Ragnarok

The Trial of Draco

I n t r o

Ragnarok – The reason, origin, or myth of the Norse theology, as well as the battle and destruction of evil gods.

Of course, this is just the dictionary’s definition. Ragnarok actually has many meanings, most of them usually take forms of a physical object, or similar to an apocalyptic end. There are many objects upon the earth that have the name of Ragnarok, and all of those named things, are very powerful.

And of course, many people didn’t believe this, not that we can blame simple minds into not indulging in the fact that there is a more powerful and dangerous artifact out there with the same name. But it did not change the fact that this was true.

Also of course, you wouldn’t expect all of the objects to actually exist, it’s just a fairy tale, and to many it was. However…

There are many stories of people and many innocents getting slain because of the word, because of the power it held, and because of the fact it was there. It gave truth when there was nothing but false lies waiting to be disturbed underneath the simple fabrication known as the truth.

And of course, this is one of those stories; however the name of the hero does not matter as much as the name that our hero called herself. This story takes place on a foreign plane, up high in the sky of an alternative plain; this story takes place in a wondrous valley called “End of World”.

C h a p t e r O n e

It was to be recalled as plaintively normal day, or at least that’s what she justified as she thought over and over about it in her mind. She had woken up that morning to the vulgar sounds of a few curses from the one younger then her, and then to the temperamental yell from her mother as it was untoward a young boy to curse at such a young and early age.

“Jewel, Jewel! Get up this instant before I give your brother your breakfast!” The one known as Jewel growled, not particularly because of the thought of her brother stuffing down her breakfast, while taunting her out of reach, but because she was called the name she was born with from her father’s suggestion.

“Mother, how many times must I tell you, call me by Draco!”

“But Jewel is such a lovely name.” Her mother complained, her red bouncy hair shining for that one second as the sun showed out from the window, “And why Draco? Such a terrible thing to call yourself.”

“Because I am a dragon, mother, and Draco is a rather common dragon name.” Her mother snorted, not that she wasn’t used to it, but it still disappointed her when her mother dismissed her to the table, still calling her by her birth name.

“All this talk about dragons, I bet it was that new apprentice of that magician down the street, was it?” Jewel/Draco shook her head in a fast manner, hoping to convince her mother to think differently about the apprentice down the street. Draco had been lying of course, it was indeed the apprentice down the street that had encouraged the talk about dragons. Draco was very curious about these winged beings and enjoyed thinking that perhaps she may have been a part of the race.

“Mom!” Draco scorned as her little brother came running up, swinging up his spoon high above, rocking back and forth slightly in his sway of his rush.

“Mom, mom! Guess what? Guess what?” Her brother called to her mother, pouting slightly as the mother laughed at his anxious desire to make his mother guess for what he was declaring so greatly about.

“What is it dear Thomas?”

“Mother, I caught a Hector Beatle!”

“A what?” The stunned mother stopped for a second in her handling of laundry to stare at the young Thomas Junior, who was named after his father. Thomas grinned anxiously and jumped up once again, his spoon wagging in the air and Draco groaned as a little of the spoon’s contents flopped in her white hair.

“A Hector Beatle mom! You know, the beetles that grant wishes?” The mother sighed, as though sounding relieved from young Thomas’s answer, and then patted the boy on his head, and the boy frowned in displeasure.

“Oh is that true, Thomas? Very good, then what are you going to wish for?”

“For Jewel to stop being a dumb-a-“

“Now Thomas Junior Lesley Riddigan, I forbid you from saying another cuss word in my presence.” Thomas frowned, folding his arms angrily.

“But it’s the only way to say how she really is!” Draco growled once again, hitting her little brother once, before instilling a much frowned look upon her mother’s face. Draco then stomped outside of the house to avoid another lecture from her mother. Honestly, Thomas was a boy; he could withstand such weak hits to the head. Besides, the boy was probably dropped upon his head when he was a little child, probably many times as well. Draco continued stomping loudly to tell her mother in a stern way that she did not want to be bothered by such a trifle thing, such as beating her brother up.

When Draco reached outside of her humble abode, she stared down at the earth; the rather strange fluffy colors decorated her feet, surrounding her toes with solid tones of green and brown. Draco smiled slightly, continuing to stare at the ground as it seemed to her that her mother gave up the chase with an indignant yell. Draco enjoyed staring at how the ground changed as she walked on and on with her bare feet, first it was the normal earth tones, green and brown. Then colors of leaves appeared, and very soon she was on silver cobblestones that were very uncomfortable to her bare feet as from the sudden change.

