Chapter 4
Friendly Dragons?
"Is she awake? My goodness, look at those legs! I can't even imagine what happened! Rose, check her! Is she awake?! Let me know now!"
"Yes sir," came the screechy squawk of a Clyuire.
I swallowed and opened my eyes. My throat was dry, and my legs stung. I sat straight up, pain coursing through my legs.
"Lay down! This can't be good for you!" yelled a doctor to my right.
I looked angrily at him and commanded,"Do not lay a finger on me."
He backed up and stared at me. I looked around for the Clyuire. It was gone.
"Clyuire, where are you?" I called.
To my left I saw a head poke out from behind another table. I was on one of two white tables in a white room. How I hated white rooms. The Clyuire came toward me, her claws clacking on the white tiled floor.
"Assume your name is Rose?" I asked the Clyuire.
It swallowed and answered,"Yes ma'am, it is. If it's okay, I must tell his Highness that you're awake."
I shook my head immediately and commanded,"I want you to stay here. Doctor, you report that I'm awake. This Clyuire will show me to his Highness."
The Clyuire ducked down, as if afraid of being hit, and suggested,"I don't think that would be a very good idea. You see, your legs are not in good condition right now."
I changed to Clyuire and hopped off the table. The Clyuire looked at me in surprise, but began walking from the room. The doctor held the door open for us, then ran to tell the leader that I was better. We casually strutted out of the room, looking at the hallway before us. The Clyuire was quite talkative and gave me a grande tour. We passed many stone sculptures of dragons. The Clyuire talked about no one but dragons being able to tell one from the next. She told me that all the statues looked alike, and that all dragons look the same, but that they can tell each other apart some how. She said that she was able to tell, but only because she'd had a few months of training in that particular area. I nodded, not understanding. I could see many differences in all of the different sculptures.
With a shake of my head, I sped up. Rose, the other Clyuire, hurried to catch up with me. We ran to the door and opened it. Rose led me into a large room, much like the size of the room I was in when I used to sit upon my throne. It was designed about the same, only it had black pillars instead of white, and there were six pillars on each side. Instead of a solid ceiling, I saw glass. It wasn't really glass. If you looked at it from above, it looked just like grass. From below, you could see straight through it. The sunlight shone down into the room and made everything look magnificent. I saw Rose stop outside the door. She swallowed and plastered herself against the wall. I ruffled my feathers and walked forward. The leader's throne faced the North. The back of the throne was to the South. I came from the East, so that when I passed the pillars lined along the East and West sides of the room, and looked to my left, I was able to see the throne and who was on it. I walked to the middle of the room and changed to unicorn before the leader's eyes, keeping my horn from appearing. He rose from his throne and looked at me.
"Greetings, Sir," I said, controlling the quiver of pain that was about to show in my voice, for I still had the wound in my chest.
The dragon seemed at a loss for words. He stared, not seeming to care whether it was polite or not. I stood tall, letting my tail swish from side to side. My ears held erect, my eyes trained on his Majesty, I grew my horn. Thought I thought his eyes could widen no more, they did. He walked down the five steps that led to his throne and approached me. I thought about retreating, for I had learned never to let a dragon near you. In this case, I made an exception. He didn't appear to want to do me harm. I stayed on my guard, hoping with all my might that he wouldn't attack me. As it worked out, he had no intention of doing anything to hurt me. He came forward and rubbed his scaly hands up and down my smooth horn. He tried to break it, not believing what he was seeing. I stood still until he backed up a few paces.
"Then it's real?" he asked me.
I nodded and swallowed hard. I had no idea of what his intentions were.
"Unicorns are real. Amazing. I have a quick question for you, Miss."
I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he wanted to ask me.
The dragon paced, band and forth, back and forth, then asked,"What is your name?"
I thought quickly before answering,"Lionx is my name."
The dragon lifted his head up a bit and seemed to ponder my name for a minute. He continued pacing, thinking over my name. Trying to figure out if it fit or not.
"And what is your's?" I asked, feeling the question was appropriate since he had asked my name already.
"My name is Hurlil," answered the dragon.
I heard a sound to my left. I didn't have to turn my head to know my daughter's voice. Without looking for my daughter. I ran as fast as I could to get in front of her. Of course, running as fast as I could meant that no one could see me. I simply disappeared from Hurlil's sight and appeared in front of Topaz.
"Mom!" cried Topaz.
I changed to centaur and grabbed my daughter's shoulders, yanking her from a female dragon guard's grip. The dragon looked at me with surprise.
"Leave us now, Cro," commanded Hurlil.
The dragon guard bowed and hurried away. I hugged Topaz, then walked toward the middle of the room. Topaz stayed close to me, shivering.
"I must speak with you....alone,"I told hurlil.
He nodded and reached for Topaz's hand. I wanted to tell her not to take it, but I had no right to judge this dragon. For all I knew, he might be different from all the others. Topaz cautiously slid her hand into Hurlil's, and they headed toward a door behind a pillar in the right wall. After opening the door and letting Topaz survey the room, she nodded and entered the room. Hurlil let her shut the door and turned to walk back to me. I sighed and wondered what I would do. Hurlil came to me with a wide grin on his scaly face.
"You have a beautiful daughter," commented Hurlil.
