Dragon Diary

Entry 43: An Impostor

Hello Diary,
This time I was in a panic.

Put me in front of an evil king or a unicorn army, fine, but leave me alone with a 5 month old whelp and I have no clue what to do.

What if she gets hungry or thirsty? Or... What if she poops?

Dammit! Eira should be here and I should be with Cand. I am his adviser right? Plus, I know a lot about the pegasus. He could use my help. But I am stuck here sitting on a bed with a bright eyed baby staring up at me.

Looking at her, it is obvious that I have been growing a lot. She is at least a third my size. Lucky for me, red dragons grow bigger than blue ones. She will never catch up to me in size.

But, I guess that means I will always be here to protect her. I am like her big brother, well adopted brother.

What do I have to be afraid of? I am going to help Cand form her into a magnificent princess, then a queen that Angoleth can both respect and love. An heir who has no part in magic, like me.

Soraya started to giggle. It was the most interesting sound I have ever heard from a baby. I guess she thought the face I was making while I was thinking was pretty funny.

I smiled and blinked my big green eyes at her. I made a silly face, causing her to giggle some more. Her own yellow eyes shined like stars when she was happy. For some strange reason it made my heart skip a beat.

She gurgled up at me and reached her paws up to touch me. She poked my nose with one of her small talons and it made me wrinkle my face and snort out a puff of black smoke.

Her eyes suddenly went wide in amazement. Then before I could stop her, she grabbed onto my face and pulled it toward her. She looked into my eyes for a moment and then started to study my features. Clearly, she wanted to know why I looked different from her parents.

I could not help but giggle. She was fascinated by me, and she was adorable as she tried to figure out how she had made me spit out smoke.
"Watch this princess..." I said. Then I backed up a few steps before taking a deep inhale to fill my fire lung. I turned my head away from her and blew out a small jet of fire.

Her yellow eyes were wide in shock and amazement. She tried to scoot closer to me and reach her paws up toward the orange glowing flames.

I instantly closed my jaws, extinguishing the fire swiftly. I couldn't let her curiosity get her burned.

I shook myself and then stepped closer to her again and started to purr. I nuzzled her cheek as she grumbled at me in a bit of protest.

She clearly wanted to do things her own way. Despite her inability to walk on her own, she could move by wiggling and hobbling around a bit. Luckily for me she was not trying to hobble away. She was to focused on examining the small red dragon, small enough for her to see up close, what dragons look like.

"Princess I will always protect you with my flames, talons, and magic. Soon you will be big enough to run and play with me in the gardens."

My heart started to race with the anticipation of that. Could it be possible for me to get my childhood back? Maybe with another whelp to remind me of the carelessness a child is supposed to have, perhaps I could. I spent my young life trying to survive and get smart enough to do so.

The tiny princess grinned up at me and then grabbed my left wing. I relaxed it and let her pull it closer to her so she could examine it. I had to try hard not to flinch and pull away when her talons tickled the sensitive membrane of my wing. She played with it in her fingers, softly tickling me as she felt the soft texture of it on her paws.

I started to laugh, which is a feeling I am not particularly accustomed to. How could someone so small and helpless make me feel so happy? Life is full of strange emotions and I guess I am no expert.

Both of us started giggling and the room was filled with our laughter as I started to tickle her own tiny blue wings. I knew she couldn't control them yet, so they started to wriggle in protest.

Our laughter was so loud that I did not hear the dragon enter the room and slowly approach us. I only saw him in the reflection of the mirror behind Soraya on the wall.

It looked like Arod but the way he slouched over as he walked, and his eyes... Something wasn't right about him.

Instinctively I put myself between him and the baby and started to eye him suspiciously.

"Arod? Is something wrong?" I asked cautiously.

Arod froze and eyed me casually, then absentmindedly started to glance around the room like he was looking for something. His eyes were familiar, but not the eyes of my green friend. His eyes were red.

Those menacing red eyes fell on the tiny form behind me and then I saw Arod's lips form a devilish smile. Arod would never smile like that.

"Berior Soraya." I muttered, forming a bluish magical shield around the whelp.

I then let my green eyes glare at my friend, who was not a friend at all, but an impostor.

"You will not get anywhere near this whelp... Father. You should just go, before I use my powers to notify everyone of your impersonation. I hope the real Arod is not harmed."

The green dragon's evil grin grew even larger.

"Tell me where the black books are kept and I might let you live. Arod is unharmed, for now. But, you will not be if you do not tell me what I want to know. You have pressed my nerves enough boy."

That was the stern and fearsome voice of Gaelon himself inside my head. He was pissed and I knew he would kill me if I did not tell him the truth. The red eyes, so wrong on Arod's face, narrowed in hatred on me as he waited for my response.

I knew that even with my growing strength, I was no match for Gaelon and his death spell. If he aimed it at me right now I would be done for. Maybe I should have just let him do it... But I shivered and gave him a slight nod.

"I...I have seen Cand hide them all over. But for sure there are two here... They are hidden in the bottom drawer of that cabinet over there." I pointed to the drawers to Gaelon's left.

With his own mind reading powers, he knew I was telling the truth. I felt like I had betrayed my king, since I had promised him to keep them safe.

Gaelon kept one eye on me and used his tail to pull open the cabinet drawer I had indicated. My heart sank when he pulled out the two books and smiled. I wish Cand had moved them.

Still using the body of my friend, Gaelon suddenly said a spell that made a blast of white come shooting toward me.

I did not dodge it, for fear that my distraction would make my shield around the princess break. My shield on her held, but my father's spell slammed into me head on.

I was suddenly frozen in place and could move nothing but my head and tail. He had used a freezing spell on me, that jerk.

He let out a billowing laugh that was all Gaelon, evil and throaty. It sounded nothing like Arod.

Before I could try to say a spell or shoot a fire ball at him, he was running and diving out of the royal chamber window and into the sunlit sky. He paused only once to give the baby behind me a hungry smile.

He was getting away, and with the two magic books that I had revealed to him. What was I going to do now? I should have let him kill me.

(AN: Yet another chapter deeper into the chaos that is Ruinar. So much for Gaelon spoiling his moment with the baby. What is going to happen next? Find out very soon. Thanks for reading.)