Author's note: I give you… (Drum roll) chapter 2! I hope you enjoy it…
Author's Post Note: Aha, I finally reached the stage of revising this chapter after the first failed attempt of revising all the previous chapters. Now I'm dead serious about revising everything and with this chapter are the revised chapter four, five, six and seven.
-OoO-
CHAPTER 2 Dragon's Tiara
Freyjador, Lyon and Georg and another elf named Isato were standing in front of a blue, twenty foot, fire-breathing, dangerously vicious dragon who looked hungrily at their flesh. The three stared, dumbfounded while Isato was calm and he looked like he had expected this encounter from the beginning. The dragon breathed fire and all of them jumped in different directions to avoid getting burned to a crisp.
"Miakis never mentioned anything about a dragon, Georg." Lyon commented grimly while leveling her sword at the giant beast.
"I'm well aware of that fact Lyon." He replied holding the handle of his sword and widening his stance. "A simple errand she says." he grumbled as he gazed back at the dragon who had his eyes on Freyjador.
"I had assumed you were fully aware of what you were getting yourselves into." Isato interjected holding his bow aimed at the dragon's head. "Lady Haswar is of the same opinion as me." He added.
"Miakis just said to get a Sapphire Tiara from the Lunas North Woods. She didn't mention anything about a dragon." Lyon replied, her eyes staring intently at the dragon. The dragon's beady eyes were unreasonably calm and she wondered what kind of fight he or she would put up.
"All you need to do is get the tiara the princess is going to wear to the party tonight." Miakis said optimistically, giving her usual smile.
She had made it sound like the easiest thing in the world and the three had suspected nothing at all. They proceeded to Lunas swiftly and there they met Lady Haswar asking permission to enter the Lunas North Woods. Lady Haswar let Isato accompany them into the woods where they were currently facing the ferocious dragon.
"I've been wondering for a while now but why isn't this dragon attacking us yet?" Georg asked, a crease forming between his eyebrows.
"A Sapphire Dragon isn't just some stupid and reckless beast, it is quite the opposite. It is sensible and intelligent which makes it a very formidable foe." Isato replied, still holding his stiff posture.
"That must be why Lady Haswar said that," Freyjador said audibly, realization dawning on him.
"What do you mean?" Lyon asked, her eyes never leaving the powerful beast in front of her.
"Well, she said, you want a Sapphire Tiara? If you think you can handle it, sure! I'll let Isato accompany you," he said repeating Lady Haswar's statement word for word.
"Her Highness would be very upset if the Prince arrived late so we have to wrap this up as fast as we can," Lyon said addressing all of them. She glanced at each of them and they nodded.
Lyon tensed her muscles, Georg gripped his sword handle tighter, Isato readied his bow and the Prince held his nunchakus firmly. The four of them attacked at the exact same time.
Georg dealt the final blow and the dragon fell to the ground. The four of them were covered in soot and parts of their clothes were singed from the fight.
"That – was one hell of a dragon," Georg said as he sheathed his sword.
"I agree." Lyon nodded.
"Where is the Tiara?" Freyjador asked turning to address Isato who was wiping the soot off his face.
"Take it from the dragon's mouth behind the lower layer of teeth." He answered promptly.
Georg stepped forward and opened the dragon's mouth; he pulled out a very black circular object. The four of them crowded around the so called tiara and Freyador examined it with a thoughtful expression.
"That is what we worked so hard for?" Lyon said while inspecting it, disappointment clear on her face.
"Let me do one more thing to it before you say anything else." Isato stepped forward and took the Tiara.
He walked back to Lunas and the three of them followed him, curious as to what he was going to do. He walked but stopped by the spring at the entrance to Lunas. He dipped the Tiara into the water and the black covering began to fade away.
When he pulled it back up it wasn't just that ugly charcoal black object anymore – it was a lovely silver tiara embedded with real, glittering sapphires.
