The Dragon Priestess
AvalonReeseFanFics
Chapter 4: The Girl from the Mystic Moons pt. 1
In the gloomy mist of the midnight field, a pair of teens stood completely surrounded by an array of red eyes.
Brooke stood behind the boy, looking at the eyes and then behind her to a near-by tree. Making up her mind she decided that the boy could fight them off all on his own and that she would be staying up in the tree where it would be safer. He had done quite well with the dragon, she figured he could handle these things and if he needed extra help, she could shout it do to him from the branches. While she was climbing up to a branch she deemed sturdy enough to hold her and high enough away from the impending fight, the boy turned to look for her only to find she was there. He turned his gaze upward, spotted her in her ascent and confusion and irritation dawned over his features.
"What are you doing up there?" he asked her, he had put his sword away for some reason and now had his hand on his hips.
"Well, I'm getting away from the eyes. I'm pretty sure they're dangerous," she called down to him, she looked at his almost amused glare and she frowned down at him. "If you were smart you'd be up here too, you know since you put your sword away."
The boy shook his head. "You look ridiculous," he chided his voice low as if he didn't want the red eyes to hear him.
Brooke slipped from her perch and was now hanging from the tree branch and was trying to get her foot back up as the boy just stood on the ground staring up at her with shock. "Yeah but I'm safe," she said, she glanced to him and saw that he had that cocky smirk on his face. "You better not be looking up my skirt!"
The boy shook his head but made a point of looking away from her. "Yeah, like I want to look up a witch's skirt."
"I am not a witch!" Brooke repeated again.
"Get down here. These are my friends and if you embarrass me I'm leaving you behind!" he warned.
He took a step towards the person who had come forward from the shadows to meet him, Brooke watched from the tree as the boy greeted what seemed to be a werewolf. That's right, he was shaking hands with a big man looking thing that also looked to be part wolf. He stood like a man he sort of dressed like a man sort of and he even talked like a man but he was covered in wolf like hair, had wolf eyes, wolf ears and even a wolf snout.
Brooke was frozen just staring at him in almost horror. She had never seen anything like it that wasn't in a horror movie. Were vampires going to show up now?
"Lord Van, what are you doing out so far?" the wolf man asked, and suddenly his eyes turned up to her and Brooke half waved. "And who is your strange companion?"
The boy turned up to her and frowned when he realized that she hadn't moved. "Some strange girl I picked up," he whispered, his cheeks were pink with embarrassment.
Brooke blushed. "Strange? I'm strange? How dare you call me strange while you're standing there talking to the wolf man like it's normal!" she cried.
The boy's face darkened as he glared up at her, apparently that was the wrong thing to say. The wolf man chuckled but said nothing while the boy tapped his foot impatiently. "Come down, now!" he growled "Or I swear I will leave you here to fend for yourself."
"You can't do that!" Brooke cried. "I'm on a whole new planet! I know absolutely nothing about it. I'll never know what to do or how to fit in!"
But when his face remained unchanged she realized he wasn't playing around. She scrambled to climb down quickly but lost her footing and landed on top of the boy who had been waiting under the tree for her.
Brooke got off quickly wincing as the boy groaned. "Oh, sorry," she said standing over him. "Thanks for catching me though!"
The wolf man bowed to her which made Brooke giggle. "My lady, you may call me Rhume. We are lowly pack travellers that hunt and trade with the villages in the area," he introduced.
Brooke shook his hand, pulling him up to his feet. "My name is just Brooke, no lady attached to it," she said. "So no need for the bowing and what not."
"My apologies, but once Lord Van said you were with him, I assumed that you had a title attached to you," he told her.
Brooke gestured to the boy who was still on the ground and was now sitting there rubbing his back. "His name is Van huh?" she whispered to Rhume who nodded to her. "You're a Lord?"
Van glanced up to her a look of surprised on his face. Almost as if he hadn't wanted to tell her that he had that title, or maybe he was surprised that she didn't just know who he was. Still, he half nodded before Brooke's smile widened.
"That explains so much about your attitude. You're a spoiled little rich boy!"
Silence fell on the field and the boy's face fell into a frown as he glared at her while Brooke smugly smiled at him her little bit of revenge for his strange comment.
Rhume cleared his throat and gestured towards some large beasts that looked like yaks but four times their regular size. "We have transport, shall we take you and your... companion... back to Fanelia?"
Brooke turned to Van who was standing he looked her up and down and for a moment she regretted that comment, because it looked like he was second guessing whether or not he'd be taking her with him. "Yes, come on... uhm..."
"I told him my name, not five seconds ago!" Brooke cried gesturing towards Rhume.
The wolf man shot Van a sympathetic look before repeating her name to him.
Van turned a sour glare to Brooke. "How am I to remember such a strange name as that?"
"I can remember yours and I've never heard anything like it!" Brooke accused following after him as he walked towards the massive yaks. "I can remember the name of the place we're going to. Fanelia."
"Do you ever shut up?" Van snarled.
