Guardian Dragons

by Catherine L Vickers

  Grandma Dahlia paused for breath and Leon smiled with a vision of the two young ladies dilemma. Not much dissimilar to the mischievous deeds he and Heather got up to.

  ‘Well, the Palace and the Academy were in uproar as to where the two had vanished to. Ha! Vanish being the key word my boy. They both came to my chambers and gave me such a fright, hearing voices without any bodies gave me such a turn, I can tell you.’

  ‘So what did you do grandma?’ Leon asked laughing heartily. He was keen to know the outcome of his mother’s dilemma. ‘And how long were they invisible for?’

  ‘One thing at a time my boy, one thing at a time,’ not wanting to end her tale by telling it too quickly, she always delayed the ‘grand finale’ as much as she could. ‘The palace was in chaos as guards and servants alike searched from dungeons to towers with orders to find them. Well, the guards were getting so used to their Queen’s misdemeanors, that they really didn’t make that much of an effort in their searches, they just pretended for the sake of their King. The captain, of course, came directly to me. He knew I would have an inkling of what his Queen was up to. He was always very discreet, so I told him what had happened. We had no idea how long they would remain invisible and none of us could come up with any solution.’

  ‘Oh dear, grandma, I think I can see where this is leading to,’ guessing that this was one of those ventures that the King would have to be informed about. ‘Did father take it badly?’

  ‘In those days your father was so besotted with his young wife and equally the Head Mage Heimarl was in total adoration of his wife Minnah, that neither was capable of being angry. It took Hiemarl a whole moonwake before he finally found a counter spell that could reverse the effects of the sea magic. How long it would have lasted no one knows and none dare to call upon their friends the sea Huphins for help, for a while, for fear of their wrath at the misuse of the magic sea whistle.’

  Leon laughed with his grandma at these pleasant memories. His own memories were few, he had been a youngster of only six suncircles when his mother had given birth to Raphael and lost her fight for life. He knew that he had loved her and he had kept a lock of her hair to touch whenever he thought of her.

  ‘Run along now boy,’ his grandmother ordered suddenly. ‘Don’t keep that girl waiting or who knows what she’ll get up to on her own. Like her mother, she needs a man around to keep her controlled.’

  ‘Thank you grandma. You know how much these stories of yours mean to us all.’ He looked at her with a respectful admiration. A strange old woman, but a kind one.

  Promptly escaping, while the going was good he felt a twinge of guilt, not at leaving his grandmother, he knew she would thoroughly enjoy her remaining walk, but more at the fact that he could not control Heather’s mischievous deeds. She was a headstrong girl and would never take ‘no’ for an answer, that was for sure. Certainly, she never listened to him. Still, he liked to be with her should anything go wrong.

  He reached the courtyard where a small group of soldiers were mounting their horses, readying themselves to begin their duties. Unsure whether any would recognise him, he walked in a different direction only to be deafened by the loud metallic clattering of the Smithy. Breathing in the choking heat that blasted out of the open doorway, he felt perspiration on his forehead, his ears ringing at the deafening noise. Wondering how the blacksmiths managed to work in such conditions he swiftly passed by and headed towards a gate that would lead out of the palace grounds. This was a smaller gate than the main one used by the public. Only the workers of the palace, on foot, would pass through this way, though he would not be leaving through the gate itself. Close by a large evergreen bush hid a small hole at the base of the tall wall surrounding the palace grounds. At the other side of the wall, the bush had managed to seed its partner that hid the same hole. Discovering this exit many suncircles ago, when he had fit through the hole much easier, it had remained unknown by anyone until he shared his secret with Heather. Should it ever be discovered it would be filled in immediately, being considered a danger to the Royal Family. Should his father or older brother discover he was outside of the palace without an escort, he would be in serious trouble. Escorts are simply too inconvenient when one is attempting to have fun.

  Squeezing through the now fairly tight hole, he remained undercover of the bush until he was sure no one would see him emerge. Caution had paid off over the years and he was not going to risk his hidden exit just because he was in a rush. Other than the guards who were busy chattering to a servant exiting the smaller gate, no one was nearby. On the outside of the wall the palace was surrounded by a thicket of brambles and prickly bushes of which he had a created a good route through with his hideout safely secluded from prying eyes. Leaving the large leafy bush, he made his way towards a cobbled footpath that would lead him into a quieter part of the city known as the Merchants’ District. Large whitewashed houses were prominent within these more affluent quarters and equally they liked their privacy, so their grounds were large. His destination was to climb the steep hill that leads to one of the huge heavy wooden city gates and then on to the thick pine forest where the trees grow tall and thin and the floor of the woodlands stays soft underfoot with the droppings of millions of pine needles.

  Passing through the city gate was not difficult, he would simply tag along with a trader or cart rider. No questions were asked of people leaving, only of people wishing to enter the city. Both Leon and Heather would return through a hidden underground tunnel that formed part of the city sewers. This unsavoury secret way was the only other means of entering unnoticed.

