THE STOLEN FLAME

I was trying to process all the new information given to me, while at the same time keeping my body temperature in control. The ice covered my legs and arms completely, it felt like my wings were also stick to it. I could not break or melt it, at that state of mind, even looking right in front of me felt too hard. I finally found the strength to speak. "I am.. a princess?"

My captors glanced at each other, I got the feeling that there was some telephatical communication going on that I was not allowed to join. Icy stared at my eyes for seconds. " That is just useless information for you. You are a princess, yes, one of the most royal blood possible, but what is the use of it? You have no land, no crown, no people. All you have is the most precious of all, but you are about to lose it to us. Dragon Fire, the spark of the Great Dragon, greatest power anyone could obtain."

At this point, she suddenly jumped in front of me and touched me in the cheek, and continued while gazing at my still vague expression: "You should be familiar to the story, about the Original Witches destroying your planet, killing the royal family?"

I wasn't. Her mention of my real parents, and their being gone felt like an icicle cutting through my heart. You have no crown, she had said. I remembered when Professor Faragonda and I made an astral journey to Lake Roccalluche, and the beautiful golden nymph handing me a crown.

"They almost got you" Icy continued, and her voice got a bit harder : "Then your older sister, Daphne figured out a safe place to hide you, outside of magical dimension. She then faced the witches herself, and obviously, lost."

I hated to cry in front of them, but at this point I could'nt help it. It was making so much sense. It explained the spark in my heart, at times of emotional intensity. I remembered all the times I saw Daphne in my sleep. That tingling sensation of warmth, of knowing where I belong. I was hopeful in those dreams. I knew I connected to that spirit deeply. I was also reaching for more people, down in that lake, longing to bring them closer to us, and find that feeling of completeness.

What a stupid little child I have been.

I thought I was beginning a life, which would resemble a fairy tale. I had trusted everyone. I had trusted Faragonda, because how couldn't I? There was no way she could be unaware of all this. Why didn't she tell me? She may have thought that she was protecting me, from memories of death and loss, allowing me to hope that one day I will feel like I belonged. Maybe, she thought it best that I should remain a naive child, dreamy eyed. Since that was how she had called me in our first private session.

I was being forced to grow up now. The feeling of warmth tingling from my dreams were gone. Now, I felt the frozen sensation of hopelessness, an icy desert, in which no flower could ever bloom.

"Ready, sisters?"

I startled. I realized she had been speaking all this time, but I wasn't able to hear. Which was probably a blessing, because she had a strange light shining in her eye, suggesting that whatever will happen from now on, could only bring cold and decay.

They began chanting in a language I had never heard before. I saw three objects forming, and then they formed a circle. There was a reflection of a pentagram on the floor, I couldn't figure out its color.

Then I experienced the most unpleasant feeling of my sixteen years of existence. Strangers were invading my heart, reaching out to something hidden. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I had a vision of a lake of fire, so bright, running eternal. I saw myself right beside the lake.

I was its guardian.

Three shadowy figures were approaching. They had no place here. Here was the beginning and the end of all things. But most of all, the source of life itself. I saw the image of a flower made of fire. Whenever it bloomed, more beauty and joy were created, and more darkness was destroyed.

My name. I did not deserve my name. I had no power here, I was full of fear. Shadowy figures were approaching with their black mouths and greedy eyes. They could not reach the lake, no. But they could reach me.

It happened fast. Once the flame in my heart was there, and then it was stolen. Just a tiny drop of that endless lake. But it had the power to destroy worlds.

I came back to reality and opened my eyes. I felt so little and weak.

I was also angry. I don't think I ever experienced something this passionate, but as I said, my childhood was over. I desired to make Icy feel the same helplessness I was feeling at that moment. But the most bitter feeling is when you don't have the power to do as you desire.

Suddenly I didn't feel the familiar aura of the three witches and thought them gone.

I was wrong. They were standing right in front of me, but different. My focus was on Icy. She was feeling it. My fire, inside of her, so wrong, so out of place. She practically glowed now, her icy blue aura had darkened and had shades of red in it.

I realized that this was my end. I was useless now. She would love to hunt on a defenseless prey. Stormy instantly moved forward, she grapped my hair and pulled it so forcefully that my numbed head hurt. I felt an electric shock at her touch.

"How should we do it Icy?" She could not hide her excitement while gazing at her older sister.

"Let go of her" Darcy said, "Icy should do the honors, right?" She then also gazed at her.

Icy was gazing outside all this time. She did not even tried to mock or hurt me. When she turned towards us, her eyes were glowing with a strange red light.

"Forget about the fairy. She can't even realize the wonderful tragic event which had just happen. I bet all she thinks right now is that she will have to say goodbye to her pretty pixie wings."

If this was a way to scorn my pride even deeper, she had succeeded. I was taken so unseriously that I could not even be an enemy.

I would make her regret it one day. The way she underestimated me. The acknowledgment of who I really was had been getting stronger each passing moment. I was the princess of the most Holy Realm, the realm which was seen worthy by the Great Dragon, and so was chosen to carry the Spark of Dragon Flame.

She was nothing. A shadow. A lizard who longed to be a dragon.

"We are going to Cloudtower. I want to see Griffin right now, while the Flame is still fresh in my veins. The Fairy lover will regret ever forsaking the path of Ambition. "

She said those, but I could hear her deeper thoughts. She wanted to see fear and respect in Griffin's eyes. Not just her. Anyone above her. Anyone who seems to be her superior. I felt that she also longed for a winter which resembled the eternal winter on Domino.

Stormy let go of me, realizing terrorizing an entire school would be much more of an accomplishment. Darcy lowered her head obediently, I thought I saw a glimpse of worry in her eye, she realized the magnitude of the action they were about to take. But she could not back down, since the red madness was now inside of her too, and reason could not survive in a soul drunk with power.

They dissappeared.

I was still frozen.

The only reason I want to continue my existence had become the desire of bringing that lizard to her knees.