The Dragons Domain
All Bean remembered was the blinding light from the dragon key and then a whirlpool of gold that she found herself being sucked into. When she woke, she was flat on her back with the strong wind blowing against her skin. The princess opened her eyes; the sky was gold above her with black patches of cloud gliding by. Bean rubbed her eyes and rose. Elfo, Luci, Koga, and Oscar were the first things that came to her. Once she looked around for them, her worries were quickly put to rest. Elfo was lying beside her on his side, Luci flat on his stomach, and Oscar laid out across Koga, who pushed the grand wizard off him when he came to.
"Bean, are you ok?" The wanderer asked, rubbing his aching head.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" said Bean, crawling over to Elfo and Luci. "What about Oscar?"
Koga looked down at Oscar, who had a goofy grin and was muttering about dragons. "Yeah, the old bastards, ok," He said with much annoyance.
Bean looked around the area. Sorcerio, Pendergast, Turbish, Mertz, the dreamland knights, the dark legion soldiers, and their leaders, Lucius and Akane, lay on the ground. The only ones who weren't present were the dragon and its offspring.
"Ahh…" Elfo groaned as he began to open his eyes. "W-Where are we? Am I in heaven?"
"Elfo! Oh, thank goodness you're ok!" said Bean in relief.
"Are you an angel?" Elfo asked wirily.
Bean sighed. "No, Elfo. Come on. You need to wake up," she gently shook him.
Elfo held out his arms and puckered his lips. "Take me into your arms, oh beautiful winged goddess," WHACK "OW!" The little green elf rubbed his cheek.
"Wake up, dingus!" Luci spat.
"What the?" Elfo entirely comes to and sees the yellow sky and black clouds. "Uh…where are we?"
"I think this might be the dragon world, maybe?" said Bean.
Koga looks at the unconscious dark legion soldiers and spots the one with his colossal sword. He gets to his feet, walks over to the soldier, and snatches the sword from his grasp. "My sword, jackass," The wanderer dusted off the sheath.
Soon after, everyone else came, too. Lucius rose, coughed, and turned his attention to Akane. The pale commander looked around and slowly got to his feet, confused at the uncharted territory.
"Where the hell are we? What's going on?" said Lucius.
Pendergast had finally come to. "Ugh…the only thing I can remember was a blinding flash of light…and…King Zog in his birthday suit…"
"I saw the same thing…" said Sorcerio, who had awoken. "And now I want to gouge my eyes out!"
Oscar snapped his eyes open and hopped to his feet. "Dragons! Where did the dragons go?!"
"Gone," said Luci. "Your weird ass probably scared them off."
"Do you think it was the outfit?"
"Yes," The sub-demon said bluntly.
"The dragons didn't leave," said Turbish. The short blond knight pointed at the yellow sky. "I see them over there! There are at least ten of them!"
Everyone looked in the direction Turbish was pointing. Ten prominent figures with a wide wingspan were flying in their direction. Turbish said they were dragons, but something was off. They were large but also too short to be dragons. Nobody could make out anything else once black twisters overtook the figures. Everyone found themselves in the eye of a sudden storm that nearly picked up Elfo and carried him off, if not for Bean, who was able to grab onto him just in time.
"I don't like this place!" Elfo screamed.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOOOOOM!
The ground below their feet shook as heavy masses crashed into the earth, followed by the clap of thunderous wings. It took one flap for the twisters that surrounded everyone to be blown away. Bean and Elfo fell back once the wind resided. The green elf looked up, and horror dawned on his face. Towering over them was a monstrous, bulky black dragon that stood on its two pillar-like legs; the light glimmered off its obsidian scales, muscular arms, and jagged horns shooting out from its head. Bean felt a terror that she never thought she would ever feel once she locked eyes with the humanoid-looking dragon; Its eyes were small, red, and had a slit pupil; they were so small but held such a fierce rage within them.
