Ember of Hope
Chapter 15

The next day Valiance took her to a beautiful small valley far away from the fortress. Whenever she flew on his back he took her to places calm and beautiful because she had once told him about her love for them. Their realm was beyond the reach of human callousness against nature. There were humans in this realm too but they never ruined their homeland like the ones in her world. They were far away from the disastrous aspects of technology. It didn’t mean that they had no technology at all. It just hadn’t ruined their land. She was surrounded by wild flowers and grass long and green.

After enjoying the beauty of the rising sun she turned towards Valiance who was sprawled near her enjoying the sun on his huge body, “tell me Valiance, why don’t you ever shift to your human form?”

He lifted his head to look in her direction and sighed, or she thought he did. She couldn’t be sure though, as she had no idea how a dragon sighed. He started the story just like a story teller. It was one of the many things she liked about the dragon. He was one hell of a story teller.

“It’s kind of a sad story but it’s our history. King Alexander came to rule Evreux 600 years ago. He was brave and ruthless when it came to protecting his people and dragon kind. He was ruler above not only dragon kind but the other shifters and mortals too. Before his rule the other races lived in seclusion, ruling themselves and fighting amongst each other. His people loved him, they were loyal to him and in his rule there wasn’t a single rebellion in the kingdom. He was infallible, or so his people believed him to be. He never lost a battle in his life. There were other kingdoms but none was as huge as King Alexander’s. But still they tried to fight him again and again. Power lust can make people do many futile things, so they always lost against him whether a single kingdom attacked or they made alliances against him. They never were able to make him fall. Slowly he succeeded in making alliances with most of them when they realized they had no chance against him. He was a strategist… a keen planner. And eventually they all gained by being his allies.

But nobody is infallible. So one day almost 50 years ago when he was circling the border with Velar in his dragon form; he was attacked. Ten warrior dragons against one was an impossible fight. He was captured and taken prisoner”. Raegan gasped. She had heard the stories of the king’s heroics by many people in the town. They spoke highly of him. Raegan was so indulged in the story that she didn’t like it one bit when Valiance stopped talking for a moment. Sensing her eagerness he started again.

“Panic broke out in the kingdom. It was as if he was a one man show, and without him the kingdom’s council was nothing but a bunch of children. We searched for him everywhere but couldn’t replace him; still we searched every kingdom in hope for our king, even though we knew that he was in Velar. At that time we didn’t know that the Velarians who had kidnapped him had witches. That’s why whenever our scouts went to Velar in search, they came back empty handed. Every kingdom had wiped them out when they started becoming powerful; because Witches were vile and detestable creatures serving the dark powers. And that was why nobody could replace him because Velar’s witches made sure that he wasn’t found”.

“There he fell in love with the witch healer - Katherine - who had been assigned to bring him food and tend to his deeper wounds after he was tortured. He’d found his mate – a witch mate. She seemed different as she used her magic to heal the prisoners and not the other way around. He couldn’t fight his captors because he was under spells to break his powers down and to stop him from shifting. They knew that with his powers he was invincible and they were afraid of him, so they used magic to bind them - to break him. But he wasn’t the greatest king ever for nothing. He began planning to break free and she promised to help him in whatever way. He asked Katherine for the layout of the place and with her help he planned his escape. She had to come with him to Evreux.

The plan was to escape on the day of the annual feast when guests arrive from other kingdoms. Next day he waited for her, but she didn’t come. He had to escape because it was the day of the annual feast. He couldn’t wait more because that chance was too good to miss, so he escaped, silencing the guards before they made any noise on his way out. Changing his clothes with a guard’s uniform he ran towards the cover of woods. He ran for a full night and a day when he was far enough from the reach of the binding spell and his powers came back, he shifted, cloaked himself and flew back here. The kingdom celebrated for a whole week. And people would ask him to recount his adventure again and again”.

Raegan’s eyes grew wide. “Cloaked?”

“Yes, some of us have the ability to hide ourselves from others’ eyes when needed. Cool, isn’t it?” He enjoyed her amazement and she didn’t disappoint when she said, “Are you kidding me? It’s freaking awesome. Show me”. She demanded with excitement. Yeah she was cool with weird. She was one of her kind. His love for her grew in his heart… Shouldn’t go there man. Yeah you needed to tone it down or else you’d end up badly hurt. Deep down he knew it was a lost cause because no human in their right mind could love a beast. One who couldn’t even shift? Yeah, fat chance brother.

