Incoherent Perspectives
Chapter 2 - A Dragon's Destiny

"Maybe we should build a raft," I suggested. "You don't listen, do you?" Aurora responded. I looked at her, confusion, evident on my face. Aurora rolled her eyes and I couldn't tell if it was a sarcastic one or a playful scheme. "I said I'd fly you there... In the cave. Remember?" I did remember how she offered but for some reason, it didn't feel right. Aurora was royalty after all. All the embers of the prophecy are practically royal except for the Sunburst Aethers, Who choose queens via election which I still didn't fully understand. She was royalty, The Shadow Flare has to be royalty and the same goes for the Ignius Noctern and Ignisarbor and even the Irisalis. Aurora had her wings outstretched, seemingly ready to take off. What was she waiting for?

She made a gesture with her head that I didn't fully understand so I just stood there looking like an idiot and it seemed that Aurora noticed too. She slowly furled her wings at her side before approaching me seeming annoyed. "You don't understand signals, do you?" Aurora said with a sigh. I didn't know what to say, therefore I just shrugged and continued standing there like an idiot. Aurora sighed once again, but it was more of a saddened sigh. All of the frustration Aurora had felt prior seemed to vanish out of guilt. She gave me an apologetic look before saying, "This is not how the prophecy is supposed to go. The creature of unknown descent isn't meant to drown on the first day here. So, let's try this again. I'll fly you there. Do you understand?" I nodded.

Aurora flew up to a rock that was hanging over the ocean, It looked like a rock an alpha wolf would lay on, watching over their pack. I went around and climbed to the top of the rock, beside Aurora. It was then I noticed a message carved into the rock's surface. Aurora saw me looking intently at the ground and she was confused. "What do you see?" She asked. "It looks like another bio. Kinda like yours in the cave," I responded.

"Oh? What does it say?"

In the realm of myth and ages long, Young Ignius Noctern’s tale in song. At sixteen years, her spirit high and bold, Daughter of Xiotern, of royal lineage told. A queen’s heir, the throne’s coveted prize, In battles fierce, a new queen shall arise, Ignius Noctern’s presence, a revered sight, Amongst her dragonkin, with honour and might. A black dragon, eyes like a sapphire's hue, A dark blue deep, as oceans vast and true, She, who dared defy Xiotern’s grand abode, By breaking rules, with Shadow Flare’s forbode. A legend born, with destiny entwined, The mythic journey of this rare dragon kind, In the twilight of time, her story unfolds, Of Ignius Noctern, where the mythic tale beholds.

Did these bios have anything to do with the prophecy? They must be important or something. "Hop on." Aurora's voice broke the silence and when I looked over at her she had her wings outstretched, ready to take off once again. I had forgotten we were heading to see Queen Galaxia in the Stella Alis council across the ocean. "I'll just swim," I said. "Don't start this again, it's not that long of a flight. Only about 45 minutes," Aurora responded.

"That is a long flight."

"Oh, quit your whining." Aurora had a friendly and welcoming smile almost like back at the cave except with a little less innocent giggle. 45 minutes later, we had already arrived at the other side. "That wasn't that bad," I said, just happy to be standing on the ground again. "See? Now it's a simple walk to the council," Aurora responded.

Before I could respond, Aurora was already heading through the forest. I had to keep up with her because I had no idea where the council was. I am good with maps but I'm no expert. We kept trekking forward for quite a while until we came across a massive mossy stone wall. There was also some kind of green gate. Decorated with Azaleas, vines and pink and purple Roses. It was like entering a fairytale garden. On top of the walls were two Stella Alis guards. They appeared to be talking to one another and somehow hadn't noticed that their Princess was just below them. I gave Aurora a confused look but she just shrugged, therefore I assumed this wasn't the first time this had happened. "Apologies Apollo and Nova, But do you mind lowering the gate?" Aurora asked, looking up at them.

Apollo was the bigger guard to the left. He was an older guard who I could only assume had been doing this for years, he had some kind of golden helmet on that was incredibly valuable. Meanwhile, to the right was Nova, she was a much smaller and younger dragon compared to Apollo and her scales were a dark purple, representing distant galaxies.

"Ah! Princess? My apologies, I'll lower the gate now." Apollo said. Aurora seemed to have startled him unintentionally. Either that or he felt bad for not seeing her there... again. Apollo flew over to a wooden wheel and axle to his left and began turning. The gate slowly opened, strangely creating anticipation. When the gate had fully opened there was an incredibly blinding bright light, but when the light faded, strangely a Sunburst Aether was standing in the gateway. Her scales shimmered with brilliant radiance like the sun. She wore some kind of celestial crown so my guess was she was someone incredibly important.

