Chapter 29

‘We will begin with some teaching’ Fafnir said to Rex after he had sat down in from of him in the mind vault. He spoke to Rex about the Blood War and why it was started. Rex’s father, Rector, had given Ean some land to satisfy his need to help rule the kingdom, which had never been done in the history of Dracoterrum, this also enraged the elders because no one is allowed to rule without passing The Dreaming selection. Rector was able to ease their anger by telling them he is ruling under him and he had to answer to him. Ean took this as disrespect and slowly greed and power poisoned his mind. He dreamed of a day he would take Dracoterrum by force and once the citizens of Vale trusted him, he used their army to attempt to invade. He coaxed a few of Bhutan’s high mages to assist him and Ean marched on Hale. Rector knew because of his connections he had placed to watch Ean and had his armies waiting for him at the border. Instead of backing down, Ean wasted thousands of lives in that battle. Once Ean’s forces were diminished in the ensuing few days, he pulled back to the castle at Barken which is the capitol of Valen under the flag of defeat. Little did we know that he had later on turned Rectors spies against him and had tried to use them to assassinate Rex as a baby. His parents then decided that until he has of age, he would stay with Iris on the plane of humans away from Ean.

Well that explains why I was sent there Rex said to himself. “So why doesn’t father just send his army to arrest Ean and take full control again?”

‘To start a civil war could be the end for Dracoterrum, the magic that would be used and spent could break the bond that holds this place here and hidden from the realm of man.’ Fafnir said, ‘Life is a fragile balance that must be kept, do not worry, Ean’s days are numbered.’

I wonder what he means by that Rex thought. “Is father sending someone to kill him?” This comment only made Fafnir smile again and said, ‘In a way your father will send someone to deal with Ean that part is foretold.’

Rex could only shake his head, more bloody riddles, why do “powerful” beings enjoy being so cryptic, its stupid. “I guess we will find out in a few days when we meet.”

‘Yes, we will.’

Looking up Rex could see a small change in the sky of his mind vault, it was an every so slight change and if he had blinked, he would have missed it. “Day break is coming, isn’t it?”

‘Hmm yes, it is, you are starting to be aware of your surroundings, good. We will speak more later.’

As Rex opened his eyes again, he sat up, looking at his companions and smiled. He was glad they had not moved away in fear again. Hearing the others stir Rex got up, stretched out his aches, packed his bag and readied his leaf blanket for burning, which had turned out to be there daily ritual, they would pile up the blankets into a pile and Lizz would torch them. Today Rex wanted to try that himself. Once the other 2 had woken, Rex boiled a pot of water and added the last of their tea leaves, adding it to 3 cups and sitting on a large log to watch the sun rise. He was soon joined by Lizz and Charr. He quite enjoyed sun rises and the start of a new day.

“I feel quite refreshed after last night” Rex exclaimed finishing his tea and rinsing his cup. “We should stop by the river town for a few supplies before continuing, maybe someone has a map.”

“Yes, I’ve heard they are quite friendly in river town” Lizz said with a smile, “A map would also be quite handy.”

After everyone had packed up and readied the blankets, Lizz was about to bring forward a ball of flame when Rex stopped her with his hand, “let me try” he said with a wink. Once he had said that Lizz and Charr moved away 20 paces towards the river. “Why are you so far away? I’m not that bad am I?” Rex had felt a little hurt at them half hiding behind trees.

‘Last time big disaster nearly burn us while sleep” Charr boomed, “Me not want get fried by dragon today.”

This made Rex and Lizz laugh a little while Charr looked at them confused, he didn’t know why they were laughing, so he shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the pile of leaf blankets. Nodding Rex focused on the blankets, pictured them on fire and held out his hand. He was relieved to feel the warmth building inside of him and it extended towards his hand, I might actually get it this time Rex smiled to himself. Trying his squinting trick he closed his fist and opened it again, sitting in his palm was a tiny ball of fire!! It was only the size of a small coin, but he didn’t care, he had been able to create fire! He dropped it onto the leaves and watched them in satisfaction when the ball caught the leaves alight and they started to burn.

‘Lucky you did not make that any larger, you could have burnt down this whole forest.’ Laughed Fafnir.

‘Shut up you, I did that by myself this time.’ Rex retorted.

‘All hail the fire making master!!’ he boomed out bursting into laughter. Scowling Rex threw his bag over his back and walked over to his friends. Lizz giggled a little while Charr seemed a little impressed, “I not think tiny fire would burn anything” he said clapping Rex on the back, he wasn’t sure he was being congratulated for making fire or for the fact he was surprised the tiny ball didn’t fizzle out on the way down.

“Let’s find the town and get going” Rex said, still scowling a little.

