Iced Cream and Burned Kings

A/N: Sorry yall. I got busy this weekend, but also, I’m a little discouraged. I don’t see ANY of your posts, reads, likes, or comments AGAIN! There’s also a big, 2 to 5 hour delay on posting Vs viewers being able to read…, but it has gotten faster…. But for my commentors thank you! Some of yall inspire me more than you know, but seeing page after page of no views likes or comments after weeks of writing… it lowers morale. I no I’m not writing to nobody, but… it is what it is.

But with that said, it isn’t stopping me!

Azula

A few days had passed since I’d last seen Drozo…. But we all made the best of it. I was in the dining room with Ghast, Paige, and a few servants.

“Would you like another scoop of iced cream?” Asked King Ghast, the one responsible for watching me and Paige from noon to bedtime, since the Crimson King took the night shift. It was currently 3rd hour of the day. To keep things from getting too confusing, resetting the number of hours after the twelfth hour made it easier for the illiterate. Originally this would be the 15th hour, but most peasants can’t count past 10….

“I would love some.” I said with a nod.

“I haven’t had ice cream since I lived in my home world.” Said Drozo’s mother, Paige.

“Iced cream is still a rare treat in my lands, as we’ve only Just gotten cows… the mortals came up with this… to be honest. I didn’t understand why his majesty gave them so much… freedom, but with it comes foods and fabrics we’d not thought of.” Said Ghast.

“It’s because different peoples think differently. Sometimes it’s a good thing.” Said Paige.

He nodded, and I was stuffing my face… I would Love to try this with candied fruit or cocoa….

It was raining heavily today, as the drought had finally been declared over…. But it was unnatural as it was refreshing to see…. Zeshava did that. She flew around as light, making clouds and rain all over the country, so the people who weren’t in the dense part of the jungle, nor around a river like the city could have their crops and livestock hydrated.

The Kings often flew around the city, since they organized with themselves who would be on what watch.

I enjoyed the frozen cow’s milk…. His powers of frost and ice really came in handy here. He converted the natural humidity to chilled air… something we’d have to teach the water mages that worked permanently at the castle.

Other than that, thankfully nothing happened here… There were no problems. The citizens did as they were told and behaved… even Ernest. Once he finally realized the reason my mate made him a council chair, he started acting like one.

He dressed and spoke well, using my old books to start his learning journey. He started with both Common and Draconic, pointing out that the letters were similar, and if he could recognize the words in one language, and the other, he’d be able to more or less write and speak both.

…I wished him luck with that, especially since the letters were the Only thing they had in common….

“If it not for the death of the vegetation, I could turn the water to snow.” Said Ghast. “My lady… have you ever seen it?” He asked me.

“I’ve lived my entire life here… unfortunately no.” I admitted.

“If I only dust the courtyard but a Moment… you may see.” He smiled.

“When all this is over, ask my son to visit anytime between Ninth and Third Moon. Fall and winter get tons of snow… feet of it.” Paige beamed.

“Oh that sounds even better… I don’t want it spoiled.” I mumbled.

“You just want to get on her majesty’s good side.” Said Yulanya coming to collect me. It was time for my etiquette studies with an elvish tutor…. She was also the private tutor of the District Lords’ children… but I preferred Lord Thakden… he was nicer.

“Yes, but her majesty is also Legitimately pleasant. She holds a kindness in her heart that cannot be faked.” He said firmly. “I will make more iced cream and shaved ice for you, your highnesses.” He said with a nod of his head before getting up and leaving.

There was a commotion in the royal courtyard, we all sprang to action to see what was going on.

“Stand back.” Said my mate, holding an unconscious King Nox over his shoulder like an old shirt…. To be worried about his wellbeing, he didn’t carry him like he does me…

“Is his majesty alright?” Asked Lady Zeshava…. She just appeared…. That was the power of teleportation I think.

“He’s stable, but he needs to rest. Take him to the hospital wing.” He said handing him to Zeshava… I was surprised she could carry him like he weighed nothing…. Her skin held stars as she zipped down the hall in a flash of light.

“What a fucking mess… Is everything alright here?” He asked.

“Son, we’re fine… but what happened?” Asked Paige.

“I killed his army, but fear that Harbon escaped.” He mumbled. “Have there been any signs of undeath here?” he asked.

“No… all’s well.” She smiled.

“Good… but that means he’s hiding…. Amassing another army. They rot… they smell… they are unable to die… unable to think or feel once his power overtakes them… I’ve seen undead livestock as well… and putrid water..... if he should succeed, this world’s life will be replaced with the dead. There is no room for a world with both…” He said sprouting wings.