Brooke stopped in her tracks and paused and stroked her chin as she thought over her answer. "No," she replied after some time which stalled Van in his steps allowing her to skip pasts him and up to the yak where Rhume was chuckling and was kind enough to help her up.
Van frowned at her smirk. "I'm going to hate this girl," he muttered to himself just loud enough for her to hear. He then allowed Rhume to help him up into the saddle of the yak as well. He just wanted to get to Fanelia and find somewhere to put this girl where she wouldn't annoy him.
They travelled all through the night until the sun began to rise and she found that even with this planet's sun in the sky, the moon and the Earth stayed exactly where it was at the same visibility, which, for her, was very unsettling. She couldn't help but wonder if this was what the cards were warning her about, it must have been because she wasn't even on the same planet anymore.
"So that is where you're from, Lady?" Rhume asked, jolting her from her thoughts. She nodded and he smiled over his shoulder to her. "I've never met anyone from the Mystic Moons."
"Mystic Moons," Brooke echoed, apparently that was the name for her home. "Where exactly am I? I mean planet wise?"
Van scoffed and Brooke shot a glare at him but he didn't say anything to her or answer her question. "We call this Gaea," Rhume answered. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you Van? You seem to be more than travelling companions."
Van sat up a little straighter and glared at Rhume. "I do mind you asking," he snarled.
Brooke shook her head at him as she glared at him half disgusted. "You make it sound like we're something more, something to be ashamed of," she snarled to him. "He got me entangled in his fight with a dragon and somehow I got caught up in the beam that took him back home." She then turned back to Van with a prim glare. "See, harmless. Don't know what you were fussing about."
Van leant back again groaning as he did so and Brooke slapped his upper thigh to get him to shut up. Rhume laughed. "The way you act, I'd think you were an old married couple."
"Like I would marry that heathen," Van said from his spot on the pillowed saddle.
"Yeah well I wouldn't marry you even if you were the king of a whole country!" Brooke exclaimed haughtily.
Van propped himself up on the pillows and stared at her surprised as Rhume began to laugh. Brooke looked between them confused. "What?" she asked. "What did I say?"
Rhume shook his head but didn't answer and eventually Van looked away from her. Rhume took a small pouch and handed it to Brooke. "You must be hungry," he said. "Eat as much as you'd like."
"Oh thank-you," Brooke said to him before turning a pointed glare to Van. "I am starving thanks to someone who made me miss my dinner."
Van watched her sourly as she popped one of the doughy brown balls into her mouth and chewed it happily. He got up and snatched one from the bag despite her protests. "Hey, this is my dinner, and my breakfast!" she complained.
"It's a sweet!" he snapped to her. "It's hardly a suitable meal."
Brooke rolled her eyes at him. "I am a newcomer here, how was I supposed to know that? And what about you Mr. Lord? I'm a guest here, your guest here, shouldn't you have fed me something suitable by now?"
Rhume chuckled once again. "Yes, definitely like a married couple."
"We are not married!" Brooke and Van snapped together before falling into silence once more as they shared the treats that Rhume had given them.
After a while of watching the green scenery pass by Rhume finally said: "We're here!" and Brooke perked up. She stood up and looking over Rhume's head and saw that the path they were on sudden descended into a green luscious valley where a city was nestled against the green tree tops and in the middle of it was a large palace with big blue rooftops.
"Oh wow," she said turning to Van. "That's where you live?"
Van nodded, half shrugging as he did so. "It's so beautiful," she whispered to him not noticing his proud smile and she crawled over to Rhume and rested on his shoulder to watch the city come towards them. "I can't wait to go there."
Van couldn't wait either. He wanted nothing more than to finally be home.
Once past the gates, the company was greeted by what seemed to be all the city's people. But it was the cheering for their arrival which tipped Brooke off right away that there was something special about their arrival. She had figured it was because Van was a Lord here, but even this was a pretty big turnout for a Lord.
Van descended from the over grown yak with one huge leap but Brooke looked out at the crowd and decided that it would be best if she just waited until the crowd thinned. Rhume had been fine with her arrival but she wasn't certain how these people would react to an alien, even if she looked a lot like them, but didn't dress or act like them. Suddenly from the crowd a girl covered in orange fur with brown tiger stripe, a mop of pink hair, a fuzzy tail and cat ears tore out of the crowd and jumped onto Van.
"LORD VAN!" She screamed on the top of her lungs and licking him while she was at it. "I was so worried! I'm so glad you're alright! What took you so long?"
"Quit it Merle, everyone is watching!" Van whispered softly to her pushing her away.
"Funny... Lord Van, you smell different." Merle commented. Van took a deep breath and winced a bit before he looked up to Brooke who had ducked behind the edge of the saddle. All he could see of her was her big bright green eyes over the edge.
He shook his head at her, why did she have to be so weird? Unfortunately, Merle followed his gaze and was suddenly looking back and forth between he and the girl with a very angry glare.
"You brought back a girl?!"
