"Water please..."

My throat is dry. Back in Nair, many people imagined dungeons to be dank, dark and deep vaults below a castle, where prisoners were held – and where the unluckiest among them were tortured. I always thought they were jokes. Tuti trying to scare me. He wasn't though. They were real and I'd been in them.

"Water..."

I'd been brought back to what the prisoner referred to as the Oubliette – or the `forgotten room' – was a punishment worse than being thrown into a castle dungeon. The oubliette was a tiny, vertical shaft which was only large enough for an individual to stand up in. I'm lucky I'm as small as I am. A man any bigger would have had a lot of issues in this dungeon. They wouldn't have been able to crouch down, to kneel, to sit, or perhaps even to turn round in it.

"Give him water. You hear him begging don't you!"

For a moment I think I'm dreaming. I've been in the dark for days on end. Long days. My lips are chapped. I don't know if the shadows in the darkness will kill me before thirst will.

"But the Prince said..."

"We're moving him to another cell. This is a signed order from the Empress Dowager."

It isn't until the door opens that I realize that this isn't a dream or a hallucination. Natasha has finally come. When I see her I grab at her and give her the warmest hug I can muster.

I am crying in her arms like a child for a few seconds before the jailer angrily grabs me by the collar around my neck and moves me to a bigger jail.

"Bringer of flames. That's how it describes you," Natasha states, "No offense...but you don't really look much like a bringer of flames."

"At least I have a new nickname."

"Nik, this isn't funny."

She looks at me as though I should know what the book states. I shrug. The new jail is more like a palace compared to the old. Sure it's dusty and dark but it wasn't the forgotten room. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I should be angry at Natasha that it took her so long to come to see me but I figured she must have been working on getting me a more suitable jail cell.

"I don't know what any of this," I'm stating, "You have to believe me."

Every day the jailer came and asked me what I knew about the Elven articles.

Every day I told him I had no idea.

Every day I was returned back to the darkness screaming and crying for mercy.

I'm more confused than ever. We had made our way North to the Border of where the Wilds meet Nair. There still had been no sign of Maxim. There was no time before the Empire came---most likely looking for the prince----but instead found us with the Elven scrolls. Soon after arriving at the capital I was thrown in jail.

"I believe you," Natasha states, "But I'm not on the Roundtable. My voice doesn't count. Raisa is the only one speaking up for you."

"Raisa gave me away."

"It was---"

"I know. Her duty."

Still, I felt betrayed. I felt backstabbed. A part of me wished I was who they thought I was. A part of me wanted to burn down their cities for throwing me in a jail cell without so much of a trial or anything to go by. I'm not though. I'm powerless.

"Everyone is afraid," Natasha states, "People know about the dragons. Every city north of Nair is fortifying as though a storm is coming. You should see the Capital. You wouldn't even recognize it. Raisa is doing her best for you. We all are. But it's just---"

Natasha loses her words again. It's as though they get stuck in her throat.

I didn't know much about dragons but even I knew that you couldn't fortify if the dragons came. If the dragons burnt our lands. There would be no coming back from that. No matter what they do.

"Someone is gathering those dragons. You know it wasn't me. It doesn't even make sense. I've been in the Capital this entire time. I tried to warn them. They were worried about fuckin' elves!"

Natasha turns away. In the glimmer of the darkness, I see that she's crying from behind the bars. It's unlike her to cry. It's unlike her to show any sort of emotion. I could only imagine how afraid the rest of the city was now that news had spread that I was right. There was something to the Elven articles and an entire army of dragons was going to wipe humanity off the face of the earth.

"We're all going to burn," Natasha whispers as though yanking the thought straight out of my head.

She was here to comfort me but here I was needing to comfort her.

"The capital has dragons."

"The dragons of the Roundtable and maybe a dozen or so lesser dragon knights," Natasha explains, "We don't have an army."

"Ironic," I sigh.

"What?"

"The empire has used dragons to impose their will around the world and now it's dragons that will bring the empire down. Ironic."

