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The dying elf gathered up all his strength to respond, “Im maer.” (I’m well.)
“Liar, you lose strength with each hour. I fear you may not even make it though the night.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you down.”
“You didn’t let me down. You fought bravely. I shouldn’t have made you come. You should have stayed with Uruvion. I was foolish to separate you two.”
“King Thalion, don’t.”
“How many times must I tell you not to call me that?”
“I miss him.”
“I know.” Thalion watched as the elf’s skin grew even paler than before. A tear slid down the dying elf’s cheek.
“I’m scared.”
“I won’t leave your side until you pass, my friend.” Ainion shut his eyes spilling a few more tears. He desperately wanted to see Uruvion one last time but new it was impossible. He was going to die.
“Loki please keep this a secret!” Lysander pleaded to his friend. Loki’s black eyes gazed in what felt directly into Najja’s very soul. It felt like boulders were crashing down upon the poor human.
“He would make a fine dinner. Are you sure that this isn’t just some fling of momentary insanity?”
“Loki…I love him, please understand that,” Lysander said taking Najja’s hand and pulling the human closer to him. Their bodies touched and Najja finally noticed how cold the Dragon King felt. Loki’s stone eyes released their grasp from Najja.
“Adrian is going to get a kick out of this…”
“No one is allowed to know, Loki!” Lysander raised his voice a small bit, but it was enough to emphasize what he wanted.
“Fine, fine. Just…be careful. A boy that tasty isn’t going to go unnoticed for long.” Loki turned on his heels and glided out of the king’s bedroom. Lysander sighed heavily and sank into a very elaborated, obsidian stone chair.
“I…smell…tasty?”
“…Very.” Najja panicked. ‘Oh great, am I really going to be roasted up for dinner one of these days?’ Lysander took notice as the blood drained out of the poor human prince’s face. “I won’t allow any harm to you. I promise you this.”
“No offense but a promise like that and a place like this? It’s not going to work! Loki’s dragon form was…huge! Compared to him you’re-”
“Weak? I know. That is why he’s also my bodyguard. Usually when there is a gathering or some kind of social event, he never leaves my side. Now his presence is going to be needed even more when dragons start catching onto your smell.” Najja blinked in astonishment. He laughed nervously before sliding to the cold, stone floor.
“I really, really don’t want to be eaten.”
“With Loki or myself around…you won’t. It’s that simple. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”
“Right…simple…ok…”
“Stop fretting! Everything is going to be just fine!” Before Lysander could even calm one nerve of Najja’s down, Loki appeared in the room once again. “Do you ever knock?”
“Sorry my king, but Adrian requests your presence. He wants to know how he’s to go about the seas.”
“I’ll go to him. You stay here with Najja…and no eating him!” Najja giggled with a hint of insanity. “And…try to calm him down. He’s going to crack any moment.”
“Yes my lord.”
“My Liege, we must go over our plans of attack at sea. The Aeglaecan army isn’t slow. They have set up navel bases close to our port!”
“So…what do you, Adrian, Commander of the Draquean Navy plan on doing about it?”
“Who are these guests and why are you in such a rush to get back to them?” Lysander took a deep breath saying with his eyes that he wasn’t going to answer that question. Loki, he could trust, but Adrian…no. Adrian wasn’t one he could trust with his precious secret. Their relationship was strictly business. “I think that a submerged attack on their ships would do sir. And I’d create a giant hurricane to kill all those who are thrown overboard.” Adrian’s eyes were an ocean-blue, giving him the power to control the seas.
“Good plan, you’re dismissed now.” Lysander briskly got to his feet and glided out of the room quickly. Adrian was flabbergasted. Lysander had never acted so impatient before, or that mean before. Adrian was determined to find out whom these guests where, and why they were so important.
The Elvin King had stayed with Ainion throughout the night. He continued to watch as the beautiful elf get paler, and paler. Thalion had written a letter already to his son about his lover’s death. It would take a few days to get home but he honestly hoped it would take longer than usual. He didn’t want his son to start grieving yet.
“King Thalion?” asked a sweet, honey-like voice. Thalion’s emerald eyes turned to see Prince Khai standing in the entrance of the hospital tent. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s dying slowly.” Thalion took a cool, damp cloth and wiped the sweat away from the dying elf’s face.
“I think I have an idea to save his life.” Thalion looked up suddenly at the human prince.
“Say it!” he pleaded. If there were any hope of saving Uruvion’s lover’s life…he’d take it.
“Noctualie.” Thalion’s eyes widened.
“The vampire country?” he asked baffled. Prince Khai nodded. His creamy, brown eyes held nothing but determination. He was being serious. “It would take too long! We’d have to travel north of here and around the mountains and even closer to Draquea! We all could be killed!”
“Would you rather have him completely dead? At least with this he’d still be alive.”
“It wouldn’t be the same. Uruvion would be so upset.”
“Let’s ask Ainion. It is his body and his life.” Thalion shifted his attention to the dying elf.
“Ainion? Ainion please wake up!” Ainion’s dull, green eyes opened to slits as he became aware of those around him. “You’re dying we all know this, but, Prince Khai has come up with an idea. We could take you to Noctualie and a vampire could change you.” Thalion’s eyes held fear and concern for his comrade and friend. The path to Noctualie was a dangerous one, and being in Noctualie wasn’t a cakewalk either. Vampires have a keen sense of who is dead and who is one of them. They also have a strong thirst for blood. Thalion would be risking his life just to take Ainion there. “It’s your choice, my son.” Ainion’s mind raced as fast as it could. He did want to live, but a vampire? He wouldn’t be the same anymore. He could even endanger Uruvion’s life. Tears swelled up in the beautiful elf’s eyes as he gently shook his head. Khai looked away, he knew Ainion wouldn’t agree.
