The Lost King

Chapter Three

"Look who decided to show up," The great black and orange dragon said grumpily. I had not said anything the whole trip, watching my words as if I were at a peace conference again.

As we walked, I noticed how eerily silent and still this large meadow was. The meadow that used to be the largest city in the world. I guess this was part of the curse.

The sun finally set, and after I stopped to sniff every single flower and looked at every single thing along the way. But the sunset itself brought tears to my eyes.

Ilios, if you can hear me, thank you.

I lifted my prayer up to the sun Being, Ilios.

"Hey, you! We're stopping for the night. And don't run off on us, you'll surely die," Setty said sarcastically. I nodded and plopped down on the other side of the pair, watching as they sat next to each other, Setty creating a fire with the logs Birch had found.

She was about six times as long as me, and three times as tall. A very long tail with fins at the end sprouted from her back. Her wings were tucked near her body, so I didn't know what they looked like. Her head was the size of my entire body, with a ruff that probably could flare out if she was angry. Her yellow eyes penetrated my soul. Birch was half her size. He had a chestnut horse body with a lighter brown tail, and the same light brown curly hair on top of his head. He was muscular, with a wide frame to fit. He had green eyes. I was about the size of a half-grown regular stag, my antlers spikes. It would be a very long time before I was back to my former glory. My wings were in the form of a bird's, tawny at the edges. My hooves were pure black, as well as my oval shaped nose.

Setty looked at me, examining my presence. I straightened, straightening my head to make my antlers look taller.

Questions bubbled up inside of me.

"What-?"

"You think you have questions?" Setty snapped. She glared at me, and then her expression slacked into a devious one. "Let's play a game. You get one question for every two I ask, no exceptions," I hardly thought this was fair, but this may have been my only chance to get any information from her. I nodded.

"One: Who the hell are these 'beings'? Two: If you're really telling the truth, then what mistake did you make? What was so bad that an entire kingdom was massacred?" I winced at her last question, but I decided to answer.

"The Beings live in a separate dimension, with only one, Ilios, able to cross over. They found the world as an empty ball of clay and molded it into what it is today. And as for your second question...I-a threat was made. A deal was struck. I broke that deal." It wasn't exactly lying, more keeping the truth. I looked her in the eye and asked my question.

"What year is it?" It sounded stupid, everything could have changed by then.

"467, 0 being the year the Kings created a new world. Now, why are you so small? Shouldn't you be dead if this kingdom is erased from all memory?"

I shuddered as I thought about these questions myself.

"I used to be the size of a normal stag. But I guess as time wore on, the stone encasing shrunk. And I do not know how I'm still alive. All I know is that I'm here for a reason. So, what do you mean by Kings?" I asked, staring directly at the huge beast. This time, however, Birch answered. A dark shadow crossed his face.

"After year 0, the four kingdoms were joined together in perfect unity. However, ten years ago everything fell apart. Dragons started hunting the centaurs, and the witches joined the fray, accidentally poisoning the ocean where the fourth kingdom of merpeople were. All out war ensued." I looked at them curiously.

"Why are you two here together, then?" I asked, ignoring Setty's rule.

"We figured, 'If we can find somewhere to hide from the carnage, live together, and be rich, we might as well leave.'" I stood there and stared at them. "Why are you out here in the first place?"

"Rumors."

"Okay! Question time is over. You're our ticket to being rich and getting the heck outta here, so we leave at dawn. I suggest you get some rest," Setty said angrily. She put a wing over Birch, sheltering him from the cold. I stalked further away from the fire, finding a nice spot to fall asleep.

To be truthful, I didn't know why I was small. I used to be the size of a normal stag, until I woke from my trance.

They both fell asleep as my namesake Astrom's stars rose into the sky, as well as Luna's moon. They were more beautiful than I had ever seen. I missed them.

Being honest, the time in the stone felt more like a minute. Even though I had relieved it, time had seemed to speed up in my favor.

I thought I was going to die when I looked in the snake's eyes, but somebody saved me. One of the Beings wanted me alive.

I thought about why until I fell asleep, wrapping my wings around my thin body. Rest was hard to come by for a troubled Peryton King.