The Dragon Prince The City of Smoke and Night

Chapter Four Homecoming in Lux Aurea

Naima insisted she would say her farewell to her godparents in Duren before leaving for Lux Aurea the following morning. They hugged her and wished her good luck on her journey of learning more about her parents. She held up her hand to Janai's Hotcat Embertail, who nuzzled it and purred. "Embertail is such a sweet thing," she told Janai once they'd arrived at the Sunfire Elves' camp. "They think you are a sweet thing as well. They'd sensed those with good hearts for many years, but your heart is as pure and big as the Sun herself, Naima." Janai winked at her. She glowed; she never received a compliment from a Twin Tailed Inferno Tooth Tiger before. The Sunfire Elves welcomed Naima into their camp with open arms by throwing her a bonfire night in honor of her homecoming. When everyone had returned home for the night, Naima had her first family dinner in her aunt and uncle's beautiful castle. During dinner, her aunt Inaya, explained to Naima that they chose the phoenix as their family insignia because they were known for their golden hearted natures, resilience, and their ability to persevere through difficult times. Inaya was her mother's younger sister. She was a lithe woman with tawny skin who wore a yellow gold dress with matching jewelry. She had a pleasant heart shaped face, bright gold eyes, and full lips painted to match her golden blonde tresses. Her husband Fahari was tall, muscular, and swarthy with short ebony dreadlocked hair. His pale orange eyes were lined with white sun ray markings that matched his orange and white clothes. Their daughter Safiyah was a stylish Sunfire Elf girl who was the same age as Naima. Like her mother, she was sweet faced with honey brown skin, deep set gold eyes, and pencil thin eyebrows. Even though she inherited her father's hair color, she did not wear her upper back length hair in dreadlocks. Naima's maternal relatives told her about how much they had heard from Janai about the things she had done. "I just did what anybody else would've done," she'd said. After dinner and when her aunt and uncle had retired for bed, Naima and her cousin Safiyah bonded over their love for reading and helping others. "I was a little nervous about meeting you and your parents for the first time," Naima admitted. "Although I loved my father's best friends, I always wondered if I had other family members out there and wondered if they accept me even if I'm half human." "Believe or not, I was nervous about meeting you too. I love my parents but I'm getting jaded from this royal lifestyle and I want to be treated like a normal Sunfire Elf teenager instead of being treated like someone I'm not," Safiyah replied. Naima discovered that she and her cousin had something in common besides fashion and books but to see what it was like to be treated normally instead of being treated differently. Naima wanted to be treated less of an outcast and more of an unique individual, while Safiyah wanted to be treated like a normal girl instead of someone who was born in royal privilege. Safiyah took Naima to a hallway where two bedroom doors stood on each wall like a pair of mirrors reflecting the other. One door was engraved with ocean wave carvings and the other door had sun rays etched on its wood. "Looks like we're neighbors," Naima said to Safiyah. She wished her cousin goodnight and went into her bedroom. It was a spacious bedroom with soft blue walls edged in gold. A queen sized bed with yellow silk sheets stood on top of a white carpet. One corner of the room stood a small vanity table and a cozy reading nook, complete with a velvet reading chair and a bookshelf full of books on the other side. There was also a meditation corner with a cream colored meditation floor cushion and matching pillows. A wardrobe, which was filled with beautiful clothes, shoes, and jewelry, stood on the end of the room. After putting her parents' weapons in a compartment, Naima slipped into her new gold nightclothes and put her diary in the drawer of her new desk and went into her bed. Redpaw curled up on one spot on the bed and Naima went instantly to sleep. Naima had settled well into her new surroundings after her homecoming. Janai and Karim were impressed with Naima's knowledge about their culture and she had studied the other elves in Xadia as well as the Human Kingdoms. Karim told her she possessed her mother's whip smart wits. She replied she was simply a quick study. During a combat lesson between Naima and Soren, after Soren made a comment about Naima being too dainty to be warrior material, she performed a backflip and pulled out her mother's sword and they did a sword fight until she kicked his sword out of his hand and it landed straight into her hand. She twirled the swords in her hands and pointed to them at Soren. "What about now?" she said. "Touche." She gave him his sword and helped him out. "Naima has shown exceptional fighting prowess," Amaya signed as Gren translated. Janai nodded. "That girl is a natural Sunfire Elf warrior." "I may appear like the typical girl born under the pisces sign, all sweetness and light, but when it comes to defending myself, I'm both strong and gentle like water," Naima said. "Remind me not to get on your bad side," Karim said. "You are going to make your first Sunfire Inaugural Ball a memorable one." Naima's smile changed into a worried frown. She had been learning everything she needed to know about royal Sunfire Elf life before she would become crown princess in her family and she learned that there would be an inaugural ball after her coronation ceremony. "How formal is this ball, anyway?" she asked Karim. "Do I have to dress up since it welcomes members who are of royal or noble Sunfire blood in society?" Janai and Karim exchanged worried looks. "Naima, the ball and your coronation is in two weeks," Janai said. "You need to look how you want to be remembered when you're introduced to our society's upper class. There's no pressure of figuring that out." "I know. I'll see you later." Naima decided to take a walk in the camp to clear her head. Although she was grateful for the kindness her maternal relatives and friends had shown her, she was still unsure of her place in the camp. She hadn't known the story of how her parents met and she was worried if it was what Ephai had described to her. Her thoughts came to a halt when she heard a man groaning. She turned to see a Sunfire Elf man lying on the ground, comforted by a Sunfire Elf boy who was around the same age as Naima. "Wait here, Father. I'll get you some water," said the boy to his father. He took a bucket and ran into Naima. "Forgive me, Princess Naima," the boy apologized. "I didn't mean to bump into you." He was about to bow but Naima stopped him. "It's okay. You don't need to bow. Is there something wrong?" "I'm Zivon. My father just passed out from heat exhaustion and I need to get water to cool him off," he explained. Zivon was a tall, sinewy teenage boy who wore a simple red and brown outfit with matching boots. He had caramel skin, short black hair, and beige eyes. But it was not his handsome face that Naima found him attractive but the easygoing and good natured gleam in his eyes. It was like she'd found her twin flame. "I have an idea to get water for your father," she said. "Give me the bucket." He handed her the bucket. "Dulcis aqua," she said, filling the bucket up with water. "Wow, that was amazing," Zivon said as they walked. "Thanks." She walked up to the man and sat next to him with Zivon by her side. "Father, this is my new friend, Naima," Zivon introduced. The man slowly turned to her and said, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Rayan." He explained to her while she placed a moist rag on his forehead that he and Zivon were gathering herbs to refill their herb jars when he had collapsed from the heat. "After my wife Hadiya died, Zivon has taken up healing in order to honor her legacy as a celebrated healer in Lux Aurea," he said as

Naima brought him up to his feet. Rayan was a brown skinned muscular man who wore sensible clothes in black and dark orange and brown leather boots. He had a kind face with reddish orange eyes and thick eyebrows. His medium length hazel brown dreadlocks were lightly streaked with gray. "We must go now, Zivon. Thank you for helping me, Naima." Rayan nodded to her respectfully. "See you later, Naima," Zivon told her. "You too, Zivon." When she returned to the castle, she wrote a letter to Hanan and Elinora to tell them about how much she was enjoying living in the Sunfire Elves' camp and how she believed it would become a thriving city as Lux Aurea once was long ago. She smiled when she finished writing. Aunt Inaya was right. The Sunfire Elves would thrive from the ruins of their destroyed city, stronger and better than before like a phoenix rising from its ashes.