“You’d rather choose death? Uruvion is going to be so upset,” Khai hoped bringing up the fiery prince would change Ainion’s mind.
“I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t want to kill him either. If I became a vampire…” The word wouldn’t come out of his mouth. Ainion didn’t even want to think of ever hurting Uruvion, but now…hurting him was inevitable. He didn’t know what to choose anymore.
“Because he says he hates women. If there was just some way we could persuade him…” Loki seemed to be lost in thought for what felt like hours. Over the short amount of time the two had been alone together Najja’s opinion of the onyx-eyed man changed from scary, to quite a nice person. He felt like he could trust Loki. “I have an idea! How about you guilt him into it! Or…say how much you’d love to have a baby with him! Or he’d have the baby with a woman and the two of you could take care of it! And maybe to make it even you’d have a baby too so he wouldn’t feel set up! Yes…this could work! Please Najja! Please help us! Our country is in a dire time of need right now! We need good news!” Najja blinked astonished. A dragon…was pleading…him?
“I’ll try. But I don’t know if he’ll go for it.” Loki threw his strong arms around the slender prince, but quickly retracted.
“I’m sorry, you just don’t know how much this means! If he has a child…our country's hope could be restored.”
“You’re going to win the war anyways. Why is it such a big deal?”
“You don’t understand. That was our entire army! Those who weren’t in dragon form…they are infected. They are weak and so many of our people are meeting the same fate. This disease, it, it doesn’t just kill us. At first it’s like a bad cold, but then you notice yourself not being able to change into your dragon form…or your powers won’t work, then you weaken and weaken until you can’t even hold yourself up anymore…then you die and it isn’t something that takes it’s time…this all happens in a matter of a month.” Najja’s face held sympathy and a little regret. Why hadn’t his father just agreed to letting the Draqueans have the mountains? They didn’t plan to keep them forever.
“Loki, I’m so sorry. I wish I could convince my father to just give up and let you have the mountains.”
“Your father? Your father is King Oba?!” Loki shouted.
“…Yes?” Loki sighed and pressed his fingers onto his eyebrows, tracing them in annoyance.
“Why can’t he just pick a girl, who is a Draquean, and who isn’t going to be the death of him!”
“Death of him?”
“Yes, Najja, you’re a good kid and all but…Draquea isn’t the best place for a human. That’s why we keep ourselves so far away from everyone. We don’t want to hurt anyone. Sure human tastes unbelievably good…but we can’t do that. I don’t know why…but we just…can’t. I don’t even think I’m making any sense!”
“I understand. You’re trying to be good and you don’t want to be hated, so you stay away from everyone. But it really isn’t working. There are so many rumors about dragons and how fierce and bloodthirsty they are…it’s sad really now that I look at it. You all are the nicest people I’ve met. Lysander even taught me how to shoot a bow.”
“We aren’t always nice. Accidents happen, and that’s why there are the rumors that there are.” This voice wasn’t of Loki’s; it was a much sweeter, wiser voice, Lysander.
“What accidents?”
“Why do you think we know how good human tastes? People travel through here to get to other human countries. On this earth…human outnumbers everything. Sometimes we can’t resist and just…eat them. We don’t bother cooking them like most meat. We don’t like eating human; it makes us feel…like monsters. We don’t want to be monsters. We just want to be accepted.” Najja’s eyes went wide. Everything he had been told about the Draqueans since he was a child was a lie. They had hearts, they did love, they did have feelings, and they did care about others. Najja pulled Lysander into a strong hug. He wrapped his pale arms around the Dragon King’s neck and cried into his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry.” Lysander hugged him back and gently stroked his hair.
“It’s ok. I can understand why humans think the way they do. They have all the reason to hate us.”
“No they don’t! It’s not fair to you! You can’t help what you are! People kill people and it doesn’t make them monsters! But you accidentally slip up and that’s it! Monsters! It’s unfair!” Loki chuckled crossing his arms over his chest.
“It’s the way things are. We look like monsters…so we are monsters nothing more…and nothing less. I’ll leave you two alone now,” Loki said as he opened the giant doors to leave Lysander’s chambers. Najja looked into Lysander’s sparkling eyes. He gently kissed the silver beauty’s full lips before moving away. Lysander sighed and sat down on what seemed to be his favorite obsidian chair. Najja sat on the bed. He liked its size. He felt like he could get lost in it…or have too much fun jumping on it.
“So…when you say you eat human…?”
“We can…but we usually don’t, unless someone smells too good and we can’t control it. That’s why I said you were so tempting. You smell sweet, like candy.” Najja nodded his head. He didn’t exactly like being thought of as food but he knew Loki and Lysander meant no harm.
“I love you Lysander,” he said. Lysander smiled and came to lie down next to Najja on the bed.
“Do you mind if I change? Into dragon form I mean. Sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable in this form.” Najja shook his head and watched as Lysander changed into a dragon. It didn’t even scare him anymore. He felt safe next to the large dragon. Because he knew that this dragon was never going to hurt him, this dragon loved him, and for that very reason when he snuggled up close to the scaly creature he felt warm instead of cold, even though Lysander was freezing to the touch right now. Lysander yawned and the sound startled Najja. The brunette closed his eyes once again and drifted off into a peaceful sleep, dreaming of flying with dragons.
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