Lore

by Sandra R Neeley

  Danae didn’t answer, she hung her head. He was right. She wasn’t sure what her father’s absolute denial of her relationship with Carrik was based upon, but she had wondered if it was because he no longer had his mate. “Carrik, I need you to try to understand. It’s not just my father. We are not supposed to be together,” Danae begged, not raising her head to look into his eyes. She couldn’t see the pain in them — she just wasn’t up to it.

  “Lies!” Carrik suddenly bellowed. “Lies, Danae! And you know it well. We are mates. Mates are chosen by the fates, and we are mated! Together is all we were ever meant to be!”

  Danae raised her face to his, her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Carrik. Maybe things will change. Maybe one day…”

  Carrik shook his head. “No. No! If you will not have me now, you will not have me at all! I am yours, Danae! Yours! How can you turn away from me?”

  Carrik, very close to his shift, his bright green eyes flashing, his golden-brown hair whipping in the winds Danae’s unsettled emotions threw about, stalked away from her. Stopping only feet away from where she stood, he saw tears flowing freely down her face. He raised his face to the skies and roared with all the pain and frustration his Dragon was trying desperately to control. He didn’t want to lose control. He didn’t want to accidentally harm Danae or anyone else. He just wanted his mate.

  Carrik thrust his hands into his shoulder-length hair, pacing in a circle and bellowing his rage.

  Danae couldn’t take it. She loved Carrik as much as her own life, more really. She hurried to him and pulled his hands from his hair, forcing him to look at her.

  “We’ll find a way, Carrik. I promise! Please, just be patient,” she begged.

  Carrik held her face in his hands, gently rubbing his thumbs across her cheeks to wipe away her tears. “I can’t be without you,” he murmured.

  “And I can’t be without you. We’ll find a way.”

  Carrik looked deep into her eyes, rested his head against hers. “Promise, Danae,” he begged.

  “I promise. I vow it! We will find a way. We will be together until the end of time. Just please be patient while I work through things with my father. He is on the edge, Carrik. I fear for his sanity. I fear for his very life. Please.”

  “Alright. I shall try,” he whispered, pulling her in close and wrapping her in his arms.

  Danae held him as closely as he held her. She turned her face into his chest and nuzzled him there. Kissing and petting his chest.

  Carrik lowered his head at the same time Danae raised hers, and their lips met. Carrik pulled back just enough from her lips to speak. “I love you, Danae. Don’t leave me. Just don’t leave me. Don’t tell me we can’t be.”

  “I’m sorry. I should never have tried to say goodbye. I don’t want to be without you. I just don’t know how to help my father.”

  Carrik kissed her again. “I’ll be patient. So long as you don’t shut me out.”

  Danae nodded and kissed him passionately.

  Carrik ran his hands down her body, cupping her bottom and lifting her up to straddle his hips, while she crossed her ankles behind him. His hands roved up and down her body, touching, teasing, tempting.

  Danae leaned her head back, encouraging him to kiss and nibble her throat, which he greedily did.

  He used his grip on her hips to pull her against him while he ground his throbbing member into her.

  “Yes, Carrik! I need you.”

  Carrik slipped a hand beneath her skirts to fondle her, to be sure she was ready for him.

  And that’s when Lore appeared. “Betrayer!” he bellowed at Carrik. “You profess to be my friend, yet you seduce my daughter!”

  Carrik released Danae, allowing her to slide down his body. He turned to face Lore, placing himself between Danae and her father.

  “I love her, Lore. She’s mine. My mate, my love, my heart. You have no right to keep us apart.”

  “No right?! Is that what you said? She’s my daughter! And you are almost as old as I. You know the penalty for those of our kind who cavort with Dragons!”

  “None have been punished in centuries, Lore. And she’s my mate! Why would they make us mates if they wanted us apart?” Carrik demanded.

