Dragon Prophecy

The Alluring Eyes

“Hear all sides and you will be enlightened. Hear one side, and you will be in the dark."

“I know you will be here.”

Katerina found his elder brother, Dimitri standing behind her, where he was trying to keep the smirk off of his face. It looked like he wasn't having much success so far.

"You know about this place doesn't mean you can barge in here anytime," said Katerina, and marveled at the fact that she had managed to keep her voice reasonably steady.

"Looking at the frozen waterfall, I think-" Dimitri scratched his head a little with his right palm's forefinger. He peered at her suspiciously from under his impressively beautiful eyelids. "-someone's in a bad mood. What happened?"

"Nothing," replied Katerina.

"Oh, right and I flew." He raised one of his eyebrows and said sarcastically.

"Tell me, Katerina." Dimitri pressed, covering the distance between them.

"I miss her…." Her voice trailed off as Dimitri's eyes softened and enveloped his little sister in his tight embrace.

"I do too, princess. I do." The answer came clear and concise with full of emotions. Kissing her forehead, he added, "But, you know I'll always be at your side, right?"

Smiling at his elder brother, she said, "I know, dadda. But I can't hug you anymore….. you're stinking like you haven't taken a bath in years."

"Which I'm sure was a good idea, considering I stink, let's give my baby sister a long and warmest hug, come here." Dimitri motioned his sister to come closer while she tried to run away from him.

"No, no, no…. No!" Katerina exclaimed followed by her giggles. "Stay away, you old man."

"Five years, Princess. Just five years difference." He glared at her fondly, showing his palm indicating five fingers. "You've always had more heart than sense."

"Why thank you, brother."

"That wasn't intended as a compliment."

"I'm sure it wasn't. Now, don't attack your little sister. She needs to transform the spell, we can't leave until the waterfall starts falling again, right?" Concerned, Katerina let her eyes drift over the frozen waterfall.

"Yes, do it. We don't want our mother glaring at us from heaven, now do we?" Dimitri said, smirking at his sister with a sly smile as their mother always yelled at her when she left the place without changing the things in their original form. Because according to her, they as sorcerers should always try to maintain the balance in nature.

His words hit Katerina like a spear in the chest. She missed her mother a lot. Her thoughts were immediately with one particular lady, who had left her. One lady who showered her daughter with an immense amount of love. One lady who taught her everything.

"No we don't, dadda." Concluded Katerina, only with great effort did she prevent tears from coming to her eyes again.

Turning to face the frozen waterfall, focusing her eyes on it, lifting her left hand, she swiftly waved it downwards, saying, "Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum." Which meant, 'Let justice be done through the heavens fall.'

Dimitri blinked, looking at the beauty in front of him. "You really learnt a lot, little princess. And it's…. it's amazing."

Katerina smiled looking at the awe in his brother's eyes, "Well, learnt for the best."

"That you did." Smiled Dimitri. "Now, shall we proceed? I'm hungry."

Chuckling, Katerina said, "You always are."

Meanwhile, Dragnoves were busy discussing the strategies to make their next move, when while standing beside the waterfall, Zachary had seen it getting frozen, "Adonis!" He yelled to attract Adonis' focus.

With two long strides, "Waterbender". Adonis confirmed the doubt in his King's mind.

"But, Olympia is dead." Zachary said in a brittle voice.

"Maybe, one of her offspring has inherited her powers." Adonis made the most obvious point.

"Definitely, find the waterbender. We don't want any complications in the future. That waterbender might become our greatest hurdle in the war."

"Yes, of course my King."

Within further words, Adonis bowed and left to seek his men.

Zachary looked up at the waterfall as it retrieved its original form; the waterbender who could freeze a complete waterfall, is sure the powerful one, He thought and pledged to find the rarest element controller. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not even in a week or two. But once he found the one, it would get interesting.

A dragon against a waterbender, it would get marvelous.

It had been said, whenever; the darker the night, the brighter the stars. The deeper the grief, the closer the revenge. With that last thought, Zachary Dragnov slipped into dreamless deep slumber.

The sunshine didn't bring anything interesting in Katerina's life, as it was all the same for her, to get ready and leave for training. But, little did she know the day wasn't the same, it was the arrival of the storm in her life.

"Princess Katerina, A very fine young gentleman is waiting for you in the training lawn."

The request startled Katerina out of her peaceful melancholy. She threw the young soldier a questioning look.

"And why would that 'very fine young gentleman' be waiting for me?"

The soldier pursed his lips, but said in reply only. "I do not know about the miscommunication, Princess. But, Prince Dimitri has asked for your presence as he said it is important."

"Okay, I'm coming. You may leave."

"Yes, Princess Katerina." The soldier bowed and left her in the princess chamber.

Leaving, Katerina walked from the corridors nodding at the soldiers who greeted her. When she entered, a hush fell over the assembled trainers and people made way for her as she approached her brother, nodding at her presence.

"What's the matter?" She demanded. "You said it was something important."

"Actually, it is important. You know, we've been eagerly waiting for the trainers who could match your pace in sword-fights, but no-one could ever do that." Dimitri said, morosely. "And the number of trainees has been increasing day by day. It's not very comfortable for you to train every soldier. So, to lessen your work, I found this gentleman who is brilliant in sword-fight as well as other tactics that could be used in war-like situations." He gestured at the young man standing beside her, whose eyes were fixated on Katerina and when she looked at him, the outer world blurred in front of his eyes. Her mouth experienced a sudden, inexplicable lack of saliva.

Her icy blue eyes captured every fine detail, he looked hard. A hard, chiselled face, like carved from the stone, incapable of a changeable facial expression. His dark hair completed his sun kissed skin. And then, finally, there were his eyes…. His dark blue-green-gray eyes, a combination she had never seen. They were dark pools of immeasurable depth, pools you could drown yourself in and never come up for air.

Suddenly, she saw some red flecks in his eyes which vanished at the speed they came.

Weird, She thought.

"Hello, Katerina? Are you even listening to me?"

Katerina shook her head, trying to chase away her wandering thoughts and concentrate, looking at her state, the young man smirked.

"Yes, so I leave you with him and you can test him by yourself. Would that be okay with you?" Asked Dimitri.

Katerina frowned. "But… What about training?"

"There would be no training for today. The soldiers are on patrol." Announced Dimitri.

"Okay."

Without any further ado, the soldiers left for their assigned duties and Dimitri went to notify King Michael about the new trainer.

Eyeing the young gentleman suspiciously, Katerina asked, "Have we met before?"

The question startled the young man, he threw the princess Katerina a piercing look.

"Don't think so. I think I would have remembered somebody that engages in useless conversation."

The reply elevated Katerina's anger, but he managed to control it and said, "I do not mean that we have been formally introduced. I only fancy that I saw you somewhere."

"You didn't," he grunted. "End of the story."

"Maybe. Tell me, soldier, were you never taught to respect other people?"

"I was. Couldn't see the point in respecting you, my princess."

Katerina had to muster all her self control not to twitch at these words. Damnation!

"I'm not your princess, soldier." The wordy slipped out of her mouth before she could process the meaning of them.

"Oh, you're definitely not," retorted the young man with a smirk, "Yet. And I'm not a soldier, I've got a name."

The eyes of Princess Katerina almost popped out of their sockets.

What does he mean by yet? She thought.

"Introduce yourself." Ordered Katerina, holding an authority in her voice.

The young man's eyes turned cold, and said:

"I'm Zachary, my princess."