the great war was coming to an end. Many lives were lost, on both sides, ans it all came down to the war on Ealleamire field. Both sides, oblivious to Imbroloth’s betrayal, thought that at the climax of the battle, Imbroloth would come to their aid. But when the war was fought, when both sides of the battle had taken great blows, Imbroloth’s army appeared. Many converted men and Nullroth led the Elwren and the Truists that he was on their side. But when the enormous army attacked, both sides were fought. That’s when the two warring peoples decided to put their forces into one, with the Sybeal taking up the flank. Their combined armies were insurmountable, and soon the children of Imbroloth fled back to the pits where they took up refuge. During that time, thought to be the greatest time in the history of Falacia, the Peace came. And all was good, like the times before men and free will. It carried on for several millennia, as both sides stayed separate and out of the affairs of others. And all memory of Imbroloth faded, and peace and hope flourished. But all the while, Imbroloth was poisoning the minds of the Nullroth, creating in secret his own land, the barren wastelands of Orkheminas. The sides were oblivious to his progress, so did nothing. The Ienile, during this time, moved and settled down in other part of Falacia. The dragons, as nature intended years before the feud, did their Migration depending from where they lived. If they were north in Greyhathen, or south in Lenalaban, they made homes in both parts. The Nullroth were less hostile, and, though the proud dragons did not acknowledge it, made and built wondrous things, as well as create vaccines for the diseases that plagued the land. The world was at peace, and the dreamer all the while slumbered.

                                                            - excerpt from the book of Yivyne

 

   After the enormous breakfast, which consisted of only non meat products (I was okay with that), we proceeded to the grand hall. I thought that the hall we were in was the grand hall. But the real grand hall was so big, they had built it inside the actual mountain. When we tried to enter, a guard said,

“those clothes are not appropriate. The lord has had these prepared for you.” the guard handed us a few piles of clothes. We went back to our rooms to change. “Man, seriously, there’s no way I’m wearin’ this.” James said as he held up a frilly shirt from his pile. When he took his shirt off, I could see that he had many scars and bruises along his back. “Ouch,” I muttered under my breath. I looked at my clothes. Basically, a frilly shirt, a vest, an over coat, some pants and shoes.

 “Hey Naru, why don’t you have any?” he smiled. “I said those clothes offended my people and their religious beliefs. Dumb sucker.”  “But... but...” James stuttered angrily. Naru walked past him. “I know! We’re the same religion! Crazy! I guess he didn’t know the whole, Ienile thing. Though luck, Cap’n Peg-leg! Arrgh!” Naru was dressed in the rag shirt and baggy pants he had on when he first saved me. “B-but that’s not fair!” James shouted. “Ah, well.”  James was muttering and cursing under his breath.  “Well, we only have to wear ‘em for a few hours.” “Yeah, I guess your right. But why this stuff? I look like a friggin’ pirate!” I laughed. He really did. We walked down the long staircase again. When we reached the door to the grand hall, the guards began chuckling at our clothes.

“Watch. This is gonna be hilarious.” he said. He walked up to one of the guards, and growled. His sharp teeth appeared as his lip curled up in a snarl. A cloud of smoke flew from his nostrils, and blackened the guards face with ash. The guard’s boots shook noisily with fear. He was petrified. The guard could barely move. But I noticed that the red point at the end of James’ tail was pretty sharp, and it inched toward the bag of money on the guards belt. He held his hand below the bag, and his tail cut it loose silently. The guard was too terrified to notice. James hid the bag in one of his pockets. We walked past the guards, and the one James stole from was still shaking. We chuckled noisily under our breath. When we were well in the huge hall, I could barely hear the guard shout,  “Stop! Thief!” James cracked up. It was a while before everyone was seated, and there were thousands of people. They were all dressed elegantly, but they were all human.

“ORDAH, ORDAH,” said a scrawny, tall man at the front of the room. He was at a podium. I remembered Entheen again. My heart seemed to rip. PRESENTIN’ THA HONORABLE, LORD MENNREK!!”  The crowd rose in applause, and the fat man waddled out. He raised his hand, beckoning for silence. The crowd

obeyed.

