos could look me over.

        “I'm alright.” I reassured them.

        “You're alright?! We just saw Tulak land right on you. Anyone else would have died from....that.”

        “Well we've established that I'm not like anyone else. Its not the first time he landed on me. And I don't think it'll be the last time either.” I said as Aerilaya gently pulled me to my feet.

        “Lle ier beleg.” She said as I gently padded myself down to make sure that nothing was broken.

        “Diola lle, I think.” I said.

        “Lle sai creoso.”

        With her help I dug out the dragon bridle, as I nicknamed it. Even with Tulak being bigger and being strong enough to fly longer, that didn't mean he always stuck his landings. And even though he had just crashed into me, that didn't stop the flying/dragon riding lesson from not happening. I easily put on the dragon bridle around the bottom of his neck and I had to climb on him to put on the sauntry and attached it all together. What kept it together was the silis I hadn't noticed when I first saw all of it on the sauntry opposite of one another. Those very silis were on each end of the leather that went around Tulak's neck, and on the reins. The words were written in the same language that the documents had been written in. Mymr Lzr, lzm; Become whole, hold.

        They watched Tulak Jump into the air with me securely on his back, holding onto the reins. Let me tell you, flying with a dragon is both exhilarating and scary as hell. Especially if you are not use to it, like me. It was sort of my fault that we had crashed, I had held on too tightly to the reins and left no leeway. Luckily for me, Tulak had crash landed onto his stomach and so I only had one pair of torn pants – my brown ones – and just got my legs scratched up. I had to remind myself to let some leeway with the reins and that I was perfectly safe on Tulak. Then he dipped a little and I screamed, which unnerved Tulak and so he grumbled and dipped again because of my scream.

        “I'm okay, I'm alright, just breath. I'm okay-oh shit! Tulak don't do that!” I yelled at him as he shook his head and neck. My nerves were nearly fried, and anything that Tulak did that was normal behaviour for him as he flew freaked me out to no end. I had no idea that I had a fear of severe height. After an hour of flying around I began to relax, but not by much. Aerilaya would only allow about two hours for flying practice then it was back to normal practice with the knives and hand-to-hand combat training.

        That night, after diner, I wrote my letter to Karl. I asked about him, his family, if he Takna, Takna's family, and if they went to Aunt Agatha's. I told him that Daniella and I were fine and learning how to defend ourselves. I said that we both missed him, and Daniella put in her own paragraph. She said that we were learning another language so if either were attacked by a man or on the verge of being so and that we could send one another with our own secret language or tell. She said that we were now less jitty, that she was even smiling again. We both signed the letter and I asked Delmuth to not only send it offf but have his son go pick up the letter we were gonna receive. Just before diner Delmuth had given me an address that Karl could send his response letter to. Zaos did not like that I had made him my mail man, well more like my personal errand elf. And yes, it was my way of getting back at him for his rude attitude towards me and his rude remarks. It was fun.

        When Armin got wind of what I was forcing Zaos to do, he praised me. He said that he had never met a woman, female, that could make Zaos fetch things for them and that I was the only one who would talk back at him. Not to mention that I was the only one that made his normal tasks difficult, that I didn't let him get away with anything and he also said that watching us argue over things was funny. And apparently I was the one that he complained about and said rude things about. When I asked Armin what exactly it was that he said about me he clamped up, said it was a secret between men and that if I really wanted to know what Zaos said about me to ask him directly. Aerilaya allowed me to see off Armin and his fiance, Elasha, the day they left for Crystalden. In the short time that I got to know Armin he became a good friend of mine. As I watched them leave I wished that I had gotten to know Elasha. But Aerilaya hade me on a strict schedual, and so I had no chance to get to know her. I only got to know Armin because he had diner with us a few times, and he often was with Zaos. He also was the one that began teaching Daniella some self-defence, she started her own training when I started to train with the daggers.

        Speaking of training with weapons, after my third time riding Tulak – I didn't scream that time! - Aerilaya decided that we could throw in training with the knives. So everytime I went back to Delmuth's I not only had bruises on my aching body, but I also had cuts on my hands from catching the knives and daggers wrong I also had cuts on the rest of my body. I think Aerilaya was enjoying herself while we trained. After Tulak crashed into me Aerilaya and Zaos kept staring at me weirdly, I often caught them staring. I tried to ask Aerilaya about the legend that Aunt Agatha had told me about a child being born of two races and become a leader and uniting people and such, but she didn't know much. Or if she did, she wouldn't tell me. But the more time passed the more I wanted to know about what my grandmother knew, and so I couldn't wait to meet her. That was one of the reasons, the other was because, well she was my grandmother. The woman that gave life to my father. Why wouldn't I want to meet her? And when I told Daniella about her, she too became anxious about meeting her.

        Another two weeks had gone by, by then we'd been staying with Delmuth for a month when Aerilaya said that I couldn't make the royal family wait any longer to meet Tulak and I. Even though she wanted me to train some more before going to Crystalden, but news about my arrival had been spread throughout the villages. As did me riding Tulak, and us crashing int the herb house, elves knew how to spread news. And gossip. So Daniella and I prepared for the journey to Crystalden, as did Aerilaya and Zaos. Aerilaya came along so she could continue my training and Daniella's self-defence classes, and Zaos came along because his father told him to, to report to his king, and to annoy me. Tulak was just glad to be moving around and to be spending more then just a day with us. He liked being with us day and night. It took us six days to get to Crystalden, and on the trip there Aerilaya had asked me I planned to do for where Daniella would permanently stay. I had no answer for her because I didn't know what to do about it, and honestly I had other things on my mind right then.

        But Aerilaya had raised a good point, where would Daniella and I stay? We couldn't very well continue on living off of Delmuth. Besides, I felt like we were using him and I didn't like having Tulak living outside and not being able to see him and I worried during the night for him. Something told me that the elves wouldn't let us leave without a fight and I know that we wouldn't be accepted by the humans, and we weren't fully accepted by the elves. As those thoughts crossed my mind, Aerilaya reminded me that I had time to think about it and more pressing matters at hand. Like becoming a good fighter and completely dominating my fear of falling off Tulak to my death. Again, those were good points too. Two days later we arrived at Crystalden. Zaos looked over at us with a smug look on his face, Aerilaya just smiled as she too looked at us.

        Crystalden was beautiful. The sun shun beautifully off the city's buildings, well the ones that we walked by. The place was clean, the walls of the buildings a beautiful beige. The windows sparkled, as well the water in the fountains that we past. I'll admit that I was a little impressed, I had imagined that the city would be beautiful. And the soldiers that we walked by and saw all wore brown clothing, to make it easier to blend in with the environment. I suspected that they wore some sort of protection under their clothing. I was wondering about it until I saw the palace. My jaw dropped open a little. The building was white and so a little blinding to look at with the sun high in the sky. It looked like it was carved out of the mountain next to it. On the outside of the windows were golden swirls making them the most gorgeous windows I had laid eyes on. And the  front doors to the castle? I could have stood there staring for hours and still wouldn't be able to fully describe them and their beauty. But I can say that they were white, had white and gold swirls and vines. And the palace guards wore white clothing and gold vines, I noticed that that was a very reoccurring thing. The white with golden swirls, I mean.

        “Putta. Ra ier ron?” The guard on the left asked. Clearly Aerilaya and Zaos were known.

        “Saraphina.” I said as Tulak landed behind us and everyone near the palace, including the guards in front of us, eyes widened in shock. “We are expected.”

        “Apologies,we were not told you would arriving Lady Saraphina.” The same elf said.

        “Of course you weren't. We didn't send word of when we were going to arrive, but we are expected.” I said.

        “Tell Queen Narryssa and King Llarm that we are here.” Zaos said. “We'll wait in the parlour room on the first floor in the left wing.”

        “Yes, sir.”

        They opened the front doors and we fallowed them inside. Zaos led us to the parlour room he spoke about while I stared at Tulak as he fallowed us. He fi t perfectly inside the hall, and parlour once we got in. It was to be expected that the castle would be large on the inside just like it was on the outside, but still. It was quite a sight to see him in the parlour. He laid down behind one of the white couches while Daniella and I looked around the room. A whole wall had shelves of books, then there was two couches facing one another, chairs – four, two between the couches, and so faced each pair, and tables strategically placed to show off their decorations that I swore were actually made of gold. Or at the very least were very expensive, and definitely not cheap. Daniella was trying out one of the chairs, Aerilaya sat next to her in the other chair, Zaos was looking out the window, and I was looking at as many book titles as I could when we were joined by five elves. I turned around as I heard the door open.

        I assumed that the couple was the king and queen, that the two kids with them were their children, and that the elder elf that looked in her late forties early fifties was an adviser of some sort. King Llarm had long black hair that was partially tied back, he wore his beautiful crown, he wore what looked like the royal robes; they were white with gold at the bottom with gold vines going upwards, and he wore white boots. His wife, Queen Naryssa wore a white and yellow silk dress, she too wore her crown, and I figured that she wore white shoes that matched her dress. Her long brown hair was loose, and both she and her husband had cristal blue eyes. The girl had brown hair braided back with gold strings in it, she wore a silk brown dress and had her parents' blue eyes. The young boy had short brown hair, blue eyes, brown pants, shirts, and boots. They looked just like their parents. But what puzzled me, who had my attention was the elder elf.

        None of the elves that were present looked like her. They didn't even resemble her a little. She had greying brown hair tied back in a bun at the nap of her neck, sharp dark brown eyes, she wore white-grey robes with hints of gold all over them. I felt like I should know her, she looked a little familiar. But I had never met her in my life, until a month ago I had never met an elf in my life, not including Father. He doesn't count, I didn't know he was an elf. It clicked when I realized that the robes the elder elf wore were those of an elder cleric. And then I saw it in her, the resemblance Father had to her. That elf was Amkissra, Father's mother and my grandmother.

        “Amin Aran Llarm, amin verne' Tari Naryssa, ar' en' kinta en' lye hini: Tarien Alea ar' Taren Estel.” King Llarm said after they walked in. They were all staring at Tulak. “Re, er en' lye amandil. Amandil Amkissra.”

        “Amkissra?” Daniella asked staring at her. Its all she caught.

        “Amin, Saraphina. Amin seler, Daniella.” I introduced us. “Lye ier tinu en' Jonas. I assume you all either understand or speak English. We are your grnddaughters, Cleric Amkissra.”

        “Heru.” Amkissra said I she sat in the couch in front of Tulak.

        “That is Tulak, my dragon.”

        “We all speak English, Caretaker Saraphina.” The King said.

        “Re rudh i' aith amin Aran.” Aerilaya said.

        “What? Show us.” Queen Naryssa commanded. I pulled up my right sleeve and showed them my golden tattoo.