“Son wait.” Said his mother.

He looked so haggard… like he didn’t know up from down, wracked with worry for not only his friend… but also me…

“Drozo… please rest.” I asked, holding onto his arm. He removed my hand. He stood there in the rain, looking sad for what he’d done…. He reached for my face, but hesitated, and retracted his hand, deciding not to caress me.

“I am not clean… do not touch me little mate… I Must stop him… I Must find him. If I strike while the iron is hot, I can return to the peace many have died for… Spread the word that he needs the living for sacrifices… tell them that once they are bit, they have about 3 minutes left to live.” He said flying off….

Thunder rumbled in the distance, but he was above the clouds…. . so high up I know he didn’t hear my quiet goodbye…

“Come on,” Said Paige pulling my hood up on my cloak, so my soaked hair wouldn’t get wetter. “The cloaks may be waterproof, but our clothes aren’t.”

“Yeah….” I said sadly… the way he pulled my hand off… there was a fear in his eyes… “I should bathe as well…. since he looked so worried.” I mumbled.

“That’s a good idea. We should just wait…” She said happily, though her smile was sad too…

I doubt Drozo slept at all since he looked for the human… if he could be called that anymore. My cloak was put in the wash… but the dress was destroyed…. No one wanted to take chances… I had no human servants to attend me either, nor Paige… Not even Nox. He was attended by Zeshava…

The Crimson King lost it… I could hear his yelling from here that he wanted to leave, but if he did, the next largest drake was only half his size… It would be too open. The city was likely not attacked because he was here.

I slept alone in bed.

Morning came, and it was still raining. The powers of Zeshava altered the air above, and started the rains to be as it should be this time of year… and I could already smell the life in the grasses down in the gardens.

I got ready, and Lady Paige came with me to the Common Lessons with Lord Thakden… he was really challenging me today, showing me draconic texts that I had to read in my head at 13th level… The book was about the wars, history and physiology of dragons…. It was VERY DRY and hard to focus on… but the Crimson Queen encouraged me.

She’d read these before, and showed me what material I could skip…. But I wondered…. How Could I read this at fluency level? It was more than the phonetics… because there were certain sounds that I either could not make or had not heard…. Yet I Knew them.

I think…. The completion of me being bound to his majesty… that it connected us More than even he knew… That would make sense though…

He was the Blood King… the First Dragons all royal lines descend from…. The dragon who in his might, has destroyed entire countries so harshly that if you dig down deep enough, you only find ash, melted metal, and stone…

The only part we read together was about mankind…

That it is their very nature to destroy the wild. That since they cannot survive in it, that they tame what they can for food, and kill what eats them… that whenever given the chance, they tinker, making machines and devices to kill their enemies and learn their weaknesses…

That they go on genocidal wars that make everything human…. And once it is… they do the Same thing to themselves as what was done to them…

Texts spoke of the advancement found in Campbell and Plemteth…. That there was a time humans made fire stick-wands but the pages of what they look like, or how they made them were singed away.

“Those are guns.” Said Paige. “In my home world… there Is No magic, or other races…. Only man… and instead of Miles and Miles of forest, there are stone and glass cities with buildings so high, that we called them skyscrapers…. As much as I hate to say it… no man needs any of those things here…. This world is Beautiful…. Lakes are ALL drinkable, and filled with native fish…. Rivers are so clean you can see the bottom… trees are so big around…. That people carve them out for homes, or live under the roots like the wood elves… the air is so pure, that even in the center of the city right now, there is no thick layer of smoke in the air…” she admitted. “It has its own beauty though… but this world is much more untamed…”

“I am the one who was sent to… stop such progress.” Said Lord Thakden… he didn’t sound silly or light hearted right now… his eyes were sharp with a predatory fierceness that I wouldn’t imagine from him. “Me and the Headmaster destroyed all that his majesty did Not…. I did because of the vision I saw…. This world cannot handle such progress… it was not made for it…. Yours Was… but that is the issue with man.” He mumbled.

“and what’s that?” Asked Paige.

“That they cannot survive the world, so they kill it… and make its corpse their den. Man cannot grow fur, nor do they have fangs. They dig our mountains to the core. They make iron fangs… they kill the wildlife for fur… they destroy the forest for homes…”

“Other races do that too.” I said defensively.

“It isn’t like the other races. Most peoples try to live With nature… humans destroy it… and anything that can challenge them. Then they turn on each other, and the cycle repeats and repeats until nearly nothing is left. THEN they care, when the earth beneath them is dead, when the gods in their anger grow silent…”