Leo stayed behind the others as they carried the dead youth over their shoulders back to town. His thoughts began to wander as he walked through the trees toward the clearing where the lights of Juniper were still faint in the distance. His heart weighed heavy as he looked up at the trees' bare skinny branches.
Something caught his attention before they left the forest.
He whistled to Dærian and Jasper, walking faster to catch up to them.
"Bring him home,"He said sharply. "I'll be along shortly.
There's something I want to look at over here."
"What is it?" Jasper asked, shifting the body's weight over his shoulder.
Leo shrugged.
"It's really strange," he pointed to a massive boulder shaped in the likeness of a wolf's head.
Jasper lifted an eyebrow.
"Okay," he stated. Me and Dærian will let everyone at home know you're alright. Be careful. I don't trust these woods like you elves do."
"I'll be fine, Jasper," Leo assured him. They clasped hands for a brief moment before they parted ways.
Leo watched them disappear into the clearing as the light of day gasped its last breath before the night slayed it with its dark embrace.
Leo stepped over toward the stone to find, in his shock, a dark stained oak door inlaid with the stone. As he grasped the silvery round doorknob he heard the sharp ping of a bow being shot. Then suddenly a dull thud as an arrow protruded from the door beside his hand.
The feathers suggested that the arrow was that of a fairies.
Never the less, he removed his hand from the knob and slowly turned with his hands up.
He stood face to face with a beautiful blueish green haired girl with glittering clear oversized butterfly wings.
"Hi Leo!," the girl said in a cheerful voice.
"I never expected to see you today to be coming along knocking on our door."
Leo sighed in relief allowing for a smile to show.
He recognized this fairy at once.
"Hi Ikia," he laughed. "Didn't know this was your door."Well you see we all went down there when the forest grew to harbor things like that minotaur.
That creepy thing has been hanging around for about three months now."
"Why didn't you kill it?," Leo demanded.
"It's been taking people from Juniper killing them gruesome. We just finished him off today. And our town is going to be in mourning for awhile."
"I'm sorry, Leo. But we couldn't fight it," Ikia said, her pointed ears drooping slightly.
"It goes against our peacefull nature."
"I understand that. Sorry. I just forgot."
"Know worries Master Saphire. By the way, may I have my arrow back?"
Leo blinked because the question was like that of a slap to the face. He reached for the arrow and yanked it from the wood. He inspected the nastily barbed arrow head for a moment before raising a brow at the fairy.
"Some peaceful nature alright," he said, the sarcasm clear in his voice. Ikia gave him a hmph before taking the arrow and crossing her arms.
"Okay fine you got me there. You can't blame us for being detailed with our weaponry too though."
"Yeah yeah. So do elves. But it's still contradictory to your peace thing." She rolled her blue eyes at him clearly annoyed.She dragged her fingers across the left side of the door, runes glowing as she touched the stone. Leo reckoned it was a lock of sorts created from magic. She looked at him invitingly.
Fuck it, he thought, Shouldn't hurt to see a fairy's way of life, right?
As if she heard his very thoughts, she grabbed him by the nape of his jacket and pushed him in.
He could hear the heavy door slam shut behind them.
Then he felt Ikia's soft warm hand close around his and her eagerly pulling him through a dim hall.
Their walking seemed to last for hours when in all reality it was only a few minutes.
They came to an abrupt stop before two giant doors. Light flooded in through a crack between.
Ikia threw them open, the light pouring in blinded Leo to a point where he could barely see for several moments. They stepped into the room and as soon as his eyes adjusted he gasped in awe at the sight beyond.
The sun shone brilliantly into a huge flowering glade casting its warm rays onto the colorful carpet of fragrance. Leo noted though....that wasn't the sun. Just a warm orb of bright white light.
He could feel a trickle of sweat tracing his temple. He stripped from his cloak and let it drop to the floor....or the grass that he stood upon. He rolled up his sleeves and picked up the shining deep blue garment and continued to gaze at his surroundings in awe. Not a wall in sight besides that of which he and his companion walked through, and that was covered in flowering vines.
Leo knew he could get lost in this mysterious place if Ikia wasn't with him so he followed her closely."Fascinating, isn't it?" She inquired, her eyes glimmering.
"It took several thousands of years to create.
It's the safe haven of our race."
"Yet you let a minotaur go stomping around dragging people to their deaths on your back doorstep?" Leo demanded.
"We haven't been outside to see it till recent though Leo," Ikia stated. "Only me and a few others dared come out. I'm sorry but we cannot control a minotaur. They aren't susceptible to our magic like man and elf are."
Leo stopped with his attempt to berate her. He shut his half open mouth and distracted himself with the beauty around them.