“Why isn’t it fair Jewel.” Draco frowned, that name again, she had thought she told everyone of the town to call her by her new name. Of course, at the thought of changing her name at the young age of fourteen, and had spent her entire life in that town, was of course absurd, and hard to get used too.

“Dear Friar, I had thought of not answering a man of God if he does not use the name that God has whispered to me in my dreams.” The Friar, a large boisterous man with a brown crown of hair, laughed.

“Dear Jewel, you should give up this charade, it is the name you were named after your birth, has your mother not told you of the special circumstances?” Draco huffed and looked away, hearing this story many times before when she was a young child. At first she had thought it great when she was but a five-year-old, but certainly she has matured since then and has long grown bored of such a fairy tale. “When you were born,” the Friar started, but Draco interrupted him gracefully.

“When I was born, crystals surrounded my mother to protect her from the disease she was dying from, my father brought me out to the world and stared at the beautiful gemstones and then asked them kindly what they would wish my name to be, and they replied back their own name, hoping to live on in my body, as a Jewel.” Draco snorted sarcastically, “Dear Friar, I doubt in a very large way that something like that would be possible.”

“And I had thought that you believed in dragons, dear Jewel.” Draco shrugged numbly, folding her arms stubbornly.

“I do, but I have yet to actually see them, so if I never do see them, I get to sock Hepstis.”

“Now Jewel, that’s not very humble.” Draco laughed at the word, then grinned,

“Hepstis would deserve it for telling me lies though, wouldn’t he?”

“Oh yes, a punishment from the good lord, is that what you are saying dear?”

“Indeed, that is what I’m saying.” The two laughed together and Draco bid the Friar a good day and continued on her way to the apprentice’s house. Hepstis was a young man of the age of twenty-two with very long black hair, his eyes were also oddly a dark color, Draco always speculated that they were a black color but Hepstis would say there were brown. Hepstis character was very odd, if Draco had a say in it, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying his company any less.

“Hepstis!” Draco stopped her mild pacing and looked back to see Hepstis’s teacher, an old wiry man by the name of Argonne. Argonne was a very old looking man, but he was even odder then Hepstis, and he even tied up his very long beard up with his hair, pushing it so you couldn’t see his right eye.

“Coming Master Wizard!” Hepstis called back, jumping up from the call, holding several papers wrapped up tightly together.

“Hepstis! Argonne!” Draco called out to the two, waving cheerfully to them as she nearly skipped to them. Hepstis looked rather happily at her while Argonne showed her a slight look of scorn.

“Draco, what are you doing here?”

“No real good reason, why, did you have a lesson planned today?”

“Indeed we did, so you can hurry on home now.”

“Couldn’t she come with us though Master Wizard?” Hepstis looked in a begging manner and Draco joined in the look with bright blue puppy-eyes. Argonne stared with a biwithered look then shook his head,

“I’m afraid not Draco, we’re going near the Sun Ios area, and your skin is not the type to bare torture from there.” Draco growled, pouting and folding her arms angrily. Hepstis stared blankly and looked back and forth to Argonne and Draco,

“What’s wrong with her skin Master Wizard?”

“She had a blessing and curse with the gemstones of Advent.” Hepstis looked deeply surprised by this and Draco looked away. Of course Argonne would say that, Draco called it more of a curse then a blessing. What was so great about getting just a name from the gemstones and having your time restricted to be out in the sun? Especially since adventure was more then likely an outer venture.

“But I can go today!”

“I’m afraid not Draco.”

“Why does everyone think I’m a fragile being that can’t stay out in the sun for very long!?”

“Because it’s true, isn’t it?” Argonne stared down at her with a large and over looming green eye, which she matched up for in her blue fierce eyes. It took a few moments of silence before Draco gave up, growling angrily and throwing a temper tantrum and walking away, stomping as angry as she felt as she left.

“Was she really blessed with the gemstones of Advent?”

“Indeed, but all she was blessed with was with a name, at least that is to the knowledge at our extent.”

“Haven’t you done any experiments on her Master Wizard?” Hepstis asked curiously and the wizard shook his head sadly, heaving a loud sigh.

