“You are welcome, dinner will be served around seven and if you guys would like something to eat now, you can just let our chef know, he will be more than happy to make something for you.”
“Thank you so much. I would love a long bath.”
She giggled. “Enjoy it, Princess.”
“Elena, please.”
She closed my door as she left and I took a deep satisfying breath as I entered the bathroom and eagerly opened the taps. Warm water filled the bathtub and I couldn’t wait to climb in.
When it was half full I disrobed and lay back down. I felt so dirty after days of washing up in streams, hoping that Blake wasn’t standing near watching me for safety reasons. Who knows what the Rubicon had told him to do.
I felt human again as I soaked. I was so tired and we hadn’t even gotten to the hardest part.
I closed my eyes and could feel my mind drift away. It was peaceful then a flash of a huge creature, one I’d never seen before entered my mind with a small black bird breathing fire at him.
I jolted up and water splashed everywhere. My heart raced as if I’d just run the hundred meters and I was breathing really fast.
What the hell was that?
I CLIMBED OUT and pulled on my jeans, a pair of sneakers and one of my warmest sweaters as the image of the fire breathing bird and a huge dragon had frozen my mind.
I’m just really tired, that was what that was. Why had the bird breathed fire? Were there fire breathing birds that I didn’t know about? What was that creature? It didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
I opened the door and at the same time the one opposite opened too. It was Blake, looking all spick and span wearing a pair of jeans with a long sleeve t-shirt and a black puffy body vest.
I smiled.
“It’s nice to just feel clean again,” he said and smiled.
“It is,” I agreed and we both went downstairs. I found Shelby by one of the other staff members.
“So I take it that both of you must be hungry.”
“Starving,” Blake said with a grunt that made her giggle.
“Come, through here.” She led the way through one of the hallways off the lobby and it opened into a beautiful dining room, set up with a ton of tables. There was a coffee nook which grabbed my attention immediately. Blake sat down at one of the tables just as David entered. They started speaking immediately about the trip and to my surprise, he was friendly, just like he was in our classes. It made me so confused as he always had only short syllable sentences for me, well I was probably to blame too. It wasn’t as if I tried my best to have conversations with him. The Rubicon was another matter. Him I could speak to, he didn’t remind me of Billy and I knew that he’d searched for me, with or without Blake’s approval.
I poured in the milk and sugar, and slowly walked to the table where David took one of the seats. I took the one opposite Blake as Shelby handed us some menus with a few choices.
Blake glanced at it fast.
“Is it going to be too much to ask for everything?” he asked and she giggled again.
“Not a problem, you must be really starving.”
He gave her his super smile, the one that reminded me of Jako, and I really struggled to ignore it.
It still managed to make my stomach flutter just a tiny bit.
“What can I get you, Elena?”
“The stew looks nice.”
She smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.
Blake and David spoke about the trip, about his orbs, about everything. He mentioned that there were two or three scattered all around the world, meaning that he would soon have to leave to retrieve those as well. There were eight in total and what they did, well he doesn’t even know yet.
I guessed it was something that would be revealed when the time was right.
He laughed and joked a lot. It was something I didn’t like as it was this Blake I’d met on the mountains, who’d trained me to become a Rubicon. It was this Blake that had also made me fall madly in love with him then broke my heart into a million pieces.
I was in deep trouble here and thought I should really stay in my room until a meal was ready next time, just to keep my distance from him.
The arrogant Blake, now him, I could dislike very much, but he wasn’t here right now.
The food finally came and I dug in. Blake ate like he’d never seen a plate of food in his life, and before I was even halfway through with mine, he was already finished with the second plate.
David left us when the food arrived and there was an awkward silence again.
When I was done, I pulled out my chair and left.
I went to my room and just sat on the balcony. The buzzing noise the Creepers made in the distance was driving me insane.
It spoiled the scenery of where this lodge was built completely.
After a while, I got up and went back inside. I tried to sleep but couldn’t as I kept thinking about the image that’d woken me up.
Was that a dragon, the Rubicon? It didn’t feel as if it was the Rubicon. I felt fear, real fear for that second, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the fire breathing bird too. It almost reminded me of a crow, but it wasn’t a crow.
What did that mean?
An urgent knock came from the door and I rushed to see who it was.
I opened the door and found Connie, David’s wife. She looked petrified.
“You need to come, now. Something’s happened with Blake.”
I closed the door behind me as she ran down the hallway. I followed her.
“We think he’s just gotten his first glance into the future.”
“What?”
“He spoke in tongues and his eyes turned crystal white.”
“What did he say?” I asked as we ran down the stairs.
“Something about a bond that is cast, uhm…” She tried to think. “Into the world of despair and fright, to find the one who can harness the light. Defeat the beast you must or the fate of one heart will turn to dust.”
I lost my breath for a second at her words.
“He was coming to when David asked me to get you.”
I didn’t like that last part.