        “So it is true. You do bare it, just like sir Armin said.” Amkissra said. “You look just like Jonas. Where is he? Is he alright?”

        “You will talk about the thief later.” King Llarm said. “Sit, we have much to talk about.”

        “Like wether or-”

        “Father was no thief.” Daniella interrupted me. “That much I know.”

        I smiled. “My sister speaks true. Our father was no thief, it is no theft if you are taking something that was given to you. Father did his job. He protected Tulak's egg and I am the one that helped hatch it. And I will say this here and now, I will not swear loyalty to any race, human or elf.” I clarified. “I came here to meet the western elven royal family. I will not be fooled. You guys don't just want to talk with me, you want Tulak to protect you kingdom and be your weapon. He will do no such thing.”

        “How dare you accuse us of-”

        “Oh husband, look at her. She is no fool. I will not lie, we had planned on asking you to do just that. But it is seen that you will not change your mind.” Queen Naryssa interrupted her husband as she sat next to Amkissra. Her son climbed onto her lap. “Even if we give you time to rethink. You have spoken like a true mother, a protector. Tulak is very calm, not something you would expect from a baby.”

        “I believe its part of his nature. Nature of the gold dragons anyway, that or he just is a calm boy.” I said as I sat down on the couch in front of them. “As for where Father is and if he's alright, he died a year after Ella's birth.”

        “Oh.” Came out of Amkissra's mouth.

Chapter 7

        After that bomb was released everyone but Daniella, Tulak, Amkissra, and I,left. Daniella moved from sitting on the chair to sitting next to me on the couch. She wanted to know everything about Amkissra and her family. Our only other living relative aside from her was Father's younger sister Ava. She was a wizard and was with the king's other two children; Nanoa, the eldest, and Alok, the second eldest. They were practising their magic and spells. Apparently we'd meet her during diner, she hadn't been too happy with Father for leaving elven country. For years she resented him for doing so, and as far as Amkissra knew, she still did. And we were going to tell her that her big brother was dead. Amkissra held it together and when I commended her for doing so she said that she had suspected that he was dead for years. Up until Zaos came to get us for diner Amkissra told us stories about Father in his childhood and early adulthood. He'd been a troublemaker and a heartthrobe. Or playboy, both words described him in his youth, well according to his mother.

        When diner came, Daniella and Amkissra had become close. I watched the two as we fallowed Zaos to the dinning room. Tulak fallowed us. The dining room was just as beautiful as the rest of the castle. And no castle dinning room is complete without the long table and murals. What had been painted on the walls was elves running freely through a forest, I was just thankful that none were naked. It wouldn't be appetizing to eat with naked elves running paintings. The table could seat twenty-two people, ten chairs on each side of the length of the table, and one chair at each end of it. I wondered if the family and staff ever got sick and tired of seeing white, because  know when I saw the white table and chairs I was beginning to. King Llarm sat at the chair on the left end of the table, on his left was his family. His wife sat next to him, Prince Estel sat next to her, next to him I assumed was his older brother Prince Alok, next to him was Princess Alea, and next to her was clearly her older sister Princess Nanoa. Princess Nanoa had brown eyes, black hair, and wore white riding clothing, when she stood to greet us I saw that her white pants were full of dirt. Prince Alok wore light brown riding clothes, short black hair, and soft brown eyes. He too stood to greet us.

        Ava looked like her mother. She had the same eyes. The same hair. She wore a black silk dress with a black cloak and hood. She didn't wear the hood, but it looked like she had been wearing it before diner. At least that's what her hair that was standing on end told me. I doubted that she left it messy and instead brushed it every morning and every night just before bed. I use to do that, but then I began my insane training regiment and stopped brushing it every morning and evening. Now I just brushed it in the morning, braided it, then forget about it all day long. And honestly, I didn't really care anymore. Ava had Father's skin tone and scowl. Yeah they definitely were related.

        “Saesa omentien lle.” The three of them said.

        “Saesa omentien lle.” Danella and I said back to them. Which surprised me.

        “Surprised? I asked Delmuth and Fylson to teach me some elven.” Daniella explained.

        “You sly fox.”

        “I don't know why it comes so naturally and easily to you. Did Father ever teach you?”

        “No. I didn't even know what he was until a month ago. Found that out the same time as you.” I said as we took the two free seats next to Aerilaya. Zaos sat next to the King, so we were between him and Aerilaya. Amkissra sat next to Aerilaya. We were served and Tulak was brought a huge pile of raw meat. He ate it behind us.

        “So you know little about your heritage.” Prince Alok said.

        “Yes.” Daniella said, I noticed that she couldn't meet his eyes.

        “May I be so bold as to ask for your ages Lady Saraphina, Lady Daniella?” He asked.

        “Alok! It is rude to ask for a lady's age, no matter what race they are from.” Princess Nanoa chastied.

        “I don't mind.” Daniella said. “I will be fifteen this automn.”

        “You two will be the same age then.” Queen Naryssa said.

        “And you, Lady Saraphina?” King Llarm asked.

        “And how old are you King Llarm? Oh that's right, its rude to ask. Either way you will say that I'm young and lack life experience.” I said to him.

        “Sara, don't be like that! You're talking to a king here.” Daniella hissed.

        “Doesn't change anything.” I said and then dug in to the soup that was placed in front of me. “Diola lle.” I said to the servant. She smiled and squealed then went back to work. And in that order.

        “You are a bit of a celebrity here.” Princess Nanoa said. “That egg has been here in this castle for years. According to Cleric Amkissra its normal for dragon eggs to take years to hatch. No one ever thought that it would hatch and that inside the egg was a legendary gold dragon.”

        “I see that Mother is not the only one to put us in our place so openly.” Prince Alok said while his younger sister gigled.

        “That's nothing.” Zaos mumbled. I kicked him in the shin. He glared at me, I ignored him. “Auta miqula orqu.” He hissed at me.

        “You first.” I said.

        “Hpm. You must have questions about Tulak and the history of the sgiathatch ohtar, dragon warrior.” Queen Naryssa said.

        “That can wait a bit. We just met out grandmother, only living grandmother, I think that can wait a bit. And we also just got acquainted with our last breathing aunt. Ever since my birth anything and everything I'd done or had happened to me, was always about dragons and this big legend. I want a break from it for one night, to get to know the grandmother I didn't know I had. Tomorrow it'll be about learning and training. But not tonight, Queen Naryssa.” I said.

        “Its admirable and-”

        “We understand. You deserve the break. But come tomorrow, you will continue where you left off before you set off for here.” Queen Naryssa said.

        “You have my word.” I said.

        We spent the rest of the meal talking. They learned a bit about our family and we learned a bit about theirs. Princess Nanoa was the first born child and so would one day inherit the crown when her father will step down, she was around Takna's age. No she didn't actually tell us her age, Prince Alok did that. I wouldn't say twenty-one is an old woman. I said as much when he said that, then I called him a child. He clamped up. And gave me a dirty look. Daniella returned it with one of her own, she never liked anyone picking on me or say anything mean about me. Usually I could hold my own, but sometimes I let her defend me. That night I let her be. Prince Alok prefered spells over fighting, Princess Alea also preferred to do spells as well. Prince Estel was two years old, so anything that came out of his mouth made no sense. And he didn't speak English, only elvish. King Llarm was the type to fallow tradition and sometimes strick with his children. Queen Naryssa kept him grounded, never let him get away with anything, and reminded him that the world was changing and that the old ways didn't always work. She said as much during diner, and I believe that she made her husband blush. His cheeks did become more pink. It was kind of funny actually.

        When diner was over I was given the room with the biggest balcony so that Tulak coud sleep near me. Daniella insisted on sharing with me, she didn't want to be alone and frankly neither did I. I was glad that I wouldn't be staying alone in the castle. I was glad that she stayed by my side even after I made go with me to the elven country. The western one anyway. Tulak growled from outside while we got settled in the room, reminding us that he was there with us too. Daniella opened the doors to the balcony so that he could stick his head in. Shortly after we were settled in we were joined by Amkissra and Ava. We spent hours talking, we told them about how we grew up and Amkissra told us things about Father that she hadn't earlier. Ava didn't speak much after we told her that Father had passed away years ago. It was nice to have that one night to forget about everything that had happened to us. As I climbed in bed I looked over at Tulak and smiled fondly. I knew things would never get back to the way it was, seeing Tulak always reminded me of that. Once under the blankets Daniella hugged me and I returned the hug. She fell asleep in my arms. And just so you know the bed was big enough for three people to sleep in, and despite the size of the room there was only one bed.

        The next morning Daniella and I fallowed Aerilaya down to the courtyard. We spent all day there training. While I sparred with Aerilaya, Armin continued Daniella's lessons. The royal family watched  our training. I didn't even have time to be worried about our audience, Aerilaya never let me. Then once the day turned into evening Amkissra went and got me. She said it was high time I learned about the dragon warriors and their leader. Daniella tagged along. Zaos was nowhere to be seen which worried me a bit. I mean I thought that he would at least tell me if went back to his original duties. Then we entered the library. I'm pretty sure that if our jaws could have dislocated just by opening our mouths, they would have. The library was enormous. However Amkissra didn't let us check it out, she pulled us all the way to the back of it and unlocked the door there.

        “Only I have the key to this door, for only I am the record keeper for the dragon warriors.” She explained as she opened the door. The room looked like any other room to read a book in or do some studying alone. The floor was made of marble, the walls the same as the rest of the castle. There was only one table in the middle of the room with four chairs, two on each side. In front of the door, on the opposite wall under the window was five wooden squares. Each square had one word beautifully carved. Same language as the one on the reins. Same four words; rider, protector, warrior, and dragon. Only the square in middle had Trmn written on it. It meant Leader.

        “That doesn't look like the elvish language. I've seen Delmuth write in elven before. Those words look nothing like it.” Daniella remarked as Amkissra closed the door behind us.

        “Not many know it now a days. It is an ancient language, back when dragons lived peacefully with all creatures. It was spoken by those that lived harmoniously and peacefully with dragons they raised. The ones chosen to protect this land from any and all threats. They had almost entirely failed when they couldn't prevent the war that nearly destroyed all the races of this land. It began to wither away when this country became divided and countries and nations were ruled by tyrannic rulers.” Amkissra explained.

        “Does this language have a name?” Daniella asked as I approached the squares.

        “If it does, I do not know it child.”

        “It doesn't.” I said.

        “How do you know?” Daniella asked me.

        “I don't know, I just know that it doesn't.” I said.

        “Saraphina, can you read what those boxes say?” Amkissra asked me.

        “Rider, protector, leader, warrior, and dragon.” I read.