 “I suppose you all know why we’re gathered here,” he said. “We are gathered here to discuss on of the most important events of our time.” James whispered in my ear,  “Watch this.” he cocked his head to the side, and looked up like he was thinking really hard. He put his thumb to the side of his mouth, and pushed hard. Eventually I heard a small pop. He rolled something around in his mouth, and spit it into his hand. It was a long, sharp tooth. “Ugh, dude! That’s awesome!” I whispered loudly. Mennrek rambled on loudly. “Didn’t that hurt?”  He shook his head. “I have about three hundred of ‘em, and it’ll grow back by tomorrow.” He put it back in his mouth, and took aim. With FWOOP, he spit the tooth at Mennrek. It whistled through the air, and hit his forehead loudly. “-And so, my father said to me,” whup!  “Ow! Who threw that!” We tried to look as innocent and solemn as possible. When he started talking again, we cracked up. The fat man’s eyes darkened. “It seems I must continue to more serious matters.”  We stopped laughing.

 “What’s he talking about, ‘serious’?” James shrugged. He looked as confused as I did. “The time of peace is coming to an end.” We both shut up. “As you all know, times are changing. Imbroloth has been scourging small towns along the Aerwind Coast, as it says in the holy book of Yivyne.” he looked around. “We have in our knowledge that they are still searching. If we want to retaliate in time, we have to keep it that way. We have a caravan in the wood of  Black Bark, carrying the one they are looking for.”  I was confused. “I thought you said that I was-!” I whispered.  His suddenly looked nervous. He put a hand over my mouth before I could finish. He looked around. “Shut up... don’t you think that Imbroloth has set spies? It’s not safe to have him know you’re here. This will send the troops searching into Dashona, where they will be countered by Mah’rhi.” “Oh.” 

The fat man continued speaking. “When they reach their sanctuary, they will be kept there until another caravan picks them up from there.”  I realized that they had made a plan simple, but fool-proof. Almost fool-proof, anyway.  “If any of you were to disavow this information, we would all perish at the cloven hands of Imbroloth. And we would fall into a darkness that would consume us all.”  The fat man’s eyes suddenly brightened. “But until then, a festival of The Finding of The Son!”

 The crowd erupted into applause. “That was a weird change of mood. Ah, well. Let’s go change. I think I’m chafing.” James said loudly over the roar of people. “Ugh, didn’t need to know that.” but I followed him. In the room, I asked him something that had been bothering me for a while. “Hey, why do you have such a human name? If it offends you, don’t answer.”  He turned and said, “I’m that sensitive, huh? But James isn’t my full name. It’s really, um, don’t  tell anyone, Gajamesaheanoelianius.”  I stared. “Seriously?” he nodded, scales turning red again. “Yep. It’s my full name, but it don’t exactly roll off the tongue. I shortened it. But whenever I’m addressed properly in Lernalaban, that’s my name. Ughh...” he shivered. But then he laughed. “What’s so funny?” I said. “Nothin’. Just thinkin about Ace’s name.” “Who’s Ace?” I asked. Such a strange name, I had never heard of it before. “A friend of mine. His full name, don’t laugh too hard, is Naridiaceaneaceiuminius!” I was on the floor, holding my sides. It doesn’t sound as funny now, but I almost blacked out from laughing then.

“HAHA, are you serious?!! AHA!!”  “Yeah. He was the one that thought of shortening names officially. Before, it was like a curse. Afer we got changed (again I noticed the painful looking scars), we got our clothes together and went downstairs. “Well, after this, we go to Lernalaban, right?”  James nodded.

“Yep. You stay there for about three years-”  “What?!” James knew already apparently. “What? You can’t expect us to protect you all the time, do ya? You stay there learning how to fight, but don’t worry, me and Naru are comin’, too.” “Why do I have to go there? Can’t I learn here?”  Suddenly, James looked furious. “What? You don’t wanna learn there? Not good enough?”  Now that I really though about it, James was huge. He could break my head by punching it. And now I offended him. Again. “No, no, uh, I mean yes, um,..” I stuttered nervously. James suddenly laughed and doubled over. “You shoulda seen your face! AHAH!” I sighed in relief.

