by Hans Bezdek
“Are you familiar with them?” asked Cassandra, holding the Shattered Sword out to him. “Could you help me get the blade to turn blue again?”
“I think such a momentous event calls for a piece of shared knowledge or two,” he smiled, stepping over to lean on the stone column that once held the Shattered Sword. “For one thing, I can’t hold that weapon. Well, at least not for a while.”
“Why?” asked Cassandra. “And why can I?”
“Well, I’m not an elf, and you are.”
“Only elves can wield the Shattered Sword?” I asked. “I’ve heard tales of men and dwarves using it, though.”
“And so they have,” nodded Ulrich. “However, after the first Dragon War, they needed to use the power of the sword to contain Ludek’s crown. They knew that if any of the red or black dragons got a hold of the crown again, the dragons would unite again under Ludek’s successor.”
“Ludek’s crown?” I asked. “And what do you mean by first Dragon War? There’s only been one.”
Ulrich reached down and pulled up the circle of purple rocks. “This magnificent piece of work is Ludek’s crown.”
An image from my dream with Ludek wearing the crown flashed in my head. So that’s why it looked so familiar to me.
“Why not destroy it, then?” asked Cassandra.
“The truly incredible thing about this crown isn’t any sort of magic that it has,” explained Ulrich. “It’s that is can’t be destroyed. People have tried blowing it up with the best in goblin explosives, cutting into it with the Shattered Sword, and even throwing it into a volcano, if you can believe such a thing. Nothing made so much as a dent! The Dar’Ka believe that the crown is old as the black and reds, and has always been worn by their king, or, as the belief has changed more recently, their savior.”
“Why bring the crown here, though?” asked Cassandra. “And why the Shattered Sword?”
“The races of human, dwarf, and elf took the crown back when they defeated Ludek in the first Dragon War, and realized they had to do whatever they could to hide it,” said Ulrich. “In secret, a small group comprised of all three races sent it here, to the Ruins of Le’Mar. The thought was that no one could stake claim over it in Truska, and the Willows of Wander would help protect it.”
“Well, it sure did,” I nodded. I couldn’t wait to be out of the Willows. Even with the help of Barky and the treekin, I still felt completely turned around in the place.
“The dwarves helped construct the tunnels and rooms leading to this point, while the humans setup traps along the way,” continued Ulrich. The final piece was to thrust the Shattered Sword into the middle of the crown, using ancient elven magic to keep it locked in place. This magic stipulated that only elves could remove the Sword. This way, even if the red and black dragons found the location of the crown, they wouldn’t be able to take it!”
“Oh… should we put the Sword back, then?” asked Cassandra, looking down at it in disappointment.
“There’s no need for that,” said Ulrich, shaking his head.
“What if the crown fell into the wrong hands, though?” she asked.
“Ulrich,” I interrupted. “You keep saying first Dragon War. Why is that?”
“Why, because the second one will be starting soon,” he said simply.
“Really?” gasped Cassandra.
“Really,” said Ulrich, reaching up and feeling his visor. “Oh, how silly of me. I should really take this off now.”
“Ew, I don’t want to see the burn marks right now,” I said, covering my eyes and looking away. After so much death and carnage, I wanted a break.
“There aren’t any burn marks,” he said.
“There aren’t?” I asked peaking through my fingers. “But I thought you said…”
Ulrich let the visor fall to the floor.
A mess of blonde hair sat atop his head, most of it matted down from constantly being under the visor.
“Oh, your eyes!” said Cassandra. “I’ve never seen a human with black irises before. They’re very nice!”
I held my breath as I lowered my hand, maintaining eye contact with Ulrich the whole time. This… this couldn’t be happening…
Ulrich smiled back at me. “I must say, Reimar, I thought I was the only one.”
“The only one?” asked Cassandra. “The only what?”
“Half dragon,” I whispered.
“Half dragon?” she asked. “How can you tell?”
“The eyes,” I mumbled, trying to process what was happening. The story that he just told us… was he part of the Dar’Ka? Did he believe what he said about the crown?
“I noticed your eyes when you first entered the Devil’s Keep,” smiled Ulrich. “I almost warned you about the red dragon, Stalrik, but figured you could use a warm up before you made it to the Ruins. That weakling had tried to kill me along with a half dozen other reds not too long along, but escaped as I finished off the rest.”
“You were the other half dragon Stalrik mentioned?” I gasped.
“The one and the same,” he nodded.
I had so many questions for him. Did he know his parents? Do others know about him? Did he have better control of his half and full dragon forms?
“I can never thank the two of you enough,” said Ulrich, putting the crown on top of his head. “You’ve done more for this world than you could ever know.”
“Wait… what’s happening?” asked Cassandra, a slight shake to her voice.
The man’s skin began to shift darker and darker, until scales appeared. Claws grew from his fingers and feet, along with a tail behind him. Black wings sprang from his back as he hoped back.
“I’m sure I’ll be seeing the two of you around,” smiled Ulrich, the half black dragon. “Until we meet again.”
Ulrich shot up through a hole in the roof with a single beat of his wings, disappearing into the coming day.
