Chapter 23

The troops had shouldered their weapons and Feilong conveyed the whole story once Bonescraper and the Griffins returned from following Zhou out of the country. Zhou had plotted a revolt. He knew the numbers were in his favor and he intended to use it.

"Thank you Feilong and thank you Jiahao for your honesty. Now I'd like to meet everyone more formally," Elphaba spoke up.

"My wife, Shufen," Feilong introduced a darker blue dragon with gold much like her husband. Their son was a teal color with gold as well.

"Our friends, Bao, and his wife, Hua," Feilong introduced. Bao was orange and gold, while his wife was an indigo and gold.

"Ping and her daughter Wei," Feilong said. The two looked a lot like the banished dragon, yellow with reddish brown scales.

"Please forgive my husband. His distrust led him to do something foolish," Ping spoke up.

"I'll not hold his transgressions against anyone in this group provided they don't attempt to follow through on what he could not. I believe that everyone should get a chance to prove their worth. Zhou moved against one of his own kind and that does not bode well for anyone here today," Elphaba told her.

"It does not your Highness, but I worry that he will not stay away," Ping admitted.

"It is a worry I have myself. I do not wish to follow through on my threat, but I will do what I have to in order to protect the peoples of Oz and Ix, I hope you can understand that," the Princess said.

"Of course. He stopped being my husband years ago. His experiences turned him bitter and mean. Zhou lost what made him a dragon. It turned him into what we all fear becoming. Not that we had much choice. We are quite literally all that remains of our kind," Ping explained.

"What do you fear?" Zara spoke up.

"Ah young Duchess, it is something we all fear, no matter what kind of dragon we are. You see when a dragon loses his or her sense of hope and willingness to help man, we become those that you read about in the stories. Creatures of sin. Creatures to fear. The villain of the story. Once branded that, there is no going back. The balance of good and evil shifts very easily given our disposition," Bonescraper interrupted.

"Long ago, dragons and Oz coexisted. We both thrived. It is only when the Fish Woman managed to convince the Wizard and he then convinced the people that dragons and other creatures were our foes. It is why Altan and his clan are all that remain of the Griffins. It is why Bonescraper is the last of his kind of dragon," Elphaba explained, knowing everyone in Oz knew the story but the visitors did not.

"Fish Woman?" Bao was confused.

"Madame Morrible. Her hatred and lust for power caused creatures to be killed and Animals to lose their speech. It has taken decades for things to slowly return to what they once were but even still we have lost much of what we could have had," the Princess told him.

"Ah, so you were able to tilt the scales where we could not. Our humans have totally lost faith in our relationship. We lucked out that they lost their belief in magic. If they had not, we might be in the same situation as Bonescraper or Altan," Shufen explained.

"Let us forge a new alliance that our children's children will talk about and let the past die," King Tahir spoke up.

"Moving forward is what we'd like to do," Feilong smiled.

"Excellent. Then welcome to Oz," Queen Ayla smiled.

"I am Queen Zixi of Ix, you are welcome in my country as well," the ruler told them. Everyone was happy that things were coming together but Elphaba couldn't help the niggling in the back of head. All was not as it seemed.

To Be Continued…