        “I know only three other elves that could read that. Two of which are dead; your father, and my dear husband Zabbas. The one that lives is only a year older than you. Zaos.”

        I looked at her. “Zaos can read this?”

        “Yes, that language is only open to those that have been open minded, loyal, brave, kind, and will not run away in front of adversity since they were born. You and him are like that.”

        “He is not kind. So I don't know how he can read this.” I missed Daniella and Amkissra sharing a look when I turned around. “So where is everything?”

        “In those boxes. Only one of those five can open them.” Amkissra said. “As for Zaos not being kind, I would not say that. He may not show it in the way you want him too, but he most certainly is. He is a young elf that doesn't show his true feelings easily, but he has never lied. And he helps out others, you just have to look for the signs and you will see.”

        I decided that Amkissra wasn't totally seeing things, but I let it go.

        “So all I have to do is touch one and it'll open?”

        “No, only the one that is for you will open.”

        “If those drawers have never been open before then how do you know all this, Amkissra?” Daniella asked.

        “Girls, please call me Ammy. That knowledge has been passed down from record keeper to record keeper. As was the legend of the next leader. I had warned Jonas not to leave because a fear had gripped me. Something just told me that the next dragon warrior leader would be sired by him. I didn't want that pressure to be on that child. And I wanted my eldest to fallow in my footsteps, to become a cleric. But he had other plans. He even swore to me that he wouldn't fall in love or tell anyone else, Tarniss had already known what he was by then, that he was not human. Elves do not go into human territory, because like dragons we are hunted and killed.” Amkissra said. “I fear that Jonas died at the hands of humans because someone else knew of what he was. If Zabbas had not ignored Jonas's plea for help he might have still been alive, and you would have grown up here.”

        “I don't think we would have existed if he had.” I said.

        “You may be right.”

        “And I choose to believe that Father died protecting someone.” Daniella said. “Our brothers and Sara always said that Father put others first.”

        “He put family first. But he did protect others, so maybe. But from the looks of it he went to great lengths to prepare one of his children if they happen to have a hand in hatching an egg.”

        “It sounds like he was a wonderful father.”

        “He was. Now let's find out which one I am.” I said as I touched the square that said protector. I thought that it would open, or they'd all shine. Instead the skin between my wrist and the inside of my elbow burned red and searing hot pain shot up my arm. It was worse than when the tattoo had first appeared. I immediately removed my hand, my left hand, and screamed. I couldn't hold it back this time, I just fell to my knees holding my right arm, and screamed. I screamed the entire time it was red. And while I did so Daniella and Amkissra were at my side in seconds. I felt a third pair of hands touch me during this screaming period of mine. Then as soon as my arm was no longer red the pain disappeared and so I finally stopped screaming.

        “Sara? Are you alright now? Do you want us to get you a healer?” Daniella asked. I shook my head no. “No for the healer or no for you feeling alright?”

        “No for the healer.” A male voice I knew said.

        'Zaos.' I thought. “Zaos's right. I'm fine now. I don't need the healer. What I do need though, is some water.” My voice was hoarse from the screaming I had done.

        “Come on, dear. Let's get you off the floor and into this chair.” Like I had a say in Amkissra's suggestion. They all three pulled me to my feet and guided me to the table and closest chair. I sat in it and Daniella went to fetch me some water. “Oh dear. I was right. You will have the biggest burden of all the dragon warriors.”

        I looked at what she was looking at, as did Zaos.

        “Ed' ilya i' Seldarine.” Zaos said. Every box was open.

        “What does that mean exactly?” I asked. Zaos looked at me to answer.

        “That – look at your tattoo.” He said instead. “It changed.”

        He was right, it had changed. There four new marks. Right under the tattoo on my wrist on the left and next to the vines that went from the one under my wrist to the inside of my elbow were four letters. The last letter was hidden in the vines right on top of the inside of my elbow. Y, a capital 'r' was on the left under the tattoo on my wrist. On the vine along the inside of my arm ,under the Y,on the right was P a capital 'p'. Under that one on the left was N, a capital 'w'. And finally under that letter was M, a capital 'd'. The last letter was L, that one was for 'l'. Each of the four letters were the first ones in the five words on the boxes. Y for Yp'sn, P  for Pypgpn, N   for Nyrn, M  for Msyuym, and L  for Lrpmn. Rider, protector, warrior, dragon, and leader.

        “That proves it. You are the next leader.” Amkissra said. “You are entitled to look inside every box there. When you are bet-you should rest first.”

        I got up and walked over to the boxes.

        “Later.” I whispered.

        There was a single document inside each box. Each document addressed to the next rider, protector, warrior, dragon, and leader. I quickly scanned the first two. The document of the rider just explained that the that rider could ride any animal. They could smooth over and calm any animal and earned their trust enough to allow the rider to ride them. However the rider usually rode a green dragon, they were known as the most mellow of the other dragons. The document of the protector made them out to be the perfect spies. Sent into enemy forces to find out if they knew about the secrets of the dragon warriors and dragons. And if they did know of them the protectors would then find out by any means just how much their enemies knew and if they chose to spread that knowledge would normally eliminate the enemy. The dragon that usually stayed with a protector was an orange one, sometimes blue. Unless their leader said other wise and instead chose to keep that person or country prisoners.

        The document that was in the leader box was incredibly vague. It said that it was the leader that decided everything the rest of the dragon warriors did. Basically it made the leader out to be God. The leader was also the one that would meet with every ruler and make sure that their people were fairly treated. The document in the warrior box was what I had expected, basically the warrior was the soldier and the fiercest and most fearless fighter among the group. The leader's dragon was usually always a red dragon, or on some rare occasion a gold dragon. The first human to fight alongside dragons to protect humans and dragons had been with a gold dragon. The dragon that fought alongside the warrior was usually always a red one, sometimes – rarely – a black one.

        When I read the document in the dragon box I had to reread it three times. Then I looked at Amkissra, Zaos, and Daniella came back with a pitcher of cold water and a cup, then I looked back at the document. The 'dragon' of the dragon warriors was a human that took on the traits of the dragon they raised. Their skin would be as hard as the dragon's scales, triple the strength of a human or any other creature, they could create fire, and had small horns on their foreheads. But on the rarest of the rarest times, some could turn into a dragon. The dragon they raised would stay with them, it was usually a blue dragon but sometimes an orange one. Once all documents were read I searched the boxes again. But there was nothing else.

        “That's it?” I asked after I drank some water. I looked at Amkissra pleadingly. “Is there another room? Or another secret document that the clerics have been protecting?”

        “No, I'm sorry my dear.” She said.

        “No, there has to be something else. This can,t be everything. You were suppose to answer my questions, not help me make more!” I yelled at her in frustration.

        “Saraphina-”

        “NO! This tells me nothing! I already guessed the info on these documents, except the one on the dragon dragon warrior. Thanks for not helping.” I said then stormed out of the room. I noticed that as soon as I put back the documents the boxes closed automaticly.

        “Sara!” Daniella called after me.

        “Let her go, my dear.” Amkissra said.

        I went straight to the room I was staying, grabbed the reins and bridle, went out on the balcony, and put the things on Tulak. He was a little alarmed at seeing me frustrated and disappointed. I climbed on him then he took off. I still felt a little panicked, but the flying practices were working. Tulak was getting use to me on him and getting more conscious of me. He flew around until I saw Aerilaya trying to get my attention as we flew over the courtyard. Ignoring her would get me a severe lecture later so I made Tulak fly down to her. He landed a few feet away from her and she told me to take my stance. We fought it out, the workout gave me an excuse to let everything out through my fists, knives, daggers, and sword that she had brought from my room. By the time we stopped for the day I was calm again and feeling ashamed for that morning's outburst.

        “N'uma ner rutha?” She asked me as we cooled down. I was beginning to make her work up a sweat.

        “N'uma. Diola lle ar' amin hiraetha.” I said. She smiled at me. “So how'd you know?”

        “Zaos .”

        “He probably gloated that I lost it.”

        “N'uma. A' tua lle n'e.”

        “To help?”

        “Uma.”

        “Why?”

        “Ro nostale.”

        “So I'm told.” I mumbled. “Well, still, thank you.”

        “Lle creoso mellonamin.”

        I got on Tulak with all my weapons. I felt even more like a badass as we flew into the air. I let Tulak fly over the city and he returned to the balcony outside my room. I took everything off him. Then I worried as I entered my room with everything. I stopped just inside it when I saw Zaos waiting for me. The shame was doubled, but I felt some comfort. Looking at Zaos I knew he wasn't angry. He didn't look it and didn't send off any angry vibes.

        “Father sent the letter that your brother sent you. He sent Fylson to go and see if there was one. I went to go and get it this morning when a soldier said I had a letter. Yours was with the one from my father.” He held out an envelop. “Here. And I'm sorry about what happened that morning. I too thought there'd be more.”

        “I'm the one who has to apologize. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have reacted like that.” I said as I grabbed the envelop. “Thanks for this.”

        “I know your family means a lot to you, so hearing from them helps you focus.” he said. It touched me that he had noticed that. “I hope what they have to say will sooth your worries.”

        “Me too.”

        “I'll leave you be then.” And then he left. Before reading the letter I put the reins and dragon bridle on the desk and then sat on the bed to read the letter. I eagerly opened it and read. The more I read the more I felt guilty for leaving them behind.

                         Dear Sara and Ella,

        It is good to be able to send a letter of our own. Both Takna and I are very angry that the two of you got attacked on your way home from our dear aunt and uncle. We are also angry with the two of you for not telling us about visiting Aunt and Uncle. Mother has yet to return. We have not have gotten word from her. I would ask if she was with the two of you, but neither of you mentioned her. I can only assume the worst. So we are now looking for her. No one in Esterhaven has seen her, and they didn't know about your visit or Aunt and Uncle's deaths. We came across Uncle's body on our way to their house. Kassy and Jenna kept the children from seeing him. We covered him in our jackets and carried him the rest of the way to Esterhaven. When we got to their home we looked for Aunt and found her body full of arrows with her throat slit. What exactly happened? Are the two of you really alright and unharmed?

        We buried them next to Uncle's parents and decided to bring back the rest of their animals with us when we return to Violetcress. We divided their things and have sold their house and everything on Uncle's property to one of the farmers in Esterhaven. We' returned to Violetcrest because I couldn't leave it without a sheriff. Besides there was nothing else we could do in Esterhaven. However when we got to Mother's to see if you and Ella went back home we found it turned upside down. Someone was looking for something, but whatever it was either you and Ella have it or they didn't find it. Nothing seems to be missing. Just what have the two of you been doing? And today a man came to Violetcrest asking for and about Father. I told him that Father was dead, and has been for nearly fourteen years. He also asked if I was one of his sons, I told him the truth. He also asked about you, Sara. Who did you anger or led on? I said nothing about you. And as for Richards, he's a well known hunter amongst hunters. In fact people say he's the best. I had met the man only once, when I was six. Richards is a friend of Mother's. He'd stayed over while Father was out looking for Chelsea. He stayed one night, in my room with me. The next morning he was gone. Why do you ask about him? Is he the one that attacked the two of you?

