The Little Star Princess (The Dragon Prince)

Chapter 3.

"No....There was no dagger!" Callum said confidently. The woman sighed, but nodded. "Time takes everything, it's probably gone from here a long time ago." Rayla looked at her traveling companion in irritation. Without the lady noticing it, Callum let the blade slide a bit out of his sleeve. He had lied to her, he had stolen it from her. Rayla said nothing about it. Maybe it was better that way. Although they had only known the elf for a short time, her presence seemed so familiar. To be honest the woman was acting a bit like a child. She had thrown her high heels into a small bag and now she walked grinning through the grass. Ezran walked behind her, excited about her new traveling companion. Rayla was uncomfortable with this feeling, this familiarity was not normal. She didn't know this elf, but somehow Rayla had seen her somewhere before. "Aaesteria, why weren't you locked in a lake in Xadia?" Rayla asked, examining her long, braided white hair. It was still soaking wet and had algae in it. "I don't know. The last thing I did saw was my brother, and then nothing more." She spoked and rubbed her eyes. "Ezran, when is the egg supposed to hatch?" She asked curiously, childlike excitement shining in her green eyes. "I don't know!" Ezran said in the same tone as if he had known when the little dragon would hatch. The excitement faded and she sighed in disappointment. "Will you give it to me?"  She asked, holding out her hand. "Ezran don't do that!" Rayla warned him. The moonshadow elf was on alert. "Oh my, oh my! That was just a question!" She laughed and ruffled Ezran's soft hair. "Where are we actually going?"

"Ah, and which path did you choose?" the elf asked curiously. "There's a way across the lake, a way across the mountains, a portal through a library..." she listed. "And do they still exist? I mean, you've been under the water for more than 300." Rayla said acidly. "Hm... That's a good question..." Aaesteria murmured and shrugged. The snow was quite thick up here, it was a somewhat unusual feeling. When Aaesteria was younger she was out in the snow maybe 1 time. "What has actually happened on your trip so far?" Asked the star elf. "Ez nearly drowned, the egg is dying, and Rayla's hand may fall off soon." Aaesteria thought for a moment. "Can we take a break for a while? I want to take a quick look at her hand." Callum scratched his head. "We should do that when we're in a village..."

After a few minutes, the four actually saw something. ,,There! There's a town I knew I'd seen smoke! Maybe someone will help us!" Rayla called excitedly. "Of course, maybe we'll find an expert on dragon eggs, but we'll definitely find a bunch of people who hate elfs." The prince said and looked at them both alternately elfs. ,,Pfff! No problem!" Rayla said and pulled a cape out of the backpack. "May I introduce you? Rayla as a human being!" She called and pulled the cape plus hood over it. "I don't think that'll be enough." Aaesteria chuckled to herself. "Rayla, didn't anyone teach you illusion magic?" Aaesteria asked, grinning. "Wait a minute! If I also act like a human to camouflage myself, then none of you three will notice that I'm really an elf!" Silence... "Greetings dear fellow human beings and friends! Oh, I love to sit with other humans ", Callum rolled his eyes, and the other elf grinned. "I'll talk to you about money and wars we can start!" "You........you doing it pretty good!" "Yeah, I think that could work." The startouch elf said. "Thank you, dear human, and elf friends! Hit one, enter 4!"

"Now that we've clarified that, what are we going to do with you?" Callum asked and looked closely at Aaesteria. "Well...I could just wait here until you're done...." Immediately Callum shook his head. "You're one of us now! Didn't you say you can create illusions?" Callum asked and the Star elf nodded thoughtfully. "Uhm, man or woman which is better?" She asked, scratching the back of her head. "You can make an illusion of a man?" "Not quite, oh how do I explain that? I have no real gender. I have a male body, and a female body. I just like female bodies more because I was born that way." She tried to explain somewhat awkwardly. ,,Wow! Can you show us your male body?" Ezran asked excitedly. She just laughed. "I don't think there's time for that, I'll just make an illusion."

"Have you seen something like this before?" Callum asked, Rayla quietly so as not to disturb Aaesteria. "Yes....but not like that, otherwise you need tools...." Interested, like the mage, she observed a rune she drew in the snow drew. And there was a pretty black-haired girl about Ezran's age standing there. Only the piercing green eyes were the same. "I think you're missing something, your fingers!" Callum said to Rayla. "Oh...I need gloves or something..." That fitted well, because there was a snowman at the edge of the village.

When Rayla grabbed the gloves, Aaesteria transformed the snowman into a snow elf.

Little Aaesteria walked quite normally next to Ezran and quietly let him question her. Rayla just walked around the village like the biggest idiot, next to them. Suddenly Ezran stopped them, a larger crowd stood there, circling the statue. There was a blond man standing there. "I defended the border against all sorts of monsters and tremendous! Unimaginable horrors, now I know no more fear! In fact, I bet I can defeat every single one of you here with nothing more than my dagger!" As the guy babbled on, they had snuck into the crowd. He challenged a few people before suddenly pointing at Rayla. "Oh, oh..." Aaesteria murmured. But then someone intervened. A huge man, even taller than Aaesteria, with a great broadsword in hand, challenged the blond man. Everyone sat on the fatso, and Aaesteria watched with interest. "Do you see that too Rayla?", Aaesteria asked and tugged at her sleeve. Aaesteria pointed to the dagger. The blond drew the dagger out a bit and Aaestia's eyes started to lighten. "They are distracted come on!" Callum whispered and wanted to pull them along. But Rayla just whispered, "Wait, you want to see that."