The onyx dragon opened its mouth, but Bean, Elfo, and the others could only hear a loud, echoing whisper. The dark legion soldiers stood frozen in fear at the mighty hybrids. They looked at Lucius, who looked just as frightened, waiting for an order from their commander. But he said nothing. Akane assessed the situation and had to act quickly. She didn't know where they were or where they could run to, but she knew she had to get away with her commander alive.
A skinny orange dragon kneeled forward, stared at Elfo with its odd, rainbow polka dot eyes, and sniffed him. It cringed and pulled back. It whispered something to the onyx dragon, rolled its red eyes, and spoke to him in that same loud whisper. The orange dragon nods, holds out its scaly arm, and grabs Elfo by the back of his shirt.
"AH! NOO! BEAAAAN, KOGA, LUCI!" Elfo cried out.
"ELFOO!" Bean screamed. The other two dragons held their scaly hands around Bean's arms. The scales brushed against her skin as it clamped tightly like steel handcuffs. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LET ME GO!"
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Koga shouted, unsheathing his sword and lunging forward at the dragon. He takes one mighty swing, but the onyx dragon parried Koga's sword with its tail, reached for Koga with his large, scaly hand, and grasped it around his throat, then slammed him to the ground, causing Koga's eyes to widen in shock at the impact.
Another dragon raised its blade, ready to strike Koga's heart, and Elfo gasped. "NOO! DON'T! PLEASE!" The green elf screamed.
The dragon turned to him, then to the onyx dragon, and spoke. All Elfo could hear was the same old echoing whisper. The onyx dragon nodded, and the multi-colored dragon moved its blade away from Koga and placed its scaly claw around the back of his neck, holding him tightly. The same was done with the others.
Akane struck using her magic. A thick smoke billowed from her hands, coating her and her comrades in a dense fog. "Lucius, we have to escape now!" She shouted and pulled his arm; her voice was drowned out by the sounds of her comrades' arms and limbs being ripped from their sockets. Akane screamed as her shoulder was nicked by one of the dragon's claws; this woke Lucius out of his daze, and hastily casted wind magic, sending him and Akane soaring through the air quickly.
Once the fog settled, the onyx dragon eyed the area, observing the bloody field and dismembered dark legion soldiers. It turned back to Bean, Elfo, Luci, Koga, and others and gestured a command to them. They sprouted their wings and ascended to the golden sky.
Bean looked below as they passed the rugged terrain of the world. All it was was mountain ranges that spanned for miles. But that changed once Bean saw what appeared to be their city. Dragons upon dragons were flying around in the distance, entering large caves filled with winged creatures and castles that dwarfed anything the Skyland kingdom had in her world. The dragons had come in all shapes: Mountainous, petite, human-sized, round, skinny, dragon humanoids like the one carrying her, and dragons that looked, to her at least, like the ones from Tavish's fairy tale books.
They passed the city and flew towards the large castle. They arrived at the main gate, guarded by two armored dragons. The onyx dragon spoke its echoing whisper, and the guards let them pass. The onyx dragon gave an order, and everyone split up. Elfo called out to everyone, and Bean called out to Elfo, Koga, and Luci. Bean was placed in a holding cell, and the door was sealed shut; its metal clang echoed through the corridor. She ran to the bars and watched the dragon walk off.
"Damn it…what is up with me being locked up lately?" The princess sighed as she leaned against the metal bars.
Hours went by as Bean sat in her cell. She wondered how everyone was doing and if they were still alive. She began to think about why Elfo was taken. What did they want with him? All she could hope now was that he was safe and no harm was brought to him. A door creaked open; Bean heard a reptile's feet shaking the floors. Bean looked up; it was the onyx dragon with small, fierce red eyes. It opened the door to her cell and stood out of the way.
Bean quirked a brow. "Y-You're letting me go?"
The onyx dragon gestured for her to leave the cage.