“Well,” I said. “That’s probably not good.”
“No,” agreed Cassandra. “Not good at all.”
Chapter 20
Taking hold of Cassandra, we took off into the sky. The elf was careful to hold the Sword away from me, making sure it wouldn’t burn me as we flew. Going through the roof was the fastest way out, and I wanted to see if there was any sign of Ulrich. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, we didn’t see him as we rose above the Willows. Lowering back down, we landed to the side of the Ruins, where I changed back into my human form.
“Why not just fly us out of here?” asked Cassandra, who looked relieved to be back on the ground.
“I can’t risk other people seeing a green dragon flying around,” I said, stretching out. It was exhausting changing forms, and on top of that I was out of magic for now. Hopefully we wouldn’t run into any more trouble before we got some rest.
“Do… do you think we should be worried?” she asked. “You know, about Ulrich and what he said?”
“He didn’t try to attack us or anything, and he also was at odds with Stalrik,” I shrugged. “To be honest, he just sounded crazy to me. Maybe what he said about the Dar’Ka is true, but he’s probably just an insane practitioner of the religion. Besides, I really doubt the red and black dragons would unite under a half dragon. He’s got tainted blood, or something like that, for being half human. They want to get rid of all the humans, remember?”
Cassandra thought it over, nodding slowly. “Maybe you’re right.”
“The main thing I’m interested in is him being a half dragon,” I said. “He might know more about how he came about than I do, and maybe he could help me grow stronger in the dragon forms.”
“I’m not sure if you’d want that guy as your teacher,” she said.
“Yeah… probably not.”
The two of us walked back around to the front of the Ruins, looking around for our treekin friends. The sun had been out for a few hours now, but hopefully they were still around. If not, we’d have to go back into the Ruins to rest up, and then I’d fly us out
of here.
“They did it!” cheered a voice in the bushes. Barky sprang forth, jumping into the clearing to meet us. “I can’t believe you lived!”
“Pssh, it was easy,” I lied.
“Is that the weapon you were looking for?” asked Barky, pointing at the Shattered Sword.
“It is… I think,” she said, looking over the weapon. The blade had remained the color of normal steel since we left, and the interaction with Ulrich had spoiled any other excitement she would have had.
“Prince Barykbrabrrybayrabyaa,” called one of the treekin guards still in the Willows. “We really need to get going.”
“Oh, right,” said Barky, grabbing Cassandra’s hand and pulling on her to follow.
“What’s the rush?” I asked, following behind them as we made our way back to the treekin’s home.
“We saw two strange dragon like creatures above the Stones,” said Barky, eyes wide with excitement. “My people haven’t seen dragons for generations! Isn’t that exciting?”
“Very,” I smiled.
We trekked back through the Willows, making it back to the clearing that was the treekin’s home after a couple of hours. All Cassandra and I wanted to do was get some much needed shut eye, but Barky told us that his dad wanted to talk with us if we returned. Since it was something that never happened before, he would have a lot of questions for us.
Deciding it was better to go a little longer without sleep than anger the king of this place, we agreed. The two guards brought us to the throne room, which was empty besides the group of us. The guards left the two of us once we sat down.
“Hope they give us a place to sleep during the day,” I mumbled. “I’m exhausted.”
“I agree,” yawned Cassandra. “Does transforming take a lot out of you?”
“It does,” I nodded. “It’s not a big deal in my dragon forms, but once I go back to human I really feel the effects.”
“I still can’t believe I had no idea,” she said, shaking her head.
“Hey, we both were hiding things,” I said. “It’s not like I knew you were a banished rogue!”
Cassandra nodded slowly, then paused. “Wait… what did you just call me?”
“Uh… a banished rogue?” I repeated. “Why? Oh, is that an offensive term?”
“No,” she said, eyes widening. “The prophecy!”
“What prophecy?”
“The one that Brenda told you!”
“Who?”
“The old kobold!”
“Ooooh… her,” I nodded. “I can’t remember the whole thing.”
“I wrote it down,” she said, rummaging in her bag.
“You can write?”
Cassandra gave me an unamused look as she passed the paper over to me.
A winged one with a heart of man will be needed to unite the lands.
The blood and darkness of old will rise again from their home, with the help of the ancient crown.
Without the winged one at their helm, the lands of Yaerna will fall to evil for eternity.
The winged one must find the banished rogue, the crazed inventor, and the runt of Brumark.
Without their help and those of the legendary weapons of old, evil has won.
The Gathering has begun.
“The winged one must find the banished rogue,” she said, focusing on that phrase. “What if… what if you’re the winged one in this prophecy? Could I be the banished rogue?”
“That would make sense,” I mumbled. If she was the rogue, and I was the winged one… what did that mean about the inventor and runt? Were they real, too? And what about the legendary weapons of old? Were some of the myths and legends true, like they were with the Shattered Sword?
“Prophecy?” came a voice, breaking me from my thoughts.
We turned to see the king and Barky entering into the room.
