Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
Now that the tears had started Leander wiped more tears away, thinking about their compassionate attempt to make him a true dragon. His friends, who in spite of his well-known preference, had saved his life. Had they asked him to approve the removal of his fairy magic he would have said no and he would be dead now. He keenly felt the caring way they ignored his stupid insistence to keep the fairy magic and secretly removed it. They knew him very well. He felt very fortunate to have these three wonderful friends.
He felt badly that if he renounced Raxtus – essentially – he was killing their friend – the friend that they loved enough to give him life.
Could he do it now? Now that he knew what he was doing to them? He would have to think about it some more but he didn't think he could. He wiped the tears from his face again and again, as they continued to fall.
"Are you alright?" Marla asked him concerned that his tears were still falling and he still seemed distressed.
"Yea, I'm okay. I'm okay. Sorry… didn't mean to dump all of that on you," he answered with a sigh. He lifted his head to look at her and his tears slowed.
"It's okay, we are friends, and sometimes we just need to let things out. I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to tell us," Ruth said sagely. "Do your parents know you went through that?" she asked. She was concerned that he was too young to have gone through all that, it was sad. She was glad that he wasn't exposed to that situation any longer. She was also wondering where his parents were during all of the abuse.
"No, I was told my mom died when I was a baby and dad wasn't around much. He has though of me as an adult for a few years now," he said. He was getting uncomfortable, so far he had been able to tell something very close to the truth. If she asked more questions… well… he didn't have to answer if he didn't want to.
Seth shook his head as he also realized what Raxtus had been through all his life.
Kendra felt the tears well up in her eyes as she realized they were being selfish. Did they accidentally save him so he could remain a dragon and undergo the torment he had been trying to escape all his life? She sincerely hoped not; her tears began to fall. What was wrong with him enjoying being a human?
"Kendra, are you ok?" Marla asked noticing the tears beginning to spill down Kendra's face.
"Well, it's just that Raxtus said that other dragons had bullied and tortured him also. Now he's gone. Leander has become our friend and now he has to leave too," she suddenly burst into broken-hearted sobs.
"Leander doesn't have to leave. He can stay if he wishes," Ruth said soothingly to Kendra. Looking up at Leander, she reaffirmed the offer with a nod. He needed a home if his father didn't take care of him. She felt he was still too young to be living on his own.
Bracken held her and her mother patted her hand as she let the tears flow down her face. Seth sat there stoically staring at his almost empty plate.
Where am I going? Leander thought. I have no home as a human. Maybe Bracken will help me find something, though I would really like to stay here. Ruth did offer the option.
A few minutes later Kendra dried her tears. She was only slightly hiccupping as she pushed her food around her plate. Marla and Ruth were talking quietly to each other again.
"I would like to take a walk," Leander said as he finished his pancakes. "When we finish breakfast will you three walk with me before I leave?"
"Yes," Bracken answered. Kendra and Seth both nodded but Kendra looked as if she would cry again.
Placing their forks on their plates, Kendra gathered them and took them to the sink. Just then, Maeve entered the room. Leander stood up as she walked through the door.
"It was nice to meet you," he said politely but left the room quickly before she could reply.
Maeve turned to watch the apparently sad young man quickly walk through the door. His polite but brief farewell disturbed her. He had fit well with the other children here. They had become close friends it seemed, now he had to leave. She turned back and saw the unhappy faces of the others as they passed her and followed him out the door. They felt the same sadness.
Farewells are sad, she thought, but disappearances were sadder. She wished that he had found her son's body so she could have …peace? …closure? …knowledge? As long as they presumed him dead and his body was unfound, she would think of him as possibly alive somewhere, like she had been, trapped.
She could now imagine how Celebrant had felt when she disappeared. How would he feel about her now? Centuries had passed, had he changed? Of course, he had changed… but how much? She held on to the hope that he was coming to see her because he still cared.
They walked slowly toward the little barn, each with their own thoughts. The distractor spell was still in effect so when they reached the cairn stones Bracken and Kendra led Seth and Leander to the door.
They stood at the door of the building together and looked in. It was empty as expected. Leander went to the center of the room and sat down facing them. The little barn was dark and cool. The sunlight though visible through the west window did not illuminate the barn's interior.