Van chose to ignore her question, instead he pushed Merle all the way away from him and approached the side of the yak. "Do you need help down?" he called up and then he paused and shook his head. "Of course you do, you can't do anything gracefully can you?"
Brooke's eyes narrowed in anger. That sounded a lot like a challenge. She threw her bag down to Van, who had to move back so it wouldn't hit his feet and then stood up and turned her back on him. She heard the gasp of the crowd who must had just noticed her and heard Van's sigh. Oh she'd show him a few things.
She then tied her hair back into a tighter pony tail before she suddenly threw her hands up in the air, and then—as if jumping off of a spring board—leapt backwards off of the beast's sitting saddle. She landed a double flip flawlessly; she then threw up her hand again for the finish and then turned to Van with a triumphant smile. Sure enough his face had fallen in a stunned position his mouth wide open.
"How the hell did you do that?" Van asked incredulously. "You fell out of a tree last night!"
Brooke put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth to tell him that she was an expert gymnast when she wasn't being rushed out of trees but was interrupted by the appearance of four armor clad warriors. Hushed whispers overcame the crowd and even the cat-girl, Merle, back away from them, her face practically scrapping the cobble stones. So Brooke did the same allowing the men in armor to address Van.
"Welcome back," the one with the most scars, who was also at the head of the group, said loud enough for everyone to hear.
Brooke knew this man. This was the man she saw in her vision when she first saw Van. This couldn't have been coincidence. This was supposed to happen otherwise she wouldn't have dreamt about this at all. Something had brought her here for a reason she just didn't know what it was yet.
Van nodded carefully and then produced the strange gem he had taken out of the dragon's chest and held it above his head.
"I, Van Fanel, have completed the right of the Dragon Slaying, and have won this Drag Energist in proof for my ascension."
He had announced that in such an authoritarian way that Brooke was almost surprised. He clearly knew how to control an audience. Too bad he was talking nonsense she might have been more impressed.
The four men in front of him stared in awe. The one with a million scars step forward to give his approval.
"Yes that is a true Energist. You have passed Prince Van," he announced to the crowd.
Brooke had been confused about this whole interchange but she had all but frozen when she heard the scarred guy call Van by his true title. He was Prince? Not only was he a Prince, but he was a Prince who had proved his right to ascend… probably to the throne. So like a Crown Prince?
Oh My God, she had slapped a Royal! And she had given him nothing but attitude. She was going straight to jail. Yep, she was going to be living in the dungeon from now on.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't noticed that the cat girl was on her until she was actually on her. She had both her hands on her shoulder and seemed to be sniffing at her hair.
"She's weird, where does she come from?" she asked Van.
Brooke yelped and backed away right into Van who put his hands out to keep her from bumping into his chest.
"God, why are you so jumpy?" he snapped. "You act like you've never seen anyone like her before."
"That's because I haven't," Brooke hissed. She pointed at the cat-girl "We don't have any of those where I come from."
Van nodded as if it made all the sense in the world. "Well that does explain your rudeness towards Rhume!"
The scarred man leant in and Brooke flinched in Van's grasp. "Who is this Prince Van?" he asked.
"This?" Van echoed looked to Brooke before shoving her behind his back and out of the scarred man's sight. "She's no one of importance, she's just a traveller that I found on the road."
"She is dressed oddly," the scarred man said reaching out and grabbing a hold of Brooke who had been backing away. "Where are you from?"
Brooke, with wide eyes, pointed to the Earth hanging above her and the scarred man's eyes followed the motion. He let her go almost immediately and backed away from her. He stared at her with wide eyes like she was a monster or a demon or something before turning a dark glare to Van.
"What have you done?" he hissed.
"Hey! It's not my fault. She just sort of tagged along!" Van complained.
"Hey don't make this my fault! I didn't want any of this. I didn't want you to come to me, I didn't want to help you with that stupid dragon and I definitely didn't want to come back with you!" Brooke cried, quite literally because she felt like she might actually burst into tears. "God! I should have just let that thing eat you!"
The scarred man silently observed her and Brooke stared up at him, her chest heaving as the weight of her situation finally hitting her. She was thousands of miles away from home with no clear way of getting back relying on the pity of a selfish Prince who had no use for her and definitely didn't like her. She sniffed a little bit and the scarred man turned to Van.
"Is it true, did she help you?"
Van opened his mouth, took a good long look at Brooke and then sighed. "Not with the slaying, just with a bit of a tip on when to dodge."
The scarred man huffed and grabbed a hold of her again. "Come, Van," he ordered in a gruff tone, grabbing onto her as well and dragging them both through the crowd. "I think you and I need to have a chat."
Van shot a glare to Brooke who was glaring back at him. "You couldn't just keep your mouth shut could you?" he snapped.
Brooke felt the first of her hot tears leak from her eyes. "I hate you," she growled before looking away. She caught that look of surprise on Van's face and the pity that followed it. She didn't need his pity she just needed to go home. She was right. This planet definitely sucked and she was going to hate it here.