“She is protected, bless her heart and soul.”

“That is simply amazing.”

“Yes, if only she could see it so.” Hepstis nodded then turned to his master eagerly, his brown hair shaking as he jumped up and down,

“How shall we travel today Master Wizard?” Argonne stopped for a few seconds, thinking out thoughtfully on the way to travel to the Sun Ios area. The Sun Ios area was pretty far away and the traveling was always annoying as to the fact that before you could enter you would have to bypass the dreadful road of Linguistics.

“We shall travel by broom today, have you been practicing?” Hepstis’s face fell but he nodded slowly and turned around to run and get his broom. As he reached his house though, he saw Draco lounging around in his chair and looking at many theories that he had came up with himself.

“Draco, you shouldn’t look through my stuff.”

“Not like I can understand any of it, what the heavens is this text?”

“That’s an ancient rune language back in my home town.” Draco sighed and patted the paper away and leaned against the table she had been reading the theories on earlier. Draco stared as Hepstis moved around the room, grumbling that flying on his broom was his worse subject, and how stupid he had been to not expect it.

“Where did you come from?” Hepstis was expecting the this question, especially with the closure that they were slowly getting together, surly a girl would be curious on where an older man came from, especially if she had been developing a crush.

“I came from an ancient rune city called Uraqe.”

“Uraqe?”

“Yes, it’s a hidden village on the edge of the Valley of Perish.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Oh it was, every day we would be on the look-out for orcs.”

“Orcs?” Draco seemed fascinated as she leaned in on her hands, staring up at the older man with brightening eyes. Hepstis couldn’t help but grin at the girl, as she continued to stare with anxiety for a tale…Hepstis was sure that Master Wizard Argonne wouldn’t mind if he was gone for too long. So he drew a chair besides Draco, and the girl’s smile grew into a grin, as she started to look like she wanted to jump out from her seat.

“Yes orcs. Nasty green beings that are very powerful, the more they stink, the more powerful they were.” Draco couldn’t help but giggle at Hepstis’s joke, or at least that’s what she hoped. “Orcs are very evil though; they worship a fake lord and serve only for money. Orcs are also very stubborn and crude; they will fight even if you didn’t pick the fight. Orcs, are not at all a favorite species of mine.”

“Amazing, how did Uraqe fight these things off?”

“We didn’t.”

“You didn’t!?”

“Nope. We had most of our help from a species of fairies.”

“Fairies?”

“Yes, you see, for anyone born in Uraqe, they’re born with a fairy of an element. The fairies are very protective of the one who they’re born under, and they would keep the orcs at bay.”

“Wow…what’s your fairy?” Hepstis stopped a bit at this question, then shrugged very sadly,

“I don’t know.” Draco stared at him, blinking only once in confusion before seeing that strangely attractive sad look in Hepstis’s eyes.

“Ah…sorry.” She apologized still, not meaning to have hurt the older in any way. Why would she want to do that anyway? She didn’t know that this would hurt him in the first place, she was just curious.

“It’s okay,” Hepstis flashed a charming smile and leaned his head into his hands, “I don’t know because my fairy has never appeared in front of me.”

“Hasn’t it to anyone else?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“…But…does that mean you were never attacked by an orc?” Hepstis laughed and brushed back his black hair and Draco gasped as he showed her a pulsing scar at the edge of his temple.

“No, I did, this came to me when I was just a youngling about your age.” Draco frowned at being called a ‘youngling’ but dismissed that insult and started straight into his ugly scar.

“Unbelievable…are you even sure you really have a fairy?” Hepstis opened his mouth to reply but there was a loud scorning noise outside the front door,

“APPRENTICE! IF YOU DON’T GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW, I’LL CAST A LOCK-JAW SPELL ON YOU!” Hepstis flinched at this sentence and Draco shot him a questioning look, but he shook his head and stood up sadly, placing his hand on his broomstick in a very much unwanted way.

“Have fun Hepstis.”

“Yeah, thanks Draco.” Draco couldn’t help but smile as Hepstis bid her a good day and she laughed as he attempted to lift off on his broom, but failed and ended up tumbling up further above the streets. Draco smiled sadly at the open door, the sun blazing extremely in a beautiful way, but also in a taunting and teasing way that she did not like at all. Draco had sat there for only a few minutes, but then stood up, staring around the familiar small one room household and played with a photo that always hang just about Hepstis’s small little bed.