        I'm worried about you two. Come home soon.

 

•                                   - Karl.  

        p.s.: a word from Takna: Just wanted to write: stay safe, don't do anything stupid, don't forget to thank Father's friend, and come home when you feel like you are ready to. And know that we will protect the two of you when you get back. Kassy says she doesn't mind for the two of you to stay with us. Jenna said the same.

                                                                     - Takna

        It broke my heart that I couldn't tell them what truly had happened to Daniella and I. I wrote back immediately and told them that we were really alright, and to thank Takna for offering us a place to stay. I promised that we'd go back when I felt like it was safe to. I also said that I wasn't certain whom attacked us and that I couldn't describe the man. I refused to make Daniella do that, said it was too early to ask. I also said that I had no idea how either Aunt Agatha and Uncle Tarniss died, just that the man said they were and I believed him. I told them about our self-defence classes. I also wrote about Zaos, like complained about him a little, I didn't write that he was an elf, just that he'd been in the army. And that I knew he wasn't the one whom had attacked us because Daniella and I didn't freak out and because he had a hand in our self-defence classes. I signed off on the letter and also told them that Daniella had a letter for them. Then I cleaned up, changed, and went in search of Amkissra and Daniella. I found them with Ava, she wore the same thing as the night before. I apologized to them for loosing it and they said that it was fine. We talked until diner.

        We dined with the royal family again. This time the talk was more relaxed and it was fun. During diner we told Ava, Aerilaya, and the western royal family that I was the new dragon warrior leader. This delighted and surprised them. It was decided that my training would become harsher and what I told them next surprised them and angered the king.

        “You want me to do what?” He exclaimed.

        “I want you to gather the other elven leaders. And since I am the leader I must begin my tasks as the leader. I want to meet the other elven rulers. The other royal families will bring along their personal guards. Their best warriors. Its only natural to. You should show them that you don't fear them or their warriors.” I said.

        “And why would they actually do as I ask?” King Llarm said.

        “Wouldn't you be curious about the dragon that now roams the western elven lands? And the person that rides it? I know I would be and would go to see it for myself.”

        “Even if they do that, they'll send spies here first to confirm the claim.” Zaos said. “Not to mention they could just go after the secrets hidden here.”

        “If that was the case they would have done so by now.” I said.

        “Yes, but its too risky. Its a stupid idea.”

        “And that's why they will come. They'll think they can easily steal them. However their spies will be too occupied with the dragon they'll see. Either you do as I ask, King Llarm or I'll go to each elven country myself with Tulak. The choice is yours.”

        “Its risky, but it'll give us the chance to introduce them to the other elves. And will make it easier at finding the other dragon warriors. If any of the other elven countries have one, they'll make it known to us.” Queen Naryssa said.

        'I have the queen on my side. Good to know. And if any of the other elven countries have a Protector I don't think make it known. Why make it known that they have the best spy? I wouldn't.' I thought.

        “I'll think about it.” King Llarm said.

        “My Lord! It's too dangerous.” Zaos protested.

        “I haven't agreed to do so yet. Besides if I do I will have all my warriors on high alert and Lady Saraphina will be able to fight like an elf.” The king said.

        'According to the documents I'll be an even better fighter than an elf.'

        “Can you accept that, Zaos?” Princess Nanoa said.

        “Yes, my lady.”

        After diner I told Daniella about Karl and Takna's letter and I let her read it. Even said she could write one of her own. Told her to read mine first and not tell them what we were really doing and what really happened. I said we'd tell them when we ourselves were better at fighting. She agreed with my reasons, and said she'd do the same and continue her own physical training. When she asked me how I'd mail our letters I said that I'd ask Zaos. Then she made a remark on how I depended on him more now. I told her she was seeing wrong and that I wasn't, that I was just using him. She said that she didn't believe me. I told her to stuff it.

        Two days past before the King came to a decision and sent out the letters inviting the other royal elven families to come to the western eleven country with the royal seal. Zaos didn't like it, and told me so every chance he had. I didn't care. I was convinced that an elf had killed Aunt Agatha. That Richards had something to do with Uncle Tarniss's murder, that he'd been the one that took Daniella. And Mother was also involved. I just had to prove all my suspicions. And the best way to do that was to question people and test my theory about the connection I seem to be having with Tulak. So I began snooping around. But first I had to test my theory, from what I could understood I could tell when people lied. That Tulak could do that. So I went around, to the people I knew and asked things I knew they'd lie about. Aerilaya had said she'd never drank wine when I asked her about it. I knew it was a lie because of the feeling I got and Armin later told me that she was one of the heaviest wine drinkers during festivals.

        I asked Armin if he had ever dated more than three elves, he said no. Again I knew it was a lie because of that feeling, and I found Elasha looking for Armin. I questioned her and one of the answers was a lie. I got her to admit the lie, then we ran into the elf she was looking for and I went in search of Amkissra and questioned her about the connection between a dragon and the one who raised it. She said that it could be possible that I was experiencing things that went through Tulak, like his feelings, and could do some things that Tulak could just like a dragon dragon warrior would be able too. So I had a walking lying dragon detector and I myself became a walking lie detector. It was a pretty cool actually. I could tell that Tulak liked that I thought it was cool that I could tell when people lied to me and that I was able to feel the feelings he felt towards me. And how he wanted to comfort me when I needed it and such.

        After diner that night I was on my way to begin questioning some guards when I noticed Daniella rubbing her stomach just before she walked into the room we shared. The action brought her stomach to my attention. It looked a little bigger than the last time I saw it. I normally didn't pay attention to her physique, but with what I knew about her that changed. So my plan of questioning the guards was thrown out the window and I ran back to our room. I failed to notice that I wasn't the only one going there. But the other person never made inside our room because I closed the door as soon as I got in. I took a moment to really look at Daniella. She had gained weight, but it made no sense since she trained every day. I know because she never once lied to me, I would have known what with the ability Tulak had passed on to me.

        “Oh God, tell me he didn't.” I said scaring Daniella a little. She looked back at me then turned around. I walked over to her, grabbed her arm, and forced her to turn around and look at me. “Daniella.”

        “I...can't lie anymore.” She said.

        “You've been lying to me?” I asked her.

        'How come I didn't know?'

        “Yes. When you asked me when we met up again after Aunt and Uncle's death, I told you that the man who took me only hit me I lied. Sara, I'm pregnant.” She sat down on the chair that hadn't been there the day before and she broke down crying. At first I didn't react, but when I heard her crying I went next to the chair and pulled her towards me in a hug. I rubbed her back as best as I could and made soothing sounds. “I hate it. I want it to die.”

        I walked to the front of her, got down on my knees, put my hands on her knees and squeezed them a little harshly.

        “This child may have been conceived in the harshest manner, but you can't punish it for what that man has done to you. That man will pay dearly for what he did. I promise you. But you have a chance at teaching this new life what exactly it can't do when it becomes an adult. And I am so sorry this happened to you, but I'll be with you the whole time. I'll help you anyway can. And no man will ever do that to you again, I swear.” I said as anger grew in me. I wasn't the only one that was angry, I looked at Tulak. Steam came out of his nostrils. “We'll never let this happen to you again or any other female if we can help it.”

        “Thank you. And I'll hate it right now, but I can tell that the hate is going away and that it's being replaced by more tender feelings. Its because I've seen you with Tulak. Despite being a dragon, he still is a baby from someone else and you still love him. I think I'll love this child one day, but not now.” Daniella said.

        I spent the rest of night with Daniella comforting her. She told me that Aerilaya had figured out that she was pregnant while she watched Daniella train with Elasha yesterday. Aerilaya brought in the chair and put a stop to Daniella's training because she might harm the unborn child. She admitted guiltily to me that a part of her had hoped that if she got one good punch to the stomach the baby would die before it grew some more. I didn't say anything else, I just held her and listened. Even long after she had fallen asleep I was still awake. I got out of the bed, out on the balcony, closed the doors, leaned against the wall next to the doors, crouched down and wept. I wept for my baby sister and what she had gone through, I wept for the deaths of my family members that I had lost, but I mostly cried for Daniella. I cried for I don't know how long, then dried my cheeks, rubbed my eyes, got up, hugged Tulak, then went back inside and back to bed. Doesn't mean I fell asleep. I didn't sleep that night.

        The next day I let Daniella watch my training with Aerilaya. I didn't start my investigation until a week later, and Daniella stayed close to me. If she wasn't withme, then I could find her with Aerilaya or Prince Alok. Elasha actually helped me with my investigation. She would bring them to me and we would struck up a conversation and smoothly question the guards. Elasha wanted me to get to know some of the royal guards. Since coming to Crystalden she and I became close. I had made an ally in her. And it wasn't until after two weeks of the king's invitation was sent that we got a response from the other kings. They all agreed to meet him, his family, have the meeting, and, most importantly, meet Tulak and I. I had spotted a few elves that weren't part of the western army. Their robes weren't exactly the same shade of white and gold. Not to mention I was now a walking human lying detector. Apparently I could pick out spies. So I kept Tulak with at all times and walk around the castle and made sure that the spy elves would see us. It worked well because now all the families wanted to see the gold dragon and the woman he was always with. When that news was spread Zaos kept a closer eye on us, more than before the spies arrived. Something told me that he too had sniffed them out, but he didn't say anything and so neither did I.

Chapter 8

        Two weeks later Aerilaya said that I had become an amazing fighter in such short time. It was also when we all set for Sageland, its where the royal families would land and arrive at. We were to go greet them and bring them to Crystalden so that the meeting could begin as well as negotiations for peace amongst the northern, southern, western, and eastern elves. I was to oversee the negotiations and to create the treaty that each king, queen, princess, and prince had to sign. I had half of it written and continued to write it while we travelled to Sageland from Crystalden. It was a three day trip to the city and another three day back to Crystalden. Those that went to greet the other royal families and their guards that they were allowed to bring King Llarm, his wife, Zaos, Armin, Caden (a royal guard I had cleared from my list of potential elves that killed Aunt Agatha), Cedric (another royal guard that I had eliminated from my list), Erno (same thing with him), Aella (same thing with her), Brielle (I think you get it by now), and Tulak and I. Marylou was Princess Nanoa's personal guard and so stayed behind to be with her, Enyo was Erno's younger sister and Princess Alea's personal guard so she stayed behind for the same reason, Daniella wasn't allowed to come and I made Elasha promise me to keep an eye on her, she said she would, and as for Prince Estel he stayed behind because he was still a baby while we were gone it was Princess Nanoa who looked after him. We got to Sageland a day before our guests did.

