Streams - Book 1

Chapter 4

Dragons

"Forgive the intrusion your highness," announced a small knight in armor as he clanged his way into the room, before removing his helmet and giving a deep bow to Morathi.

"What news do you have for us Ingvarr?" Morathi asked loud enough to get everyone's attention.

"Morathi is a Highness?" Jenni whispered to Lilly.

"Yes, King of the Gnomes," Lilly replied in an equally low tone, not wanting to miss any of the upcoming conversation.

"The council has arrived and requested the presence of the human girl immediately," the knight stated. "We should proceed to the council chambers quickly; the dragons are also on the move."

"The dragons, how is that possible?" Morathi muttered to himself as he rubbed his chin in thought. "With the sun at its highest point they should be seeking shelter before they become over heated."

"When he says Dragon, is he referring to the large fire breathing Monster, or is there a small cuddly animal that lives in this world that just happens to share the same name?" Jenni asked Lilly; hopeful the answer was going to be the latter of the two.

"Fire Breathing." Morathi said turning his attention to Jenni. "There are three dragons currently in this stream: two brothers, Nero and Merrick, as well as their elusive sister Sanjeet." He turned back to the guard, whose eyes kept straying to Jenni.

"How are they dealing with the heat?" Morathi asked, regaining the guard's attention.

"They are using the river your highness. They dive to cool their bodies and then reemerge to breathe fire on the surrounding areas. A good portion of homes have already been destroyed; including your own residence."

"Arlo," Lilly gasped as she braced herself against the table, her husband rushing to her side.

"He is fine, my Queen, not a scratch on him," the guard explained in a rushed voice. "He is with the rest of my patrol. I sent them deep into the forest, far out of the range of the dragons, even with their new found trick."

"He is fine, and everything else is replaceable," Morathi murmured, hugging his wife close.

"We can not lose him too," Lilly sobbed, hiding her face in her husband's chest.

"We won't," Morathi whispered, stroking his wife's head lovingly.

"Your Majesty," the guard interrupted, "the council was most insistent that they speak with you now."

Morathi eyed the guard to determine how serious the request was and sighed in resignation, "Very well." He kissed Lilly's forehead and whispered, "I'll send word back to you about Arlo as soon as possible." She nodded and wiped away her tears. Morathi turned to Aakil and said, "Get her ready for the council meeting. She will need at least a small idea of what is going on in this stream." Aakil nodded in agreement and he and Lilly watched as Morathi strode out of the room with the guard at his heels.

The silence was broken by Aakil's excited voice, "I am teaching again, I am teaching again," He shuffled over to the small desks, grabbing books from the shelves as he passed. He dropped the pile happily on one of the desks; "Oh, it has been so very long." He made his way around the room collecting globes, maps, writing instruments, and paper. Wrapped up in his own excitement at the idea of teaching, he failed to notice the distress that was growing on Jenni's face.

"I will find some food for you," Lilly said, taking note of Jenni's pale face, "once you have eaten you can have more painkiller."

"Thank you," Jenni replied respectfully. She was hungry, but that wasn't the reason her stomach was in knots. All this talk of teaching and school made her remember that she was supposed to be home, with her parents, starting her new school. She was going to have the normal family life she wanted for years, but now she was lost in this strange world and her parents were farther away than ever. Sure, her parents would figure out that she was missing pretty quickly, but how would they ever find her here? She couldn't even remember how she got here; never mind anything that would help her get home.

"Please don't go to too much trouble," she said to Lilly. "It sounded like that council will want to see me for themselves. And I shouldn't waste too much time with a big meal, when I need to figure out how to get home. My parents will be so worried when they find out that I'm gone. They would be even more upset to see where I am now and know that I'm in the middle of a conflict between Gnomes and Dragons."

"Now don't you worry one bit about that," Lilly admonished, "We have a full army of beings who will fight to the death before they allow the dragons, or their army to capture you."

"You say that like they're after me specifically," Jenni's comment sending the room into a dead silence. "Oh." She plopped down into one of the room's chairs, a spike of pain racing across her forehead. "Why me? What did I do, drop a house on their evil sister when I landed in your stream?" she asked sarcastically.

"Their sister is still fine as far as I know," Aakil replied looking to Lilly with concern.

"It's a joke," Jenni sighed, as she let the upper part of her body stretch out across the desk in front of her.

"It's a good thing you didn't kill their sister though; that would have surely made their anger a thousand times worse. Plus, there's more than just Dragons hunting for you, so you would've had to land on a whole lot of beings' sisters when you jumped through," Aakil chuckled, amazed by the image he had in his head of the event.

"Aakil," Lilly scolded.

"What, picture it, this tiny human," he grinned pointing to Jenni, "on top of a pile of a Dragon, Sasquatch, Mountain Troll, Fairy, Griffin, Unicorn, Centaur,...."

"Aakil!" Lilly snapped breaking him from his list. "I understand what you're saying, but it is not helping." She nodded towards Jenni who was once again sitting up in the chair staring at Aakil with wide eyes.

"So what you're saying is there's at least one being from every fairytale I have ever read looking to kill me," Jenni said after a moment of silence.

"No, it is more like several hundred, and just of the classifications we have trapped here in our stream," Aakil replied earning himself another disapproving look from Lilly.

"And again I ask why," Jenni huffed in aggravation. She had always hated it when she didn't know what was going on in her life. Her parents were usually the culprits; they'd never tell her where her next school was or even when she was going to be shipped off. It wasn't too much to ask for a little control in her own life, was it? And the fact that the "adults" here were acting the same way was kind of making her mad. Not to mention; that there were now apparently entire species that wanted her dead.

"If you give us a little more time, I promise that we'll answer that and all of your other questions," Lilly promised.

"I'm not sure how much I can explain before Morathi sends for her. There's a lot to cover," Aakil worried as he looked at the table full of information.

"Time is not a luxury we have at the moment," Lilly said as she headed towards the open bookcase in search of food for Jenni. "Why not use the picture book you created for the young ones?"

"I don't know, it's still in the early stages, and I haven't finished all of the details on the drawings in the human version yet," Aakil stammered.

"It has everything she needs to know. We don't have time for a lengthy explanation of everything involved in jumping and new worlds," Lilly said. "Besides, don't you want an opinion on the book from the species it is targeted at? It'll be a learning experience for both of you." With that, she walked out of the room in search of food; leaving Jenni and Aakil in the room, alone.