"Thank you," I said, stiffening.
Hurlil turned around and walked a few feet toward his throne, then stopped. He faced me again.
"You've not been truthful with me," he said.
I clasped my hands behind my back and replied,"Neither have you."
Hurlil shrugged and answered,"Fair enough. But answer me this. What is your true name?"
I pondered that for a moment, then asked him,"Which name would you like? The name I used to go by? The name I use only sometimes? How about the name I use in my kingdom? Come, come, speak now."
"The name you use in your kingdom, if it please you to say it," answered Hurlil.
"Good, then my name is Queen Sariah. Though, if it please your highness, I prefer to be called just Sariah."
Hurlil nodded and asked,"You would like to know mine now, correct?"
I slowly nodded my head, wondering what his name would be. I hoped it would be a spectacular name, and so it was.
Hurlil clasped his scaly hands behind his back and grew somber as he said,"Teran Mei."
I was surprised at how well I had hidden my surprise at that name. Somehow, it seemed to fit him perfectly. I knew he was not lying this time. This name was his true name, and I guessed he had felt the same way about my name. I nodded in acknowledgment, then surveyed the room. It was quite big. Yes, it reminded me of my old throne room. I began asking myself where Teran had come from and wondered if he would like me asking such a question. I quickly decided I would indeed ask the question.
"Ask anything you wish," said Teran, as if he were reading my mind.
I continued looking around the room as I asked,"How did you come to power? Was it a vote, did you take the place by force, or did you inherit leadership?"
Teran eyed me carefully. I knew this, though I tried hard not to notice it. I could feel him watching me, and it made me amazingly uncomfortable. I had not felt a fear as such since I had been a prisoner of Clyte.
"Very well then," Teran said. "If you have some time to listen, I will gladly tell you."
I suddenly felt an urge to run. I swallowed hard, then opened my mouth to say ‘sure'.
[Mom! Jump as high as you can, then get out of there!] I heard Topaz silently scream.
I jumped as quickly as I could. Just in time! A Zip Blade came whizzing past me.
Zip Blades are like boomerangs. You can send one flying from your hand at a flick of the wrist. The only problem is if you touch one of the edges you will slice a finger off for sure. At least that's with the very sharp Zip Blades. If you come across a dull or old blade, it will still work, but chances are it won't cut very deep.
I used my speed, since it had always proven to be a good advantage in such situations before. I ran to the door I'd seen my daughter go through just minutes ago.
[Hold on, darling! I'm coming!] I yelled through my thoughts.
[No! Get out! Mom, you can't stay here! Just get away!]
I had to save my daughter, I knew it. This all happened within five seconds. I was almost to the door by the sixth second, when I hit something and fell to the hard floor. Hitting something so solid at such a fast pace would have killed any other creature. Luckily, unicorns have amazingly resistant bodies to some things. Unicorns were built for speed and for crashing into things at a high velocity.
"Thought you'd get away, did you?" said a voice in my head.
I jumped up and looked around me. I could see the thing, whatever it was, circling around me.
The thing looked a lot like a wolf with gray fur about six inches long. The build of the body and the head made it dog-like. The creature could stand on two legs, but it looked like it was able to stand on all fours too. I looked at its ears, which went about halfway up, then drooped down, as if it had been in a fight many times. The thing had a collar on, it looked slightly loose on him. The collar was black and had silver dog tags (only much bigger than normal dog tags) on it. I caught a glimpse of what was written on one of the tags as the creature turned its neck to the side. The tag read: Jikson.
I would have studied it more, but it jumped at me. I jumped back just in time. It came at me from behind, but I spun and hit it in the face. The creature jumped back, growling with anger. Then it laughed obnoxiously.
"Come now, Jikson, please behave and take her somewhere she won't get out," commanded Teran.
I tried to run, but eery way I tried, the creature called Jikson was there.
"Bad, bad girl," it said.
I stared at the creature, terrified. I'd never met another creature besides Clyte that could keep up with me. I'd certainly never met a creature who could keep up with me so easily.
"Stop playing around, Jikson! That's the way my father died! He always did like to play with his prisoners. Get her out of my sight, immediately! Lock her up where I don't have to look at her."
Jikson shifted uncomfortably and asked,"Well, do I at least get to play with her a bit? Just a little bit?"
Teran shook his head and waved his hand in dismissal, quickly calling out,"Fine, whatever you want to do with her. Just don't end her life before I get to see the fear on her face, okay?"
Jikson nodded his head profusely, then kicked me in the side. I fell to the floor, dripping blood from the gashes his claws had just made.
"Better change before I do it again," he said, grinning.
I knew what he wanted, so I changed to human. He seemed fascinated, watching me shape shift from a centaur into a human. Jikson seemed to suddenly remember his job and quickly stooped down to pick me up. I was limp in his arms, for my legs stung badly. The blood seeped out of them and onto his fur covered arms. Jikson carried me from the room and down a hall, toward another door. We entered the room, and I began to wonder if my daughter was alright. I decided I'd ask some questions, get some answers, then go in search of Topaz. With this plan in mind, I was very submissive as the wolf set me down.
He looked me straight in the eyes and said in his scratchy dog voice,"I'm sure you've guessed by now that Teran Mei's father was Clyte."
I nodded, and our little conversation began.
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