the unknown space

chapter 15

I sat in a room in the castle, it had apparently been made for me a long time ago when Queen Isolde found out Karen and I would be sent here. I was still incredibly shocked that I was able to turn into a dragon. Is that why the ruvataur wanted me. After the fight I had been brought to a healer in the town who had assessed my injuries and bandaged them. I made sure they cared for Karen too. I was not allowed to see her, which was incredibly hard. Then I was brought back to the castle, I had been told to wait in my room until Queen Isolde could come and speak to me.

"Evander," I was brought from my thoughts by the queen saying my name as she padded through the doorway.

"Queen Isolde," I greeted trying to sound professional.

"Please just call me Isolde, you are the King now and my equal, special titles are not needed," Isolde said as she sat near me. I smiled trying not to laugh, the queen had sat like a dog on the floor since none of the furniture in the room was large enough for her. "I'm here to answer any questions you have as well as tell you what your duty as the ruvataur King will be."

"Why do you want me? I'm weak and unimportant, I don't get it." I questioned.

"We need you. Your power is exceptional. It's the most powerful out there. We need you to protect us from the humans who are trying to kill us."

"But I am human, how do you expect me to kill my own kind?"

"We don't." Isolde stated. I was confused by what she said.

"Where is Karen?" I asked Isolde.

"She is in the dungeon. It is below this castle and I can assure you we will take very good care of her." Isolde saw me open my mouth to protest and continued, "Remember that the original plan was to kill your friend. You should consider her as well as yourself very lucky that I was lenient enough to let her live. Any other questions?"

"No, you can continue."

"Very well, I will now explain your training. As the King you will most likely be challenged by other ruvataur for your position."

"What? You never said that I would get challenged as the King!"

"You are correct, I did not, but because you will be it is very important that you know how to fight. It is very important in ruvataur culture. I will train you myself but keep in mind you must do everything I say as I say it. You cannot question me on my teaching methods and you cannot complain that you can't do what I am asking of you, am I clear?"

"Yes, but why don't you have a guard train me?"

"There's a reason that I didn't have a king for so long," Isolde responded. "None were worthy, I didn't see any ruvataur that could match me in strength, and if any did I killed them furthermore, when someone could match me in strength they were often idiots and I was not going to let my kingdom fall from having a bad ruler."

"Does that mean you'll kill me if I don't turn out to be as smart as you'd like?" I asked nervously.

"I already tested if you were smart enough by having you make your way through the tunnels and to Xerthia. As for strength, you will only be strong enough if I myself train you. We leave now, follow me." I mumbled an okay and followed Isolde out of the room and through the castle. We walked to the outskirts of the town and through a tunnel. When the tunnel ended Isolde scratched the rock causing it to melt away into the ground. On the other side was the forest and a very bright light. I squeezed my eyes shut and slowly opened them trying to get them to adjust to the light. I had gotten so used to how dark the caves were that I forgot how bright natural sunlight was.