The Dragon King's Servant: The Nine Gates

Chapter One: Mapping

Maalceus unfolded the map and pulled out a thick black marker which he used to circle their current location. As he completed the circle, the ink thinned into the markings of a tribal design. The thick material of the map shimmered as the Magick tied to it updated its newest alteration. His glowing carnelian and citrine eyes looked over the map. There were three other circles that he had drawn, each had been hundreds of miles apart. Each one represented the marker for a discovered gate. Not just any gate, a gateway to a realm of hell. Maalceus looked away from the map and then at the gate. The gates hadn't varied much from one to the other. They were all made out of stones of one kind or another. The last two had been made out of granite. The flat and oddly shaped stones had been held together by an ancient Magick which had withstood the test of time. The current one he stood in front of was made out of slate. Pressed against the side of a mountain, the archway blended in with the rock surrounding it. Though Maalceus had found it due to some foreign sense that he hadn't fully come to understand. Even as he stood in front of the gate, he felt a tingling sensation. Like he or rather, his divinity, were connected. Maalceus hadn't tested his theory out. The last thing he wanted to do was open a portal to a realm of hell. At the current moment, he just wanted to locate them all. '

Four gates.' He thought to himself. 'How many are there? Are they connected to the realms individually? Do they interconnect?' There were more questions than he had answers to. Since gaining the divinity that had been gifted to him by the lady of the land, he had come to realize that his divinity came with a lot more than he originally thought. The gates were just as mysterious as his connection to the energies. Energies which called to him like the wind called to the trees or the ground called to the rain. He needed answers to the ever-growing list of questions that continued to mount. With a deep sigh he folded the map and slipped it back into his coat pocket. While in the kingdom, he, like most everyone from the palace; wore an armored fabric suit. The fabric was light as silk but strong as steel. Maalceus kept his armored suit, though he had to change it out every other day as to not make it wreak with sweat. He wore a black pair of standard trimmed pants, a citrine orange shirt and a long black coat over that. The clasps of the coat were in the shape of dragon heads, snouts closed over bronze rings.

"Maal?" Kelly asked from where she was standing beside the gate.

"Yes?" Both Maalceus and Maaltaire replied simultaneously.

"Sorry. Maal Senior." Kelly corrected herself.

Maalceus walked over to his wife. Kelly was several inches shorter than him, her long candy corn colored hair swayed in the breeze.

"What is it my love?" He asked, placing a hand gently against the curve of her ass. She looked up at him with a wanting grin. Had their children not been a few feet away, she would have gladly tackled him to the ground and stripped him clean. 'Gods it has been too long' she sighed.

"We should be heading back soon." Kelly said, looking out over the expanse of grassy desert. Thick palm trees standing over a hundred feet tall with leaves fifteen feet long grew all across the landscape. Their three feet wide leaves gave optimal shade against the scorching heat of the desert sands.

"Melanie is eight months along. She could have the child at any time." Kelly continued.

"True." Maalceus replied with a curt nod and looked over at his two kids. Maalceus was the near spitting image of his father. Short black hair, crimson eyes and a strong jaw. What made him look different than his father was his slender and lean physique. While Maalceus was all thick muscle and broad build, his son was corded muscles and slender build. Shauna, his daughter and youngest of the two; was broad like him but curvy like their mother. Her long black hair ended in red tips which steamed in the rain. Her red and yellow eyes glowed in the light, shimmering like gemstones. She was shorter than Maaltaire but taller than Kelly. With all the curves of any voluptuous woman, she was a fierce warrior with a slight temper. One that she had come a long way in controlling. A journey that had taken many steps in making but she had come out on top.

"Alright. Let's pack up camp and head home." Maalceus said.

"I definitely don't want to miss seeing our cousin's first breath." Maaltaire replied.

"What do you think she will look like?" Shauna asked.

"She?" Kelly asked. "What makes you think it is a girl?"