Dragon's Life

               

It was the day of the dragon, where no bad omens would come. The people were wrong, the queen was to deliver a child, but the child was too strong for the queen. She was the most radiant of all women; her hair was raven black with waves as calm as the lake. Her eyes were green jades and her lips were soft pink rose, she smiled so brilliantly. Though today, the queen’s hair was dead, her skin was tight against her skin and her lips were so pale. With her last scream, the child came out of the spirit world and into the arms of the wizard. The wizard had white robes on that touched his brown leather boots, where a dagger hides. The eyes of the wizard showed his true power, they were a stormy blue. The eyes showed no emotion unless the wizard wielded it to; it scared everyone except the queen.

                The wizard held the child and then his eyes lit up and started to glow blue, the wizard hurried and shut his eyes and took a breath. When the wizard opened his eyes they were stormy blue, the queen turned her head and looked at the wizard with worried eyes. The wizard turned toward her and rushed to the queen’s side holding the child close. He leaned over by the queen’s bedside allowing his black pepper curled hair flow down by his ear. The queen whispered in his ear, the words “our beautiful gifted princess.”

                 The queen smiled the best she could and slipped her hands into the wizard’s, everyone gasped. All the castle workers knew the king had left for war and expanding the kingdom, but no one expected that the wizard and queen were in love. Then the queen’s smile faded and her hand went limp, her body started to glow. Everyone was stunned, the queen turned into gold dust. The wizard closed his hand, got up and walked toward an open-mouthed house cleaner, and handed her the child. The wizard then blessed the child and then vanished with the child now asleep in the house cleaner’s arms.

                Three years have now passed and the child is now able to speak and read. The child first spoke on her first year she was born, this was a sure sign that the child would bring about a huge change in the kingdom. On the child’s second birthday, she got books on history of the kingdom, politics, and to be a woman. The child then chose a name for her and could only tell the name to her parents and husband. If any of the servants heard the princess’s name, they die in the most brutal way.

                When the child turned nine, she was now an heir to the throne. She had the eyes and the soft lips like her mother. The child’s hair and skin was that of her father’s. The child’s hair was a Carmel brown and her skin was a dark tan, but her beauty was what really made the villagers speechless. The child was sitting on the wooden throne with amethysts and sapphires embedded into the arms of the throne. Her face was serious and showed no emotion but her eyes shined with compassion.

                 Today a visitor walked through the two golden doors in the throne room and walking with proudness between each step. His black leather boots, ragged light tan pants were covered with dirt and blood. His forest ragged green cloak ripped and torn. The man paid no heed to his appearance and held the twinkle in his toffee brown eyes and did a jester bow. Then he looked up with a huge smile, but instead of seeing his beautiful wife’s raven black hair and a beautiful smile, he saw a child with a confused look on her face.

                The child spoke with a loud and clear voice saying “What can I do for you today sir? I am the new heir, unfortunately my beloved mother passed away nine years ago. That was the day that I was born, I know I am but a child but I will do my best to help you.”

With that, the child jumped down, making her green satin dress look like a flower that had bloomed. The child walked over to him and stared straight into his eyes as if searching for something and then her eyes lit up as if she had found it.

                She then said to the tattered man who now stared at her with his mouth open; “Please remove your hat and cloak, the maid will give you a nice bath. I know you are from the army, have you seen the king? I need to speak to you later when no one else is around and…”

Before she could finish what she was, saying the tattered man fell over shaking and shivering on the floor. The princess went to bend over see if he was okay, but felt something cold and dark coming. She mumbled under her breath asking for strength and with that, she bent over, grabbed, the tattered man’s arm, and lifted him onto his feet. She heaved his arm around her neck and ran with him down the halls.

The child could feel the darkness pulling at her wanting to take its victim. The shadows clinged to the cobblestone wall, the flames flickered and the tattered man was breathing hard. The girl saw the opening but when she took the next step a stone was loose and she and the man fell onto the ground. She could feel herself slip into unconsciousness, but the man gripped her hand and said “Child i must know your name, the shadows must take me and not you. I love you and I want you to hold me close in time of stress and worry.”

The child could feel her head clear, just enough to think of what the man had just said, she did not understand why she had so much trust in this man. She crawled on her belly dragging herself along the stones, told the man that her name was Mariah and that she was afraid, and did not want him to go. The man nodded as if he knew this to be true, he got up and walked toward the shadows with open arms and the shadows rushed to meet him.

When the man fell over onto his knees and the torches against the wall, the fire stopped flickering Mariah let her head fall and slipped into a peaceful sleep.

 

Paths

When Mariah opened her eyes, there was no light and everything was dark. When she went to lift up her hand, she could not lift it and realized she was chained and her eyes are blindfolded. She tried to feel around, but there was nothing to feel. Mariah started to feel weak and soon was asleep.

