The Dragon Knight; The Awakening of the Legend

The Awakening of the Legend (Chapter 38)

All the lanterns were shining bright like the stars. Everything was bathing in an orange glow, from the trees, to the houses, to the elves. The music drifted through the air, sounding ever so soft and yet loud at the same time no matter where I was. And as I blended in, figure of speech of course, with the crowd I felt gleeful. It was due to several things; I could understand all the chattering around me, the glow of the fire and lanterns just made me feel like smiling and it was hard not to dance to the music.

I walked around sometimes alone, sometimes with Haizea but most of the time with Robin. I was just really glad he was back, which I had told him about a dozen times, but I also secretly hoped that Svadilfari would hurry up with this potion so that we could go back home, which I hadn’t told Robin. I also wanted to keep him by my side because I had noticed that whenever he was next to me he would just hold his cup and when he wasn’t he would drain it in a few goes.

After what left like hours and hours although it probably wasn’t more than one, Robin started leading me after from Álfar itself and toward the trees where Svadilfari lived and in the direction of the library. We weren’t the only ones heading that way though. Plenty were coming and going.

I simply followed, curious why he was leading me this way until I saw. Shining even more brightly than everything else around it, but more with an inner light, was the rose tree. There was not a single lantern in its branches and yet it shined with the light of a thousand fires. And as we neared it, and eventually stopped at the roots of the trees, along with many others, I could clearly see the roses, a few hundred roses in all kinds of colors; they were simply beautiful, breathtaking. They glowed with an inner light, every single one, glittering in the light of the others.

Slowly Robin walked around the tree, keeping his head raised to the branches above him. And yet he never walked into anybody; how was that possible? Eventually he stopped and looked straight above him for a few minutes. I followed his gaze but didn’t see why this spot was different. All the roses above our heads shined with the same intensity as the others. Before I could ask him anything, Robin whispered something and reached out with his hand as if to receive something.

I looked up and slowly saw a rose detaching itself from the branch and floating down as if it was carried in a light breeze. When it rested in his hand, the light vanished a little and the color became more obvious. It was black at its core, before the petals turned snowy white, simply skipping the gray there should be in between. The outlines of each petal were the color of pure gold. It was a strange combination but it was beautiful without question.

“This is my rose.” Robin stated, looking at the flower as if it was the most precious thing there was. And in some ways it was; it was a gift from his Goddess. “It has looked the same ever since my mother died but now…” He didn’t finish. I wasn’t sure if it was because he mentioned his mother or because he simply didn’t feel the need to finish. His fingers traced the golden parts of the rose and I wondered if that was what was different about it.

When he had looked enough and something dragged him back to reality, he looked up at the tree once more while absently attaching the rose to his shirt. When he looked back down at me, he had a wide smile displayed on his lips.

“Want me to get yours down as well or do you want to try the spell yourself?” He asked.

“What,” came my intelligent reply. But I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Varteni was his Goddess not mine, and I didn’t remember Tien having any sort of connection with roses.

“Clearly you were not forgotten. You must be something special, even to my Goddess.” He replied as if he knew what I was thinking. Before I could react he was mumbling the same thing again and after a while another rose appeared.