Disappearance of Roselei Hawthorne

Chapter Twelve

"What are supposed to do now?" Celty groaned as she leaned back against the rocky wall of their cell. The four of them had been dragged away from Vulcan by two of the dragon-born soldiers and thrown into a small prison cell.

"We stay put." Lillia instructed, sitting on the floor, facing the cell door.

"But why? We need to escape so we can go find Vulcan!" Celty furrowed her brow.

"No, we don't." Lillia frowned. "That girl... their general... she knew Vulcan. If he can get her to trust us, then we could have ourselves another ally. The more the better, right?"

"Not only that," Kallen added, "but it seems like Vulcan had a life before he was brought to the colosseum. And I think he deserves to hear about it."

"And what do we do if Vulcan can't convince the general to trust us?" Celty asked.

"Well, I suppose we'll cross that bridge if we get there." Kallen shrugged. "Have a little faith, alright?"

"Fine." Celty sighed.

"I just hope Vulcan's doing okay." Lillia frowned.

"He'll be okay, don't worry." Gideon wrapped a comforting arm around Lillia's shoulder.

"Thanks." Lillia felt a little better.

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"What did you just say?" Vulcan asked, shocked.

"I said you're our prince. Your father is... well, was our king." The general explained. "Our fathers were really close with each other. With yours being the king, and mine being the dragon army general, they spent a lot of time together. Because of that, we ended up become best friends, because we were always in the same room."

"Hold on, you're going too fast." Vulcan was beginning to feel overwhelmed. "First off, you said that my father 'was' the king. What happened? Was he dethroned?"

"Worse. He was... well... killed." The general sighed as she stared at the floor.

"By humans?" Vulcan made the obvious guess.

"Yes. We were invaded in the dead of night- no... I should start from the beginning." The general scolded herself slightly for getting ahead of herself.

"Alright." Vulcan took a deep breath, and readied himself for whatever it was that the general had to say.

Cerise explained that the dragon-borns had been living in peace on the mountain for as long as anyone could remember. They lived atop the mountain in a quaint little village, minding their own business and staying out of the affairs of humans. That was why it was so shocking to them when they were ambushed by a hoard of human knights. They tried to fight back, to defend themselves, but it was no use. Fortunately, many of them were able to flee inside the mines of the mountain. They blocked off the exits with stones, mud, and whatever else they could use to keep the humans from getting in.

But not everybody made it inside. Vulcan's father insisted on being the last one in. As king, he knew he had to protect his people, and he wouldn't flee to the mines until every other dragon-born had safely made it inside. He quickly realized Vulcan, as well as his own wife, had gone missing. He looked everywhere, and so did many of his strongest knights, but they couldn't find either of them. Eventually, it was too dangerous to keep searching. As unfortunate as it was, they had to give up.

Assuming that Vulcan and his mother had been captured- or worse, killed- the king went on a rampage, slaughtering as many humans as he could. He fought valiantly, but was struck through the torso by the sword of one of the knights. He didn't suffer long; he died almost immediately. Struck with grief, the surviving dragon-borns blocked off the last entrance into the mine, never to be opened again.