"We will be right outside," Kendra said sadly. She saw the imprint of Raxtus' clawed foot in the dirt and tears threatened to start falling again.
Bracken didn't want him to do this but after his revealing speech, he couldn't come up with a reason to stop him. He stood with his arm around Kendra and felt her shiver.
Seth stood looking at his friend, shaking his head and sighing.
Leander smiled glumly at them. "I won't be long," he said wondering just what he was going to do. He hadn't decided yet … or had he? He had thought he would use the time to make a decision but he was pretty sure he'd already made up his mind not to do anything.
The three walked back out into the sunshine and closed the door.
A few minutes later Seth started fidgeting. He thought it should be warmer with the sun beating down on them. Something was wrong.
"I don't like this. I have a bad feeling about this," Seth said with a sudden twitch of his head.
"We all feel bad…" Kendra replied.
"Something doesn't feel… right." He turned and hurriedly opened the door.
Closest to the opening door Kendra gasped when she felt the sudden cold chill of evil as the door opened. "Bracken…" she breathed.
"NO!" Bracken yelled as he also felt the chill and saw Leander's prone figure.
As he ran toward Leander, he pulled his long sword from its sheath on his back and it shifted back into a spiraling unicorn horn. He positioned the tip of it to Leander's chest above his heart and began channeling healing energy into him. The pulse in his neck was weak but slowly strengthening. What alarmed him was the evil darkness that blocked Leander's mind.
Leander began to twitch and tremble on the ground. His eyes moved behind closed lids, his clenched jaw was motionless but slight grunting moans escaped his throat. His face became a mask of terror and his movement stopped as if he were abruptly frozen in place.
Kendra and Bracken looked at each other in panic, wondering what was happening in their friend's mind.
Leander was freezing but he also shivered in panic and pain. For days the dark shadowy dragons had hovered menacingly over him as he lay terrified unable to move on the ice cold floor. They enjoyed torturing him, occasionally toasting the skin on his arms or legs with breathy threads of fire or spitting scalding water or globs of acid on his body. Now one drew a line down his naked back with a razor sharp claw. He felt the skin pop and rip open like a zipper, blood flowed barely warming his cool skin. Pain ripped through him but there was nothing he could do. Paralyzed by dragonfear he couldn't even scream.
Seth felt the chill but also caught the direction of a fleeing dark one. He ran around the outside of the building to see a shadow flying high circling above the building.
"Come to me," Seth commanded the wraith. It resisted. "What did you do?" he demanded of the shade.
"I stopped the tracker. He will not find what he is looking for." Seth heard the arrogant wispy voice in his mind.
"Who told you to do this? Who let you in? Tell me!" he demanded.
The wraith squealed, suddenly frightened, its smugness gone but it could not answer him.
"Call your master and then come down here. NOW!" he called, putting as much authority as he could into the command.
There was an inhuman but entreating scream. The wraith writhed involuntarily destroying itself, portions of it ripped away. Dissolving into an indistinct haze it fought against some other conflicting command. Seth felt its dark energy dissipate as the final shadowy wisp faded.
Seth ran back into the building to where Leander was lying on the ground between Bracken and Kendra.
"How is he?" he asked anxiously.
"He is healthy but unconscious," Bracken told him. "Did you see what did this to him?"
"There was a wraith outside the building but inside the distractor spell," he said angrily.
"I've done all I can do." Bracken said and lifted the horn and it shifted back into a sword. Bracken slid it into the scabbard on his back.
"Maybe I can help him," Seth said crowding against Kendra. He could sense the dark shadow on Leander's mind.
"Did you talk to it? Find out why it did this?" Kendra asked. Her eyes filled with tears as she held Leander's hand and stroked his cheek.
"It said it stopped the tracker so that he will not find what he is looking for. But some control stronger than mine was able to gag it. My command to come to me destroyed it. But I think it called its master to come here. I need to be quick," he said impatiently and intentionally nudged Kendra aside. He was afraid for Leander but he was also afraid of what might be coming.
Seth placed his hands on Leander's head, cleared his mind and called to his friend. Easily locating the dark shadow that the wraith had placed in his mind, he ordered it to be gone.
"Leander!"
He heard his name. The shadowy dragons looked up.
"Leander!" Seth was calling. "Be gone," he told the dragons.
They faded into a wispy fog and disappeared, his fear dissipating as quickly. The chill in his body and the pain slowly left.