        The first to arrive were the nothern elves. Their king, King Rilvaneth was the first to greet us and kiss my hand. It felt like he licked it and I suspected that he had. I discreetly wiped my hand on the black riding pants I wore. He had white long hair, pale green eyes, pale skin, wore his yellow crown, royal cloak, and the royal clothing of his country which were grey with white swirls and vines. His wife, Queen Marissa, was a picture of beauty. She bowed her head a little at me and looked like a really stern mother. I curtsied. She had that no-nonsense look in her eyes that always creeped me out whenever Mother looked at me like that when I had been younger. Queen Marissa wore her yellow crown, her white hair was braided back, she also wore a silk grey with white swirls and vines dress. Together the northern queen and king had five children. Princess Gwynneth was the eldest, she had her mother's blue eyes, she wore grey pants, white boots, white cloak and hood, and a white shirt. When she came to greet me she curtsied first then smiled this huge smile at  me. She was kind, and her white hair was braided back in two braids Princess Francesca was the second eldest, her blondish-white hair was loose and looked like it was no trouble to take care of. I was instantly jealous of it, mine usually took a while to brush. She wore a similar dress to her mother's except hers was more white then grey. She looked snobbishly at me, she was a princess that was use to getting whatever she wanted. Prince Corellon was the third eldest and confidant. He wore clothing similar to his father except his was more grey than anything else. Hirs white hair was shoulder length. His blue eyes barely gave me a glance, he preferred the pretty female elf warriors behind me. Then there was Prince Sylleth, he had mud all over his grey no white pants, cloak, and grey shirt. I couldn't tell if there was any mud on his brown boots. His hair was tied back in a low ponytail. And lastly there was the youngest, Prince Lashreal. His entire outfit was white with grey swirls, except for his black boots. His hair was loose as well and he looked at Tulak and I with great interest. He was the only one with his father's green eyes. The others were all blue.\

        The northern family only brought along with them four warriors, two females and two males. Loudvic and Luiz were the male warriors and decked out in dark grey clothing. They had swords (each one), bows and arrows, and knives. Blair and Andrina were the female warriors. They had the same gear as their male warrior partners. All four warriors stood around the northern family. Zaos had whispered to me that the northern elves believed that they were the most strongest elves and so the royal family didn't think they would get attacked, they had the utmost faith in their warriors and their training. He also whispered to me that they never let their wizards leave their lands so that they could keep the magical barriers up and running. He said that he and Armin had once visited the northern elven country when his father had been accused of stealing something of theirs. The matter had been settled pretty quickly, the real culprit coming forth. He whispered all this while the northern king had their belongings brought to the inn they'd be staying in until we set off with all the royal families for Crystalden.

        The second ones to arrive, a day after the northern ruler and his family, was the eastern royal faimly. King Wyn was the shortest elf I had seen so far. He also kept his red hair short, which was uncommon for elves (they preferred to keep their hair long), he had crystal blue eyes and a permanent smile on his face. He wore his royal green and gold robes, cloak with the hood down, and he held his wife's hand. His crown proudly sat on his head and was the only one that looked like a mini forest minus the leaves on the trees and wildlife. Queen Amra also had a smile on her face when she greeted us. She too wore her forest looking crown. Her green and gold silk dress brushed the ground and she didn't look like she cared at all. They proudly introduced their children to us. Princess Daenabia was the only eastern elven princess and she was the eldest, she had her mother's blond hair and styled in the same way as her; a bun at the nape of her neck. Her brown eyes were also the same shade as her mothers, and they kept darting back to one of the male warriors that accompanied the family. She also wore a green and gold dress, only hers didn't touch the ground. Prince Eldar was the second born, he had his father's baby blues, his clothing was all green – even his boots, his sword was on him. He seemed like he would be a good friend, until I saw him snap at a servant that accidentally got something in his long red hair. He really cared about it, which I found a little strange. He kept it half tied back. Prince Tolthe was the third elf and had his nose buried in a book. He wore his hood over his head, but even so I could still see his red hair. Under his cloak he wore a green shirt, green and gold pants, and brown boots. His brown eyes only briefly met mine before returning to his book. And we finally got to the youngest, Prince Tannivh. For a five year old he was pretty quiet. He was quietly looking at the ground. I thought he was shy until he said there was a large beetle near my then proceeded to grab it and shoved at me to show it to me. That's when I noticed that his hands were all dirty and that his green pants were stained, as was his green shirt. He wore no cloak, though I doubted it was clean, and his brown boots were well worn.

        The eastern family brought along with them six guards. Three females and three males. Maude, Camilla, and Dina all were on alert. They wore dark green pants, shirts, cloaks that hid their weapons, and dark green boots. Maude had light brown hair and green eyes with flakes of brown in them. She kept her hand on her sword. Camilla had blue-grey eyes and black hair. Her hands stayed at her side. Dina and brown hair and blue eyes. All three women had braided back their hair. Dieter, Herrick, and Nolan were also on alert, Herrick and Nolan more so than Dieter. They too wore dark green pants, shirts, cloaks, and dark green boots. They all three held their bows in their hands, they also had tied their hair back in low ponytails. Dieter had thick brown hair, green eyes, and a dashing smile (I guess). He never took his eyes off me. Herrick had red hair like their king, and green eyes that hardly left Tulak. Nolan had dirty blond hair, and brown eyes. When Dieter wouldn't stop staring at me Queen Amra quietly told me that Dieter loved women, but that he was also a very good warrior. I decided to stay away from him and discourage any advances he might have or try on me.

        The last group to arrive was the southern elves. King Thallan was the youngest looking king. He had long blond tied up in a ponytail, he had warm brown eyes. He wore black pants, white shirt, brown pants, black boots. It seemed like he left his royal robes behind. He had his black cloak draped over his left arm, and he wore his white crown. His wife, Queen Hacathra wore a black silk dress, her hair was loose, her green eyes seemed to smile at me, her the colour of her crown – the yellow – stood out more against her brown hair. They had three children, two girls one boy. Princess Llyrana was the eldest, had her father's hair, and her mother's eyes. She wore a silk light blue dress, half her hair was braided back and the other half was loose. Princess Lorelei was the middle child, she had her mother's brown hair, and her father's brown eyes. She wore a silk red dress and a black cloak. Princess Lorelei kept half her brown hair tied back with a hair clip and the rest tied in a low ponytail. Prince Silvyr was their youngest child, and completely was taken in by Tulak. His clothing was all black excluding his boots and cloak. The boots he wore were brown and the cloak he wore was grey and hoodless. He was both afraid of Tulak and not afraid.

        They brought eight warriors with them. Again, even number of women and men. Killian, Reiner, Boris, and Anders were the male guards. Killian and Boris had blond hair. Killian kept his partly out of his face and Boris let his loose. They also wore brown shirts, brown pants, black boots, along with their weapons. Boris had blue eyes, Killian had green eyes. Reiner and Anders had brown hair and both had brown eyes, each different shades of brown. Reiner had dark brown eyes, almost black. Anders had light brown eyes that could make any woman's heart melt. Reiner was decked out in grey with black boots and his weapons. Anders wore a grey shirt, brown pants, black boots, and all his weapons. Andromeda, Gabriella, Griselda, and Louise were the female guards. Andromeda and Gabriella wore grey dresses, their weapons made them look really badass. Their hair was braided back, both had black hair. Andromeda had doe brown eyes, and Gabriella had green eyes. Griselda and Louise wore black pants, red shirts, and of course their weapons were present. None of the warriors wore their cloaks, I knew they brought them along but didn't wear them.

        Two days after their arrival we set off for Crystalden where the rest of the western royal family and Daniella and my friends waited for us. I got on Tulak while everyone else got on horses, and their luggage had horses of their own. Tulak was now larger than most buildings, and it really was hard to miss him. Whether he was up in the air or walking around on the ground. And his scales were brighter, they still were golden-brown. Also I was no longer afraid of severe heights, I even let him do some small areal stunts. But not too many though. Three days later we were back in Crystalden, King Llarm insisted on having the meeting the next afternoon to give everyone some time to rest. When Tulak landed in front of the front doors Daniella and Prince Alok raced out the doors. As soon as I got off Tulak Daniella hugged me, she said that she had missed me. I said the same thing. I also thanked Prince Alok for keeping an eye on Daniella and while he said that it was no trouble a light blush crept across his cheeks.

        “Creoso n'alaquel.” Aerilaya said as she approached us.

        We all ate at the dining room table after everyone had been settled in. The warriors all stood at the walls keeping an eye out for any danger. I found it a little ridiculous, but it was also understandable. They were in “enemy” territory, and the western family had “enemies” over in their castle. Zaos stayed near me and stayed behind me. He also fallowed Daniella and I back to our room. He didn't have to say that he done so to make sure that we were safe, I just knew that that was why he'd done it. While I investigated and questioned the elves that I came across during those two weeks of waiting for a reply I had begun taking another look at Zaos. I started to see his caring side that he didn't easily show to others. And the night that he escorted us to our room I noticed that he made sure that Daniella was comfortably seated in the new furniture that had made an appearance while I was gone to go and greet the fanilies. There was now a couch, two chairs, and a small table in the middle of the room. Once Zaos was certain that we were comfortable and that there was no immediate danger, he left the room. I opened the balcony doors so that Tulak wouldn't feel neglected and Daniella told me what had happened while I was gone. Nothing. She roamed the castle with Amkissra and sometimes they were joined by Aerilaya, Elasha,  Ava or Prince Alok. At night she felt lonely but knew that her new friends would keep her company the next day and then her loneliness disappeared.

        Shortly after she fell asleep I found our letters to our brothers that I never got around to mailing yet. So I grabbed them, told Tulak to watch over Daniella as she slept while I left the room, then went in search of Zaos. He had shown to be dependable and I knew that he would find a way to get our letters to our brothers. While I looked for him I realized that I had no idea where his room was or if he even was staying in the castle. I didn't even know where anyone else's room was, just where mine and Daniella's was situated. While I silently gave myself shit for that I saw Princess Francesca walking and talking with an elf that I didn't recognize. He wasn't part of any of the guards that I'd seen and gotten to know at the western castle or any of the guards I'd met at Sageland. And he wasn't one of the spies I had compromised but didn't say anything. I might not have recognized the elf himself but I sure as hell recognized the arrows in his quiver. They were as black as the ones that had pierced Aunt Agatha's body.