He looked up as they walked under the canopy of pink flowering trees. The ceiling seemed to be made from crystal or a mosaic of stained glass. He soon forgot his anger and replaced it with entrancement. The smells were extraordinarily spring like.
He even saw bees buzzing from blossom to blossom.
The flowers they passed over their heads gave off a sweet aroma that made Leo relax just enough to enjoy it all a little bit better.
Ikia stopped before a small doorway with deep orange flowers draped from it. Ikia brushed them aside and beckoned him to come within.The drapes clearly blocked out a lot of light because he could see that they were standing in a dim chamber with a pool of an azure blue glow.
"What's this?" He asked, his voice tinged with wonder.
"This is the resting place of a dragon's egg,"
Ikia replied. She glanced over at him and then back at the pool.
In the center of the neon pool sat a smooth deep blue stone...or an egg for that matter... that looked to be about a foot long by about half as wide.
It gleamed in the strange light coming from the pool.
"So who's supposed to take this egg again?," He looked at her with a grin.
"You, Leo," Ikia said, her musical voice piping up.
She looked at him with little emotion on her pretty face.
"You...aren't serious are you?" Leo asked, his smile vanishing slowly.
" Well it isn't a joke, Saphire. I'm giving you the egg by orders of the queen,"
Leo gawked in disbelief.
He weighed it all in his head as he considered the offer.
This might be a stupid choice, he thought to himself.
The likelihood of it dying is too awful to think of. No one would want a dragon running around like that; nevermind a rider.
"How long has it been since a rider was in the sky?
About a few hundred years right?"
"Very much so. Leo if you were to become one you could trigger the start to something historic for further generations."
" So why me?" Leo asked slightly perturbed.
"Of the many other men and youths in Fos'Lorone, you have to pick me? I find that difficult to understand."
"That was my choice," Ikia snapped."I saw you kill the minotaur. So I decided to drag your ass down here.
If you prefer to return to your little town of Juniper and forget the option of carrying the fate of your kind among others, I advise you do it now."
Leo blinked and looked at her with a frown.He saw fear and some sort of new anxiety in her face.
Something had her deeply worried and he only noticed it now as it peeked through her flawless features.
"What's going on?", he asked quietly.
She drooped a little, her giant butterfly wings almost touching the ground. She brought a hand over her shoulder, rubbing it as she cast her eyes toward the ground. She began while sitting cross legged with a deep sigh.
"The fairies are waiting for a new rider. Without one, we fear the rising of the country to the south with its superiors. They're bent on the spoils of war under their king, Shayaro'Kodon."
Leo sat down in front of her watching a swarm of butterflies float by like a cloud in the sky. When they disappaered in the blending colors of the meadow, he turned his eyes back to the fairy. She seemed to lose a bit of her bright colors in the light from the orb above.
"What are his intentions, do you think?," Leo asked in perturbation.
She sighed quietly as she shook her head.
"All I know is that your people as well as mine fear him and his kind, especially him being that of a demon spawn," she stated in a low tone.
Leo jumped slightly at the mention of a demon spawn.
A demon spawn was the product of two forms of darkness. Sacrifice and Spiritual magic. Usually the combination of those two dark powers would bring to life a demonic being. Often times a Hell hound.... But this was a humanoid manifestation. And somehow, it had control of an entire country preparing it for a war that was never asked for by either country.
Tai'Mavoc was a thriving tropical country to the south of Fos'Lorone. For millenium, they were trade partners in foods and exotic clothing.
Leo loved the fruits that he would buy from the markets what with their sweetness and juiciness. Now he could understand why those delectible fruits and vegetables were becoming scarce around the country. He sat there for a moment fingering the tip of his long bow as these new pieces of knowledge flooded his brain like a suddenly collapsed dam.
What a shame...and to think it'll only get worse from here.
And almost as if to answer his thoughts, Ikia spoke up once more.
"Two cities have been beseiged for about three weeks by the southern border. Your king has been up to his neck trying to send supplies and munitions to the soldiers posted there but he only recieves further word of casualties and carnage."
She leaned in closer toward him."This is why a rider is wanted. But it is nigh possible for one to acquire an egg like that of which you are about to hold."
Leo's eyes widened with the new sudden realization of the responsibility that he was being charged with. Now his mind and emotions began to go to war with each other as he fumbled to grasp this concept.
"Alright. Fine,"he stated as his frown dug deep into his skin. " I will claim this responsibility. But i need help from you and the rest of my friends."
the beauty of watching a fairy jump sky ward so high never really struck him till now. She was clearly overjoyed at his decision to basically get himself killed that she was fluttering through the air like a bee that had found fress nectar. She didnt see it as 'Leo getting himself killed' like he pretty much did but, that's just how he felt about it.