The Dragon's Arena

Chapter 9 - Rescue

(Drake POV)
Drake, who had been confined to his quarters unless his father had him attend events, stood on his balcony with two guards. He looked down at the arena and again wondered how Ann was holding up after the fight. The wind shifted and Drake caught a very familiar scent. It was so faint though, he double checked himself before staring down at the forest outside the city walls. Drake squinted and leaned as far out as he could to try and get a clearer view of the treeline. Nearly a dozen figures glided out of the trees, all of them had giant sails on their backs. Drake couldn't count their legs, but he would bet anything that each figure had six. Several more layags followed the first line; however, these ones were intermixed with other creatures from the wilds.

“YOUR MAJESTY!” one of the guards screamed and finally managed to get Drake's attention.

“What?” he said and tore his eyes away from the small advancing army.

“We need you to step away from the edge and go inside. As you can see we are under attack by,” the guard pauses and gulps, betraying his fear, “L...layags.”

“They are probably here to get back their own,” Drake mumbled to himself as he starts to go inside. His peripheral vision catches the outline of a large humanoid species. The figure is walking next to one of the layags, and his mop of dark hair barely reaches the tops of the layag's sail. Drake rushes back to the edge, despite protests from the guards.

“If that is who I think it is, I would be a very happy dragon,” Drake whispers to no-one in particular.

“Prince Drake, what are you looking at? We need to get inside,” the first guard scolds.

“Nothing, just admiring the view,” and Drake turns and walks into his room, “let's go.” He waited quite a while before his father called him to the the throne room. It didn't take that long before Drake saw why his father had waited that long. A forest green layag sat in the middle of the throne room, his yellow sail erect and his tail twitched with impatience. A familiar cyclops, a unicorn, and a few other layags stood behind him.

“My eldest, Drake, j...just as you r...requested,” Drake had never heard his father stutter, especially not in fear.

“Father, might I ask what is happening?” Drake looked in between the king and the layag.

“I am Polroy and I am here for my daughter who was reported by an ally and dear friend as being here,” the layag told him.

“You're Ann's father?” Drake mouth said before his brain could prevent the outburst.

“Ann?” Polroy looked slightly amused.

“I…can't pronounce her given name,” Drake admitted sheepishly.

“That explains it, Pollian is usually pretty lenient when it comes to her name,” he said and gave a small smile, “Now where is my daughter, Drake?”

“Right this way,” and Drake walked down the steps with only a sliver of fear. He knew that if Polroy or any of the other layags from his group had wanted him dead, he would be dead right about now.

“Long time no see your majesty,” the cyclops said and grinned at him as he passed.

“Clyo!” Drake gasped and lunged for his friend, enveloping him in his wings in a tight hug, “You're OK!”

“And why wouldn't I? If it's a surprise that anyone is OK, that prize would have to go to Delga and Isaci. Barely made it on time,” Clyo told the prince with a lower voice as he gestured to the black unicorn. Drake waved a forefoot at her, she merely nodded her head at him as he passed by with Polroy and Clyo in tow. The hallways were strangely devoid of life; no one, not even the servants, wanted to encounter the group from the wilds. When Drake made it to the front door, he was shocked to find that they weren't open. Instead, a large hole looked like it had been melted out of the metal itself.