Child of Flame

Chapter 8

This is Asa.

Asa's POV

Sitting here watching the interaction between the Prince and Galen brought back wonderful yet sad memories of days long past. But that is a tale for another time. Now I must shed some light on the situation at hand. I take a sip of my hot tea before setting it on the table.

"Long ago Dragons lived in abundance. Living among humans in peace for many generations. The people thought of them as gods, and worshiped them as such. But through the years the soil became poor. Not producing enough food for families. Wells dried up, and the rains were sorely lacking. And disease desecrated many villages and towns, wiping out whole families. The people blamed the dragons. They believed that the dragons were the cause of all the horrible misfortune that had befallen them. 

The people begged the dragons to stop the sickness and bring back the rains. The dragons desperately tried to tell them that they were not at fault. The humans didn't believe them. They came to believe that the only way to end the suffering was to kill all of the dragons."                          " How did they come to that conclusion?" Nella asked. Before answering I take a sip from my cup. " From what I understand from the stories is that a healer told them that he could cure the sickness and make it rain by harnessing the dragons magic. In other words their blood, tears, saliva, things of that sort. Villages began hiring knights to slay the dragons to keep the mage in constant supply to sell to the people. And in turn the knights kept the teeth, scales, and even their wings as trophies, and to sell off to make more of a profit for themselves."

" That is horrible. The poor creatures." Galen said softly. His voice on the verge of tears. Nicolas whispers something in his ear and kisses his temple. " So was the mage successful in curing the sickness?" Nicolas asked. " I'll be honest, I'm not sure. some say they were cured, while others got sicker and died. There were even accounts of people bursting into flames, melting into puddles of water, turning into a pile of rocks, and freezing into blocks of ice after receiving treatment."

"Asa how is that even possible?" asked Nicolas. "Well your Highness it is possible because the dragons of which the medicine were made from were elemental dragons. They were rare to come by. Dragons of Ice, Water, Earth, and of course Fire," I give a pointed look at Galen.  "So were there plain dragons then since elementals were rare?" Nella asks. 
"Yes there were. They we're nothing special compared to the elementals. They were slain mostly for their flesh and hides."
"Now because of this the dragons were nearly wiped out completely. There were however a few humans who wanted to help the dragons. They did what they could by hiding them in secret caves within mountains, underground, wherever they could to try to protect them."
"Unfortunately most were unsuccessful. They were put to death for harboring the creatures."
" How can people be so cruel? I mean, I've hated and mistreated my whole life, and there have been a few attempts on my life, but to be hunted down and slaughtered because of the false claims of a cure from a greedy old man. It's horrible!" Galen rushed out, wriggling in the process. I smirked seeing Nicolas'  face tomato red and groan at Galen movement.
"Nicky, are you ok? Your face is really red." Galen asked.
"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry." Giving Galen one of his handsome smiles. I couldn't help but chuckle at the nervous tremor in his voice. I look over at Nella and she is shaking her head with a smile on her face.
"So anyway before the last dragons could be destroyed, they thought of a way to try to carrie their bloodlines for future generations. They requested a small group of pregnant females that were willing to ingest their blood.

" I'm sorry to interrupt again but isn't drinking another's blood taboo.?" Nicolas asked with a hint of discust.
"Some people consider it taboo, but a dragon's blood is indeed magical if only used correctly. See the dragons believed that if they gave small amounts of blood to the women, the children they carried would inherit their magic. So in case of the total extinction of dragons, there would be some chance of dragons reappearing in future times through these children.
But when word of this got out and children we're being born with strange colored hair and eyes, they too were hunted. But by this time all of the true dragons were dead. All thought that the time of the dragons were gone forever. Until around I'd say 40 years ago, a male child was born with blue hair and bright green eyes. The village was horrified but his parents refused to let any harm come to their child. He grew up to his teens with friends and a family who loved him." At this point I had stop for a moment to fight off the tears that wanted to fall but I wouldn't allow them. I take a sip of my drink before continuing.
" One day a stranger came to town and saw the boy. There was something off about this man. He seemed to up to something but they didn't know what. That was until the boy, who was always healthy and strong, suddenly fell extremely ill. No one knew why. We assumed the strange man had something to do with it. Only days after the stranger's arrival, the boy died." I stop again to push back the memory of the love of my life laying lifeless on his bed.
"Asa, you just said 'we', did you know the boy with blue hair?" Nicolas asked softly.

I take a deep breath and release it before answering. "I had hoped to save this for another time but...yes I did know him. He was my best friend as children. One day we met up with the rest of our group and he started acting strangely. He suddenly got a fever and a headache. Grabbing my hand he pulled me away from the others. I was scared. I didn't know what was happening and neither did he. Well when we were out of sight of the others, he kissed me. Every were. My face, neck, chest, back to my mouth. I was stunned. He was apologizing the whole time. I grabbed his face and told him to stop apologizing, and kissed him back until we were both laughing and crying. From that day on, for nearly a year, until he died, we were inseparable. In my rage and sorrow from losing my love, I sought out the strange man. It was easy to find him. He was laughing like a mad man, yelling for the world to hear that he killed himself a "Dragon Child" with a plant called "Dragon's Ash."
He was restrained and hung for the senseless murder of an innocent young man.

"After that I left my home to learn and study medicine and healing as well as learn what I could of "Dragon Children. Galen you are the first that I've known to be born since then. You are very special. Though the people of the village do not understand that. And what they don't understand scares them. I will end the story there. I can see young Galen is fighting to stay awake."

" Where is he to sleep? I can make a place for him in the servant's quarters." Nella offers.
" That won't be necessary. He will be staying in my room." Nicolas says clutching a now slumbering Galen to his chest.
She was about to protest so I chimed in. " Nella that will be best. Early in the finding of one's mate, the need for contact with that mate is important. If you try to separate than now, they will be frantic to find the other."
She just sighs and says, " Fine but treat him with respect. I mean it. I know how young men are at your age.
"Yes ma'am I will."
And with that we all stand and walk to my door. I open it so that my guests can depart. We say our goodnight and retire for the evening.

A/N: Hello my lovely readers that are still with me. I hope you enjoyed it. This was a bit longer than my previous chapters and I'm sorry if there is a lot of dialogue. So please comment and let me know what you thought of it. Oh, and I'm sorry if I missed any errors. I was fixing them as I was typing. Thank you again.