Dragon Fey, Mara DragonClaw [finding audrey txt] 📗

casting a soft glow on the shing walls and floor. Down the center of the hallway ran a long, lilac carpet with a faded pattern of seemingly random symbols etched in plumb.

“You guys really have a thing for purple, don’t you?”

“It is considered a special color, for it was the color of the wings of the very first dragon fey. It is also the rarest color of wing, the rarest color of anything really. The hardest color of light to create, the hardest color of fire to ignite, the hardest color to shift to. Being able to do something in purple is thought to show skill, though somethings are just easier for some fey.”

“Huh. I never would have guessed purple. Why?”

“That is something that the philosophers have been trying to figure out for a millennia. No one knows exactly why the color purple is so hard to create.”

“Your wings have purple on them.”

“Yes, they do. It to a lot of practice to get even this much purple on my wings. Now I like to wear it like that all the time to show status. A lot of Sheftier are like that.”

“Sheftier? What is that?”

“The class of shifters. We can change our appearance. Jack’s one too.”

“Jack is a shifter? So, the guy I was talking to could look absolutely nothing like what he really looks like? Is that what you meant when you said you do look alike? You both look alike when you aren’t shifted, but you do look different when you have shifted?”

“Whoa! Slow down. Yes, my brother is a shifter. Yes, it is likely that he was shifted when you were talking to him. And yes, when we are not shifted we look the same.”

“What does he really look like then?”

“Well he looks like… You know what, I think I’ll just show you. Be warned, I’ve been told that the first time you see this it’s really weird,” Jynx stepped back. Aria got the cue and took one of her own.

Jynx closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he let that breath out, a ripple passed down his body starting at his head and the tips of his wings. As the ripple passed over him, his appearance began to change. The first thing that became different was his hair. It looked as though it had been dipped in liquid night, jet black flowing down the length of the hair from the roots. The second thing that changed were his wings. The scales became green and blue with streaks of copper, and the undersides became mint green. His skin tone didn’t change much. It just got half a shade darker, and when he opened his eyes again they were emerald green.

“Jack is slightly blockier, but I’m not that good at doing that kind of stuff,” it was really weird for Aria to hear Jynx’s voice coming out of a completely different body.

“So this is what you look like normally?” Jynx nodded. Aria whispered, “You look just like me…” This was very true. Jynx now looked exactly like a male version of Aria. same hair, same eyes. Even the same wings, something Aria had never seen before. Jynx nodded again, “What does that mean?” Aria sounded a little scared.

“It means,” Jynx said in a seemingly emotionless tone, “that we are siblings.”

 

Chapter #10: What Is That Supposed To Mean?

“Wait, you're my what now?”

“I am your brother.”
“How the heck did I not know about this?”

“You never knew your parents. You were abandoned at the Hollow at birth. How could you have known?”

“I never told you that!”

“You told Jack you had been in your Hollow your entire life. I knew that we had had a sister that was sent to the local Hollow as a baby for the sake of a peace treaty. It was a deal, a trade. We were to give them one of our children, they were to give us one of theirs, we achieved peace. Of course, Mother and Father weren’t very happy about having to give up their youngest child.”

“I was part of a peace treaty?!”

Jynx sighed, “Yes. Jack and I actually only found out you existed a year ago, when they thought we could handle knowing we had a little sister. Apparently they told us too soon. We have spent the last year trying to find a way to get you back, and now we have.”

“Who was the normal fairy child?”

Jynx spat in anger, “The Hollow chose you from many, that was how it worked. We came and chose ours, a boy with pale green dragonfly wings. He was very promising. You see, dragon fey are hopeless at growing plants and we wanted to chose a child that could help us with them. Anyway, when the time came to exchange and we handed you over, the handed us an empty bundle and flew off to their Hollow. We had already signed the treaty saying that we couldn’t attack them to get you back, and they had written in disappearing-reappearing ink that they didn’t have to give up a child if they didn’t want to. So-”

“So they never fulfilled their end of the original bargain?” Jynx nodded. The stood in the hall in silence for a moment before Aria said, “Jynx, what was the boy’s name?”

“The boy that we were supposed to receive was named Jacob Leafling.” Aria stumbled backward and almost knocked over one of the braziers, the flame flaring wildly. Jynx caught her and pulled her back, “Whoa! What was that about?”