“Well you at least got it to burn” Lizz said softly. “First time I tried, I freaked out and dropped it and set our family lynx on fire.” This made them start laughing again. Of course they wouldn’t have a standard cat or dog, it had to be a lynx. Once the leaves had burnt out the 3 friends started walking down stream following it down towards the river city.

“Original name” Rex said chuckling at the name of the city they were heading to.

“Well it is city on edge of river, fit good” Charr said rubbing his chin. This made the other 2 chuckle again as they rounded the bend in the river and they could see buildings off in the distance.

“That will take about hour to get that close, maybe they have horses” Lizz exclaimed, “I really don’t want to walk for another 3 days to Dracones.”

Rex hadn’t thought of that, horses would make the trip so much faster. How could he have missed that point. Nodding in agreement they walked up the bank and onto the road that travelled to River City. It was a few hours before they got to the edge of the city and saw people again. a good change from things trying to kill us Rex thought to himself. Seeing the hustle and bustle of the market once they had gotten close made him smile. There was a line of stalls each person selling their wares, whether it was fruit, vegetables or all sorts of fish, some Rex had never seen before, like the odd blue fish that had short tentacles hanging down from its mouth, different gills to a regular fish and strange looking fins, they almost looked like little peg legs that could be spread out into fins.

“That’s a deep sea walking fish, quite rare and rather tasty” said the fisher man smiling when he saw what Rex was looking at, he had only a few teeth left and looked quite off putting, both the fisherman and the fish.

“They are bottom feeders who eat rubbish, and taste the same you old crook!” yelled an old lady who was in the next stall to the fisherman, “Don’t listen to him, it’s a nasty thing.”

“What? Like those old cabbages and rotten smelling fruit you sell?” he called back.

“These are moon fruit you idiot! They are known for their wonderful taste and texture, they only bear fruit at night during a full moon” she exclaimed pointing to a white fruit. “Here try it for yourself” she said to Rex throwing him one. Looking at it he noticed it was about the same size as an apple, except perfectly round and white in colour. Looking at Lizz and Charr who both shrugged their shoulders at him he was about to bite into it when Fafnir said.

‘Did you not get told from your elders to look at what you are eating a little more carefully? Especially when it comes from an unknown source.’

Taking it back from his mouth the 3 companions looked at the fruit a little more closely, it seemed ok to Rex. Turning it around is when he noticed a small hole had been made in the bottom of the fruit. That’s strange, fruit hangs from the top, why would there be a hole in the bottom of it? He looked back up to enquire about the fruit when he realized the 2 old people selling things from their stalls had slipped away. Looking at Lizz and Charr again they both looked around before shaking their heads telling Rex they hadn’t noticed them slip away either.

“Well that was close” Rex exclaimed to his friends. Both nodded in agreement. “Lets check out their stalls.”

Walking behind the stalls and looking around, they could not find out anything that would tell them who the 2 people were, or why they had tried to give Rex a shady fruit and what they had hoped to gain.

“Where did the 2 new sellers go?” Came a voice from the road. Looking over they saw a man with a sheet of paper was standing there.

Walking out Rex asked, “They are new to the markets?”

“Yes, they only applied 2 days ago and fought hard for those 2 spots saying it was imperative they got those stalls. Do you know where they went?” he asked looking around.

“Do you have name?” Lizz asked.

“I cannot tell you that miss” he replied pushing his glasses back up his nose, “But the names are not ones we know from around here, but I do not care as long as they pay the sales tax.” He added shrugging.

“Well I don’t know them either, I was just going to ask about this” Rex added handing the man the fruit.

Looking at it the man said plainly, “Yes, that is a moon fruit from the forests around Valen, not very common and quite tasty” he added taking a bite. As he was walking off with his paper again towards the other stalls he suddenly collapsed.

The 3 friends ran up to him as well as a few other locals to see what had happened. The moment they saw his face they knew instantly, his eyes were bulging and there was a small amount of foam coming from the edge of his mouth. Poison, it did not take long for him to stop choking and laid there still, his eyes fading out. Just as the 3 companions looked at each other an old woman pointed to them and said, “That man gave him the fruit when he questioned them about paying the sales tax, he poisoned Dreg!!”

It did not take long for the armed guards to arrest the 3 friends and dragged them towards to keep at the towns centre. They pulled Rex and Lizz to their knees, Charr took 4 people to try but Rex told him not to make a scene, so he knelt on his own accord. As soon as he did that the door to the keep was kicked open with a huge *BANG* and a man stormed out with his sword drawn.

“Who killed my brother Dreg!!??” the man roared.

‘So much for just passing through for supplies and horses’ Fafnir chuckled.