HIATUS | The Great Dragon War [Prequel]

Chapter 2: Interest

"Here you go and have a wonderful day!"

Rosada Camilia graciously received her food tray and credit card from the lunch lady and stumbled into the Auradon Prep lunchroom with no idea where to sit. She and Lina had always commandeered the table in the corner before. It was their private place to gossip and laugh (and be obnoxious) without anyone messing with them or overhearing their conversations. But now, Lina wasn't here and it felt a bit emptier. Maybe she would sit in the corner table like freshman year and simply read. Hadn't it always been her wish?

She made her way to her usual corner table, only to notice it occupied by another person. It was a boy, one that she had never seen before, with sandy blond hair and light grey eyes. His eyes reminded her of a metal bottle cap, carelessly tossed and buried into the sand of the beach. They seemed sad and lost. But then again, she supposed anyone sitting alone in a corner table would seem pretty lonely. Was that how Lina saw her freshman year?

Rosada peaked around at the other corner tables in the room. They were all occupied by more than one person. Maybe sitting here wouldn't be too bad. She would just mind her own business and he, his. She sat down across the table, furthest from him and pulled out her book, The Luxibris Revolution: Otherwise known as The Great Dragon War, which she had placed a grey book sock over (she hoped people guessed that it was for protection purposes, but in truth she was just wanted to hide the fact that she was reading a non-standard Fairy Tale book). If Rosada ate while eating the book, that would raise the odds of the stranger trying to talk to her. It was the perfect strategy. Rosada started reading:

It is curious, how everyday things that seem unimportant become sparks to fuel a revolution. In the case of Luxibris, it was the idea of friendship that tore the kingdom apart.

You see, most kingdoms of Auradon wholeheartedly agreed with King Beast and its ways. They were tired of magic and hexes, tired of villains and curses. Nearly every kingdom dreamed of locking the villains of their stories into the Isle of the Lost, to ensure that great catastrophes would never befall their kingdom again. Magic, they deduced, was the cause of great destruction. If King Beast and Queen Belle were able, and willing, to unite the kingdoms into the States of Auradon, they were more than happy to oblige. Besides, many of their kings, queens, emperors, or empresses were young and inexperienced, as many villains brought an end to the old reign. Under King Beast and Queen Belle, a school would be founded, where the young queens and kings could attend and receive an education. Some known figures who, in fact, attend this institution at the moment this book was published are Princess Jasmine of Agrabah, Princess Ariel of Seaside, Princess Aurora, and Princess Rapunzel of Corona.

Luxibris was different, however. The kingdom never suffered any tragic fate because of magic. In fact, it was a land that thrived off of it. Every night, the street lights were lit by a swipe of a wand and every morning undone by the same object. Those who could afford them bought enchanted accessories; the richer women often bragged their magical pattern changing dresses to one another ("Mine can change the color and the pattern..." / "Well, mine can swap out the pattern of the top, the bottom, or even the layers" ). The less fortunate also relied on magic; those with high moral standards could find easy jobs cleaning or repairing homes at the snap of their fingers, and those with less ethical complications could easily pick locks (craftsmen started to create more magic resistant locks after that). It was easy to see why Luxibris wouldn't want to give up their magic. They had always been reliant on it. They never had any (serious) problems with it. They didn't have anyone or anything they wanted to lock up or send to the Isle of the Lost.

The king and queen of Luxibris didn't want to join the United States of Auradon. In fact, they were ready to stage battle against the other kingdoms, secretly building a military force behind their smiles and treaties with King Beast and Queen Belle. No one suspected a thing. If it wasn't for a friendship of two Luxibrian citizens, the rebellion of Luxibris against the United States of Auradon may have devastated the economy that growing kingdom that we have today.