The photo consisted of only two people. Draco only knew one, and that was Hepstis, but the other, the one holding Hepstis at the waist and leaning on his shoulder was a woman…or man (Draco couldn’t distinguish) with long red hair that was put into several braids. The person was grinning a great big smile and was dressed in the most fantastic white clothing that Draco had hoped to see in real life someday, the way they seemed to shine off from the sun in the picture…it was absolutely dazzling.

“I wish I could go outside and do fantastic feats of bravery and chivalry.” Draco sighed, as she stopped playing with the photo and placed it back where it belong while lying down in Hepstis’s bed, “I wish so many things…none of them will come true though, will they?” Draco stared at Hepstis’s straw ceiling kept up from magic. “I wonder about Uraqe, I also really wonder if Hepstis is telling the truth about fairies and orcs…” She sighed once again then just lay to her side, not starting to panic as she started to feel a deep sleep slowly enveloping her. “I wonder…if the name Jewel is really that special.”

Dreams are often very dark when you start them out, but Draco usually had dreams that were unusually bright. The kind of emerald bright that you would be attracted to right away, even if you know if it may be a trap or not. Draco frowned as shapes formed in front of her, all of them very blurry in their own tone and Draco growing more and more frustrated because of the lack of shape.

“You have many wishes…”

“Doesn’t everyone gov?” The disembodied voice that had started to talk to her paused, as though unsure weather or not she was trying to play a joke.

“Yes…I suppose.”

“You suppose right then gov.” Draco was calling the strange voice the first name that came to her mind, and the interesting sound of ‘gov’ was very fascinating and she thought it rather suited said voice.

“Jewel…or is it Draco now?”

“I call myself by Draco, but my birthright is Jewel.” Gov paused a bit longer, the emerald light fading just a tiny bit in annoyance. Gov then started to speak again, his voice a little more tiny and soft-sounding,

“Draco, what kind of dream do you really wish for?” Draco had thought this as a very silly question, and had easily replied back,

“I wish I could go out and not be damaged by the sun, I wish not to be handled as a doll up in a display shop, and I wish I could do everything to be me, without anyone else bothering me about it.” To be herself…as selfish as it sounded to herself out loud, that was the true wish she wanted to come true, even if she was talking to a voice she did not know anything about, about it.

“You wish…to be yourself?”

“Yes, but there are limitations to science and magic.”

“That there is, that there is…Draco, listen to me carefully. Tomorrow at daybreak, you must go to the highest hill in the village, and a treasure will appear that will help you on your way to grant your wish.” Draco thought it sounded crazy, even insane. She then regarded the voice with a stern frown,

“Am I really supposed to believe you Gov?” Gov paused, and then spoke once again,

“Only if you wish to.” Draco sighed, what a roundabout way to answer her…but…maybe…

“Alright, I’ll do it, and I swear, if I don’t get my wish, then you will be the first to get punished Gov.” The voice laughed back at her, laughing that sounded weird, but at all the same time, very pleasant.

“You’re a fine young girl, aren’t you?”

“Young is only depended on mentality, not my physical appearance.”

“Oh yes, a very fine young girl indeed.” Draco huffed at the mysterious voice, but found a harsh coldness sweep over her body and she found her eyes awakening as her younger brother and Hepstis stood over her with a bucket of what used to be filled with cold water.

“ARGH!” Draco stood up, moving her body to get rid of some of the wetness, and she angrily punched Hepstis, knowing that she may get quite a bit of tattle-telling from her brother if she hit him.

“I’m sorry Draco,” Hepstis apologized earnestly, rubbing his sore appendence.

“You better be.” She pouted back; folding her arms then looked over at her younger brother, whom seemed to be a little distraught. “What’s wrong, Tom?”

“I lost my Hector Beetle.” Draco stood there stunned for a few seconds then grabbed his hand,

“I’m sure it’s at home you dull little thing.”

“I am not little! And help me find it Jewel, or I’ll tell mom on you!” Draco rolled her eyes earnestly then bid Hepstis good-bye as the two walked home together. As on entering, Draco took one look at the sunset and focused her eyes in the hill that stood on-top of the village, blocking out the sun that showed the many warm colors.

I’ll be there, but Gov…you better be right, or I’ll stomp you of your shell and you’ll be sorry for being a Hector Beetle.