  Lore was hardly himself. His mate had been taken from him, and he spent all his time searching for her. He rarely saw his daughter anymore. And the rare times he did see her, he’d scented Carrik on her. He’d known for some time that she was spending time with him. Only now, today, he was particularly raw. He’d found Evangeline. She’d been born into the body of a young girl that he watched over and waited patiently until she’d matured. Then he’d begun to befriend her. To earn her love, her trust all over again. Acaelo had been there this day when he’d gone back to visit the young woman. He’d laughed as he’d swept her into his arms and misted away with her. She’d not even realized that she was being taken from him until it was too late.

  He’d tried to follow, calling out her name. And at the last moment, she’d known him. “Lore? Lore?!” she’d called back. But it was too late. He was unable to find them as Acaelo moved her through time and realms ceaselessly. Lore’d thrown himself to Earth, screaming and roaring his pain the entire time. It was unbearable — he couldn’t do this anymore. Didn’t want to live it any longer. But he couldn’t end his own life. He needed to find Evangeline. To bring her home. To any home she chose and do nothing but make her smile for the rest of her days. So he’d turned his course for Danae. His sunshine. She always welcomed him and loved him without limit. He needed to feel her unconditional love just for a short while. Then he’d start his search for Evangeline all over again.

  Only when he’d arrived in the wetlands outside her home, he’d found her in an intimate embrace with Carrik. And now, Carrik was going to bear the brunt of all the pain, all the frustration, all the rage that had been building up since Acaelo first took Evangeline from him.

  Lore snarled, lowered his head and watched Carrik from below heavily lidded eyes. “Stay away from my daughter, traitor.”

  “I’m not a traitor!”

  “You are. You were a trusted friend. Yet you seduce an innocent young girl. You take her from her home and turn her head with your seduction!”

  “Father! I’m not an innocent young girl! I’m nearly twenty and two years! Carrik is my mate. Surely, you more than any know the importance of your mate!”

  “Come stand beside me, Danae,” Lore growled.

  “Father!” Danae shouted.

  “Now!” he bellowed.

  “She will not!” Carrik bellowed back. He held his hand out to keep Danae from stepping toward her father.

  Lore gave no warning. He completely snapped. He roared his anger and launched himself at Carrik.

  Carrik roared his own rage and met him in the air halfway across the clearing. Trees were downed, wildlife scattered, and those that didn’t scatter were trampled underfoot as the largest Dragon most had ever seen battled the ancient Lore. The battle raged on endlessly, eventually spilling over into inhabited areas of the land. They crushed houses, killed the houses’ occupants in the crossfire, and still they battled.

  Danae followed, begging first one, then the other to stop, but both ignored her pleas — they went unheard. Finally Danae called to her Aunt Luci, who answered right away, her deep blue mists swirling into being beside Danae just as Carrik and Lore destroyed another small home.

  “Aunt Luci! Please! Make them stop!”

  Lucitari called for Terrus, and together they managed to ease, if not stop the battle.

  Carrik stood to one side, his Dragon’s green and golden scales shimmering in the sunlight, deep red blood streaming down his sides from the battle.

  Lore stood to the other, his chest heaving, rivulets of his own blood marring his chest and shoulders.

  The winds whipped the trees about so strongly that their tops almost touched the ground. Pieces of broken houses and branches from trees and other unnameable debris swirled
‘round and ‘round them. And there they stood, in the center, a calm windless space surrounded by a storm the likes of which had never been seen on Earth prior.

  Lore glared at Carrik across the ground separating them.

  Carrik glared at Lore.

  “Lore! Stop this at once! Have you not caused enough damage with your behavior in the past? It is time to realize you will never find peace if you do not stop!” Lucitari said, her voice raised.

  “He has seduced my daughter! He professed to be my friend, and he abused my trust to seduce her!” Lore snarled.

  “She is my mate!” Carrik growled.

  “They are mates, Lore! Why can you not see that? They are meant for one another!” Lucitari declared.

  Lore reacted without thought. He turned to Lucitari and threw a bolt of lightning in her direction.

  Danae saw it coming and stepped in front of her beloved Aunt Luci, taking the brunt of the blow herself. Danae screamed and was thrown backward into a still standing tree.

