The Magic of Love
Legal: See prologue
Chapter One: A meeting
Authors Note: This chapter was originally going to be longer; however, I decided to divide it in to two chapters instead. As the first chapter implies to a ball, which will in actuality apply to the next chapter. The next chapter will be up by tomorrow night. I apologize for the waiting and length. Sorry that it took a while to update, school takes up time! Also, to note, when the words are in italic inside of the chapter, it means that the characters are speaking to each other with mind speak. On to the story…
In a typical fashion when royalty feels as if something was wrong, they always decide to throw a ball. In this case, the queen and Morian believed that something was very wrong with Alaria. Lately she had been spending an enormous amount of time in the Eastern Forest just beneath the Zandraian Mountains. Now these woods are normally not safe for anyone to be wandering around them let alone the only royal princess. Alaria was constantly leaving in the pre-dawn morning and not returning till almost dusk. She would often take a pouch of food to eat on the way but would never say what she was doing. One morning, in the middle of spring, Alaria slipped away in the morning light and head east again to the woods. Her brother Morian watched her ride away and knew that something had to be done.
Breathing a sigh of relief as she once again escaped the confines of the palace before she was prohibited from leaving; Alaria let Darkrysi (her absolutely magnificent stallion, who was a midnight black that shone in the morning light) have his head and race towards the woods.
'I don't know why you're going here again Ria (Dakrash's nickname for Alaria) we always come here and we always find nothing. You know this place really creeps me out sometimes, I really think that we should go somewhere else for a change.' Darkrysi spoke quietly in Alaria's head.
'I know you don't like it, but you know that I have to go here, I have to…' Alaria drifted off, feeling that pull again towards the forest or was it beyond the forest? She didn't quite know.
'You really don't know. I know you say you have this feeling of being "pulled" but I have that every time I walk by mares pasture' Darkrysi responded with a snort and then paused. 'You haven't been sneaking out here to spend time with a stallion have you Ria?? If you are, you better let me see him and I can't believe you haven't told me'.
"Krysi!!!!! I can't believe you said that!" Alaria screamed out loud, completely mortified. "What has gotten in to you? Of course I'm not meeting some man out here, how dare you?!"
'Nonsense Ria, if you are, you should tell me. And if your not, you should really get someone you know. It would make you happy, it would make you quit running around and it would make your family happy.' Darkrysi replied.
Deciding not to reply to her noisy horses' response, Alaria just rode on. 'There is someone out there for me silly horse, why do you think I'm running around in these woods in the first place' Alaria sighed to herself. She knew that what she thought was true, that there was someone out here, someone that was here just for her. She could feel the pulling, the calling, for it got stronger each day and more insistent as she went further and further east towards the mountains.
Dismounting and loosening Krysi's cinch, she let him graze by a small stream as she continued through the rougher ground on foot. 'Just stay put for a little bit Darkrysi, please' Alaria pleaded 'just for a while as I go on foot. I promise I'll be back soon'.
'Alright little mistress, as long as you do not stray for too long, or I will come after you' Darkrysi promised as he settle down to graze.
Grinning to herself at her horse's protective nature, Alaria started to wander upstream where the ground rose steadily and gradually grew rockier. 'I must be getting close to the edge of the mountains' she thought to herself. Suddenly she stopped. That feeling, that persistent constant potent pulling sensation, which was driving her crazy and pulling her further on towards those mountains. 'What is going on? Am I going crazy? What is this that I'm feeling?' Alaria wondered. She knew it wasn't magic for there was no one in the land that would be able to bewitch her without her knowledge. Almost in a trance, Alaria found herself climbing higher and higher in the rocky ground. Feeling a chill she pulled her cloak around her and glanced around. As she looked to her left, she saw a faint light. Not quite glowing but enough to make her desire to look closer. As she started to move toward it, the pulling sensation grew stronger and stronger, tightening in her chest till she wanted to stop breathing. Alaria crept closer, trying to sneak through the rocky terrain without making a noise. The faint illumination grew steadily stronger till she could make out waves of a golden velvety glow intermixed with scarlet streaks seeming to stream through the gold. Rounding a particularly large outcropping of stone she lost her breath. 'A dragon' was all she could think. Little did she know the winged dragon had a similar thought: 'a human'. Swiftly the glowing dragon whipped his head around and looked Alaria strait in the eye.
Time stopped. The entire world held its breath as the two beings peered into each others eyes. Grey-blue of human eyes met with golden-red of the dragons and the depths of each bored into each ones soul.
