Battle of Lies

Chapter I

 "You are out here, walking alone and there are two dragons in that tower who could easily kill you," Rodalya said.

"I'm not alone. I'm with you," Silus said, smiling.

"Who says I'm not on the side of the dragons?"

"You win," Silus said, putting his hands up, conceding to what Rodalya had said.

Rodalya and Silus had been doing this kind of banter for several days now. Rodalya grew up in a tower with two maternal dragons. These dragons were the last in all of Æshenoia. Silus grew up in a human village, but he didn't really fit in that place. He found comfort in the forest and met Rodalya while in the forest, which took him out of his comfort zone. Rodalya and Silus immediately became friends, seeing as neither one of them had someone their own age who they got along with from where they each came from. Rodalya loved her dragons but it gets boring after being with them for all sixteen years of her life.

When Rodalya was young, her parents were killed in an attack led by the Luxillian army. They were trying to protect the last thunder of dragons. The last of the ancients. Rodalya vaguely remembered the scream of her mother as she was pierced in the heart with a Luxilian sword. Rodalya had been just six months old on that fateful day. Her parents sent her off with the two maternal dragons she has grown to love. She had been marked by a Luxilian sword. A scar pressed upon her cheek to remind the dragons and herself that Luxilios would be after them until all dragons were dead.

Silus, however, didn't have a crazy past. He was born where he grew up, in his parents' cottage. He didn't have a crazy scar when he escaped from the army. He didn't grow up in a tower with too many rooms. All he had was the forest and all he needed was the forest.

"When will I get to meet the dragons?" Silus asked.

"I don't know, things just seem to be getting more and more dangerous for them... and for me. Soon, I won't even be allowed outside the tower."

"When that happens, I will go straight up to that army and change their minds. I will make them think dragons aren't bad."

"I know you will. I wish humans couldn't be so cruel. I wish we could be like the dragons. Kind, caring, brave, wise. I wish humans were like that. Not greedy, not selfish, not cruel."

"Not all humans are like that. Some are kind, and caring, just not in our kingdom. Think about the Land of Outcasts. I am sure there are some kind people there. They are just misunderstood."

"Sure..."

Silus walked over to a log and sat down. Rodalya had stopped and watched him as he kept walking.

What did he mean by that? Sure, you shouldn't judge people by where they come from or how they look, but still. What did he mean? Rodalya thought.

Rodalya watched as Silus' raven black hair blew back in the wind. His gray eyes glinted in the sun as the light hit them just right. Rodalya smiled.

How can I have a friend like him? Who am I to be blessed with someone like him? Rodalya thought.

Rodalya sat down next to him and rejoiced at the feeling of the sun on her neck. Her brown wavy hair was pulled up as it always was. Silus looked at the girl, who had sat down next to him.

She's beautiful, but how do I tell her that? How do I show her how I really feel? Silus couldn't help but admire her. She hadn't seen what the world was like. She hadn't seen just how cruel humans were and how much crueler the earth treats humans. Rodalya was kind; she didn't need to see all that horror. All Silus had wanted to do from the moment he had met Rodalya was cover her eyes and not make her have to watch the world and its horrors go by.

"Rodalya, those dragons, you have yet to tell me their names?" Silus asked. Rodalya looked at him and sighed. She had been taught the ways of dragons. She knew how to kill swiftly and speak draconic. Her dragons' names are in draconic meaning she would have to say them in draconic.

"Very well, the magenta pink and spotted blue dragon is named." She said the draconic name in draconic then translated, "Nymisi in human, and the blue and green dragon is named." She said another draconic word that sounded very similar to the first, but there was a slight difference. Rodalya put more emphasis on the final sound, like pop and slosh mixed together, "Xyvrel in human."

"Those sound like complicated names."

"I grew up saying those names. They were the first words in the draconic language that I ever learned to say."

Rodalya looked up at the top of the tower. She knew that her dragons were resting. That they were at peace in their tower. A safe place for dragons. Rodalya found it odd that the dragons had chosen the kingdom where they were least wanted. They could have gone to Krorale, the elven kingdom. The elves would have surely welcomed them with open arms. Or they could have gone to Osparial. The king and queen welcome all beings, big and small. Rodalya remembered the legend of the fairy and the queen. The dragons had told her the legend several times when she was young. It had always been her favorite.

"Child, do you really want us to tell you the legend again?" Xyvrel asked.

"Yes, yes!" Rodalya said. Nymisi and Xyvrel looked at each other. Xyvrel nodded and began telling the legend of a fairy and a queen.

"There once was a young fairy and a young queen of the Osparial kingdom. These two beings were unlikely friends. The fairy was just a common peasant among her people. She prepared meals for the nobles and knights but gained no recognition. To most she was invisible. While the queen had everything. Beautiful gowns and tiaras. She had everything she could possibly want. She had even married the kindest, most loveable, brave man, in the kingdom. The queen, however, didn't have what most would classify as the most important thing to have. She didn't have a friend," Xyvrel started.

"The queen, one day, got the news that her husband was planning to do something in the kingdom. The queen had not been told this by the king, of course. One of her handmaidens had heard the king talking about this with his chamberlain. The queen knew she needed a spy so she sent for a fairy. As soon as the fairies heard of this, almost every single fairy wanted to spy for the queen. There was one fairy who did not want to spy for the queen unless specifically asked by the queen herself. The handmaiden who had been sent to find a fairy spy noticed this peasant and how she didn't want to help the queen. The handmaiden immediately went back to the queen and told her of the peasant. The queen was surprised but pleased. She wrote a letter to the fairy requesting a presence with her at the castle. The fairy received the letter and went to the castle at once," Nymisi continued.

"The queen set the fairy to work and told the fairy to spy on the king. The fairy did so with pleasure. Wishing to make her queen proud. The fairy listened to the king's conversations. Never did she pick up anything about an event he was planning without the queen's consent. The fairy and queen grew close over this time. The queen decided whatever the king was planning must be of no importance, as the weeks had passed and no information had been revealed. The queen didn't wish to send the fairy away now that the task had finished. The fairy had been such a great friend, someone the queen was in great need of," Xyvrel continued.

"The king had known the queen would send for a fairy spy if he had mentioned planning something without the queen's consent. He had set up a plan to allow the queen to have a friend, especially a friend like a fairy. The fairy and the queen became the best of friends. The king would laugh at the two when they would spend entire days together. The end." Nymisi finished.

"And that was how the first best friends became best friends!" Rodalya shouted.

"Indeed. Now we must finish our chores, child. Go find somewhere to relax." Xyvrel said.

Rodalya remembered that day and how she had run around the tower halls for hours on end before she, finally, settled down. She remembered that day with such detail that she thought it was more than a memory from over 11 years ago like that memory now plays as a dream.