        Totally forgetting about Zaos, I fallowed them. Then I'd attack and make the elf pay for killing my aunt. As I silently fallowed them from a distance, anger grew inside me. I could feel Tulak trying to calm me, but that just angered me even more. I didn't want to be calmed down, I wanted revenge and justice to be served. But first, I'd get my revenge. And once I'd deal with Aunt Agatha's murderer, I'd then go after Uncle Tarniss's murderer and Daniella's attacker. While I thought about all that Princess Francesca and the unknown elf went into what I presumed was her room. I silently walked up to the closed door, closed my eyes and listened. That time I tried to call on Tulak's super hearing. You know, use one of his traits on command. At first I could only hear muffled voices, but then I could hear them clearly, as if I myself was in the room.

        “What are you doing here? You should not have come. What if Father or Mother saw you?” Princess Francesca said, agitated.

        “Do not worry princess, I used the utmost discretion. Beside security in this castle is very lax.” The elf said.

        “Argus the dragon warrior leader resides here.” Princess Francesca warned.

        'So his name's Argus.'

        “Yes, I've seen her. She is no problem. I've seen her fight, it is ridiculous. And I know her weakness. To do what it is we came here to do we exploit her weakness.” Argus said.

        “Care to share that weakness?”

        “Its so obvious that I am surprised you have not noticed it princess.”

        “Oh spare me the vague comments, what is it?!”

        “Why its her family. You should have seen how she became after I killed her Aunt. She is lost, and will do anything to keep the remaining members of her family alive. She has two brothers, each married and living in Violetcrest. She has lost her Mother to us, and her little sister is not always fully watched. You can break the dragon warrior leader before we move on to our bigger plan.”

        “You will break her while I attack the kings and their families. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity than this stupid meeting. Father is a fool to agree to sign that stupid treaty and to deny me what is rightfully mine. We will all have our revenge. Tomorrow you will destroy this Violetcrest. Destroy it. When the news of an entire human village was attacked and destroyed by elves, everyone will turn on one another, and I'll kill them all while their warriors are busy fighting one another.”

        “Yes, my Queen.”

        “Go, I suspect that your men are already in position.”

        “They are. And what of the dragon warrior leader?”

        “I'll strike her down when she finds out that her entire family is dead.”

        “They say she is strong.”

        “But not as strong as me, the northern princess soon to be ruler of all elves and elven lands. After all she isn't even an elf. This time tomorrow all four elven kingdoms will be mine and we will begin our assault on those human vermine.”

        'That's what you think.' I thought as I heard heavy foot falls go towards the door. I quietly, but quickly walked away. My destination now changed. My plan was still to go after Argus, but there were now a few things added to that plan. First I needed to warn the kings about the coup d'état that was being planned and their warriors. So I went in search of Aerilaya and Elasha. Instead I found Ava and was about to tell her of what I'd just heard. But she beat me to it.

        “I already know of what Princess Francesca plans to do.” She said.

        “How? Are you in on it too?”

        “No, Zaos asked me to listen in on our new guests. I tuned in just in time. I put two and two together, she plans on assassinating every member of the royal families and waging war with the humans.”

        “I heard her say so myself. Do you have the hearing of a dragon as well?”

        That made Ava laugh. “No. I am a magician, I used a listening spell.”

        “Warn the kings and queens. And-”

        “You'll go back to your room. This is elven business.”

        “Excuse-me? I am part elven.”

        “Go child, make sure your sister is safe. I doubt that Princess Francesca will leave you alone.” Queen Naryssa said as she walked over to us. She held a sleeping Estel. “He couldn't sleep, I walk around the castle with him whenever he doesn't. It calms him right down and puts him to sleep. Your sister will also be her target tomorrow.”

        'Gives me an excuse to go after Argus.' I thought. But first I did have to make sure that Daniella would be protected. So I went back in search of Aerilaya and Elasha. Again I found Aerilaya leaving the kitchen, most likely she had been on a midnight snack raid. She saw me and waved then continued on to her room. I ran after her.

        “Aerilaya! Wait!” I said. And she stopped and waited for me. “I need you to do me the biggest favour ever. Just, not here.”

        “Manke?”

        “Fallow me.” I led her to my room, entered it, was surprised to see Daniella awake, even more surprised to see Zaos in the room, Aerilaya entered the room, and I closed the door. Then I listened, heard nothing, turned off the dragon hearing and faced them all. “Princess Francesca plans on committing a mass genocide tomorrow. She plans on killing every royal in this castle and to completely destroy Violetcrest. Queen Naryssa and Aunt Ava are warning the others right now. Aerilaya I have to ask you to protect Ella tomorrow, do not leave her side Ella, and don't loose sight of her. If you do Aerilaya, Princess Francesca will kill her.”

        “Where are you going? You just got back!”

        “Our brothers are in danger. I'm going to go face Argus, the elf that murdered Aunt Agatha and stop him from killing any more of our family.”

        “Are you insane?!!?” Zaos exclaimed. “He'll kill you! No, it's too dangerous. You can't go.”

        “I can and I will. You do not have the right to tell me what to do Zaos. Ella I have to go. The elves here will be too busy. But I promise you that I'll protect them and come back. Besides it'll be faster if Tulak and I go alone.”

        “But how can the two of you get to Violetcrest in one night?” She asked.

        “Tulak's a dragon. We'll do it.”

        “You will do no such thing alone.” Zaos protested.

        “I won't be alone, Tulak will be with me.” I said stubbornly. Nothing was gonna stop me from going to the rest of my family and protecting them.

        “I've seen you fight. You won't last against Argus and Tulak is just a baby.” Zaos said. I could hear the concern in his voice, but in my angered state I just didn't care. And I didn't really have the chance to think about what it meant and analyze it.

        “I am far stronger than you think. I can do things that you have yet to see.” I said as I gathered all my weapons and Tulak's reins and dragon bridle. I looked at them. “And Tulak is a dragon. Its high time I start treating him like one and let him act like his kind. Aerilaya, can I count on you to protect my sister until I return?”

        “Uma.”

        “Thank you.” I went ouside and quickly put on the bridle and got on Tulak's back.

        “Saraphina, wait! Just wait a minute!” Zaos said as I attached the reins.

        “No! I can't. Tulak let's go!” I said as I put my bow over my shoulder, just like my quiver and arrows. I grabbed on the reins just in time.

        “SARAPHINA!!” I heard Zaos yell as Tulak flew off. I tried to ingnore theguilt and how my heartstrings were pulled when I heard him yell my name in frustration with some desperation in it. But I had more immediate problems to deal with than finding out what made Zaos sound desperation.

        “To Violetcrest Tulak.” I ordered. I hoped that he knew where he was going, because I had no idea how to get to Violetcrest, Aslington from Crystalden of the western elven country. Within a few seconds the castle was small, and within minutes Crystalden was in the distance. It looked like a mirage. We flew all night, and only rested for an hour just outside Westcastle, then was back in the air. I saw the village when the sun was rising, I thought I was looking at a mirage because of the morning fog.

        I made Tulak land just outside the second entrance to Violetcrest, that road led to Westcastle and continued on eventually to Ashmill. I sent Tulak to the sky and told him to keep an eye on me and my progress as I would make my way across Violetcrest to the woods where I knew Argus would have his men hidden and waiting. As Tulak flew into the sky I hope that we had gotten to Violetcrest before Argus had. Then again I probably wouldn't know if the village was under attack or not since elves were efficient, fast, and fantastic archers. I took off my bow from across my back and chest, took an arrow and notched it. Then I snuck into the village. It was quiet, yes I was aware that it was extremely early in the morning, but there usually was a few villagers out and about getting an early start on their day. But as I went from behind one building to another I saw no one. I looked in one house, empty. I got out of it and heard a scream. I fallowed the scream to the Bartons' house. Miss Barton was being pulled out of her house by her hair, by an elf wearing only black. I aimed my notched arrow, let out a breath, and against what I really felt like doing I let go of the string. The arrow flew, a deadly weapon in the air, it struck the elf in left shoulder. I notched another and got him lower in the same.

        Despite wanting to kill them for going after innocent people and my family, the rest of them, I would not steep to their level. I would not kill with the skills I learned and notice that I was inheriting from Tulak and being a dragon warrior leader. The more time past the more I inheriting things from the previous one. I understood that the documents that I read about the dragon warriors unlocked something in me. Secrets that were only known to the dragon warriors had been magically hidden in the back of my, and I suspected in the other dragon warriors, heads and in my very being. The more time past the more secrets and the language that the dragon warriors spoke were embedded in me. Not that I understood what any of it meant, not yet anyway.

        The elf drew his sword, I smacked his left arm with my bow. He cried out in pain seconds before he swung his sword towards me. I reached back, grabbed an arrow and stabbed him in the leg with it. Then my white bow hit him in the side of his face. The force of the hit made him step back and I put my right index and middle finger against his forehead and I said: “Neanie.” He dropped to the ground asleep. The ancient language was not just a written one, it had powerful words to be spoken too. I also said: “Sieva” binding his wrists together.

        “Sara?” Miss Barton asked shocked. I turned to her.

        “What happened here? Where is everyone?” I asked her.

        “In front of the town hall. They've been grabbing people from their homes and bringing them there. If you resist they kill you. They killed the mayor. I-I-I don't know what they want. I...”

        “Its okay, go back inside and hide. I'll get everyone that's been taken. Go.”

        Miss Barton didn't questioned me she just nodded then ran inside her house. I hide the elf and pulled the arrows that were in him. I was going to need every single one I had to save everyone. Argus was gathering everyone to kill them all at once. So that whoever would happen upon their corpses would see how terrible their deaths were. The more gruesome the faster the news of what happened in Violetcrest would spread. And I was hell bent on not letting that happening. So I made my way to the town hall, every elf dressed in black that I came across I arrowed, put to sleep and bind their wrists. Never crossed my mind to take their arrows. When I ran out of arrows I used my knives and daggers. I wanted to use my sword only on Argus. I saved and hid as many villagers as I could. When I made it near the town hall I hid behind the sheriff's building and peeked around the corner.

        There was more than half the villagers were on their knees and were surrounded by the elves. In front of the statue, facing me was not only Argus, but a an I didn't know, and my wonderful mother. In front of them on their knees was Karl, Jenna, Takna, Kassy, and their children. I hadn't seen Mother in four months, but the woman I was looking at looked nothing like my mother. I had expected that she would have changed, but not to the point that I wouldn't almost recognize her. First thing was that she wasn't wearing a dress, she wore black pants, white shirt, and her hair was tied back. The mother I knew would have never dressed like that. The mother I had grown up with always wore dresses, had her hair in a bun, and would have never worn black. The women that was staring at my brothers with no emotions was no longer our mother. The man next to her had the same blond hair as hers, except his was short, and wore the same black clothing as the elves. I was too far away to see any other traits of his.