  Lucitari went to her at once, laying hands on her to pull some of the energy from the blow into herself, so Danae wouldn’t have to overcome it all on her own.

  Carrik roared, launching himself at Lore for attacking his mate, and Lore once more launched himself at Carrik.

  Terrus, assured that Lucitari was taking care of Danae, tried in vain to stop the battle. But nothing he tried would even get the attention of either participant.

  Then all things stopped. Time stopped. The wind stopped. Sound stopped. Everything. A silver light permeated everything, and then Acaelo stood amongst them. His face twisted into a disgusted moue. “You still have not learned. You will never learn.”

  Lore, his breath heavy from battle, raised his chin. “Give me my mate!” he snarled.

  Acaelo shook his head. “No. I will never give her to you. Never. And now,” he looked around the forest surrounding him. He saw the destruction they’d carelessly heaped upon any and all in their path, and he made a decision that he hadn’t planned on. But now that he’d made that decision, he wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before. “Now, you will lose your daughter, too.”

  He raised his hands in the air, and Danae, still unconscious, lifted off the ground and floated to him. He took her in his arms.

  “No!” Carrik shouted and started to follow Danae.

  But Acaelo froze him in place, unable to move, unable to speak. “As punishment for your part is this, you will stand here, withering away year after year, until your mate happens upon you and recognizes you for what you are. She will have to claim you as her mate before you can be released to regain your life.”

  Lore’s eyes grew as the creaking of great tree branches could be heard as slowly Carrik was replaced. Inch by inch, his limbs turned to wood, anchoring him to the place he now stood. And in the place of the huge, gorgeous Dragon shimmering in the sun, stood a giant tree, reflecting the image of the Dragon he once was.

  Acaelo turned with Danae in his arms and began to mist away.

  “No, Acaelo! Leave our niece to me. Please, I will care for her! She will be no trouble!” Lucitari begged.

  “You have played favorites and interfered for too long, sister dear,” he sneered. “Step in line, otherwise you may be next.”

  “You have no right to take her! She did nothing wrong!” Lore shouted. “Leave her with Luci! Take me, please, do not make her suffer, take me!” Lore begged.

  “And give you any reprieve at all? Never. Nothing affects you except seeing those very few you love suffer. So suffer they will. For every act of destruction you’ve caused, your Danae will suffer. She will be born again and again. Her magics intact, confusing her as much as frightening all others. Her families, those who are supposed to love her, will force her out. She will never be understood, never accepted, never loved. She will be punished by those around her and accused of witchery. She will not find peace, nor love in any life. She will not remember you, nor know why she suffers as she does.” He looked at Lore, a twisted smile on his face. “But you will know. You will see. And you will remember that each and every time she hurts or cries, it is your doing.” Then he misted away as Lucitari rushed after him, calling out for him.

  Lore tried to follow as well, but he couldn’t. No matter how he tried, he was stuck in that one place. He roared his frustration and screamed for Danae, but he couldn’t follow, his powers had been stripped. Not fully gone, yet he was a mere shadow of the great Ancient he once was.

  “Bring her back, Lucitari!” he shouted to the empty destruction surrounding him.~

  Chapter 17

  Lore knelt in the fog, gazing down onto the scene that played out before him. Tears freely coursed down his face. “I’m so sorry, Danae. I am sorry. I should have just thrown myself into the abyss and allowed you to love your love. Carrik would have loved you endlessly. He does!” Lore said, throwing his hands up. “He still does!”

  He sat there, sobbing, watching the former shadow of himself wander around the destructed surroundings. Coming back time and again to rage at the Dragon tree, as though it was the Dragon’s fault.

  The fogs began to distort the scene below, and he fell back on his bottom, mumbling incoherently. His sanity leaving him. He didn’t care. He was not aware. He didn’t even try to maintain any of his mind intact. “I’ve destroyed all of them. It is all my fault. They suffered in my stead,” he mumbled to the fog around him.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  “Come,” Terrus said. He needn't have said a word. Carnage still clutched Terrus’s sleeve in one hand, his scythe in the other, standing sentry in the direction Terrus had said Lore was.