Natasha dashes at me so hard I think she'd break the bars separating us in half, "I'm going to assume the darkness is eating your brain right now. Don't be a fucking idiot Nik! Dragons don't care about the Dragonov flag or not. Millions will die!"

"I'm sorry," I sigh in the darkness.

I don't know if she can tell that I mean it. I do. I mean it almost immediately. The anger was getting the best of me. This wasn't about politics. What we saw building up in the Wilds surpassed politics. What we saw was the End of the World with Wings.

Everything will burn. Everything.

I feel so rude for what I said to Natasha. She had family in the Capital, I'm sure. I'd seen them during her knighting ceremony. They were proud of her. It was hard to even get a word in without one of her family members taking her away. To them, being a dragon knight was the greatest gift possible. I didn't have that experience.

Natasha sighs, "I volunteered for a scout mission. I'm going to fly my dragon to the outskirts of the Wilds...see how bad the situation is getting for the Empire. How many more dragons have accumulated."

"Maxim..." I whisper in the darkness.

She nods, "I'll look for any signs of him. We did find one thing today though. Or more like something found us."

"What?"

"The Dread. It was seen flying just south of the city."

It had been missing after attacking Skyscreamer. I hadn't expected it to return. Not ever.

But in the silence when Natasha leaves and the jailer curses at me to stop my whimpering, I do expect the dragon soul to be in there...watching, waiting.

And sure enough...it is. The Dread has returned.

"Quite the predicament you find yourself in---" The Dread states, "I took some time away from you out of anger. Now I see you can barely survive with me. Look at you. In Chains. Would you like me to break you out?"

I assume the cocky, arrogant rant of self-importance is the Dread's way of letting me know that he was worried about me. I look over at him in the darkness. I know the soul is only in my head but it's so real that I can even smell him when he returns. The strong, dark mystique of a man. His gray eyes almost like a wolf glaring at me in the wilderness.

"I don't want anything from you," I respond.

Even if I did it would be pointless. The Capital was a fortress with the dragon threat. A dragon comes barreling in here and they'd attack it with all their force. The last thing I wanted was  to be was responsible for someone's death.

"You're still mad."

"No shit."

"I can't tell. I'm not good at human emotions."

I look back at him. If he wasn't so handsome I would want to rearrange his fucking face. Truth is I didn't know if it was possible with the soul and I wasn't going to ever try it with the actual dragon.

"I apologize," he states.

"You apologize when you forget the day I was born. You apologize when you spill something. You DON'T apologize when you go into a dragon rage, alert a dragon herd and kill an innocent dragon who had nothing to do with you."

"I'm a dragon. That's what we do. We get jealous and we rage. You knew the rules to this. You went out there and you---you..."

He can't even say it.

"Say it."

"You betrayed me," he states.

"I didn't betray you because I don't belong to you," I state.

"You're my paramour. The rules of this are simple---"

He sounds like he's about to explain the rules to me again. In fact, I'm sure he is. He grabs me being aggressive. In my head, or not, he's strong as hell. I would bet money on how real he is when he forces me to the bench so that I'm below him. I think he prefers me sitting down when I speak to him. It's all about domination with the Dread.

I cut him off before he goes off into his rant, "I don't care about the rules. Find another Paramour."

"I don't want another Paramour, I want you."

"What you did in the Wilds. That's not the way to get me..."

"Then how?"

I think I'm losing it when I hear the Dread ask me that. He looks down at me. He's so tall and cool looking all the time. He has that look that nothing bothers him. He looks as though he's above it all. That he has seen and done it all. His skin is youthful and his body is young but his old soul has always been this dominating force. But right now--- at this moment----it seems as though he sounds exactly like he looks.

He sounds like a young man, in love.

I'm almost afraid to ask, "How what?"

"How can I make you love me, the way that I love you?" he asks.