        “Mother what the hell are you doing?” Karl demanded.

        “To draw her out from hiding. I know she's here. She wouldn't stay away from the rest of her family any longer. I know my daughter. And if she doesn't get here, she'll see your dead bodies.” Mother said. I closed my eyes then stepped out of my hiding place.

        “Not if I have a say in it Mother.” I said as I flipped the knives I held. Every elf and villager looked back at me. I held the knives along my forearms, and held them up in a defensive stance. I knew I was screwed the minute those arrows were notched.

        “So glad you could join us, sgiathatch ohtar.” Argus said.

        “Its sgiathatch ohtar cora actually.” I corrected.

        “Sara? Run, don't stay there!” Takna yelled at me.

        “I'll die by the arrows they'll let loose before I even take one step in an effort to run away. And I'm not gonna run away anymore. I am the sgiathatch ohtar cora. My job is to protect not run. I'm done with running away, I'm going to protect everyone I care about and the innocent lives living here in Violetcrest.”

        “Brave words for a woman. And your all alone, you will die along with the-”

        Arrows hit every elf that had drawn their bows and made me their targets. Some got an arrow in the throat. Others got them in their arms, hands, and bows. Then some elves came from the right of the village and walked towards the town hall. Amongst them there was Zaos, Armin, and Elasha. My heart might have, or might not have jumped at the sight of Zaos. It was either because of seeing him or because of seeing allies. I couldn't (even now I still can't tell). My smile died the minute I saw how angry he was as he marched towards me with his bow drawn and a second arrow was notched.

        “You left before I even had a chance at getting my point across!” He growled at me.

        “You were going to make me stay and let them die!” I growled back.

        “How would you know that?! I told you to wait because I was planning on coming here as well!”

        “Well it didn't sound like you were going to. And why would you do that? Last night I checked elves weren't too fond of humans, why go protect them?”

        “Why the hell not?'

        “Well, uh. What about the kings and queens and their families? Why the hell did you leave Crystalden?”

        “To help save your village! They have the best warriors there, and never bet against Ava.”

        “You should stayed in Crystalden!Why didn't you tell me you were coming?”

        “Because there is no reasoning with when you have made up your mind, you are so infuriatingly stubborn!!”

        “He's right.” Karl said.

        “Shut up! No one was talking to you Karl.” I said looking at him, then I looked back at Zaos. “And you! I am so angry with you right now!”

        “Excuse-me? You are angry with me?”

        “Yes!”

        “Sorry to interrupt this lovers' quarrel, but we have a deadline and many people to kill.” The man said.

        “We're not lovers!” We both said looking at him.

        “Do not kill Saraphina yet, Argus. Not before she tells me where the dragon is.” Mother said.

        “Besides, I want to see if this one is as fun as your other daughter was.” The man said.

        “You will pay for what you have done to Lady Daniella, Richards.” Zaos growled at the human before I could threaten him. Richards laughed at us.

        “You are mere children.” He said then continued to laugh.

        “I will never tell you where Tulak is. Can mere children do this?” I said angrily then  whistled for Tulak. Thirty seconds later we all heard wing beats, and Tulak landed behind us. Some villagers didn't move, others screamed. Then Tulak did something that shocked even me. He opened his mouth and the only warning I got was the spark that I saw out of the corner of my eye. I crouched down, pulled Zaos down with me, and yelled “Stay down!”, hot orange and yellow flames shot out of Tulak's mouth a second later. That made the villagers scream even more.

        “Richards is mine.” Zaos said as soon as the fire was gone. He stood up and shot arrows at Richards. I saw some blackened elven bodies fall to the ground, but most had ducked down or thrown themselves out of the flames' trajectory. I got up, threw the knives I held at the elves that went for Janieve and Oxfird, and began running. I was glad that I was wearing brown riding pants with some gold on, light brown, with black riding boots because it made running towards my enemy so much easier.

        “Fine then, I get Argus and Mother.” I said.

        “You what?” Zaos, Karl, and Takna yelled.

        “Tulak do your thing!” I yelled at him as I unsheathed my sword.

        “Malwa i' sgiathatch ohtar cora ar' Zaos ar' Tulak!” Elasha yelled in elvish.

        “Caela ie'lle!” Armin yelled and the warriors they brought along repeated the battle cry.

        “Gurth goth rim lye!” Argus yelled seconds before I swung my sword at him. He parried with his bow. Mother distracted me by lunging at my exposed right side, I flipped my sword so that her blade met mine.

        Her action gave Argus the time to back up and put enough space between him and I to shoot arrows at me and the very people I was trying to protect. So I knocked down any arrow I could, some still hit some villagers but didn't kill them, Mother had gotten to be a better fighter like I had been during the past five months. However I had something Mother lacked, I had Tulak, I could take his traits. I was the dragon warrior leader. I needed to see every arrow to stop them, I had to be strong enough to fend off Mother and stop both her and Argus with one good hit, and I needed to be fast. I could feel my teeth sharpen and fangs grew like vampires' fangs, when I caught a glimpse of my skin there was a hint of gold to it, and my eyesight became more focused and enlarged. I could see every arrow that Argus shot, thanks to Tulak I had more speed to intercept the arrows and to fend off Mother, I backhanded her so hard that she flew back a bit. Then I cleared a path between Argus and I, his arrows kept trying to get in my way. I broke every single one. I snapped his bow in half with my sword then punched him in the face breaking his nose. He fell back, tried to get back up but stopped moving when he felt the tip of my sword against his throat.

        “Lava!” I ordered.

        “Never.” He hissed.

        “I thought you might say that. I really want to kill you for killing Aunt Agatha, but then I'd be no better than you. You will be imprisoned instead for the rest of your natural life. And I hear that its going to be a long one.” I said. “Sieva. Tsinea nill, mea sal.”

        His wrists instantly stuck to one another and his body stopped moving. I turned around and looked at Mother.

        “You wouldn't harm your own mother, would you?” She asked.

        “You are no mother of mine. Sieva. Tsinea nill, mea sal.” Her wrist went straight to one another and then she didn't move another limb.

        “Impressive, what language is that?” Zaos asked as he approached us. I looked at him. He was scraped here and there, he bled a little, but was otherwise fine and I felt relieved to see him alright.

        “The ancient one. Only dragon warriors can speak it. You may be able to read it and hear the words when I say them, can say the words, but nothing will happen  when you speak it. However if a dragon warrior speaks it, something happens...why are you staring at me like that? And where's Richards?” I asked.

        “There,” He moved aside so I can see the unconscious Richards, “he tried to outrun me. I knocked him out not without giving him one hell of a beating.”

        “Sieva, Tsinea nill, mea sal.” I said to the unconscious man. He was soon in the same position that Argus was in.

        “You know that Daniella was...by that man, don't you? How?”

        “Your room door was ajar when you two spoke, and you have gold eyes.” He said. “I didn't tell anyone else.”

        “My eyes are gold?”

        “Yes.”

        “Oh, right. Hold on.” I closed my eyes. I felt the fangs retract, then opened my eyes. “Back to normal?”

        “Yeah.”

        “Sara? Wha, what...” Karl tried to speak.

        “I'll explain everything later. First we'll take care of the wounded, then, if you guys want, I'll bring you to Ella and tell you everything that's happened in the lats five months.” I said to them. “Don't worry, Tulak won't attack or eat the villagers. I promise.”

        “My little sister has a dragon.” Karl said unbelieving.

        The western elves helped with the wounded and moved the dead charred elves. Armin and Elasha secured the rest of Argus's men and checked in on our statued prisoners. I kept getting looks from Takna and Karl, Jenna and Kassy kept Jenieve and Oxfird from approaching Tulak, I helped as many wounded as I could and Zaos stayed y my side keeping his eyes opened for any other enemy. By night fall all the wounded were treated, the dead elves were buried and everyone was in the town hall waiting for an explanation on what happened that morning. I gave them an edited version; said that elves existed, that other races might exist, that evil elves existed like evil humans, that dragons once roamed the earth, that they still existed, that there was dragon warriors and they protected them from harm. I don't know if they truly believed everything that I had said, or accepted it all. It was a lot to absorb.

        At Takna and Kassy's house I told my brothers and their wives exactly what had happened. From Tulak hatching to the battle of that morning. No one said anything else, I left to give them a minute, went outside, slipped on some mud, my feet soared above my head and I landed on my back and ass. Apparently it was very hilarious. Or so that's what Zaos's laughing told me. As I was getting up, I was about to rip him a new one I saw him laughing. His laugh was enticing, magical even (don't tell I said that, it will crush his little ego). And his smile alone made my jaw dropped. When he smiled and laughed he was drop dead gorgeous. Suddenly my anger was gone, and the little of the pain I felt at the bottom of my back was forgotten.

        “Ooh, thanks I needed that.” Suddenly my anger was back.

        “Really? That was funny?” I asked him statistically.

        “Yes, very. You should have seen your face. It was hilarious.” He said smiling.

        “I'm so glad that my falling, humiliation, and pain brings you laughter.”

Chapter 9

        Three days later Zaos was leading our brothers, my niece and nephew, and their wives to Crystalden. I flew back to the capital elf city with Tulak. There I gave Daniella the rundown of what had happened and what I had told the remaining family we had. Then I met Ava and we began discussion for helping build a prison for our prisoners, but for now we kept them in the castle's dungeon. I also had incapacitated Princess Francesca, she knew magic but mine trumped hers. Then I began the negotiating meeting. While were in there, the four kings, their wives, and I my family arrived at Crystalden. I spent the next three days in and out of negotiating a treaty that pleased everyone and heard the pleadings of the northern king to release his daughter. In fact that was why the meeting took an exhausting three days instead of a few hours. What made him back off on her release was that I told him that I didn't plan on torturing her, that she would be fairly treated. I told him that I was no monster, that I didn't want to protect the innocent through fear. I wasn't a tyrant.

        When he finally signed the treaty and I made it binding with the ancient language silis 'Mmuy'. Making it, well, binding. If the treaty was violated in anyway, I had every right to punish that ruler that violated the treaty. The basics of the treaty was that I was entitled to drop in on any elven kingdom and speak with any and all elves that lived in those elven kingdoms. Basically it allowed them to continue on as they were, and that I had to also respect their traditions, and laws that were already made. I had to be respectful of each kingdom and their royal families and they had to be the same thing. And the last thing I had included in the treaty was that there would be no more banished elves, that those elves would have fair trials with me present, to prevent them from fallowing another Argus and from them attacking any other innocent lives. So I was going to be busy and the rulers of each kingdom was pleased that I was going to visit each kingdom. And to be honest I didn't mind it much, neither did Daniella when I asked her. I kept the original treaty and made copies for the four kings.