Mariah could feel heat on her face; she opened her eyes and saw she was in a forest. The light shined on the trees like stain glass windows at a church. She looked down the green grass pathway and ran for it. Mariah could feel the forest collapsing around her; the path was getting narrower. She ran as fast she could as her ragged green shoot dress grabbing unto brush as she ran.

All of a sudden, the trees spread apart showing a flat-toothed face covered in mud. Eyes as big as a man’s head, before she knew it, a big hairy hand seized her around the waist and held her up. All she could do was stare, she felt so horrified and then a tingling sensation started to go up into her head. She could feel herself smiling and the something whizzed past her ear and hit this thing in the eye. She felt that hairy thing let go and she could feel herself falling into a dark chasm and then pain surrounded her.

Mariah could hear a voice, but it seem so muffled and this pain seemed to drown her in its waters. Then she heard the voice say focus on these words and so she did what the voice said. She could feel herself coming out of the water and into a room. However, the room she could not enter, a blast of wind hit her. There was no wind here, and then she realized that she is in her mind and needed to go back to reality. Her eyes flashed open revealing her jade eyes, she went to sit up but a block stopped her from even lifting her head. All see could see were some blurs, they both were men. She did not know how she knew that, but when she started to remember what had happened the tingling through her body started.  Her body started to heal, the mind seemed so much clearer. No one was a blur; she could see an olive skinned man with auburn and beard, his eyes were a deep hazel but it he seemed to hide something. The person holding her down wore a brown leather gauntlets and his skin was a light tan. His eyes were green with a ring of gold around them; hair was black with tints of gold.

                “Hey, you awake. Oh, I see that you are, anyway my name is mark and I am a ranger apprentice. This over here with the beard is the one I am guiding. We saw an ogre snatch you; the only thing I could think of was shooting it with an arrow.  I am sorry that the ogre dropped you and you slammed your head on the rock. You seem a lot better; we have to get a move to where we can all rest.” Said the tan skinned ranger with a leather shirt and black hided pant with red trimming.

                “Well the next time you shoot make sure that the person will not get hurt because someone was showing off. I don’t remember anything except that my name is Mariah and that man with you is a wizard.” Said Mariah with a scowl across her face because the man was such a boy.

                The ranger became speechless, but hurried and helped Mariah up and then led the way down the path to where a village would come in about four miles. The forest, held no beautiful sounds it was still and silent. Mariah felt so exhausted and sick she did not know if she could walk any longer. The air seemed so heavy in her lungs, her skin was burning; she knew she had to keep walking until they got to a place to rest. Finally, Mariah could see the gate to where the village was, she ran toward the gate so excited. The guard stared through her full of shock; Mariah followed his gaze and saw about a dozen bulk shadows with red eyes and sharp fangs.

                The wizard with dark auburn hair stepped in front of Mariah with his arms outstretched, then his body started to glow a deep blood red. Her body started to burn and then the tingling took place, she focused on killing all those shadow beasts. Before the old man could lay a spell, the beasts were dead. Mariah could feel the tingling leaving and allowing the fear to come back into her. She dropped to her knees and allowed her head to droop to gain back some strength. The ranger laid his hand on her shoulder and then quickly withdrew it; he could feel her skin burning. They had to get her to a healer quick, he ran at the gate and started to talk to the guard and then Mariah collapsed on the ground shaking. 

                “Sir, I cannot allow you and your friends to come through this gate. You have two magical people with you and the people fear that. You remember when the called upon the death bringer and almost destroyed the world and the light has so much power they could easily destroy this world with a blink of an eye. Forgive me for being superstitious, but I cannot allow you to come in.,” said the guard of the black gate.

                “Look the person of the light is badly injured and cannot do any harm here even if she wanted to. He the dark wizard has changed his ways from the darkness and now is trying to save this world from his clutches. Please you must let us in, are you really going to let someone die because of your superstitions? Said Mark with serious look on his face and eyes staring into the man’s eyes deeply.  

                When the guard heard what Mark said, he opens the gate and waits for the auburn hair man to pick up the shaking child and his walking stick. The man was fast for someone old and holding a child over his back, the ranger headed toward the village looking for a tavern that was open. The ranger saw a tavern with its lights still on and people laughing and singing. The ranger walked through the entrance and saw everyone look at him. The people had never saw a stranger with leather and a bow swung over his shoulder, dagger in his belt, sword swung on his back. They knew this man brought danger with him, they mad a walkway for this stranger.

