Chapter 1
"You must go!" shouted his mother to her son.
"You are the last hope, for our people," proclaimed his father. "You will come back someday and defeat your brother! I know you will never give up, never let Maolmhuire win! Let Maolmhuire roast in the fires of the afterlife for his evil deeds. Let him roast in the hottest pit of hel for eternity for his greediness," the father, finally spat.
"But I can't leave you," Taavit protested.
"You must son!" the father told him. "You are the only hope for our people. I know you will return and roust your brother from his comfortable position, even if that takes centuries."
"This world is not lost entirely so long as you live," Taavit's mother told him, even as she gave him a final hug and kiss on the cheek before telling him. "Both your father and I love you, but you must go son! You must be brave, you must be courageous, you must be honorable. Do not fear killing off anybody that your brother sends after you, as you know he will send assassins. You are the only hope for our people!"
"Goddess blessings on you, son! May you reclaim the throne, even if that takes many centuries!" The father said.
"Why don't you come with me?" Taavit nearly begged. "We could all escape this plane together."
"We must stay," the father told his son in a commanding tone that Taavit knew well. It was a tone that brooked no argument at all and meant that you had better obey or face the consequences. "You know this, Taavit. We cannot abandon our people and run away like cowards!"
The way, his father's spat the last word told, Taavit all he needed to know about what his father thought about running away, even if that was to escape to fight another day.
Taavit had known that both his mother and father would never agree to escape with him, as they were willing to sacrifice themselves so he could escape. His father was a terrific warrior and he would hold off the rebels long enough for him to escape this plane entirely. His parents would keep the rebels, busy long enough for those loyal to the crown to go to another world. Taavit knew that his brother would more than likely send assassins after him, just as his mother had already realized but not right away, as he would be busy for some time quelling the rebellion of the people that were loyal to the crown.
Taavit knew that his younger brother had been planning this coup for years, decades really, so he wasn't surprised it had finally happened. Still, it made him sad that his own brother was such a traitor, and so arrogant, selfish and greedy.
Taavit still hesitated and finally the father said, "Go son! Do not make me have to command you! Your mother and I want you to escape for now! I've already sent word out to all those that are loyal to you and to us, and they will also escape this plane! You are brave, loyal, and true, Taavit, unlike your brother. Go before the rebels batter down the doors to the throne room and you lose your opportunity!" the father finally ordered and Taavit finally obeyed, as he knew his father was right. He could hear the sound of fighting and the sound of a battering ram that pounded against the solid metal doors of the throne room.
The doors of the throne room were several inches thick and made of one of the toughest metals found on this plane. They might not be easy to break down, especially not considering they were locked, with a bar across them but eventually they would give way or somebody would find another way to enter the throne room.
"I swear to you, father, mother, that I will return and reclaim the throne and put Maolmhuire, and whoever else is involved to death on that day!" Taavit swore, before he followed his father's orders and ducked into the secret passage that led out of the throne room.
"Good luck, Taavit. Goddess bless you and keep you safe," The father said softly, even as his son disappeared from sight.
Both of Taavit's parents turned to face, the throne room doors once their son had disappeared, the secret passage, clicking shut softly once Taavit had vanished. They only hoped that Taavit escaped unscathed as he was the only hope for their kingdom.
They prayed that the goddess would protect their son and that he would one day return to reclaim his rightful place on the dragon throne.
Just then the doors, which had already been considerably buckled, did so even farther finally popping open, slamming into the wall on either side.
The king and queen watched as their youngest son strolled casually in dressed in armor with a helmet on his head.
"Maolmhuire," said the king calmly, as he stood up from where he had been sitting on his throne, which was made of a black rock found on this plane. The throne was beautifully carved and fit for royalty and had been made by a master of the craft many centuries ago.
"Mother! Father!" Maolmhuire sneered. "Where is Taavit?"
The King and Queen said nothing keeping their silence as they wanted to give their oldest son as much time to escape as they could. They knew unlike Maolmhuire, that Taavit was loyal, brave and courageous and would one day return to retake the throne. The only thing they were sorry about was that they hadn't executed Maolmhuire before he could go through with his plot to overthrow the rightful rulers.
Sentiment and love for their son had stopped them from doing what they should have and because of it Maolmhuire had been able to gather those discontent with the way things were run until it finally climaxed into their youngest son breaking into the palace, in order to kill off those loyal to the crown, including his own parents.
Both the king and queen knew that their oldest son was loyal to the crown and would one day come back and defeat his younger brother and retake the throne, and that thought alone gave them hope and the strength to keep their silent so that Taavit had plenty of time to escape.
"Answer me!" Maolmhuire ordered holding a sword on his own parents, but still the King and Queen said nothing.
Finally, Maolmhuire got tired of the silence and ordered the rebels that were standing behind them, holding their own weapons to throw his parents into the dungeon to languish. "Maybe sometime with only bread and water will get them to talk!" Maolmhuire sneered. "How the mighty have fallen so low!"
Maolmhuire finally turned away from his parents and paid no attention as the king and queen were dragged towards the dungeon with their arms chained behind their backs.
~~~Dave and Dania~~~
Taavit transformed into his dragon form as soon as he had escaped the palace walls and flew high enough that it was unlikely he would be spotted behind the clouds. In fact, he used a little of his magic to make himself invisible and he was grateful for the ability to do so.
Finally, he landed at the spot that had been arranged for others that were loyal to the crown to meet up so they could all escape their plane together. The only things he had on him were the clothes on his back, his sword and the armor he was wearing.
