Dragon Fruit

Chapter 3

My father dragged me by the arm to the temple. I didn't move when he let go. I couldn't force my limp body, the one who was guilty of all judgement.

"Get up, Zoey. We're here." He said to the empty shell.

I finally snapped back to reality a few minutes later, and I wasn't happy. When I had snapped back, I saw Ryuu trying to protect me like a dog. I sighed, and petted his head. Let's just say he almost burned me in alarm.

I looked up to the temple I had never been to. It looked ancient, but fairly recent too. A bird began to call from above, a mockingbird.

"This place looks wonderful." I whispered.

There was a familiar aura in the air. Like that of an elder dragon, or Eldest Elf. People of the Elf species are able to sense aura if they have been trained to. Of course, elves who haven't been trained to can still sense aura, but it is very faint.

This aura wasn't welcoming, like that of father's, and definitely not like Ryuu's, It felt dangerous. I kept my guard up, in case anything came to attack us. We began entering the temple, vines creeping down above us. I first thought that the Dragon Fruit would be here, until we walked past the vines hiding in the back of the temple. Surrounded by a tall wall surrounding it, was the dragon fruit. It looked like it did in the legends my father used to read to me to put me to rest. The fruit was in the shape of a dragon, curled up into a ball.

Despite it's radiating aura, it looked a lot less impressing in person than in the legends. An altar was under the fruit, white and covered in flowers that had seeped through the cracks at the bottom. As we neared the altar, the presence of danger became greater and greater. I shrugged it off, after all, the dragon fruit was a very powerful item.

"This is the altar in which I was deemed as a protector, " My father spoke. "And your my father, and his father..."

"I get it." I said.

"Anyways, Eldest Elf will come here and place a weapon in your possession and speak these words." He pointed down to an engraving in the side.

To the future prodigy who is pure of heart,

May your legacy begin on this day of joy,

Let the stars align, and show the path,

And let the darkness your heart destroy.

"I don't understand it." I said to my father, who just looked at me and smiled.

"You will get it some day..." He spoke.