The DragonOrb

Milo/Mary

Milo

Over the past year, Brooke's mind and mine had become so used to each other that when Brooke left my mind, it felt empty and constricted. If I tried, I could even look through her eyes, hear through her ears, and taste through her tongue . . . though often all I tasted was apple. Of course there were some parts blocked off. We still had our privacy, but even in our sleep, our dreams intertwined through our contact.

Halfway through the last year, the war had begun. Suddenly my position as a castle servant, going by the name of Nathan, had been in jeopardy. I was nearly called to go off with the rest of the townspeople and servants to help with the war. I had had to scramble to find a position of worth among the castle. I was now in charge of the few guards left, and I was in charge of training all of the squires.

Thanks to Drake, one of the squires under me, I was in the dungeon when I sensed Brooke's alarm. There was an army approaching the battalion she had been at for over a month. A big one.

So intertwined were our minds that I could feel the energy depletion when she woke the entire army battalion with a spell. It was a small battalion. They stood very little chance.

'Brooke,' I said, 'what's going on?'

'It seems the entirety of the dark forces have been sent directly to this battalion,' she grumbled.

I rolled my eyes. 'I warned you not to stay in one place for too long. You should've left that one last week.'

She ignored me and checked out for a little while, leaving me to my own mind as she fought her battle. Then, suddenly, pain seemed to split my skull. I cried out, startling the convict I'd been locked in with, and held my head in my hands. I completely shut off my connection with Brooke, and the pain subsided. That was bad. She did something. She did something really bad.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mary

I giggled a little bit as Rogdan slipped a blindfold over my eyes. We'd been living together for a year, now, and I'd fallen quite in love with him. He led me outside, still without shoes. The ground was only vaguely cool on the soles of my feet, the sun only just beginning to go down. Rogdan led me slowly by the hand, away from the cabin by the sea, until I felt sand between my toes. I could smell the salt in the air, and the breeze blew my hair away from my face. Rogdan let go of my hand and I could hear him fumbling a little bit.

"Okay," he said. "You can look now."

I took the blindfold off to see a little table sitting on the edge of the sandy beach, the gentle waves lapping against the bottom. The table was decorated like a miniature version of the castle tables, with a pearly white table cloth, a beautiful centerpiece, picked fresh from the fields near the little cottage. The platters merely had roasted fish, with lettuce all around. It was beautiful.

With a flourish, Rogdan whirled around to my side of the table and pulled out the elegant chair. With a smile on my face, I sat down in the chair.

We had a wonderful dinner, though all the while I was wondering what the special occasion was. As we were finishing a delicious dessert that Rogdan had cooked himself, I began to notice that he was acting a little bit oddly. He kept fidgeting and stuttering slightly.

Finally, he swallowed, picked something up from underneath his chair, and swept over to the side of my seat to get down on one knee. His hands were trembling slightly as he held up a little wooden box and opened it. Inside was a golden ring, with a single, shining pearl on it.