“There was something else, Elena. The way he said find the one, it didn’t sound like person, more like…I don’t know how to say it.”
“An object?” My mind immediately went to the King of Lions.
“No, not an object. Something else, like a missing ingredient.”
I blew out air as I followed her into the dining hall. Blake was sitting with his face propped on his hand.
“Are you okay?” I asked. He didn’t look up. All of them looked worried.
“Blake?”
“Just give him time, Elena. He said he’s experiencing one mother of a headache.” David answered on his behalf. I sat down on the chair opposite him again and waited for him to regain himself.
He looked up. “Tell me again, what it was I said?”
“After the true bond has been cast, they will need to find a way past. Into the world of despair and fright, to find the one who can harness the light. Defeat the beast you must or the fate of one heart will turn to dust.”
He didn’t look at me, just stared at the table.
“The one,” Blake said quietly.
“It didn’t sound like a person, Blake. It sounded like…” David struggled to find the missing world.
“An ingredient,” Connie said.
“Exactly that, an ingredient.”
Blake shook his head. “Any ideas?”
David shook his head.
“What did you see?” I asked him.
“I can’t remember, it was all a big carousel of things. The only thing I saw was a beast with a fire breathing crow.”
I looked at him, really looked at him.
He finally looked at me too. “What is it?”
“I saw that earlier today. While I was taking a bath. The image just flashed through my mind. It was scary, I’d never felt
that kind of fear before.”
“Me neither,” he said. It was the one thing I remembered, the fear.
I got up. “This is a mistake, we should not even be thinking about doing this.” My father’s promise just became clear.
“Elena, we have no choice. Most of the people standing in this room have a loved one behind Etan. You were born in Etan.”
“I know what I sound like Blake, but that image scared the living hell out of me.”
“The brave aren’t called the brave because they weren’t scared, Elena, neither the courageous, nor the heroes. All of those people written in history have one thing in common: fear, and plenty of it, but that is when true courage shows itself.” He sounded so damn smart which I hated.
“You risked your life inside the Sacred Cavern knowing that not everyone comes out.”
“Yes, because I believed I could do it with all my heart.”
“And Irene said we would.”
I started to laugh. “Until you said one will die the other one not.”
“If we don’t find the missing ingredient…”
“You know what it is, where to even start looking for it? We have no freaking clue, Blake.”
“It will come, I have faith,” he said, got up and left the dining hall.
The way everyone looked at me made me feel ashamed of what I’d said.
“I’m sorry, I know what I must sound like.”
“Don’t, none of us will ever know what it feels like to have this sort of destiny hanging over our heads, Elena. But Blake is right, you only need to find the missing ingredient.”
“You make it sound as if it’s flour and a dash of vanilla extract. We don’t even know what it is, David.”
“I have faith too. It will come.”
“I don’t even know how we are supposed to get past the Creepers.”
“That will come too, just be patient,” David said as he got up and left the dining hall.
I went back to my room. I really felt so bad for my little outburst about not wanting to do this.
I remembered my father, the way he’d spoken to me during my ascending. He had been alive then. I didn’t even know if he was alive now.
I should’ve never made that promise to him. It had made me doubt myself so many times and now, I had no idea how I was going to do this.
I crawled into bed, not even caring about dinner, and just thought about that flash, something we’d both seen. Why I’d seen it first, I had no clue.
It was imprinted in my mind and I fell asleep thinking only about it.
I dreamt about the vision too, it was as if it was a photo in my hand. Then it came to life. The picture changed and my view got bigger, not the picture, but it was as if the camera moved in and I started realizing what I was seeing. A long serpent-like body, smallish wings, four tiny paws and a long beard. It was an elemental dragon, but it didn’t look like Herby, or Dusty, Tornado or Kirby. This was something different. It was one I’d seen before. Then I saw the crow but it wasn’t a crow, it was the Rubicon.
WOKE UP and for a second I couldn’t remember where the hell I was until I remembered that awful mountain and my almost death of climbing it, while being attached to Blake. Then came the memory of that horrible mermaid that had almost drowned me while he searched for his stupid orb and then the picture of the Elemental dragon or what I assumed was the Saadedine, with Blake the size of a fire breathing crow. We were never going to beat this if we didn’t find that missing ingredient.
Still, Blake had saved my life twice now, because the Rubicon had given his Dragon Oath. It kept reminding me of those times in Professor Pheizer’s class. Our bond was so different from all the others, so, so different. I saw Blake as if he was the Keeper of The Rubicon, trying to keep us apart.
I saw it in his face yesterday too, he was worried. I didn’t know if it was about the first part, After the true bond has been cast, or that one of us was going to turn to dust part, maybe both.
Me, I didn’t care anymore, I knew how it felt when I thought that I’d killed him. I couldn’t live like that. Paegeia needed the Rubicon. The only thing they needed from me, was my blood, and that I could donate.