Valiance unfurled wings and stood up on his haunches for the full effect, “Ready?”

“Yes” she grinned, rubbing her hands together. Valiance cloaked himself and… vanished from her sight… making her squeal in delight. She acted like a kid sometimes and her excitement was contagious. He couldn’t help himself from feeling it enter his own heart.

He reappeared and continued with the story. “So, let’s get back to the story, shall we?” she nodded. “He had planned to raid Velar with his armies because capturing him was an act of declaring war and while raiding the prisons he would replace Katherine and take her with him. But before he could do anything the kingdom fell under the cover of dark clouds which were quite unnatural to look at, and the next thing he knew none of the dragons in his kingdom could shift to their human form. He couldn’t understand this. He had seen the witches of Velar and his instinct told him that this was their doing. We didn’t know whether the curse was only for us or the whole dragon kind, but one thing was for sure; we needed a new strategy of fight”. Valiance paused, his eyes like a stormy sea, and took a minute before continuing again.

“It was Katherine that had cursed us because she thought that the king had betrayed her by leaving her behind. So in a fit of rage she cursed his kingdom in a way that all his people will be stuck in their dragon form so that none of them would replace any mates. And only when a mate confesses their true love to them and willingly gives their blood, would the curse break and they’d be able to gain their human form back. It was her revenge which she confessed to in a letter that was brought to the king by an enchanted raven”.

Raegan’s hand flew to her mouth at the injustice of the witch’s actions.

“Man she was dramatic, wasn’t she? She must’ve been a big fan of fairytales where beauty fell in love with the beast and sleeping beauty woke up with a true love’s kiss”. Raegan said rolling her eyes on the absurdity of Katherine’s curse. Despite the amusement in her remark Valiance felt his heart falling in a pit of despair. ‘She will never be able to love a dragon’ he thought with a pang of hurt, ‘she doesn’t believe in fairy tales’.

“You don’t believe in fairy tales, do you Raegan?” he couldn’t help confirming his assumptions.

“Who does Val? Fairy tales are just that…tales…for kids. I might have believed in them when I was a kid. But I’m not a kid anymore”.

“And yet here you are…in a world full of fantasy…dragons, witches, magic and curses”, he murmured.

“Yes indeed”. She looked at him with impatient eyes. “What happened next?”

“Dramatically, only the male dragons had fallen victim to her curse. May be she believed that males weren’t trustworthy. The upside was that our females were safe. The downside was that males were rendered unable to perform their jobs as humans. We couldn’t go out in your world. We couldn’t do the much needed businesses and trade we do with people in your world. But I’ll tell you about that later”. Raegan just nodded, very much engrossed in the story to formulate a verbal response.

With a deep inhale, he started again; “Before that king Alexander didn’t care that she was a witch because he’d seen her goodness. And it wasn’t unheard of that a dragon mated with someone from other species. He planned along with his comrades the strategy to attack Velar… including the new necessity to replace her as only she could lift up the curse. Even after knowing about her nature, he didn’t want to hurt her. My father was his general and best friend, one he confided in every secret. So with him he planned to replace her and try to convince her about his innocence in the matter. He truly loved her. But they never managed to replace her even after defeating Velarian forces. The King and my father searched everywhere, but it was as if she had vanished. Nobody knew about her, whether she was alive or not”.

“The king must have been devastated. First the curse and then her disappearance”. Raegan piped in.

“According to my father, he was, because he loved her. But he carried himself with calm and poise among his warriors and people. He never showed any sign of weakness which was one of his many qualities. And he never succumbed to any obstacle or hardship. He never lost hope”.

“I wish I could meet him even once in my life”. Raegan said with a longing in her tone, making Val smile. “It’s getting dark. We should head back or you’ll miss dinner. We’ll continue it on our next trip”. Val said, getting up and stretching.

She grumbled in displeasure but stood up nonetheless. Flying through the air on Val’s back was on top of her list of favorites directly after listening to his stories because he was that good.

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