The Dragon's Fight

Chapter 8

-Laelia-

This was it … it couldn’t be it. We needed the nymphs. Without them, then what were we going to do?! This couldn’t be it. I refused to believe it, but how could I deny what was right in front of me? I looked at the woman in front of me, who just watched me with those water-blue eyes.

“You are disappointed,” she said.

It was not a question. She could see I was. I really had expected more. For some reason in my mind, I had seen an army of them, an army I had hoped could help me conquer back my throne. I sighed, closing my eyes, as I felt myself drained of energy. What the hell did I do now?

I looked at the woman again, slowly nodding.

“I had hoped … for an army,” I told her.

That just made her smile, almost cruelly, before she started to move back, so she walked on the surface of the water. How did she do that?

“Sorry to disappoint.”

No, she wasn’t. She might even be happy, there wasn’t an army for them. It meant they had even less of a reason to help me.

“What do I do now?” I asked.

The nymph continued to study me for a while. I just looked at the water she stood on. It looked like she was standing on the moon, which was reflected on the surface. Quite a magical sight, yet I still felt defeated. I would not get any help here.

“We might not be an army,” she said, making me look at her. “But we can help.”

“You will help me? Why? You made it quite clear, you didn’t want to,” I said.

“You are … different. You have a hidden strength in you, and I am not talking about the dragon you carry.”

I looked down at myself, placing a hand on my flat stomach. How had she known? But I was not about to ask, all I needed to know was how she could help me.

“I can show you your future,” she said, and turned to the water beneath her.

I looked at her before looking at the water.

“It will tell me if we will win?” I asked.

“Maybe, or maybe your uncle will win,” she said.

I gulped. Did I want to know? I took a step closer to the water, just as I felt like I heard voices again, but this time clearer, and I thought I saw a glimpse of something in the water before I quickly stepped away.

“I don’t think that is a good idea,” I whispered.

“Do you not want to know if you will win over your uncle?” she asked.

“And as you said, I might learn that I won’t. How will that help me?”

She smiled a little before going further into the pool, so she was standing in the middle.

“The future is not set in stone,” she said. “It can be changed.”

“It can?”

She nodded before she waved me closer. I stepped closer to the edge and then she pointed at the water. I looked at it, just as she held out her hand. At first the water seemed to steer a little and then images appeared. The first things I heard were these faint voices, but then there was the sound of a sword being drawn. I could see it in the water, as its dark blade came into view and then a big chain was broken. There was a big roar, and then … Pymyrth showed up.

“So, I do succeed in freeing Pymyrth,” I whispered.

More images appeared. Erika came forth. It seemed like we were going to be meeting soon, but I was uncertain about where. Then Ashes appeared. Mefan. Something was strange about Mefan in this picture. His smile was evil and cruel. Then suddenly, my uncle was there, but he was not alone … was that? King Kegon? And … Ashes’s mother … Oh no! She stood there behind my uncle, smiling at us or maybe at Ashes. Where were we even? Then suddenly I saw a blade being pulled free and then, a gasp … I saw myself. I was the one gasping as I looked up into the air, scared. It was then I saw it. The blade inside of me … then suddenly everything went dark. No more images appeared. I looked around confused before looking at the nymph.

“Wh-What was that? Where are the images? I don’t understand anything!” I said.

The nymph looked colder now, as she slowly lowered her hand.

“There aren’t any more,” she said.

“What does that mean?” I asked, scared. “What happened?! I didn’t see the war. I saw … Why aren’t there more?!”

She just sighed, closing her eyes for a little while before she started to walk further and further back. The shadow-clothes slowly disappeared, as her form changed into the light creature again.

“Wait! What does that mean? What happens to me?” I yelled.

“You die,” she said and changed.

I was about to ask her more, when suddenly the whole world started to spin around, and I couldn’t concentrate on saying or doing anything. I just fell down on the ground, as the world turned and turned before suddenly stopping and …

I quickly sat up, gasping and scared, as I looked around in the dark forest. Where was I? Where were the nymphs? What was it she had said to me?

You die …

No, that couldn’t be true. It wasn’t true! Yet I felt myself shiver, even if there was no wind. I tried my hardest not to crumble from what she had just told me. She said the future was not set in stone, so this was just one possible scenario, right? I tried focusing on that, as I got to my feet. Now where did I go now? I looked around the dark forest, until my eyes seemed to lock on something in the distant. It was some sort of small orange light. I had no other choice than to start walking towards it.

As I slowly got closer, I heard the familiar voices of my brother and Tylon, and I quickly picked up the pace, before I finally saw them. They had noticed me as well, and stood ready to fight what they believed was a stranger.

“Laelia?” Tylon had asked.

I was so relieved to see them, yet my heart was still heavy from the nymph’s words, so instead of saying how happy I was to see them, I said,

“We have a problem.”

***

“Are you certain that is what she said?” Liam asked.

I nodded, as I sipped from the warm soup, Samuel had quickly cooked and handed it to me. Tylon had also wrapped me in a warm blanket, as he sat down beside me, watching me carefully.

“You shouldn’t listen to her,” Samuel said. “We will make sure nothing happens to you.”

I smiled a sad smile at my brother before turning to Tylon. He had said he had met the nymphs before. Had he had his future told before as well? Or was there a different reason as to why he had come here?

“What do you think?” I asked.

He thought over my question for a little while, yet I saw the fear and worry in his eyes. It did not really help calm me down.

“I think it is a good reason for us to be extra careful,” he finally said.

I sighed, looking away and into the fire.

“And a good reason for you not to fight in this war,” Samuel added.

“I didn’t die in the war,” I said.

“How can you be certain?” he asked.

“I didn’t see a war around me. I was in some kind of room, I think.”

“Did you see who hurt you?” Liam asked.

I shook my head.

“No, I didn’t, but it seems like James, and I will share the same death,” I whispered.

“We won’t let anything happen to you,” Liam promised. “You won’t die!”

I smiled at him as best as I could, but I felt no relief from his words. Something about what the nymph had said, and the images I had seen … something told me this future might be set in stone.

“Why did you seek them out?” I asked Tylon.

“I … was young and st*pid, and I was told not to,” he said.

“So, did you ask to see your future?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“No, that was not why I sought them out.”

“Then why?” I asked.

“I was a bit of a conqueror at the time?”

“A conqueror?”

He nodded and I looked at my brothers, who just smiled a little, which soon made me realize what they were talking about.

“Really?” I asked. “You tried to sleep with one of them?”

Tylon nodded and it made my brothers laugh.

“Well, how did you not end up dead?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“I almost did. Nymphs like the taste of flesh and there is always a payment to see your future, but the nymph that almost killed me believed I had a higher purpose,” he said.

“I didn’t pay anything,” I said.

“You might in the future,” he told me. “Or maybe you have a higher purpose as well.”

I sighed, looking at the fire again.

“There were so few of them … maybe a payment just wasn’t needed,” I whispered.

“No one lives forever,” Tylon told me.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means that the time of the nymphs is about to be over.”