Estevan
"I found you" said my mother coming towards me, from her expression I knew it couldn't be a good thing "You need to control that beast"
"Are you talking about my dragon?"
The only thing that came to mind was that my dragon had returned to Olimper, and my heart raced as I waited for her answer.
"No, the other beast who has big hair and the temperament of anything but a lady!"
Alexia. I sighed and rubbed my face as my mother started talking about how Alexia had burned books in front of the gates, I frowned and looked at her face.
"You said she burned books in front of the gates? But why would she do that?"
"They were the books she was supposed to be studying"
I smiled incredulously and burst into laughter.
"It's no fun, Estevan, you have to control her!"
"Mom, no one can control Alexia. You can't put pressure on her and think that this is going to work" I said, turning away tiredly.
The feud between Alexia and my mother seemed like a child's fight at the moment, nothing to worry about, so I walked to the throne room.
The rain lashed the windows as thunder ripped through the sky, one of the guards came towards me and bowed.
"Say it"
"Princess Charlotte has left, Your Majesty"
"What do you mean she left?"
"She was seen riding on her dragon"
"And where did she go?"
The guard looked at the windows, right in front of where the trees were signaling that she was close to the borders, making my heart race.
"Damn it!" I said angrily and crossed the throne room in a hurry, even though I didn't know her whereabouts or if she really was near the border, I had to go after her.
Mounting my horse, the rain was already soaking my face and clothes as a new clap of thunder ripped through the sky, I grabbed the horse's reins watching the men open the gates and then watched as the red tore through the sky licking two entire buildings, the dragon landed on the third, the scene that most resembled horror stories sent a chill and fear down my spine.
The guards were alarmed, I pulled on the horse's reins to keep him steady, even he seemed frightened. I turned towards the castle and shouted to the guards at the door:
"Prepare the army, sound the alarms!" I shouted, raising its body and tilting its head, the dragon roared loudly over the city and I knew that hundreds of people had already died just from the first attack, slapping my paws on the horse I made it advance towards the city, I still had a dragon.
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Alexia
The soothing sound of crackling wood and hot tea on the cold, rainy day, I blinked and the whole image of that woman changed leaving me frightened.
I looked at the girl whose skin looked like porcelain, her long, wavy black hair falling over her full breasts, even her cloak was dry now.
She took it off and threw it over the sofa and, turning back to me, picked up the cup.
"That's more comfortable," she said, taking a sip of her tea, her striking red lips the same shade as the women of Zaïm wore.
"Who are you?"
"The before, the now and the after" she replied "But that's not what you came to find out"
I nodded, still confused, but deciding to focus on what I really wanted to know:
"The woman in red you mention, the one she was going to ask for my head. Is that Princess Charlotte?"
"You said so yourself," she said, as mysterious as ever.
I shook my head, it was no longer necessary to insist on this question, since it hadn't been denied, I'd said it myself.
"I need to know if Zaim and Torrem are going to attack Olimper"
"You brought war, big girl, and this is a battle of giants" She put the cup on the table "There is a division in time between before and after, you are in the now and this world will never be the same again"
"Come with me to the castle, I know witches aren't accepted, but they'll accept you after they see what you have to say!" I looked into her eyes. "In Zaim witches are accepted in the castle and bring protection, when they meet you they will..."
"I don't belong to kings, I belong to the forest. My name is Mara, the serious big girl"
She tossed back a lock of hair and I noticed that her right arm was almost completely burnt, her eyes were fixed on me and when I realized it I looked away ashamed of having been inconvenient.
"I'm sorry," I said, looking at the cup, frowning and noticing that there was a symbol at the end of it.
"You call trouble." She said, "You'll have to go mad to save yourself!"
I looked her in the eye, I thought I would find answers, but everything she said, every riddle made me even more confused, but I still had to come, there were fears in me, I had woken up with a bad feeling, I would spend hours questioning her about her riddles, but I feared that she would disappear at any moment as she had done the day I first saw her, so I needed to focus on the most important thing.
"How can I avoid war?" I asked worriedly, getting straight to the point.
"You can't, because it's already started!"
"What?" I frowned and then my eyes went wide, I hurried out of my head and looked up at the sky. Birds were flying wildly, the sound of the roar made my chest shudder, I ran through the forest back the way I had come, falling on the mud as my feet sank, my heart pounding from the rush, the adrenaline of fear driving me on, I knew this wasn't Silver's roar, but a familiar one to me.
My head seemed to spin, fear ran through my bones and Charlotte's face came to mind as well as George's, I feared the worst, I had felt it earlier and tried to get ahead, but now I felt left behind.
Twigs tore at my arms scratching them, a rip in my dress, my hair sticking to my face and the cold covering me like a cloak, I just needed to get to Silver as quickly as possible.
When the trees were gone, I could see the city in the distance and the huge dragon that had landed on one of the buildings while the city burned.
Silver roared and I ran towards him. As if he knew, he bowed his head for me to come up and spread his wings, turning towards the dragon.
"Come on Silver, we need to protect the city!"
Flying over the sky of Olimper, through the city's arch, I felt adrenaline and fear coursing through my veins as I watched the dragon set the city on fire, I advanced on him, Silver's huge mouth advanced on his neck which roared into the sky, he fell on the building on top of a house turning it into ruins, the red coming at me.
The flames licked lightly at my dress, I flapped my legs rapidly trying to quell the fire to no avail, as it grew larger, I tore my dress and threw the burning fabric into the air.
The dragon flew over the city making us chase after it, the maze game flying over the city as it dodged buildings, small flames could be seen everywhere, I hit Silver's neck determined to reach the dragon, he drove his claws into the dragon's back and it fell to the ground, the impact almost made me fall to the ground, I held on tightly to it, a new roar rang out over the 'skies from the dragon that seemed to want to escape at all costs, in the sky a new thunder cracked as the rain tried to dampen the flames.
The dragon managed to break free, its wing bruised with a huge tear as it soared through the skies, it was close to the beaches where the deck brought ships from all over for important transactions and voyages, now it had a hard, scaly skin that floated on the surface of the water.
I got Silver to take me close to the shore and climbed down, seeing in the distance a man on his knees with his eyes fixed on the great beast, I ran across the deck towards Estevan and stopped at his side, he looked at me, in his eyes I could see the pain.
"He's dying, Alexia," said Estevan in a heavy voice.