"Wow." was all Georg could say. Lyon seemed slightly surprised and Freyjador seemed pleased.
"The Sapphire Tiara is one of the rarest and most prized jewelry in the whole of Falena. We were lucky we were even able to obtain one." Isato informed them matter-of-factly.
"It's definitely worth all that hard work." Lyon breathed. She began wiping the soot off her face and gazed wonderingly at the small piece of jewelry.
"I'm sure Lym would love it," Freyjador said fondly, but at the mention of the young Queen's name, Lyon and Georg became alert. Lyon looked at the sky and frowned.
"Oh dear, it's an hour before twilight!" she exclaimed urgently and Georg gave a sigh.
"It seems we're going to be facing another fire-breathing dragon when we get back." Georg commented with a grimace.
"I wish you luck on your way back. I must return to Lady Haswar now." Isato bowed politely and left them.
"He could have showed a bit of compassion." Georg commented, watching him return to Lunas.
"He's helped us enough. We need to return to the Palace as soon as possible." Freyjador ordered as he sprinted forward. Lyon and Georg followed swiftly and both of them were right behind him the whole time they had sped back to the castle.
By the time they had arrived, they were heaving breaths and calming their erratic pulses.
"Where have you been? Do you know what time it is? What happened to your clothes?" Lym burst out the moment they arrived. Freyjador took a deep breath and faced his younger sister's worried face.
He never liked to make her worry but sometimes she overreacted on the smallest of things. It actually quite troubled him that she depended on him so much, not that he was incapable of supporting her as she needed, but he was worried about how she would fare if he were ever to disappear and leave her on her own.
"We ran into some trouble," Georg explained while looking directly at Miakis whose eyes glittered, knowing exactly what they had gone through. She didn't seem inclined to explain herself but instead asked, "Did you get it then?"
Lyon pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes discreetly at Miakis."Yes we obtained it." Lyon said though her gritted teeth. She forced a smile so as to not arouse suspicion in the Queen.
Freyjador stepped forward and patted Lym's head gently.
"I'm sorry we're late." He apologized sincerely.
She gave no answer and avoided looking him in the eye.
Freyjador slowly pulled out the tiara from his side pouch and held it in front of Lym's face. Her eyes widened and she looked questioningly from Miakis to Freyjador.
"We got it for you." Freyjador replied simply. He looked at Miakis and gave her a small reproving look. She finally had the nerve to look somewhat embarrassed. "It was… a tad difficult but we acquired it for your attire tonight." He explained in a soothing tone that always calmed her when she was having a tantrum.
"I'm quite sure they had to go through a lot just to get that for you Princess. After all, they had to fight a dragon for it." Miakis pointed out cheerfully. Lym's mouth opened in horror. Both Lyon and Georg scowled at her from where they stood.
"So you did know about the dragon." Georg interjected with a grimace.
"You fought a dragon?" Lym said gaping at Freyjador. She was frightened by the very idea that he put himself in danger for her sake.
"Miakis said it was a requirement for the party and we couldn't just leave without it." Freyjador explained gently.
Without warning, Lymsleia lunged at Freyjador. She hugged him tightly and buried her face in his clothes.
"I'm so glad your okay and I'm sorry I got upset." she apologized, her voice slightly muffled by clean clothes. He had changed out of his soot stained clothes the moment they had arrived and he was glad he did.
Freyjador gave Lyon and Georg small smiles as he patted her head lightly.
"And here I was expecting we had to fight another dragon." Georg joked and all of them laughed.
"With that settled. It's time to get ready for the party." Freyjador announced and they nodded in agreement.
-OoO-
that's it for chapter 2. Please review! I'd really appreciate it. Now in the next chapter I'll finally introduce the mystery girl. Look forward to it! XD
Endnote: there was nothing much I could revise but grammar and punctuation marks since the plotline covered is so limited, I realize a little late. I may have added a few details and a dialogue or two but more or less the content is pretty much the same, except it easier and not as irritating to read compared to before.