"Who's that?" I whispered to Aurora.

"That'd be Queen Eleni, she is the current queen of the Sunburst Aethers. She won by default as the other runner was found dead in a nearby lake. It's still a mystery to this day. Lately, Queen Eleni has made many enemies within the council. I honestly wouldn't be mad if she went missing," she responded.

"Who'd take her place?"

"That'd be Helia... Her daughter. She'd rule until the next election six months from now."

"Oh... Why is she here, but not at her council across the way?"

"The Sunburst Aethers have been our closest allies for years, even before this entire war. She visits once a month, But I wasn't expecting she'd be here today." Queen Eleni began flying to the Stella Alis palace. While she was here the entire focus was on her, that was until Aurora and I entered. All the other guards, first class and even Aurora's siblings looked at me confused. Either they didn't know about the prophecy or they didn't expect the "creature of unknown descent" to be here currently. It was kinda awkward having hundreds of eyes just staring back at me.

Eventually, we entered the massive palace on the huge hill. It is built from the ground up with individual stones. There were at least 500,000 or more. Guards were all over the palace grounds doing their rounds. At least 100, it had to be. Aurora took me up a fairly grand staircase up the hill. What was it for when all dragons could fly? When we reached the top, there seemed to be some kind of garden to the right, decked with cherry blossoms, sakura trees, weeping willows and 42 different species of flowers. It was practically an ecosystem in itself. I kept looking around and I noticed how tall the castle seriously was. It was somehow taller than my office building back on Earth.

Looking at each tower, vines were going up that had flowers growing on them. It was a stereotypical fairytale castle. When we approached the doors, they were massive and grand. Two guards were stationed on either end with spears as long as telephone poles. Seeing all the security and the size of the castle, strangely made me incredibly nervous to meet Queen Galaxia in person. The doors opened and the guards allowed Aurora to enter but they stopped me at the door. "No Outsiders in the palace. Guards and royalty only," said the first guard in a stern voice. He reminded me of Mr. Morales, always stern and rarely expressed any other emotion than frustration.

"It's fine, my mother wishes to see him," Aurora said, already entering the castle. The guard snorted in disbelief but moved the spear anyway. I entered keeping an eye on the two guards before the door closed behind us. The main hall was massive, there were balconies above us where other guards stood and seemed to be playing a game of some kind. Massive pillars headed up to the ceiling and were carved with intricate designs. There was some kind of red carpet heading over the three thrones. There was one bigger one in the centre and two smaller ones on either side. They were made of ancient stone and had names carved into each one. Galaxia, Aurora and Solara. The Queen sat on her throne and the one that had 'Solara' carved into the stone, another dragon about Aurora's age sat. Galaxia looked completely different than I thought she would.

Her scales and wings were black with a mix of colours such as purples, whites and dark blues, a lot like the colours space is commonly associated with. "I see you've returned," said the smaller Ember who I could only assume was Solara. "Who'd you bring along this time?"

"This is Louis Blanchet, I met him back at the cave with the prophecy," Aurora responded. Galaxia's face lit up instantly when she recognized the name. She got off her throne and walked right up to me, I guess to get a closer look. "You found him?" Queen Galaxia said. "What's so important about him?" Solara asked curiously.

"He's the one the prophecy spoke of. He's here to end the war. I saw someone that looked exactly like him in a vision. The brown hair, blue eyes and average attire. This is him," My face expressed shock. She's been watching me via visions? How? That meant Queen Galaxia had seen all of it back home. My question was, how long has she been watching me this way? She also must've seen my reluctance about crossing the ocean. "I sure hope you aren't as stubborn as you were when Aurora offered to take you across the ocean," Yep, she's seen it all. I had a decent reason to be reluctant back at the coastline.

Just then a guard barged through the door, seeming panicky all of a sudden. The guard was Apollo, from the wall. "Apollo! You are supposed to be watching the wall. Can't you see, I'm having an important meeting?" Queen Galaxia said, her tone was a frustrated one. "I'm sorry your Highness but Nova said she's seen an intruder- A black dragon -Near the waterfall," Apollo said, sounding ridiculously out of breath. "The Waterfall?" Galaxia echoed. Apollo nodded, his head hung low. He knew there had to be some kind of punishment for whoever the strange intruder was. "I can go check, mother," Solara said. I had never heard anyone call their parent mother before. I used to always say 'Mom', was it some kind of formality that was in royalty? I was focusing too much on the 'calling my mom, mother' part that I forgot about this so-called 'intruder' by the waterfall. As Solara offered to investigate the mysterious black dragon by the waterfall, she noticed a glint of recognition in Apollo’s eyes. It seemed like he knew more about the intruder than he was letting on.