Regal Of All

Chapter XIII

Acacia and I had walked about 2 miles this crisp morning before I could recall my question from last night in full.

"Hey Acacia. Do you remember what the evil dragon was called? The one that Prince Colby had talked about?"

She pondered this for a moment, then another and another... I began to think she hadn't heard me for forgot that I had spoke. "Um... I think that it was called... Ignois? It started with an "I" and it was a strange name too."

Maybe it was... "Ignis?"

She looked up from staring at the ground, "yes! That's it!"

Ignis... such a strange name must account for some strangeness in the dragon itself, no? Maybe for than a difference that sets it apart... a power, perhaps? Thoughts were swirling around in my mind, trying to make sense of a chaotic whirlpool that was forming, trying to put it into a calculated channeled power that would serve to help propel me forward instead of dragging me down.

Just then I heard a "Hey! Wait for me!" shout out from behind. I whipped around.

A smile split across my face. "Lea!" She was jogging towards us, her braid swinging side to side.

Acacia spoke first when she reached us. "Why, hello, Leonora. What brings you to this fine part of the woods on such a lovely day?" in a very odd, playful and proper tone.

Lea looked surprised but went along, "Oh, why I was just strolling along this yonder road and came across a purple-scaled dragon with a hexagon-marked flag. I had presumed that it was yours, my friends."

"Oh, but my dear. Has bad fortune come across our fellow comrade, Sir Nixon?" I asked, playing along.

Lea's gaze fell down to the dirt and drifted left with her head. "Umm... he has brought a misfortune evil upon himself..."

I dropped the act. "WHAT. What happened-- or, what did you do?"

A sly smirk of smugness spread across her face, the corners of her mouth twitched up as her hazel eyes gleam mischievously. "He was being such a jerk, we'd only gotten one dragon," Acacia suppressed a chuckle, but it was noticeable," unlike you two, " Lea casted a sharp glance at her, "and finally I couldn't take it anymore. I told him to stop but he -would-not-listen. So I half-accidentally, half-wanted-to trapped him in a cave."

Acacia's mouth dropped open a little bit, she was rendered speechless. I started laughing, I was literally cracking up. It was just so funny. Nix was gone; but probably not dead because it led onto another series of tunnels that all opened up into another part of the mountain at some point (she added in the next minute that passed).

"Awesome. Lea, you can be so extra-good sometimes." was my comment (in response Acacia said "So she's not good all the time? where I then said, "That's why I said 'extra'. Pay attention.")

Acacia then said, "Wow. I am a little surprised, but in the best way. He deserved it, that little pathetic, cowardly twerp of a boy."

"Ooh, I think I'm rubbing off on you." I looked at her. She looked back but before she could answer Lea intervened.

"I think that KK is rubbing off on you, too Acacia. She's staring to use you -hand movements-." And Acacia added in so that they both spoke in unison.

"Oh my goodness, what if we're all telepathic? That'd be so cool, and a little creepy..."

Their faces brightened, Lea said, "Like if it was a 'messaging board' that you only read the other person's thoughts if you wanted to and they let you."

~~~~~~A/N: sorry to interrupt, but a "messaging board" is a legit. bulletin board in a hang-out spot for a group of friends or club where they leave each other messages. Usually only those people know where it is, what the code names and abbreviations are. At least, that's what it is in this story.~~~~ 

"Yessss! That would be SO fun! An really helpful, not to mention." She finished.

Acacia picked up the act again and said, "Oh yes, whatever shall we do now that we are without Sir Nixon...?" She grinned, and I had a smile so big was stuck on my face I was sure it made my cheeks turn pink. We were all together again, and I had a plan for the Games. I had an idea.

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"Are you sure that this is legal?" Lea was now asking me as I checked my bow.

"Of course, " I said with the confidence of the smartest person in the world, and of course it was totally believable, since I can be really cocky when I want to.

Truth was, I wasn't nervous about getting in trouble or being caught. Anyway, I can talk my way out of certain situations fairly easily, this was no exception. However, I was a bit nervous about it we (the three of us) could kill an even number of dragons and try to fulfill my plan before time was up. The plan was that we'd try to find at least two more dragons to kill; one would be marked as mine and Acacia's kill, the other would be Lea's and Nixon's (but it would really be Lea by herself, but only two can win, of well). All three of us would help each other out and stick together as we climbed up the mountain to the point where my blood felt colder, breathing was tighter and I would feel like I had been shot with one of my para-temp arrows. Because we were so high off the ground and I don't like heights (unlike Acacia who lived to touch the sky). Ignis, the evil "Dragon lord" (we nicknamed him) was the source of the whole issue and his death would end it, I had concluded. We aimed to kill the beast, since he controlled the rest of the dragons because he was the alpha and hated humanity for some reason unknown to me right now. 

My shoulder was nearly scrapping the mountain side, that how close I was walking to it to be as far away from the edge of the cliff as possible, which was another 10 feet to the right. The sunlight felt good, it took away a little of the chill, but the icy wind had made my hands and feet (which are cold on a good day) go numb. I moved out of muscle memory, and kept my mouth shut. When I was younger I'd had a lot of practice with that.

I heard a roar-like sound echo off in the distance, we moved to the very inside of the path (where I had been the whole walk) and found a little niche in the massive graphite rocks and we huddled together there and waited. It wasn't the first time on our walk we'd heard noises like that, but I had a gut-feeling that it wouldn't be the last either.