                The bartender stared at the stranger and soon the stranger went up the stairs with a glee in his eyes. The ranger opened the door and went back to the bench nailed onto the side of the entrance to the tavern. The old man sat with the girl in his lap when the ranger came, the ranger told the man that the room was ready. The old man handed the girl to the ranger and went through the tavern and up the stairs. The ranger laid the child on the bed and ripped a piece of the green material off her dress and soaked it in some water and laid it upon her sweat beaded forehead. The ranger made a soft spot for the old man and then lay down upon the bare floor.

                “Hey, John do you think that the girl is the one the light foretold? Do you think this girl will survive this, she used up some of her magic and she has never used it before, it seems to take over her. What makes you think that this child won’t destroy us the next time she has nothing to kill?” Said the ranger with his shirt off sitting by the hot coals in the fireplace.

                The girl lay on the bed in white laced gown, with her hair laid out behind her. Her forehead held a cold washcloth and her hand laid is her side twitching only a little.

                “Mark, I do not believe in these so called “prophecies” that they are nothing but random guesses that sometimes end up being true. Anyway, the child is not a mindless animal, she has a heart and soul knowing what is right and wrong. Now try to let an old man rest without all the superstitions floating around. Goodnight pleases no more.” Said Michael the auburn haired wizard.  

                The ranger went to open his mouth but decided better of it. He closed his eyes and rest his head on the hard floor hoping that tomorrow the lady would be in a better mood.

                Mariah could see the mirror standing there in front of her showing her reflection, the mirror seemed to sparkle; it called out to her. She walked over to her mirror and stare, she heard a deep gravelly voice say “ You see child how beautiful you really are, you can make men fall on their knees in front of you and yet here you stare at yourself with such disgust. Take my hand and this world will bow to your beauty.”

                She could feel his words slipping into her thoughts like a snake gliding through water, part of her knew this man was not someone to trust so easily. She responded with a gentle yet guided voice saying “ I do not take pride in my beauty because beauty is a curse more than a gift. A man only looks at the top layer in a beautiful girl because he is satisfied with just the beauty right there. He would never take time, while a ugly girl, a man who truly love her would dig so deep he knew everything about her and not for her beauty! I will be the one to bow to the world and I shall plead with them to scar this face, it’s a curse! You are nothing but dust that floats in the wind pestering animals and people and then no more once the wind dies down.” Mariah could feel her anger flowing through her, this thing could never understand the good things of life.

                The man smiled as if expecting this answer, he showed up right in front of her. The man stared into her eyes and said “ Well child you are right but dust can be turned into a huge tornado destroying crops herds, houses, and of course the disgusting humans. There is no love in this world, it died when the prophecies of light came. I sent the wise ones from the deep to come and destroy the hope. But it seems you carry their hope.” The man grabbed her hand and touched her eye and then put his finger below her ribs and above her waistline.

                At first Mariah did not understand what the stranger was doing and then she felt the sharp pain in her right stormy blue eye. Blood covered her vision in that eye and then fire engulfed into her side, it felt like someone shoved hot molten lava into her side and then stitched it up. She screamed in agony, she went to hide in her mind, she went to a peaceful tree but a barrier pushed her back. She sat as close to the tree she could get and let herself slip. Mariah could feel her self-filled with power she focused it into herself and then released it like an erupting volcano.

                 The magic slid off her like slime coming off a snail, Her eyes opened and saw the stranger burn with anger in his eyes and said “ Well this is truly a disappointment, you can barely stand and you didn’t even use one-fourth of your powers. You are such a sad little human, if you are their last hope the whole world is doomed. Child you will have your wish soon enough, but until then you better get a little bit of sleep.” The stranger had disappeared leaving Mariah the time to meditate and figure out how to use this slime.

                Mark could hear Mariah screaming in terror in her sleep, He rushed over to the bedside she started to go for her eye. He grabbed her arms and held her down, Mark prayed the lady would be ok. He could feel her strength leaving and her glow had winked out. The lady laid there so peacefully, Mark couldn’t hold himself back. His lips pursed so smoothly not at all like a fish, he could feel his rough lips touch her soft smooth lips. His heart beat faster, the world seemed to spin, the only thing standing still was them. He was sure that this was how love is, but he had to hide it. He would not be one of those saplings, love was hormones and nothing more.

               

Reviews

[B.S. Scarpa]

The plot is deep. I like it keep up the good work. I will continue to read and review it. So far its something that I would be able to get into and read over and over.

[Mariah Corey]

review plz. :(

[mariah]

hey! i like the plot so far, it sounds unique and interesting. i love the wizard, he sounds awesome. i have one word of advice though, journeys and paths should be the beginning of the second chapter, instead of being at the end of this first one. other than that, i really want you to keep going with this! i must hear the rest of Mariahs journey ;P
-Mariah