His face is questioning and for the first time since I met the Dread, it seems as though he isn't just staying quiet until he comes up with a smartass rebuttal, but it seems as though he's listening. It seems as though he wants to hear the words that are coming out of my mouth.

"You serious?"

"Clearly I can't do things the dragon way because I just so happened to find the most stubborn dragon rider in space and time to match with. So I'll do it your way. How do you humans do this...thing? How does it work? How do I get you to be mine and mine alone?"

He was asking how to woo me. I want to answer him but honestly, it's hilarious. Maybe it's how serious he is trying to find out how humans did it. Maybe it's the fact that he doesn't even seem slightly aware of how humans got together even though he is probably centuries old. And now he was stuck, lost and confused, asking me to give him the answers.

"I'm sorry," I state laughing so hard I'm in tears, "It's just first off humans don't ask the person they are pursuing how they should pursue them."

"I am the Black Dread, prince of fire and ashes, born from the magma in the crevices of the earth! You don't laugh at me."

It isn't stopping. I know I should. He probably never really got laughed at before and it was all making it worse. The rolling in my stomach as I'm laughing almost sounds like the sound of dragons wings. I fall over tears rolling down my eyes. Tears I don't have because I'm almost dehydrated.

The Dread seems really irritated at this point.

"Fine," he grunts after a few laughs, "Tried to play nice. I'm breaking you out."

"NO WAIT!"

I try to stop him but he's gone in a flash. I expect at that moment to hear a loud thundering sound and horns from the city above me alerting that a dragon was attacking. Instead, I hear a bellow alright but it isn't from any horn. It's from the throat of the jailer.

Soon after I hear a loud thud.

That's when I see a face I thought was long gone.

"Maxim!"

That's when I see Maxim running to the gates with the guard's keys. I'm shocked when he starts shuffling the lock and actually getting me out of the jail. As soon as the doors open I can't help it. I jump in his arms.

"What did they do to you?" he asks.

"It doesn't matter. You came."

"I should have come earlier."

"You're here."

"Of course I'm here," Maxim responds, "I'll always be here for you."

We're still holding each other. I know I look crazy and I should be embarrassed. I probably need a bath. I probably need to clean. There are so many things that I need but right now what I need most of all is his lips pressed up against mine.

I stare at his lips. They are soft billows. He's still holding me in those muscular arms of his. His eyes still staring at me as though he doesn't mind how I look right now. It's as though he only cares about what's inside. As we stand there, chest to chest, I feel him press his hands to the back of my head.

He is leaning me in.

"Enough of that..." a voice states.

The Dread has returned.

"He's here, isn't he?" Maxim states.

I nod, slowly. Maxim takes a deep, calculated breath and steps away from me. He slowly just turns and sighs a little bit. I can tell that he's not expecting this.

"I'm lost," I state, "What's happening?"

"I went to distract the dragons so you and the others can escape. I managed to escape to a huge cave," Maxim states, "Soon after Skyscreamer's soul came to me. I rendezvoused with her and...well, the Dread was there as well."

"The Dread didn't kill her?" I ask.

Maxim shakes his head, "No. He did attack. Startled her real good...but she wasn't hurt too bad thankfully before he managed to control himself."

I turn to the Dread. Why hadn't he mentioned that Skyscreamer was alive before? Then I see the thing I've always seen with the Dread. Pride. He should have killed Skyscreamer or at least that's what he would have done but for some reason, he stopped. For some reason, he thought about it. For some reason, he managed to calm down. And for that moment, in that dungeon, I am the one with pride. I'm proud of my dragon for being able to control himself. If only for a minute.

"You two came to save me together."

He nods, "Our dragons are waiting right outside the city for us."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

~

The sky is moonlit later that night when we manage to escape. The world seems so small here up in the sky. Flying just east of us is Maxim and Skyscreamer. Maxim makes Skyscreamer----probably by force----do tricks through the clouds. The Dread bellows out smoke of resentment whenever they do one. He's clearly not amused in the least bit by Maxim and his continuous attempts to try to impress me. Of course, I know what Maxim is doing. He's trying to woo me. Something the Dread knows nothing about.