        During those negotiations I also decided what I was going to do about Daniella's and my housing. We declined our brothers' offers, as well as King Llarm and Queen Naryssa's offer of staying at the castle, I also told Zaos that we wouldn't stay at his fathers too long. We were going to build our own place in between Crystalden and Wyvernview, on the border of the western elven country and the human lands. There was a perfectly cave that fit all of Tulak's growing and then some. We were going to build our house right next to it and against the boulders (mountain really), use magic to create a door and a curving hall straight into the cave, as well as create a giant door at the cave entrance so that Tulak would be the only one to be able to open it and close it (I planned on teaching him how to do that). Once the place would be built it would be awsome. We were planning on making our house on a two second-story house with four rooms.

        We began building the house a week after we said our goodbyes and see-you-soons to our brothers and their families, after we left Violetcrest. Three months later were attended Elasha and Armin's wedding and reception. By then our house plans were complete. Elasha and Armin had decided to wed in Wyvernview and to also have their reception their. Elasha was beautiful in her white wedding gown, it was simple, silk and she was incredibly happy. Armin was handsome as well, they were both very happy and so we were very happy for them. Their friends from Crystalden and Wyvernview had attended the wedding and reception. And I couldn't be happier for them. It was also during their wedding that I finally had a chance to ask Zaos something that had been bugging me since he helped me protect Violetcrest.

        “How'd you guys get to Violetcrest so quickly from Crystalden?” I asked him as the elves began to play music.

        “Teleportation spell from Ava.” He said.

        “Uhaaa? Why has no one told me of these teleportation spells?”

        “You never asked.” Then Daniella grabbed by wrist and dragged me to the dance floor to dance. Despite her pregnancy she out-danced me that night.

        While I travelled between the four elven  kingdoms, Zaos had been asigned to go along with me to make sure things went smoothly. I doubted the entire time that he would be of any help during my visits to those countries. In fact he kind of wasn't needed. Things went more then just smoothly, there was no danger to our lives. No one was stupid enough to try and anger Tulak or I, so whenever we walked through a village we were greeted bu then ignored. The villagers just carried on as if it was a totally normal thing to see a gold dragon walking around. I guess the elves had seen stranger things, or maybe this was just normal to them. Or they were told to continue on and not stop their daily routines just because a dragon, its surrogate mother/partner in keeping the peace, and an outside elf waltzed through their village. But on our first night of visiting each elf village that we had visited there was a large party thrown in our honour. I drank more in those three months than I had since Mother had let me have my first drink of wine. Turns out I have a high alcohol tolerance. I had yet to drink until I completely forgotten the night.

        But that didn't mean that the single male elves didn't leave me alone. I guess Zaos was good for that. We learned pretty quickly that the single male elves would leave me alone if Zaos stayed near me. And the night of the wedding reception was no different. By then we had fallen in habit. If there was a too persistent elf that just wouldn't leave me alone Zaos would materialize and would walk away forcibly with the elf.  I had so much fun that night. It was the only elf party that I had really enjoyed myself, where I danced and drank with no troubles. After my, like twentieth or so mug full of wine it' all a blur and there are some blackouts. Zaos said that it was probably for the best that I didn't remember mos the evening after that twentieth mug. It might have been my fifteenth, I think I double counted a few. I decided not to ask what exactly I had done after I saw Zaos's smirk, Elasha and Daniella's blushes. Then again Elasha might have been blushing because Daniella asked her how the rest of her night had been. Apperently she and Armin disappeared shortly after I began forgetting the rest of the evening.

        Speaking of Daniella, by the time her belly was swelling I saw a change in her. She was happier and more accepting of the unborn child. Prince Alok might have a huge hand in her being happier too, and my being back. While we were travelling he had been  spending more time with her and helped her make more friends in Wyvernview. I was thankful towards him for seeing her and not her growing belly. A lot of the Wyvernview villagers stared at her growing belly and whispered about her. I don't know what the rumours were saying about her because they never reached my ears. But if they had been I probably would have lost it and no one wanted that. Once the house began to be built I wrote a letter to the King of Aslington saying that he was to expect me sometime in the fallowing six months. I went to Violetcrest to send the letter. And if it never reached the then he was going to get one hell of a surprise when we would get to Ashmill to see him and began discussions for the treaty I planned to make him sign.

        Thinking of him made me think of all the other countries that I would have to eventually have to visit to make it known that the dragon warriors were back. Or well that the dragon warrior leader was back and ready to create peace and protect this land from any enemy that wanted to end innocent lives. Zaos had said that it might be too early to announce that I was out and about because I didn't have a complete handle on my powers and my fighting still needed more practise. I, naturally, totally ignored him. He glared at me and I decided to ignore him as I finished my practise with Aerilaya. She commended me on my progress and now she was the one panting. It was a nice change for once. And while the house was being built we stayed with Delmuth. And he was glad to have us. He liked the company and he liked to help those in need of it. I thanked him often for housing us, and every time he just waved away my thanks. I was very grateful towards him, and Zaos. Zaos never complained when he had to travel with us, in fact thinking back on it he never complained about doing anything that was asked of him.

        But he knew just how to piss me off. I will not go into details as to what he said or did, the less said about some of our arguments the better. Some of them were pretty stupid actually, not that I'm going to tell you them either. But there was one point that he raised and I had to agree with him, though I didn't tell him that. He didn't need to know. So anyway, the point he had made was that just because I, the dragon warrior leader, was now walking on this earth again didn't mean that the other members of the group would just magically appear. I would have to go around Aslington, and the other countries, I'm not including the elven countries because they would have told me about them if their was one, to look for the rider, the warrior, the protector, and the dragon. Besides hiding a dragon was not easy to hide, trust me. Doesn't matter how small or big a dragon is, it is hard to hide one. But I figured that searching for the other members of my team, group-whatever you want to call it, would not be easy. That they two would do everything to hide and protect the dragon they hatched and would raised or already begun raising the dragon. But the next night after the wedding I decided that I could sleep off my hangover and that I would begin my search for the others after Daniella gave birth to her child and not before. I was not going to leave her again during her pregnancy.

        So that's it for now I guess. Daniella keeps yelling at me that diner is ready. And I hope that my next adventure won't be so.....scarring. I really don't want to have another scar on my body, especially not after having just accepted the one on my right cheek. (ALRIGHT I'M COMING ELLA!!!! I HEARD YOU, DAMN IT!!!! I'M NOT DEAF!!!!)

 

                       

     

Glossary

        Dina: Be silent

        Nurta: Hide

        Lle auta yeste: You go first

        Asca: Hurry

        Sii'!: Now!

        Amin nauva auta yeste': I will go first

        Yala onna en'kemen: Summon Earth Elemental

        Tanya nae sai eina: That was very funny

        Amin hiraetha: I'm sorry

        Kela: Go away

        Nadorhuan: Cowardly dog

        Lle maa quel: You look good

        Lle ume quel: You did well

        Aa' menle nauva calen ar' hwesta e' ale'quenle: May thy path be green and the breeze on thy back

        Aa' menealle nauva calen ar'malta: May your ways be green and golden

        Voronwer: Loyal one

        Vanya sulie: Fair winds

        Amin delotha lle: I hate you

        Nae saian luume': It has been too long

        Ya naa tanya?: Who is that?

        Vedui: Greetings

        Tel' sgiathatch cora ar' he seler: The dragon leader and her sister

        Mani?: What?

        Tel sgiathatch: The dragon?

        Haba: Mine

        Essa Tulak: Name Tulak

        Quel esssa: Good name

        Mani naa essa en lle?: What's your name?

        Tula sinome: Come here

        Edanea?!: Humans?!

        Tinu: Daughter

        Yuuyo: Both

        Yallume!: At last!

        Turor' Taur'ohtaine: Brotherhood pf Pathfinders

        Lle ier lye winya hirae: You are our new student

        Ikotane: So

        Uma: Yes

        Lle ier telwa: You are late

        Amin hiraetha ten' tanya: I'm sorry for that

        Uma, lle ier: Yes, you are

        Malwa amin: Fallow me

        N'uma megil: No sword

        N'uma tiriemaeg: No dagger

        N'uma sikil: No knife

        N'uma cu: No bow

        N'uma pilin: No arrow

        Ere paur, quenat: Only fist, body

        Au': Again

        N'uma: No

        Ere' Eldalie: Only Elvish

        Amandil: Priest

        Esta eithel sina lome: Rest well this evening

        Lye ier elandili: We are half-elves

        Lle ier no' coiasira: You are on time

        Quel: Good

        Lle ier beleg: You are strong

        Diola lle: Thank you

        Lle sai creoso: You're very welcome

        Putta: Stop

        Ra ier ron?: Who are they?

        Saesa omentien lle: Pleasure meeting you

        Amin ran Llarm amin verne'; Tari Naryssa ar' en' kinta lye: Tarien Alea ar' Taren Estel: I'm King Llarm, my wife; Queen Naryssa and two of four of our children: Princess Alea and Prince Estel.

        Amin Saraphina. Amin seler, Daniella: I'm Saraphina. My sister, Daniella.

        Re, er en' lye amandil: She, one of our cleric

        Amandil: Cleric

        Lye ier tinu en' Jonas: We are daughters of Jonas

        Re rudh i' aith amin Aran: She bare the mark my King.

        Auta miqula orqu: Go kiss an orc

        Sgiathatch ohtar: Dragon warrior

        Ed' ilya i' Seldarine: By all the Gods

        N'uma ner rutha?: No more anger?

        Dida lle ar' amin hiraetha: Thank you and I'm sorry

        A' tua lle n'e: To help you out

        Mankoi il?: Why not?

        Ro nostale: He's kind

        Creoso, mellonamin: Welcome my friend

        Creoso n'alaquel: Welcome back  

        Lle creoso mellonamin: You're welcome my friend

        Manke?: Where?

        Ndengina amin, nandor: Kill me, coward.

        Cuamin linduva yassen megrille: My bow shall sing with your sword

        Sgiathatch ohtar cora: Dragon warrior leader

        Malwa i' sgiathatch ohtar cora ar' Zaos ar' Tulak!: Fallow the dragon warrior leader and Zaos and Tulak!

        Coela ie'lle: Have at thee!

        Gurth goth rim lye!: Death to our foes!

        Lava!: Yield!

        

        Sieva: Bind

        Neanie: Sleep

        Tsinea nill, mea sal: Do not move, unless I say.

         Yp'sn: Rider

         Pypgpn: Protector

         Nyrn: Warrior

         Msyuym: Dragon

        Mmuy: Binding

          Lrpmn: Leader