The Flame and the Dragon

The Master

"Hello? Hello?" Nya called out as she cautiously walked through the castle. She couldn't tell if this place was abandoned or not. If it wasn't, she wanted to find the owners, hoping that they could help Lloyd and maybe provide them a place to stay for the night. What Nya didn't know, however, was that she and Lloyd weren't alone in the castle. Watching from under a table near the entrance was a creature with a body that was composed of lightning and with the form of a white and blue fox, and the other was a small, white yeti.

"They must have lost their way in the woods." The fox said to his companion, barely whispering.

"Keep quiet! Maybe they'll go away." The yeti whispered back.

"Is someone there?" Nya called, hearing the whispers, but she couldn't tell if it was the wind or not.

"Not a word, Jay!" The yeti hissed at his friend when the fox, Jay, looked like

"We don't mean to intrude, but we've lost our horse and we need a place to stay for the night! My brother is ill!"

"Come on Zane, have a heart in an icy chest." He pleaded, looking at the yeti, Zane, like a child having just found a lost puppy. Zane put a hand over Jay's mouth, who promptly proceeded to touch his charged, statically paw onto Zane's hand, giving a nasty, but not deadly, shock. As the yeti yelped and rubbed his sore hand, Jay ran out from under the table and over to the two humans.

"Of course, you're welcome here!" He beamed brightly.

"Who said that?" Nya frowned, looking around in confusion as she picked up a candlestick for light, not realizing that the speaker was at her feet.

"Down here!" He called and when her eyes finally found him, she barely held in a scream and almost dropped the candlestick.

"A talking fox?" Lloyd muttered, his voice speaking automatically, shaking. Nya was frozen from shock.

"I'm not a talking fox! I'm a Raijū!" Jay stomped his foot, rising to his feet insulted.

"Well, now you've done it, Jay!" Lloyd started tickling behind Jay's ears, causing the fox to laugh. He rolled onto his back to allow the boy to rub his belly. As he continued playing with the fox, Lloyd looked over at Zane, more specifically his thick, fluffy fur. Without realizing it, Lloyd reached forward and started petting Zane's white fur with his other hand. As soon as he noticed this, Zane jumped away and swatted Lloyd's hand away.

"Do you mind?!"

"S-Sorry about him, it's just that we've never seen something... like you guy." Nya stammered after finally finding her voice. Zane looked like he was going to say something, but they were interrupted by the sound of Lloyd sneezing loudly. They turned to see Jay jumping away with a look of disgust as he started rubbing his fur against the carpet to get rid of the boy's snot and mucus. Lloyd sniffled, indicating the cold he had caught from being in the rain was getting worse.

"You are soaked to the bone! Come on, warm yourself by the fire!"

"T-Thank you," Nya mumbled, still in shock as she and Lloyd followed Jay towards the den, with Zane running after them.

"No, no, no, do you know what the master would do if he finds you here!" Zane cried as he chased after them, unaware that they were being watched by multiply sets of eyes. "I demand that you stop right there!" He shouted as tumbled down the steps. In the den, at Jay's instruction, Lloyd took a seat on a footstool, and Nya was made to sit in a large chair in front of a roaring fire. "Oh no, no! Not the master's chair!" Zane exclaimed, but he was ignored.

"Well, hello there, beautiful." The troll purred as he took their coats.

"All right, this has gone far enough! I'm in charge here!" He cried, only to almost be run over by the long green snake pushing a trolley with a tea set on it.

"How would you like some tea? It'll warm you up in no time." She smiled as she poured tea into two cups and pushed them into Nya and Lloyd's hands before either of them could speak. "The name's Tox, what's yours? And before you ask, I'm a naga."

"I'm... Lloyd." He replied, momentarily forgetting to breathe, but answered nonetheless, before turning his head to his sister. She was frozen on the couch, with Jay floating around her head on a ball of electricity, waving his blue paws in front of her face.

"Hello? Is she mute?"

"She's in shock, you idiot!" The troll howled. "I'm Ronin, by the way."

"So who are you?" Lloyd smiled at the quiet yeti.

"I am Zane, a yeti with the power to control the element of ice," Zane explained, holding out a clawed hand to Lloyd. Lloyd shook the yeti's claw.

"I'm Lloyd and that's Nya." He smiled at his elder sibling. Though shock was evident all over her face, Nya held up a hand and waved. All of a sudden, the door to the den slammed open and a strong gust of wind blew into the room, extinguishing the fire in the fireplace. Zane dove for cover. Tox began to shake and Jay took refuge from behind Ronin. A giant shadow of some kind of man entered the room. He was on all fours and was looking around in the darkness.

"There are strangers here." His voice rumbled throughout the room and everyone inside.

"Master, allow me to explain." Jay chuckled nervously. "These people were lost in the woods, and they were cold and wet, so..." He explained, but his last sentence was drowned out by the very loud growl of the master. Jay choose to stop and looked down, dejected.

"Master, I'd like to take this moment to say I was against this." Zane suddenly said from his cover. "I tried to stop them, but would they listen to me?" He rambled but once again, the master's growl drowned out Zane. When no one said anything else, the master shot across the room towards the chair where Nya and Lloyd were trembling.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" The master demanded with a feral snarl as Nya started backing up.

"We mean no harm," Nya replied. "My brother and I just needed shelter from the storm." She explained. The eyes left her and the moment they did, Nya felt as if some enchantment upon her had broken, until she realized the master has not even noticed Lloyd until that point. Before she could speak another world, Lloyd's scream pierced the night, followed by Nya's when she felt Lloyd ripped from her arms. Something cold wrapped around her arm, prying them apart harshly.

"Please don't hurt my brother!" She screamed, without thinking. The master's eyes bulged in both horror and confusion before bitterness and humor once again filled them. Harsh laughter spilled from the master's lips shaking everyone to the core.

"Of course, that would be your first assumption, too bad; I was going to be lenient, but since it seems you don't know how to hold your tongue, I suppose you'll need a harsher lesson." The master spoke arrogantly, in a tone that froze Nya's core, she couldn't see Lloyd in the darkness but could hear his tears and trembling. Each one ripped another piece of her apart.

"Zane, put them to bed, now." He ordered, glaring at Ronin, Jay, and Tox. Zane reluctantly nodded and obeyed. Eyes wide, the trio moved to flee, but Zane caught them before they could escape. In a flash of light, the boys and Tox human forms vanished and the three creatures fell to the floor. Again they attempted to dash the nearest door, but the Zane caught them in ice before they could escape. They struggled if only to help their new friends. The master simply snorted at their efforts.

"That's all they'll ever see me as." He muttered in a harsh voice, ceased all of their strugglings. The tone he said it in made it impossible to tell if he was speaking to the siblings or the other four creatures. "They'll only see me as a... a monster" He hissed in a voice of rage and bitterness, before scolding harshly at the trio's loud protests.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" He commanded before flying away dragging his thrashing and screaming prisoners with him, towards the tower. Guilt and remorse poisoned the four creatures. Even Jay could no longer struggle as Zane brought them upstairs to the room they shared for as long as they could remember. The guilt and harshness of their master's tone hurt more than the extremely light punishment ever could. Even worse were Lloyd's screams of terror echoing through the castle until the loud clang of the tower door slamming shut replaced it.

A gloom once again settled over the castle as their master retreated brokenly to his only sanctuary.

A silent shiver of hope was tearing thread by thread that they would ever be free. Or the master's true love would ever come to free their prince from the undeserving and unspeakable fate that was sure to come the following spring...