Seth covered him with a warm blanket and helped him up. Leander hugged him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you for finding me!" he cried.
"You're welcome. Are you okay now?" Seth asked him concerned, handing him his clothes.
"Yes, I'm fine now." He smiled at his best friend as he slipped into his clothes. He was warm and the pain was now gone.
Seth turned to walk away. "What is that?" he asked and pointed.
Leander looked where he was pointing. There was a small dense shadow with a few tiny multi-colored balls of lights swirling around it in the corner of the room.
"I don't know – nothing – I suppose. It's been there forever," he replied indifferently. He gazed away uninterested, looking back at Seth.
Seth walked over to the dark shadow and pushed it. It didn't move. The lights continued to swirl around it, occasionally hitting it.
"Be gone," he said to the shadow. It wavered but remained. He got mad and kicked at it. It wavered again but stayed a dense shadow.
"BE GONE!" he commanded forcefully and the shadow disappeared.
Satisfied that Leander's mind was clean and clear Seth released him, stood up and nodded to Kendra.
Leander was no longer motionless. He roused slightly and moaned but his eyes didn't open. He was breathing unevenly and he was twitching as if he was still having a bad dream.
Seth was suddenly gone but Leander wasn't alone, the swirling lights illuminated a large dragon egg rocking on the ground in front of him.
Bemused he sat cross legged in front of the egg. He could see his reflection in the shiny silver and blue egg. It rocked precariously and he pulled it into his lap. A thrumming vibration from within the egg made him curious and he put his hands around the egg. He could feel the strange cool warmth of the egg with his hands and through his jeans. The lights swirled around them both now, whirling around, orbiting between his head and the egg.
Released from the shadow, the lights revealed a hidden memory.
'"You have no magic," the evil black face of Navarog the demon dragon appeared and a shadow crept into the unhatched dragon's mind. The shadow pushed and pulled all of Raxtus' immature magic away, ripping it from where it belonged. Once out of its place the shadow moved between his magic and its home keeping it from reentering its place of potential power. The young magic swirled around the shadow impotently trying to find a way back to its home.'
The shadow was gone now. He felt the dragonet trying to stretch within the constricting confines of the shell and he heard a crack. His non-memory came back to him, the sound, something about that sound. The lights that had orbited around both of them now swirled crazily around the egg. Another cracking sound and he could see a hairline crack in the shell, the lights wriggled and writhed at the crack and worked their way inside.
Suddenly he was inside the egg, he was Raxtus. The lights surrounded him, filling him with the warmth of his lost magic and strength as it found its home. He opened his eyes and saw the shell from the inside; he felt the heat from whoever was cradling his egg.
Crack the shell, he thought frantically unable to breathe properly. Get out now.
Use me, the magic offered. He breathed and felt his breath turn icy and flow over his teeth. Ice crystals spread and ran along the crack in the egg and the crack enlarged. He breathed again and the crystals popped the shell open. He was able to take a deep breath now.
Suddenly Leander looked down into the familiar eyes of a silver white dragonet as it looked up into his familiar eyes. The cool dragonet snuggled into the warmth of his chest and faded as he was absorbed into himself. Leander felt the warmth and strength of dragon magic double inside him and as it flowed through him it tripled. The resonating power frightened him and he didn't know what was happening.
"I am now at your command," the power spoke to him.
What did that mean? Leander shivered.
"I lifted the darkness from his mind but I don't know how soon he will come around. Bracken, let's find out what comes to the call the wraith made," Seth said with authority.
Kendra looked up at her brother, he looked… old and grim.
"Kendra, you stay with him," Bracken said, wishing there were other options.
"I won't leave him alone," she said tears running down her face. "How did it get in? The protection spell, it was warded. Nothing or no one should have gotten in," she mumbled to herself.
Seth and Bracken both wondered the same thing. Bracken hoped the easy answer was that someone had found a magical loophole, the other answer was too frightening to think about - powerful wizard or demon.
When they left the building Seth turned to Bracken. "I recognized the wraith's 'feel'. I think it was from the Black well."
"Blackwell Keep in Wyrmroost?" Bracken said in disbelief. The frightening answer to Kendra's question was becoming more likely, unfortunately.
"Yes," he confirmed ominously.
Who or what might be coming?