Dragon's Throne

Prologue

    She was scared. That much was obvious by the sound of her heart pounding in her chest, threatening to burst right out. She was tired, and wanted to stop, but the gold, sandy egg in her arms forced her to continue. The castle was far away now, but danger still lurked in the shadows that followed her.
    She ran through the woods towards the Watchers' camp, carefully avoiding every stray twig that would give away her location. It would have gone faster if she wasn't in human form, but she couldn't risk having her scales spotted. Tears ran down her face, silently falling to the ground. Her human legs ached with pain, her arms tired and drooping from the weight of the life she carried. Finally, beyond the trees, she could see the cave in the side of the mountain, hidden behind the Diamond Waterfall. A sigh of relief escaped her lips.
    She slowed down to catch her breath, but her sharp ears picked up the faint sound of someone following her. She knew immediately who it was. Sylas, someone who she thought could be trusted, was hunting her down like prey. Quickly she hid the egg beneath a mossy rock, where a single flower bloomed. The white petals glistened in the silver moonlight. She hoped this would be a good sign to the Watchers, and to the Seer who would recognize it as a signal for help. Perhaps he was watching her now. Warily, she turned around to face Sylas.
    "Hello, my dear sister. Going somewhere?" A smirk crept along the side of his face, his black eyes glinting maliciously. His loyal shadow soldiers stood behind him, and it was impossible to see how many there were. He had such promise when he was younger, born with an onyx heart. He could have had so much power to do good, but instead he has tainted his own blood. Oh, my dear brother.
    "Well, it's a lovely day for a walk, isn't it?" She stared at Sylas, watching his face explode with rage.
    "Don't play with me, Erphina! I know about your daughter, and you know why I need her!" His voice shook with anger, but it was nothing compared to his sisters' protective motherly rage.
    "You will never have her! She will never be yours and she will never fall into your filthy paws!" Erphinas' whole body began to shimmer, her iridescent white scales shining through her dull human skin. Her eyes reflected her moonstone heart, and the power inside her soul. The membrane of her wings refracted the moonlight of the two moons, casting a prism of colors on the ground below her. She reeled back her head and revealed a row of dangerous teeth as well as the blue fire that crept up her throat.
    She blasted Sylas's soldiers, but their bodies seemed impervious to the heat of her flames. Her talons dug into the earth and she rammed her tail into the soldiers instead. This worked, and they were thrown into the trees, their backs breaking when they hit the trunks, their bodies crumpling to the floor. Erphina smiled. Her triumph, however, did not last long as the soldiers got back up, unfazed by their internal wounds. Sylas laughed.
"Do you really think you can kill my shadow men? I created them with my own blood! It takes a whole lot more than a simple blow from your tail to decimate even a single one of my soldiers, and I have thousands of them," Sylas said with that same sinister smirk.
"Then why don't you face me in your true form? Oh, I know, you've tainted your blood too much that you can't hold your true form anymore. Your soul is black, Sylas," Erphina growled. Sylas growled back, but his human voice sounded pathetic rather than menacing like a real dragons' growl.
"I don't need my true form, I only need your heart. I've already killed Victor, your beloved husband, and now I only need to kill you, and the power of the Dragon Throne is mine! With your moonstone heart and your daughter at my side, I'll conquer the twin worlds, and not even you can't stop me!" Sylas grabbed at a necklace he had hidden beneath his tunic and brandished the emerald stone that was once Victors' heart.
"No!" Erphina shouted in agony, and then in pure rage as she charged at her brother, blue fire spilling from her snout. Sylas stood his ground, and only when his sister was mere inches away did he thrust his hand into Erphinas' chest, drawing power from the emerald. He ripped out the dragons' heart, and Erphina let out an ear-splitting roar. She crumpled to the ground as her heart still beat in her brothers' hands, her eyes fixated on where her egg, her daughter, lay hidden.
Silently she made a prayer to The Seer to protect Ari, to send her to the twin world called Earth, and to keep her human. Being a dragon was unsafe. A single white butterfly landed on the mossy rock, and the egg beneath it glistened and then vanished. Her prayers were answered. She could die knowing she had saved her daughter.
Erphinas' body went limp as Sylas watched. There was no emotion in his onyx eyes, only the reflection of his sister laying dead on the forest floor. He glanced to where her head was pointed, but there was nothing there except mossy green rocks and a few flowers, on one of which a white checkered butterfly perched. How useless of her to pray. Butterflies don't answer prayers. He scoffed and turned back towards the castle. The Throne was finally his.