  As he finally entered the woodlands, the musky fragrance of pine needles blew up his nose with a warm whispery breeze. At last, he could relax with the knowledge that he was nearly at the meeting place of the Old Willow tree, on the cliff top by the sea. At the forefront of his mind, he pondered on various ideas of how he could persuade Heather to change her mind. He would keep the promise but wished he had not been the one to come up with this foolish prank in the first instance. In his heart, he knew she was determined to do the deed and nothing he could say would change her mind.

  Chapter 10 Huphin Beginnings

  ‘Tell me poppa, please tell me again,’ Bryley nattered, not allowing her father out of her sleeping chamber until he had told her of one of his good adventurous stories, or surely she would never be able to sleep.

  ‘I have told you all the tales I know,’ Prince Gadon teased her, knowing full well that he equally enjoyed the telling of the bedtimes stories just as much as his daughter enjoyed the listening of them.

  ‘Every time you re-tell a tale, you add something new,’ little Bryley eagerly explained. ‘So I will always wish you to tell me everything you have ever known.’

  ‘I see,’ attempting a stern expression as he closely watched the puzzled look on her young face.

  A shimmering emerald-green reflection of rippling water moved across her features. He looked at the flowing water fountains that continually trickled out of the tiny holes inbuilt into the surrounding walls of the pool, keeping it constantly refreshed. The warm bubbling water serves as a blanket for the huphins, who need to immerse most of their bodies within water as they sleep. Aqua greens and shimmering blues warmly glowed from enchanted gemstones scattered about the sleeping chamber, lighting the room dimly. Bryley’s giggling echoed in the watery chamber, she smiled at her fathers straight face.

  ‘I’ve already decided which tales I want to hear,’ she said, confident that he would relent. This was her favourite time,when she could choose to hear any story and her father would think up all the words. ‘First, I want you to tell me all about the whole world again, you know, how there are two sides to the lands and the seas. Then I want you to finish off with the legend of our race. I like that one poppa. It’s so courageous.’

  ‘I see.’ He put his webbed fingers upon his chin and frowned down at her as she settled into the shallow warm water of her sleeping pod.

  �
��Stop all your “I see’s” poppa and get on with my story. I insist. I just can’t wait any longer.’

  ‘Very well little huphin Princess, we shall begin our quest.’ Joining her in the green pool, he felt soothed by the warmth of the water running over his thick deep-blue skin. Settling his excited daughter down, he began his version of her chosen legend.

  ‘Upon our world of Aarabassa there exist two very different huge oceans that wrap completely around the planet’s surface.

  The Dark Side, where the sun never shines, has the silvery black Archeronian Ocean where the frozen waters lay buried beneath giant blocks of black ice. Many cold blooded sea creatures survive in these waters and many strange creatures live on the lands that these waters protect.’

  ‘Poppa,’ Bryley looked a little troubled at her father. ‘I don’t want to hear about the monshaads that live on the ice cap. I don’t like them.’

  ‘As if I would let a monshaad hurt my Princess.’

  ‘I know but let’s not talk about them in this story. Come on poppa, I want to hear more,’ she insisted, becoming impatient for the story to get going. ‘Tell me again of the sea creatures in the dark oceans.’

  ‘Gargantuan serpents with many heads of sharp teeth live in the deepest crevices of the murky waters.’

  ‘Do you think they have underwater cities like we do?’ his daughter asked.

  ‘No. I don’t think they are very clever, all they do is eat each other and sleep. There are colossal dragons that can live on both the land and in the sea, capable of freezing anything that moves with their ice-cold breath. Then there are massive ugly fish creatures, of all shapes and sizes, carrying many sets of oversized scissor sharp teeth for tearing their victims’ bodies apart. Enormous octopuses with long spreading tentacles spray burning acids at the many headed serpents. These evil sea beasts have never learned to live side by side and survive only by devouring one another.’

  ‘Oh poppa, they are horrible aren’t they. I hope they never manage to get into our seas, don’t you?’ Bryley shivered at the thought of what these monstrous creatures must look like.

  ‘Let’s not forget that you have a King as a grandfather. He’ll make sure that they never come anywhere near our cities,’ her father assured her. ‘Now then, to continue. Before the Magic Wall was created, to separate the Light Side of the world from the Dark Side, many of these sea beasts could also fly and they roamed around the whole of the world with ever increasing appetites, consuming both land and sea creatures. Then there was a great battle between the sea serpents of the Dark Lands and the fire breathing dragons of the Light Lands. This battle was ferocious and nearly caused the end of the gentle Light Land dragon race. But there lived a great human mage and his intervention with powerful magic prevented the evils of the Dark Side from engulfing all of Aarabassa’s lands and oceans.’

  ‘Poppa,’ Bryley often interrupted the tale telling with never ending questions in search of knowledge, ‘do you think there may be one of them left in our oceans? Perhaps he hides deep down.’

  ‘Absolutely not.’ This was one answer he was confident of the truth. In his position as Prince of the Oceans he knew much of the politics of both land and sea and would be one of the first to know of any evil presence.

