The Dragon Knight Prophecy

1-3 My name is Lilly

Azurastra followed as he led her through the forest. They traveled for hours in silence his back to her the entire way. He had become dark and distant when she had called him brave. She even felt something of him across the bind when she had spoken. A sort of coldness that retreated away from her. She pondered his mood and other questions for most of the morning before she finally looked up and was swept away by the world around her.

She found the forest magical. For so many years she had flown above them, seeing the oceans of leaves race by. But underneath those clouds of green lived another world. Everything felt new to her. There were smells on the breeze she had never known before. Some were earthy and strong, others were delicate scents that came and quickly vanished. There were sounds, creaks, snaps, bird songs, and the calls of other distant animals. She marveled at how the light sometimes filtered down through the green clouds of the leaves above, in golden rays that split the otherwise dark interior. She paused at one for a moment to stick her hand in it. She stood there, turning her hand in the golden ray of the sun feeling the kiss of its warmth.

She wondered why she never noticed the light of the sun was warm before now. She assumed it was a human thing. Something her dragon form simply could not feel. It occupied her mind and caused her to look all about to see if anything else felt new.

The land here was covered with soft green plants. She dared to let her fingertips touch some of them as they walked passed. She touched the tree trunks, allowing her hand feel the roughness of its skin. She touched the green leaves that hung down and marveled at how smooth they were. On one she found a strange black animal. I was a tiny thing that crawled about on many legs. When she tried to pick it up, it leaped away and vanished into the forest.

Under her bare feet, the forest felt damp and warm, and little things would make snapping noises when she walked on them. Occasionally she stepped on something that hurt, but she quickly stepped away and continued on.

She tried to let the magic of all these new experiences sweep her away and occupy her mind. For a brief moment it worked, but then a little creature suddenly flew right before her face. It had yellow and golden wings, and it fluttered in the most unusual way, darting up and down as it danced before her eyes. She tried to hold on to the magic, but the little creature reminded her of her desire to fly home. As the sadness returned she wrapped herself in the cloak Gersius had given her, seeking its comfort.

"How could this have happened to me?" she said to herself in her moment of pity.

Gersius didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care. He kept on walking, leading the way through the maze of wood and leaf. She let the thought echo in her head over and over. She trembled when she thought about being bound and looked up at her captor with regret. She played the moment again in her head. How the great red had come and demanded she serve his master, demanded to know her true name. When she refused he did something she could not believe. He viciously attacked her. He left her broken and bleeding, dying for refusing to be bound.

Then along comes a man, who admits he had come to battle her and offers to heal her if she would be bound to him instead. Be bound or die, die or be bound. She had chosen death, begged him to kill her but then he had made her an offer she did not expect. A year and a day he had said. She heard his voice again in her head. He had promised to limit her binding. Limit her loss of freedom. What was a year to a dragon? It was no more than a season, a speck of time that comes and quickly fades away.

With much trembling she had agreed. Just remembering the fear she felt in that moment when he started to recite the spell of binding made her stomach turn. Never had she experienced fear, she was fearless, defiant, and majestic. She inspired fear in all who gazed on her; she didn't feel it herself.