Dragon Dance

chapter 15: tenipee

Lusty slightly pulled Reema as he flapped his wings, his body hovered in mid air ,slowly rising higher and higher. 

"I'll bring you home" he said, looking at her purple eyes. 

She knodded and flew with him.  Reema laced her fingers on his and held hands they flew to the sky. 

Wind was brushing against their faces, playing with their hair. Whispering intangible noises in their ears.  The sun was slowly dying low, it's fading light hit thier wings that made their scales sparkle at the edges. They soaked on the faint orange light of the soon gone day. 

"I flew once with a Broom, that wasn't a fun experience, I vowed not to fly again" Lusty giggled looking at their fingers that wrap around each other. 

"I always wanted to fly, but my father said it was too dangerous, I could bump into things I can't see" she said lowly. 

Lusty let out a silent breath and stared ahead. 

"I want to thank you, you changed my life Lusty" Reema looked at him with dear eyes. 

"You changed mine" He look back at her. 

They exchanged small smirks as they tightened their grip on one another. 

Lusty saw a colossal tree at the distance, it casted dark shadows on the ground below them. 

"There!  " he pointed at the tree "the tree of worlds".

They dived down and smoothly landed on the grass meadow near the tree. 

Reema glided down smoothly ,landing on the tips of her toes, she folded her wings, it sunk back into her skin, her horns melted into thin air. 

"How did you do that?" Lusty asked, examining his own horns with his fingertips. 

"Your wings and horns, are a part of you, you can freely control it, just make them sink into your back and it will do what you want" Reema said as she walked to his back and gently guided his wings, pushing it gently into his back. 

Lusty felt his wings slowly sinking into the flesh of his back, his horns melted and vanished. 

Reema breathed slowly and looked around. 

"Is that it? " Reema asked staring at the tree. 

It was a huge tree, larger than the towering pines back at the hut. It had a hundred of branches maybe more, that sprouted in all directions.it had leaves that vary in size ,colour ,and shape from each other,so varied that no two leaves can be deemed identical. Its trunk is greatly rough looking,the dark bark created lines that swirled around the tree. A narrow hole was carved at the trunk of the tree, it was so dark  for no light goes in or out through it. 

"Here" Lusty said, staring at the hole, he stuck his hand out for Reema. She reached his hands and slowly walked closer. 

"Is it the only way to leap from this world to ikalayo? ,what if the tree fell off, wouldn't we be able to Cross worlds anymore ?" Reema asked staring at the blank blackness of the hole. 

"There are more ways to cross worlds, but it's the nearest to us. And this tree has been here for ages ,it's has roots as deep as anyone had ever reached, the forces of nature cant take it down. " he said calmly. 

Lusty slowly dragged himself and Reema into the hole, 

It was total darkness, no sound nor light is present, Reema tightened her fingers around Lusty's arm. 

Lusty pulled her softly, dragging her to a direction they blindly tackled. 

The empty dark world around them seemed to dissolve. The floor melted into nothing and the world around seemed to pop. With that quick pop came a burst of blinding light. 

The light died as fast as it came, there was ground under their feet again. Lusty looked around. 

"We're here"

"Tenipee. Home" she said looking around the stone city. 

Reema studied the place as the entered tenipee. A tall stone arc stood afront them. Like a jaw of a gigantic beast half burried on the ground. Mist covered the ground, hiding thier knees. They saw large Stones. The houses and building were either carved from the gigantic Stones that surrounded them or placed on the steep stone walls. 

A tall tower that seemed to be made out of white stone was place at the very center of the city, rising high above others. A large fire was burning above the tower, pulsing and beating, casting waves of it's light around it. 

"What's that? " he asked. 

"The solaceen. its not supposed to be like that. " she said,  light sparkling at the corner of her eyes. 

"What? "

"The solaceen, represents it's people, it's supposed to burn brighter driving the night away, showering it's warmth and light to us all the time. The solaceen should remain steady and don't pulse " as Reema said it, the solaceen huffed a ring of thick black smoke, the fire grew smaller. 

"We need to find my father"she said agitated looking at him sharply. 

Lusty nodded and Reema grabbed his hand and pulled him into a dark staircase. 

"This will take us to the back of the castle, I've used this many times when I didn't have sight" she said between sharp breaths. 

They reached the back of the castle, Lusty remembered it differently, the tall Hedges were wild and unkept, grass had grew thick that made them slower, and vines had scattered and crawled everywhere. 

Reema pushed the back door that leads to the kitchens to open slightly.  They pushed themselves in, looking around the dark kitchens. 

"The throne room" Reema said still looking around, her eyes jumping from one torch to another that was attached to the pillars beside the walls. 

Lusty followed her, knowing where to go. Reema was almost running which he tried to match and jogged with her.  They reached the dimly lit throne room. It was a very large hall with golden pillars and thick red carpets. White beds had been placed all around the hall lining neatly side by side. 

Reema stood frozen, looking at the beds, Lusty stood at her back, placing his hands on her shoulders. 

Reema slowly sunk lower, kneeling in front of a white bed, a sheet of a white blanket had been draped over someone, 
They knew it was somehow a 'someone" for they can see the draped blanket rise and fall, that someone is breathing. 

Reema slowly pulled the sheet off the bed. The faint light of the torches in the throne room hit the features of the man. He had pale lips and a very severed face. 

Reema's eyes widened, she clapped a hand on her mouth. 

"M… Marto" her lips trembled as she looked at her brother. 

Lusty remembered him as the one who knocked him out on the first night he and Reema met. 

"Marto,  wake up, wake up" Reema whispered to him. Cupping his cheek with one hand, and clapping the other with her other hand. 

He wasn't dead, Lusty was sure, but he doesn't look alive either. 

He pulled a blanket off on another bed and saw a woman, her flesh was missing on some spots that it seemed it have burnt. Lusty touched her neck to check her pulse, she's still alive, but her skin was icy cold.