TAKEN BY THE DRAGON KING

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

Elena

Minutes slipped into hours which slipped into days which slipped into God knows what, my only comprehension of time seeming to be the constant rise and fall of daylight and darkness and even that slowly began to resemble figments of my imagination.

Training was rigorous still becoming even more intense after my little stunt with the fireball, I was a bit relieved Gulliver wasn’t around for this bit, though I’d bet he’d gotten tired of seeing me fumble up and landing on my keister on a constant basis, he’d taken a break going back to see how things were being run in Dracul’s absence.

Dracul, the mere thought of him sent mixed emotions accompanied by a discomforting chill down my spine, I wondered how he was faring, if he was faring at all, of late I’d begun to wonder just if he was still-

“You’re brooding again and playing with dinner again.” Gammy tells me, her eyes sparkling from the other side of the table. “Your one man monologue won’t bring you any closer to your goals, training will and those who train must eat!”

I’d begun calling her Gammy ever since Gulliver had told me just how much she hated it, it seemed to get a constant rise out of her, her brows furrowed and she cussed like a teenager, it seemed quite fun.

“You’re doing it again petulant child.” She growls at me. “Do you know how hard it is for an old lady to whip up such good food and you think away on it?”

“Fuck it!” I swore heavily. “If only you’d remember your age when we were sparring and learn to take constant naps so I can sneak off to my Kingdom then maybe, maybe I’d not have myself has a one man discussion group.”

“It’s dangerous.” She said simply. “And you’re projecting besides you’ve been away this long, why the prodigal daughter returning act, the wind whispers to us, there is death out there, you cannot defend yourself against it.”

“Train me faster.” I plead tossing aside my plate. “Teach me to do better.”

“Stop complaining and learn faster.” She barks. “Then we’d need not have such conversations between ourselves.”

She rose up rather magestically from the rickety old table, her eyes bearing down on me like hawks.

“I’m sure you’ve learnt by now that fire burns, quite literally.” She says. “Be wise child.”

So was the nature of all our conversations, a battle of words and notions followed by continuous advice, waking up was a painful monotone, knowing somewhere Dracul was almost definitely being tortured, it was a rock and a hard place situation and there was no sight of resolution anytime soon.

***

The sun was just going down when our sparring session was concluded, as usual she glowed with old age while I laid on the floor covered with dirt and grime.

“Tell me.” I ask. “Why are there so few magic users, I mean aside from Gulliver, you and a select few, I barely see any powerful people around and-”

“There are stories you shouldn’t go digging for girl.” She tells me. “Too much pain lies behind there.”

“But I am one of you.” I say sitting up, I regret that decision immediately and I wince in intense pain. “It’s my heritage.”

She looked up in deep thoughts and then her features sags in defeat.

“Very well then.” She tells me. “I’ll tell of what I know.”

And thus began the tale.

‘There was a time when we thrived , a masterful race of warriors, our abilities left us god-like and powerful, and we stood next to gods as the magic sung in our veins, and it was a great pride to one of the Mage folk.

But power comes with envy and envy left long enough comes with it’s own destruction, it started with the Elder Dragon Dracul, the name for which your lover now bears, He and the first King of the West, it was they that begun what would be known as the Great Decimation.

Mixed blood children of Dragon and Mage kind under the tutelage of the one simply known as the Deceiver created a spell much like a virus and just like that a thousand years of peace and prosperity washed down the drain.

The war to be fought would last a century and during that time the virus did it’s work, it’s started out with blackened veins and within a week or two of agonizing pain, death would follow, it was a dark time, and our numbers dwindled in the thousands until they were too few of us to fight.

We retreated into the depths of the shadows, those who were not quick enough to hide, were slain and slaughtered, the war was won but the massacre seemed to continue, it wasn’t much long after the crowning of King Edmus IV, that a treaty was signed abolishing the war but the damage had been done.

Our Kind , glorious and great reduced to nothing but specks of ash scattered far and and wide across the face of the Earth.’

***

It was silent between us afterwards, it seemed rather irrelevant to talk and the words seemed to escape.

“Many of our Kind do not forget this.” She says. “And we may be powerful but a few scattered droplets will never replace the ocean.”

She stood still for awhile and then cast me a look of amusement.

“You begged for the tale and yet look you’re the one crying not having live through it like I did.” She said almost laughing. “We have to be tough and resilient, that’s how we survive, we make the hard choices to keep existing, you’ll understand this someday.”

“I understand now.” I tell her wiping off the stray tears that found their way down my chin. “I’ll go freshen up and dinner’s on me.”

“It sure is.” She tells me. “I have an errand to run, dinner might possibly be without me so better get to it or sleep hungry and training still begins by five.”

And she was back again, moment gone, evaporated just like that, as I trudged back inside leaving her to enjoy whatever was left of the fast fading sunlight, the last of the daylight catches a small smile on my face, for the first time I feel relaxed, not because of the mass genocide story but of the strange connection between us.

Queen of the west

I hated this forest, the smell and the reminder of what had been, it’d be one of the first things I’d raze down was my plans were finally complete. I stood there nightfall fast approaching, the nerve of her to keep me waiting for so long.

The nocturnal life if the forest had just about begun and the owls were playing the hooting melody when she arrived, hobbling around like she did with those shining eyes that my fingers just itched to put out but composure and our deal stopped me from hurting her, for now at least.

“Miranda.” She called, the sound of my own name sounding so much so like a distasteful abomination on her lips.

“It’s Queen of the west.” I spat out hard, hissing with anger.

“I got your message.” She says seemingly ignoring me and my tantrums as if I didn’t wield more power than she did. “What do you want?”

I wonder how her very words manage to infuriate the fuck out of me, pushing the very buttons I once swore off from, No, I wouldn’t give her any win in the slightest sense something between the lines of evil and smirking passed across my features and I circled around her menancingly like a bird of prey. The owls hoot comes to stop, Good it recognizes the bigger predator in the environment.

“What do you ever mean?” I ask her innocently. “Doesn’t a former student have the right to call on her old mistress.”

“Miranda!” She howls my name “you petulant child.”

“Denise!” I growl right back. “Or is it Gammy again? Watch your tone.”

“What do you want?” She says lowly.

“To check on our little project of course, make sure she’s coming along quite nicely.” I say high pitched with a smile that quickly turns sinister. “And to make sure you haven’t forgotten your end of the bargain.”

Her eyes narrow and she says nothing.

“Don’t tell me you’ve grown to love her?” I pout. “At least I hope not more than your Grandson!”

“Bait is a weakening trait the weak use to lull the strong.” She finally says. “How weak you have become Miranda!”

“Yet it is you who quivers and looks behind your shoulders at the mere mention of my name.” I tell her. “You are a traitor to your kind, a deserter, it’s a shame to know you.”Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Can I go now?” She asks drily.

“As long as you don’t forget the plan Gammy.” I say with a laugh.

She turns and treads away leaving me laughing and on my own whims in the darkness.