  ‘Now I want you to think about the warmer and calmer emerald green seas of our Perivvian Ocean. The sea creatures in these waters are also cold blooded but they manage to live together in much better harmony. That isn’t to say that they don’t feed upon each other for survival, because indeed they do. The huge whale eats the tiny plankton. Giant fish, with many rows of large sharp teeth, eat the smaller vulnerable fish. Enormous octopuses spray deadly inks. But within this ocean there exists an intelligent ruling race of sea creatures known as the huphins, who, so legend tells, originate from a combination of humans and dolphins.’

  ‘That’s us. We are the strong leaders aren’t we?’

  ‘Yes Bryley. We have the equal intelligence of any ruling land creature and we live by a complex set of rules, not very dissimilar to human civilisation.’

  ‘Poppa I don’t feel like a dolphin or a human, in any way at all.’

  ‘We aren’t the first of our kind, my little Bryley,’ her father patiently explained. ‘We’ve evolved greatly since the beginning. So, shall I go on to the legendary tale of how our magical race originated or shall you bombard me all night so you have no adventure to dream about?’

  ‘Please do poppa and hurry before momma comes and tells me it’s sleeping time.’

  ‘And so it goes that thousands of suncircles ago there lived a human mage called Quintim Terchey, who’s special magic skill was to heal. Many human mages are capable of living prolonged lives by using their magic but healers in particular can achieve the longest, free of any sickness or diseases.

  Quintim had made a whistle out of shells and whenever he played it by his sea cave entrance, a beautiful blue shimmering dolphin came and entranced him with her clever dancing skills. He came to know her name as Lillyanna and they came to know each other well. They learned to communicate with their Mindskills. He fell madly in love with this Lillyanna and asked of her permission for him to use his magic so that they could become one. By transforming the upper half of her body similar to that of a female human and also attempting to create two limbs on the lower half, her body became similar to a female human with the exception of the many fins and gills that she still needed for when she lived under the waters. However, she was only able to shuffle along slowly upon the land, as a large membrane joined her legs right down to her webbed feet, so walking was not an easy task but could be done with a little patience. Quintim had all the patience in the world as their love for each other deepened.

  Lillyanna could not stay upon the land for any great length of time and likewise he could not live down in the waters, so one moonwake they swam into the depths of the ocean bed and he created a magic bubble, whereby they could both breathe. The bubble contained no water and there was no gravity pull within the membrane but they could both move around by sort of swimming within the dry air.’

  ‘That’s just like now poppa. That’s how we get around our city, so things haven’t changed that much, have they?’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose they have in that respect. This was the foundation of our way of life below the deep seas. The bubble slowly became bigger and better and they lived happily for many more suncircles. Quintim never desired to be parted from Lillyanna so he accepted living this way. The only time they were forced to part was when she had to go find food, but she never left his side for long.

  Well now, eventually other sea creatures began to notice this odd pair living on the ocean bed in their bubble and even sea creatures like to talk, so word soon spread amongst them..’

  ‘Poppa,’ Bryley asked with a tired yawn, ‘do you think that if those sea creatures had kept quiet, then the two of them would have been safe?’

  ‘Who knows my Princess? If the next part had not happened, then our race may not have been created.

  ‘I suppose that’s true but I can’t help feeling sorry for them. They loved each other so much.’ She rubbed her eyes determined to hear out the end of the story.

  ‘Well. Remember that this was the time when there was no Magic Wall separating the Dark Side from the Light Side and the monshaad creatures soon heard of this tale.’

  ‘This is the bit that scares me. I don’t like the thought of creatures that are full of gasses that can poison us all.’

  ‘But they cannot my sweet because they are imprisoned behind the Magic Wall, don’t ever forget that. We will cover that story another time but you know full well that they cannot harm us. Now then, in the time when they were free to roam the world, they believed that if they captured the magical human-dolphin then perhaps they could work out how to transform themselves from their foul gas form back into some type of solid being. They set about to capture her by sending the cold-water serpents into our warm seas. Once the serpents had fo
und them, they crashed into the magic bubble with all their might, but the bubble would not be broken. Unfortunately, this also meant that they were trapped within. So, the monshaads instructed the serpents to make an agreement that would allow the human-dolphin to take her Mate up to the land where he came from but then she must meet with them to discuss her own fate.

  Quintim was growing old with all his skills of magic weakened. He could not rid them of the evil serpents that were on constant guard outside of their home. Time passed by and the two lovers’ neared death with every moment. Desperate, Lillyanna faltered and left their home, swimming with her weakened partner to the surface. There she left him, on a small island where he would be safe from the serpents that hunted her. She planned to out-swim them and then return to collect him so that they could continue their happy lives together.

  It was thirty moonwakes before she finally out maneuvered the serpents, managing to escape their clutches. Returning to the island where she had left her beloved, she was horrified to discover only the bones of the human mage. His muscles had wasted through the inactivity within the magic bubble, he could not even crawl to get himself water or food. He had wasted away and died and then birds had picked at his body. Devastated at his death, she buried him and remained on this special island living in a wet cove.

  She lived a sad lonely life until one moonwake she found a male dolphin that had beached himself after being chased through the oceans by serpents. He was seriously hurt and she healed him with her magic. When he was well he refused to leave her and she used her magic to create his body into the same image as hers, other than he was a male.