That is until something happens when the sky opens up and I feel some sort of green lightning strike.

"What the hell was that?" I'm asking.

I can hear the Dread's voice in my head, "Elven magic."

I'm confused, "What?"

I don't get a chance to dive before I hear, "Hold on tight!"

This green lightning bolt had 11 arms at most, with those arms of lightning splitting into as many as 51 fingers. The green lightning is so close to us! It barely misses us.

The Dread, even with its large size, skillfully ducks through the clouds. It spins through the lightning streams as though they were nothing. I hold on tight feeling the muscular scales of the dragon all around me and honestly I have never felt more safe or protected than on the back of the dread...even with green lightning swirling all around me.

"This is that idiot squire's idea to come here," the Dread state.

By idiot squire, I'm assuming he's talking about Maxim."

We are flying close to the ground. We land somewhere at the edge of some woods. Skyscreamer is right after us.

"Where is here?"

Soon we see things, figures coming out of the woods. They are so dark and fast that I think I'm imagining them. But I'm not imagining it. They are definitely there. The figures are hooded. They quickly scurry out of the woods and I see they have weapons; all manners of spears and staffs. Their faces are long and their bodies much thinner than most of the knights I'd been used to in the Dragonov Fort.

That's when I see one come out of the woods. They speak a strange language to us. I'm not sure what they are saying.

What I am surprised at, is that Maxim responds...in the same language.

That's when I see a few of them lower their guards to whatever Maxim says. It is as though it calms them somehow. What I see however shocks me. They have pointed ears.

"He wanted to go looking for the elves," the Dread explains, "Seems like the elves have found us."

~

The feeling of being lost in translation is so strange as I follow Maxim and the elves deep into the forest. For some reason, they seem more surprised to see me here than Maxim. The elves whisper in their language that is just as strange and mysterious as their home.

Dainty bare toes gripped the golden boughs of the ancient trees as the elves gracefully walked with an enchanting song rising forth from their pale lips. Their bright eyes glinted in the pale light of their blue lanterns like the moonlight reflecting on a shimmering pool.

"This way," Maxim states reaching back to grab my hand probably sensing my nervousness.

"Why are we here?"

"We are looking for Arwen, the prophet who wrote the Elven articles," he states.

"Why aren't you nervous?"

"You couldn't tell," the Dread asks, "The idiot squire is half-elven."

I'm shocked. I didn't know. He was clearly more muscular than all of these elves. He was quite tan even when they were pale. No----I couldn't tell.

"These are your people?" I ask him.

"I told you my father was happy because he wasn't a dragon knight. He could love who he wanted. And he did. He fell in love with an elf."

With their long, elegant lashes blinking patiently, it was almost hypnotizing to watch them in their glistening white and blue robes that hung around their ankles with translucent silks. Their lobe-lacking ears pointed toward their silver crowns, which were entwined within their soft iridescent hair. There was one woman, some sort of Lady Elf that seemed to be speaking for the others. My heart beats heavy when I watch how she embraces Maxim.

It had to be...

"Mother...I'd like you to meet a special friend of mine..." he introduces me, "Nikolai...of the Wilds.  Nikolai, this is my mother...Lady Arwen."

"Arwen?" I ask getting confused, "Lady..."

All the books said something else.  Clearly the books were wrong.  Clearly Maxim was keeping me in the dark.  He knew all along who Arwen was.   The sky bustles with nightingales.

The nightingales fell silent to hear the Lady Elf's song, a lullaby to all creatures, a saddened goodbye to the falling sun, and a praise to their rising moon.

"The pleasure is all mine," she says in a graceful tone that seems to almost float out of her lips, "I never thought I would get a chance to meet one of the last Wilds."

I laugh, "Well actually I'm the last one left."

That's when she shakes her head.

"Is that what you thought?" she asks, "No. You aren't the last wild alive."

 

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