He hadn't had a chance to get any supplies as the rebels had been on them suddenly and he knew he was lucky to have escaped the palace without being seen, thanks to his ability to make himself invisible, though he'd had to kill a few of the rebels that he had come upon, so that he could get past them without brushing against them, because being invisible did not prevent him from being able to touch objects. He knew if he brushed against anyone loyal to his brother that they would likely call out the alarm and even his invisibility wouldn't protect him then. He had searched the bodies and got several useful items, but no food, a knife, a fire starter, a few coins. For the coins they would be useless where he was going, even though they were pure gold and silver. He supposed he could melt them down to where they were just lumps of metal, but in their present state with the picture of the king on one side, and the city of Dragmir on the other they were useless in their present form. Still, Taavit pocketed the coins and then dragged the rebel behind a large tapestry depicting the battle of a mountain town that he couldn't recall the name of at the moment, not that it mattered.
Taavit saw several someone's approaching him from the sky and he hid by using his invisibility once again just in case it was one of his brothers men, but when the three dragons landed and transformed Taavit saw, it was Calyx, his mate Rowena and their son Ramon.
Calyx and his family had been loyal to his parents and him for many centuries and so he let his invisibility drop.
"Calyx, Rowena, Ramon," Taavit greeted, still cautious, just in case he was betrayed, but relaxing slightly.
"Prince Taavit," Calyx greeted. "Where are your parents?"
"They insisted on staying behind to confront my brother. I begged them to come with me, but they refused. I wanted to stay and confront Maolmhuire but father and mother insisted that I escape. I didn't want to go, but I had been given an order, so I had to obey."
"That sounds like the king," Rowena said.
"It does," Calyx agreed. "Your father knew that you were the last hope of ever overthrowing your brother."
"We had better get out of here," Ramon suggested.
"No, we really don't have time to wait to see who else escaped," Taavit said. "As much as I would like to stay, confront my brother, the four of us must escape this plane entirely while we have a chance. If we are caught, we all know what will happen as we'll be executed as my brother will take no chances that we can escape the dungeon. We all know he has no familiar feeling for me, his own brother and so won't keep me alive due to any blood connection. That actually gives him more reason to see me dead not less, because he'll never truly rule Dragmir, so long as I live. Unless he publicly executes me, he'll never be the true ruler."
"Let's go then," Ramon suggested looking around nervously, as there were sounds in the distance that were getting closer and none of the four of them had any idea if the sounds approaching were friends or foes, so it was better to be safe and not wait around to see who it was.
The four dragon shifters immediately transformed and flew off into the sky, using the clouds to cover their escape, and soon they used their magic to escape their plane entirely once they were out of sight of whoever had been approaching them at the meeting point.
~~~Dave and Dania~~~
"Well, here we are," Calyx observed sounding eerily calm.
The four of them had appeared in an alley and luckily, it was late night, so there was no one around to observe them.
Luckily, for Taavit and Calyx and his family they could all link up mentally so they would end up at the same destination. It only worked though within a certain distance, no more than two or three hundred miles at most.
"So where do we go from here?" Rowena wondered. "We are in an unfamiliar place, on an unfamiliar world."
"Well, I suggest we stick together for now," Taavit suggested. "Once we get the lay of the land and absorb the language from someone then we can separate. We all knew where we were heading, thanks to being able to mentally link up so we all ended up in the same place, so for now, I think we need to stick together."
"The first thing we need is to find someplace to stay the only problem being that we don't have any money that is good on this plane," Ramon said.
"If I can study the money used here, I can reproduce it in whatever quantities that is needed," Taavit said. "Thanks to me being part of the royal family, my money will be indistinguishable from the real thing, and it also won't disappear after a certain amount of time."
"I had forgotten that, but you're right," Rowena said
"I'm not surprised you had forgotten, as it's a little-known fact, one that is rarely ever used," Taavit said. "It's a good thing though, that its only possible with the royal family. Even though Miles is technically, my brother, he's never been very good at using his magic to produce the gold and silver that is used on our plane. He's just not patient enough so always ends up making subtle little mistakes so that his reproduction of our world's coinage is flawed."
"Just because he's technically part of the royal family doesn't mean that he's good at producing money that would technically be considered counterfeit, even if there's usually no way to tell," Calyx observed.
"Yeah, it's just as well," Taavit said, sighing gustily. "We can worry about my brother later, as right now, we need to find some accommodations for the night and also find out what year it is. We might've known about this plane for quite some time, but that doesn't mean that we know much about it just that it would be a good place to escape to where we look just like the other inhabitants. Oh, by the way, don't call me Prince whenever we encounter people as we don't need them being suspicious. Just call me by my name until we can get the lay of the land. I won't take offense I promise, as this is not your normal situation. This is no time to remember each other's station or position in society."
"That's wise," Calyx decided. "I mean, our names are unusual enough for this world as it is making us already stick out, we don't need to draw even more attention."
Both Calyx's mate and son nodded in agreement before the four of them ventured out of the alley and started walking.
The streets were made of some kind of stone that Taavit didn't recognize and there also wasn't any kind of light being produced other than the moonlight shining down from above. This was apparently a pretty primitive society, unlike at home, but he and his companions would make do since they were stuck here for the time being, Taavit thought.
Finally, they encountered what appeared to be lodgings of some kind and so entered waking up the owner to get themselves a place to sleep.
~~~Dave and Dania~~~