It had been so clear about what it was he was afraid of, until he had spoken those words of bravery and courage. He made me so confused.
I flung my arms over my head and I stretched my body as hard as I could. The bed was soft and perfect. I didn’t want to get out, but I had no choice.
I got up and got dressed before I went down.
I found David and Connie in the dining hall. Both smiled at me.
“Breakfast, Princess?” Connie asked. “How did you sleep last night?”
“Like a log,” I lied, “and it’s Elena, please. Breakfast would be nice.”
I sat down and looked around. There was no sign of Blake at all and I thought that he must’ve been exhausted from this journey, or he didn’t want to look at me after seeing that horrible scene. Still he had no idea what it meant and I had to tell him.
Connie placed a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns right in front of me. “Bon appetit,” she said.
“Thank you, it looks delicious.” I dug in but halfway through I just couldn’t take another bite, so I started trying to make conversation, speaking about the Creepers, and how these people could have stayed so close by, tolerating that humming noise.
We talked for almost an hour. When I realized Blake was still nowhere to be found I started to get up.
David smiled. “He left early this morning with a backpack and promised fish for tonight’s dinner.” He smiled as if he could read my mind.
“He went fishing?” I said with a raised eyebrow. It didn’t sound like the Blake I knew.
David started to laugh. “Dragons are good at fishing, it’s also soothing and something guys like to do just to clear their minds and to get away from dark foretellings. It’s calm too, really soothing for the spirit. I don’t know how you can live in the city. I’d miss the stars at night and the quietness. Nope, I’m happy right here.”
I smiled.
“Is it safe to go for a run?” I asked and David started to laugh. “The opposite direction of the Creepers is usually the safest.”
I laughed too. “Thank you, I’ll remember that.”
I got up, ran to my room and put on a pair of sneakers, my running shorts and a sports jacket that had a hoody.
David was right, a couple of miles away from the buzzing noise that the Creepers made, it sure was peaceful. I didn’t love the many trees that seemed to be Paegeia’s thing, but I loved the open sky.
I ran on a road that led past the forest and came to a small village that made me miss Annie and for some reason Charles and August. I prayed that they would be fine one day and wished that I could just find that stupid village on the map.
The buzzing of a flea market came up ahead, and I could hear people shouting out orders that the customers wanted. It was so alive, so different from the flea market run by people without hopes and dreams in Eikenborough.
I put my hoody over my head so that they wouldn’t recognize me.
Blake had done so many interviews the past two weeks since Irene told us it was time, it was now or never to find a way into Etan.
To be honest, I was shit scared, scared of facing those Creepers, just scared of what I would find in Etan.
Were the people still alive at all? Their supplies must have run out by now, I was sure of it, but then again, they had part of the ocean and a large part of forest, and all those landscapes I’d seen in Lucille’s lounge when they had the remembrance program playing. A show that nobody wanted to look at anymore as they had all lost hope of freeing the people on the other side.
Well, I had to go and change that too, and now I was stuck with this destiny that scared me to death.
I’d promised my father we wouldn’t free Etan. A promise that I’d regretted so many times, but today, I was selfish, we were so close and
I didn’t know if I had the courage to go through with it, even if Blake was right next to me.
He was plenty of nasty, but if he was one thing it was brave. He was bestowed with it as a baby dragon and he didn’t own a hair of fear on that head of his. Well he feared, but it lasted only a few minutes and then it was as if he just made peace with it. If only it was so easy to make peace between us.
It was a relief but then again it was my curse too.
I didn’t know how we were going to make this arrangement work, not a clue.
I walked past the first stall that sold dairy products, the next had fruit and poultry. It carried on and on. They had all sorts of selections and stalls that sold various things.
I found another road past the last row of houses and started to run up it. I steered clear of going inside the forest and ran on the path right next to it again. The rushing sound of water made me stop and look past the trees.
David never said anything about a waterfall. I knew there was a lake somewhere as Blake apparently loved fishing, but that was all he’d said.
Curiosity, like always, overcame my fear and before I knew it I’d moved through the huge tall trees toward the rushing of the waterfall.
Past a couple of other trees the view just opened up. I stared at the most beautiful waterfall I had ever seen. It looked like it belonged in a travel magazine.
It took my breath away.
My eyes caught on something standing in the water and I found Blake bending over from the waist down, wearing no shirt, with his hands in the water, at a distance.
I squinted as he stood so still, one might say he’d fallen asleep.
My eyes gazed over to the shore and I found a heap of fish glistening as the sun reflected off their scales. I looked back at Blake and sucked in my lips.
I moved closer on the rocks as quietly as I could so that I didn’t wake him, if he’d fallen asleep on that spot. Not that it looked very comfortable.
“What are you doing?” I asked and he grunted as his hands dove fast into the water.
My mouth literally hung open as I saw something else in the water splashing for dear life. Then with one scoop he brought it over his arms in a swift motion and another fish landed on the heap.
Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) Page 39