“No, but seriously. Compared to the Artagian army, about twenty thousand, the Lernalaban army, about three thousand, is tiny. But we’re undefeated. Why do you think that is?” “Uh, because you breath fire? Heheh...”  James’ eyes narrowed. “No. We are undefeated because, even without weapons, we can still take down armed opponents. Hell, even without fire, we can still fight back. And people are gonna be attacking you. A lot of people. And sometimes, we aren’t gonna be able to be there all the time. So your gonna have to learn to fight like I did.” I liked the idea. When we got outside, I told James, “ya know, I kinda feel sorry. Why do you guys have to carry us? I wish I could fly...”  “And you can.”  My jaw dropped. “I can?!” “Yeah!” he said whimsically. “All you need is a pinch of fairy dust, and to believe in yourself!” he cracked up, holding his chest. He looked near tears. “Very funny.” I growled angrily. As we walked down the hill, I could still hear him laughing. This was worse that the comrade thing. When we met up with Naru, tears were rolling down his face.  He was still laughing. “What’s with him?” Naru asked. “Nothing. Just drop it. Please.” James leaned on my shoulder. “Aw, c’mon! That was brilliant! AHA!” when we tried to get past the guards, they stopped us.

“Um, the lord has requested that you use his zeppelin. “What’s a zeppelin?” I asked Naru. He shrugged. The guard led us to a huge area. We waited, and nothing happened. “What are we waiting here for?”  Suddenly, silent as a cloud, an enormous blimp floated down. The balloon part seemed to be stitched together, when the cabin was as big as a brigand without sails. It had the words Cygnus ne Therosima. “What does that mean?” I asked the guard. “It means, Swan of the sky. We tried to tell Mennrek, I mean Lord Mennrek, that it was a little redundant, but he said he liked it that way. I know, I was confused too.” the guard said as he left. A rope ladder fell out of an opened door. “I think we gotta climb that,” I told James. “We? What we? I don’t climb anything!” he said as he opened his wings. He and the other dragons flew into the door. “Show off.” I mumbled. I climbed up the rope, and was amazed by what I saw. It was like a smaller version of the reception hall, but there were doors leading to individual rooms, and they were still pretty elegant.  “Wow.” I said. “I know. I’m finally gonna fly without getting tired!”  That made me think of something. “But is this thing fast?”  “Have you ever seen these things when they go fast?” he said incredulously. “No. Are they fast?” “I dunno. I was asking you.” I went to look in my room. When I looked under the bed, there were a bunch of boards under my bed.

“Huh. That’s weird.” “What’s weird?” James said. “There are a bunch of wooden boards under my bed.”  He suddenly looked excited. “Aw, yes!” he yelled. “Angraith! It’s been years!” he shouted. “What’s angraith?” he set the board on a nearby table, and I saw that it folded open. There were a bunch of wooden figures in a drawer that slid out of the box. They were colored orange and blue. “Angraith is this tactical game that was invented by Lernalaban. I don’t normally like tactics, but this game is fun. See, different pieces stand for different ranks.”  He folded the board open again, and there were tiny black and white boxes painted on. It was almost as big as the table. “This guy,” he said as he held up an elaborate piece, “is a general. If this guy dies, since he can move the whole board in any direction, his second in command, this guy, can only move half the board in any direction.”  The rules were pretty complicated, but I caught on quickly. James was pretty good. In an hour, he had half my army in his possession. “Wow. I’m not that good.”  I expected him to rub it in my face, but he was mature about it. “Don’t worry. It’s your first time. I beat Naru at his first time, too. But he was a sore loser.”  He cracked an embarrassed smile at Naru, who he realized was right behind him. Naru slammed his door. “See? I told you.”  Time really flew by. Before I knew it, it was dusk, and we were well over the ocean. “Let’s take a break for a while,” James said. What he really meant was, ‘c’mon, I’m getting tired of beating you.’  But I agreed. I jumped into my bed and fell asleep.