Aria looked up at him, “Jacob was my best friend. He’s in danger, we’re all in danger, I need to find him!”

“Okay, okay, slow down. Wait what?”

“I feel so terrible! I got all caught up in this place, and I forgot the whole reason I needed to go back! They’re using him Jynx. They’re trying to bring him back! I can’t let that happen to Jacob, I can’t let it happen to the world! If he comes back…” Aria burst out crying and clung to Jynx’s shoulder.

Jynx was a little startled at Aria’s outburst of emotion, “Um, uh...Shhh, shhh. It’s okay. Uh, who is he?”

Aria wiped away her tears and looked up at Jynx questioningly, “You don’t know?” he shook his head, he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, “He is the demon, the destroyer. He is the one who burned the sky and scorched the earth. He is the one who created the plains of death, the one that wiped out all but one elven city. The one that sent the fairies into hiding. The one that has been wearing away at his cage deep below the surface of the earth for millennia. The one who only needs one pure sacrifice to come back and do it all again. And this time, he will not be stopped.”

The two of them stood in silence for a minute, “Surly a being that powerful has more of a name than, he.”

“His name was lost long ago, in a time where saying his name could summon him. By the time that he was imprisoned and no longer a threat, his name was lost and no one has ever said it since. How did you not know any of this? It is one of the key legends of our culture- oh.” Jynx was giving her a sad look that reminded her that they both grew up with two very different cultures.

“So, why would the fairies want to bring him back?”

Aria’s voice became one similar to that of what a scared rabbits would be if rabbits could talk, “To get rid of me.”

Jynx’s eyes widened, “Come on, we need to get to the council,” he grabbed her hand and started towing her down the hall, leading her down to other passages that branched off the main one, one right, and one left. At the end of that hall there was a door that looked exactly like a smaller version of the doors outside, carvings and all. Jynx turned around and grabbed Aria’s shoulders, bending down because he was taller, “All right. Now, behind these doors sit the council. It has acted as the leaders of this entire Coulve since the last of the Anim Tameir died. You must be very respectful, no matter what they say, or who they are. Do you understand?”

Jynx seemed very serious, so Aria acted the same and merely nodded. As Jynx pushed open the doors Aria felt something in the pit of her stomach. Not now nerves! She screamed inside her head. When the doors were all the way open, Jynx announced her for the council, “Ms. Aria Windbourne of Treefield hollow!” Aria walked through the silver doors with her head held high, she wanted to make a good first impression.

The room was a lot smaller than she had thought it would be. It was circular, and around it sat seven high desks, all facing the center to create a space where someone could stand before them and be in everyone’s view. Each desk was made of a different kind of metal, platinum, gold, silver, electrum, bronze, copper, and iron, and behind all but the iron desk sat a dragon fey. When Aria reached the circular area in the middle of the high desks, she bowed low in an attempt to show the respect that Jynx had spoken of earlier.

“Rise child,” said a kind, old, male voice. Aria did as she was told and returned to her former stance with her head held up, “Aria,” the voice she was hearing was that of a wise looking old dragon fey who sat behind the desk of gold. His wings were mostly  a shimmering orange, but they were streaked with gold in a similar way that her’s were streaked with copper. His hair long hair and beard had turned white, “you are here because we have been told that you are Anim Tamier,” Aria silently cursed Jack for telling them, “Now, if this is true, then you have a responsibility to your race to take up leadership as is tradition, and to save us from the Wintirre. Do you understand?” Aria nodded, “Good. Now, we have a series of traditional tests that were used to determine whether or not you are really Anim Tameir, but they are all very dangerous considering we do not have a fail safe in the form of a recognized Anim Tameir to help. Do you understand the risks, as well as the rewards?” Aria nodded, “Very well then. The tests will begin at noon tomorrow. I suggest you get your sleep tonight.”

Aria nodded and muttered an, “I will.”

Aria bowed again and turned to leave. Before she could though, the old council member spoke again, “Oh, and Aria?”

She turned around and lowered her head in respect again, “Yes?”

“It is so good to have you back child.”

“Thank you sir,” Aria turned back around and started to exit again before another event interrupted her departure. A door in the back of the room that Aria hadn’t noticed before opened with a loud bang as it hit the wall, making the other dragon fey sitting at the desks flinch.

“Sorry councilman Demius, I got held back. This wing is definitely not fit for flying on!” A