“May I see which prophecy it is that you are referring to?” asked the king after exchanging some pleasantries with us. I handed him the paper, which he glanced through quickly. “Ah, yes. Our people call this the Prophecy of the Winged One. I have heard travelers over the years refer to it instead as The Gathering.”
“You’re familiar with this prophecy?” I asked, surprised. The treekin didn’t seem to know a lot of the outside world.
“Of course,” nodded the king. “Why, this one is especially important to us since… what is that?”
He was pointing down at Cassandra’s side.
“This is the Shattered Sword,” she smiled, holding it up for him to see. “This is what we were looking for.”
The king raised his hand towards the Sword, focusing on it for a moment. Cassandra and I shared a confused looked. I thought they didn’t know what this was?
Suddenly, the blade began to glow blue once again.
Cassandra let out a gasp, holding the Shattered Sword up in awe. The king lowered his hand, and the glow disappeared again.
“Woah,” said Cassandra. “How did you do-”
“You must return that item immediately!” roared the king, a look of fear on his face.
“Huh? Why?” we asked.
“Our people call that the Blue Pin,” he said, eyes wide. “It was in place to keep a very dangerous crown in place! You must get it back there before something becomes of the crown!”
“Uh… about that…” I said, laughing nervously. “The crown is sort of… gone.”
“Gone?!” shouted the king and Barky.
“A man that helped us find the Shattered Sword came and took it,” explained Cassandra.
“A man? What did he look like?” asked the king.
“Well… turns out he is a half black dragon,” I said.
The king collapsed onto the nearest stump, hands over his head.
“This… this can’t be happening…” he mumbled.
“Surely this is a bit of an overreaction,” I said.
“No,” said the king immediately. “Did you not read the prophecy in your hands?”
“We did,” said Cassandra. “Why?”
“The blood and darkness of old will rise again from their home, with the help of the ancient crown,” said the king, repeating the second line. “The item taken was the ancient crown! The blood and darkness of old are the red and black dragons!”
“Oh…” said Cassandra and I at the same time. That made sense.
“But not all prophecies come true,” I said. “There are countless ones that turn out to be false.”
“Not this one,” said the king. “It originated from the one referred to as The Great Oracle.”
“Never heard of them,” I shrugged, but Cassandra gasped.
“The Great Oracle is one of the oldest beings in Yaerna,” said Cassandra quietly. “Every one of his prophecies… they’ve come true.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “I mean, everyone’s wrong sometime. Maybe this is his time?”
“He isn’t,” sighed the king. “Which means that all of Yaerna will fall to evil, unless some sort of winged hero emerges.”
Barky started to cry, burying his face into his father’s side. The king’s eyes watered as he looked down at his son, patting him on the back.
“What have we done?” whispered Cassandra, looking at me with wide eyes.
I glanced from her to the worried faces of the king and Barky.
Taking a deep breath, I looked back at her and the Shattered Sword on her lap. We had gotten what we wanted, even when I didn’t think it was real. Now it was turning out to be way more real than I ever wanted it to be. If it weren’t for us, the Shattered Sword would still be in the Ruins, securing the crown. Any evil that would come from Ulrich and the black and reds because of us.
Had we just started the end of Yaerna?
Were we about to witness the Second Dragon War?
To all of that, there was really only one thing I could say.
“Oops.”
The End.
The Time Shield
Book 2
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br /> Chapter 1
Light broke through the holes in the leaves, waking me up from my second nap of the day. Or maybe it was my third…
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. One of my first acts would normally be to bring my hood up to hide my face, but here in the treekin village that didn’t matter much. It had been three days since we recovered the Shattered Sword, and in doing so set in motion the end of Yaerna. At least, thats what it sounded like according to the prophecy.
“Reimar!” shouted Cassandra from outside my leaf door. “Wake up, you lazy sack of troll dung!”
“I’m awake!” I shouted, pushing the leaves back. “Sheesh, a guy can’t take a couple of naps a day without people losing their minds.”
The elf stood in her usual brown garb, which matched her hair and eyes. On her right side was a scabbard, which held the Shattered Sword. I still couldn't believe it was real, let alone that we were the ones that had it.
“It's about time,” she said, her face shifting from playful to concerned. “Doing okay?”
“Figure out how to use that thing yet?” I asked, ignoring her question and pointing down to the Sword.
She drew it and held it out to her side. The jewels in the hilt sparkled in the sun as she made tight slicing motions with the Sword through the air. “I still can't manage to figure out how to get it to glow blue when I want… it just seems completely random so far.”
“Looks like it’s still pretty sharp regardless,” I noted.
“Definitely,” she smiled, sheathing it again. “What’s going on with you? While I’ve been trying to figure out how to use the Sword, all you’ve been doing is laying around and sleeping.”
I shifted uncomfortably. I had been thinking about this for the past several days, and I realized the time had finally come for us to talk to the king of the treekin again. I was going to have to tell him the truth about who I really was.
“I can’t help but feel we’re slightly responsible for Ulrich taking the crown,” I said, itching the back of my neck.
“Uh… that’s not quite right,” she said. “We are actually fully responsible for that.”