  Carnage snapped his eyes in the direction of Terrus. “Lore?” he asked.

  “Yes, Lore.”

  Carnage nodded emphatically and started walking right beside Terrus.

  Terrus had given up getting the large Goyle to let go of him — he just dealt with it. They walked for quite a while before a slight shape could be seen huddling in the fog up ahead of them.

  As they got closer, Carnage recognized Lore. He let go of Terrus and hurried forward, calling Lore’s name.

  Slowly Lore turned, his face a mask of confusion. Then recognition lit his eyes.

  “Carnage! Carnage, you’re here!”

  “’Es!” Carnage answered.

  Then Lore remembered Carnage saving Evangeline. “You saved her! You saved her, Carnage!” he said, one hand around the huge Goyle’s neck, the other patting his shoulder. “Thank you, Carnage! I will never be able to repay you.”

  Carnage pursed his lips and shoved Lore back a couple steps. “Fam lee,” he forced out.

  Lore smiled and nodded; then, he looked up at Carnage, panic on his face. “Why are you here? You can’t be here! You have to go home! You have to protect Danae!”

  Carnage’s head tilted. ‘Who the hell was Danae?’ he wondered.

  “All is well, Lore,” Terrus said, having finally joined them.

  “Terrus?” Lore asked, looking back and forth between Carnage and Terrus.

  “Yes. And all is well, Lucitari is with Lily,” he said pointedly, looking at Carnage.

  “But who is with…” Lore asked, thinking of Danae, but somewhere in the back of his mind he realized that the two were the same.

  “Lucitari is there?” he asked, his mind beginning to wander as Evangeline’s once did.

  “Yes.” Terrus realized Lore was having a hard time focusing. “Lore,” he snapped, trying to get his brother to stay in the moment.

  Lore focused on Terrus. “I cannot find Evangeline. I’ve searched and searched. But she’s not here.”

  “That’s because you are only being shown memories. These memories are meant to torment you. You will not be allowed to leave here until you view them all. I am not to even intervene until you’ve been forced to view them all.”

  “Then why can I find no more memories?” Lore asked.

  “Because we changed the past when we saved Evangeline. The male you we
re took her away as she requested. Only you didn’t live it, so it’s not one of your memories.”

  “Then how would I find it?” he asked.

  “You wouldn’t. You’d wander here for eternity.”

  A look of horror crossed his face. “But… I can’t. I have to find her, so she can smile again. And I have to help Danae smile again, too. And I have to make things right for Carrik. I can’t wander here forever!” he objected.

  “You won’t. We’re here to take you to the memory you’re missing. There’s no way around; you must go through them all. And as we changed the past, we must step in.”

  “But you can’t. You just said so,” Lore said, waving a hand at the fog to try to move it away.

  Terrus smiled. “I thought I’d take a lesson from you and not obey the rules this time.”

  Lore looked down at his feet obscured by the fog. He nodded his head, but gave no indication that he planned to move from the spot he was in.

  “Come with us, Lore. We’ll show you where you should be next,” Terrus said.

  Lore looked up from the fog roiling at his feet. “Terrus! Brother! You've found me.” Then he looked at Carnage. “Carnage! You’re here! You saved her, you saved her, Carnage!” Lore started all over again.

  “’Mon,” Carnage said, his lips pressed in a thin line at watching Lore lose himself as a result of his brother tormenting him in any way he could. He took Lore by the hand and led him toward where Terrus was waiting for them.

  After what seemed like days of walking through the fog, finally, Terrus came to a stop. The fog was swirling behind him, seeming to thin as they watched it.

  “Here, Lore. Here is the next memory. After this one, you should be taken to the next.”

  Lore sat down and peered into the scene just beginning to unfold below him. “I don’t remember this.”

  “Because you haven’t lived it yet. We saved Evangeline, but we changed things. Watch. Then you will be able to move on.”