She slowly got to her feet and walked out of the cage. The onyx dragon closed the cell door and stared at the princess. It pushed her to keep walking.
"Alright, alright, I'm going, I'm going!"
Bean walked down the path instructed by the dragon. The tall, intimidating dragon guided Bean through the castle's halls. Everything towered over the princess, from pillars marked with flying dragons to torches with roaring flames and statues of what looked to be essential dragons of long, long ago. But what caught Bean's eye was a few paintings. One, of a beautiful raven-haired mermaid, a blond-haired pixie, a blue dragon with purple eyes, and—an Elf with yellow skin and short blond hair. Bean didn't have time to process the paintings as she headed to the large doors. That's when she saw the symbol decorated on the looming double doors. She could've sworn that it was the symbol of dreamland, a tree, but along with it was a symbol of a mermaid riding along the ocean waves, a symbol of what looked like pixie wings, and the symbol of a dragon's eye. Again, Bean didn't have time to assess anything she saw once the doors opened.
Bean's jaw dropped once she laid eyes on a mighty, light green dragon, more prominent than the white and purple one she saw back in her world. It was sitting on a nest, curled up, with yellow eyes and pupils slit and black.
And then there was Elfo, seated at a table before the dragon, sipping tea.
"HI Bean!" said Elfo happily as he waved at her.
"ELFO! You're ok!" Bean rushed over to him, picked him up, and brought him into a tight hug. "I was so worried about you! I didn't know what they were going to do!"
"Yeah, I thought they were going to eat me or something. But I'm fine! And so is everyone else!"
"Where are they?"
"Still locked up, and Oscar is being very, very annoying, and very VERY horny, from what I've heard."
"I don't get it. Why did they let you and me go and not everyone else?"
"Oh, I asked to let you be freed; it was one of the commands they agreed to since they wanted to speak to me," said Elfo. "You should try this dragon tea; it is the best thing I have ever had!"
The mighty dragon opened its mouth to speak, letting out a booming echo that rang Bean's ears.
Elfo nods. "Yeah, ok, we can talk now,"
Bean looked at Elfo, puzzled. "You can understand what it's saying?"
"OH! Um, you should do the same thing you did to me for Bean," said Elfo to the mighty green dragon.
Bean looks up at the dragon. "Wait, what?"
The green dragon widened its eyes, and Bean felt a piercing pain in her skull. She let out a loud groan, placed her hands on her head, and kneeled over slightly.
"Now, are you satisfied?" said a gentle and warm voice.
"What the hell?" Bean raised her head and looked up at the dragon.
"Can you understand her, Bean?" Elfo asked.
Bean looked at Elfo, then the dragon, and Elfo again. "What the hell just happened?"
The green dragon leans its head forward to look closer at Bean. "I placed a spell that infiltrates your brain waves and makes it to where you can understand our tongue,"
"Whoa…that's…pretty damn cool!" The princess smiled. "But it hurt like a son of a bitch though."
"It's one of the side effects, along with dilating pupils,"
"Oh," Bean turned to Elfo. "Are my pupils all weird?"
Elfo stared at Bean. One of her eyes went downward, and the other went upward. "Uh…It's ok!"
"Now," The green dragon said, its voice booming in the chambers. "Can we please move on to the matters at hand?"
"Um, what matters, exactly? Is this about how we got here? I swear, it was not our fault. The pale guy and the weird squinty eye girl with red eyes are to blame for all of th—"
"I already know about that," said The green dragon. "Natura already informed me about them, and they are currently being searched for as we speak. What I want to know…is why an elf…and you, the one with blue eyes and white hair, are together?"
Bean and Elfo looked at each other, confused. Elfo looked up at the dragon and asked. "Uh, I don't understand…why does that matter?"
"And why did you single out my white hair and blue eyes?"
"Because," Smoke came from the dragon's nostrils. "The one with white and blue eyes is why Rulo the Second had to send us here!"