Feldora

The New Arrival

"How many runes do we have left?" Lestra asked her personal guard.

"One repel rune, two protection runes and two attack runes," he said gravely. Lestra sighed forlornly. That probably wouldn't be enough after crossing the deep woods but they would still have to try.

Lestra had begun her queen training a day after the attack. It was incredibly boring and took up all her free time. Lestra felt as though her life had been stolen from her. When the news that thirty of the village's farmers had gone off to take revenge for the loss of their beautiful princess Rani, Lestra had quickly gathered six of her most loyal guards and ran away to find them.

The need for vengeance burned inside Lestra like a poisonous inferno. When the word dragon was mentioned, anger and grief swamped her. She would smash every last dragon egg in the kingdom and then she would find Kersus, stab him in the heart and bring home his lifeless head as a gift for her father.

Lestra moved back to her tent. The strange forest boy Renny was asleep in the corner. Lestra wondered how he'd forgotten where he came from. Renny reminded her of the boys she used to play with in the palace gardens. They would find a quiet spot in a grove of trees and camp there at night. It jad been so much fun.

Lestra had never had any friends that were girls. She couldn't find any girls with the same passion for adventure as her.

In the morning, they continued, waving their shovels around slowly like a pack of solemn grave diggers marching off to bury a body. The deep woods looked considerably safer now that some light filtered through the dark leaves. A yin once peered at them lazily from a tree but it didn't attack. Its light blue stripes seemed to glow from the shadows.

Suddenly, Lestra noticed the bubbling of water. Ahead was a wide river. The water was shiny and reflective and was strangely, coloured black. The water of the river was pure black.

"What is wrong with that river?" Lestra breathed. It looked evil and unnatural. What normal place has black rivers, she thought.

"The Gloomria Trees have black sap that seeps out their bark and stains the river," said the forest boy Renny. Lestra looked at him in wonder. How does he know so much, she pondered.

He listens. He watches. Like us, said a voice in Lestra's head. It sounded like the rustling of leaves in the wind.

"The water is slow. Can everyone swim?" a guard asked.

"No, there are trills in that water. If anyone steps foot in it then the trills will devour them," warned Renny as he waved everyone back.

"How can you tell?" Lestra asked curiously.

"Well, you see out in the middle are those spiral ripples. Spiral ripples appear where trills swim," Renny replied. The boy opened a small drawstring bag and pulled out what appeared to be a small flute made from black wood.

"Trills can't stand the noise this flute makes. We won't hear anything but they will and they'll become visable and swim away," said Renny. He put the flute to his lips and blew. No sound came out but suddenly the black river exploded into spiral ripples. Thousands of glowing blue figures appeared in the water. They looked like tiny blue people with wings and fins. The trills shot away downstream.

"Now that the trills are out of the way, we can build a raft," Lestra ordered. She began laying down plans.

"We can't use wood from the trees, we'll have to find it on the ground. The trees here can call upon yins to attack us if they're displeased," shouted Renny to be heard over the clammer. Lestra repeated the order so that it sunk in.

There was wood all over the ground as many, many branches had fallen during there journey for some reason. Soon they created a platform with a mast. Now they just needed a sail.

A guard called out that he'd found a bag of unused sheets in their supplies. Lestra ordered for the sheets to be unloaded so that they could make a sail. Suddenly, a guard called out in shock.

"What is it?" Lestra barked. We need to get across the river before something else attacks us.

The Dragon Nesting Plateau rose high above the forest up ahead. It was a curved, rocky cliff and a waterfall tumbled down its face. The plateau was clad in what must have been vines that were a lush green with steaks of gold in colour. It was such a beautiful place for such evil to dwell. A shout snapped Lestra back to reality.

"Its a stowaway!" a man wielding a huge shovel. A stowaway? Who?! Lestra raced over to the large bag of sheets. A boy her age had tumbled out of the bag and stood up before the guards. The boy had golden blonde hair and a dusting of freckles across his nose. His blue eyes were crystal clear and shone with innocent suprise.

"Alzius!!!" Lestra shouted. This boy was the son of a knight who had fallen in battle. Alzius had let his life be destroyed by grief. Until the day he met Princess Lestra. She was the most un-princessey person he had ever met. Lestra had taken him to her hideout in the palace gardens, a large room she had made inside of a hollow tree, to try and cheer him up.

Alzius had gained her friendship very quickly. They spent their time racing through the huge gardens and climbing up high onto the palace roof, at day to look at the view and find pictures in the clouds and at night to count stars and invent new constellations. Back then life had been simple and fun.

But then it had turned dark. Alzius' father's nemisis in the palace (Sir Costin) began spreading rumours that tarnished Alzius' father's reputation. Alzius' mother had grown angry and unstable. Some said she was going mad. Alzius grew distant and sad again and when Lestra had tried to help, he'd shouted,"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP ANYMORE!" and stormed out of the hideout.

That night there was to be an honoured banquet. It was found out just in time that Alzius' mother had poisoned all the drinks at the table. The guards turned on her and she took Alzius and fled. It was the first time Lestra had seen Alzius in the six months since the incident had happened.

"Lestra," replied Alzius quietly. The two avoided eyes awkwardly like friends who weren't friends anymore but wanted to be friends. Well, Lestra wasn't sure what to think. Her glass had been poisoned along with all the others.

"So, I've overheard that your going to kill dragon eggs in revenge for . . . what happened. But what if the adult dragons come to avenge their eggs?" Alzius said nervously.

"Then I will will kill them all with my sword, FlameCrusher," shouted Lestra. Fury burned through her bones. The sword would soon slice its way through Kersus' neck.

"Alzius, come with us. For me," said Lestra. He followed them onto the raft as they prepared to sail.