Anilyia (5 page)

“The fate of the world lies in the balance
should she not be rescued,” Yebisu said ominously. “Princess
Anilyia is destined to change the course of Ryallon.”

Liselle thought about what Tathan had told
Mother Tree upon being informed that the fate of the world was in
their hands if they didn’t take the quest presented to them. Tathan
believed that entities used fate of the world arguments to convince
adventurers to accept quests. She remembered the questions he had
asked Mother Tree. “Will the fate of Ryallon really be decided by
whether or not the princess is rescued? Will the world cease to
exist if nothing is done?” Liselle asked skeptically.

“Most definitely it will cease to exist!”
Yebisu exclaimed. She spread her wings and hopped from foot to foot
in alarm. “Do not take my words lightly, Child of Flowers, for the
fate of the world truly does lie in your hands. Only you can save
Princess Anilyia.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t the answer that she was
expecting. When pressed on the subject, Mother Tree had admitted
that the fate of the world was
not
in jeopardy because of
the Rojuun. Liselle wished Tathan were there. He would know what to
say to . . . Miss Sunshine.

“Please, Child of Flowers. Please rescue
Princess Anilyia and return her to the Kingdom of Mayncal. It’s
more important than I can stress.” Yebisu held her wings forward,
curling the tips in a pleading gesture. Light glistened along their
length.

Liselle thought about it for a moment,
glancing at Vevin who just shrugged. He seemed determined to be of
absolutely no help. She turned to the flowers. They believed Yebisu
to be sincerely worried, but couldn’t tell her if the fate of the
world was in danger. That was beyond their understanding.

The bird was looking at her expectantly,
moving slowly from one foot to the other. Yebisu was a powerful
creature representing sunlight and warmth. Tathan had told her to
be cautious about accepting tasks, but he was paranoid about
everything. The only thing that was clear was that a princess had
been kidnapped and needed to be rescued.

“Where is the princess?” she asked
Yebisu.

Yebisu spread her wings, brightening a bit
before folding them back. “In the caverns of the Rojuun where
sunlight does not travel.”

“So . . . Princess Anilyia has been
kidnapped, taken to the tunnels of the Rojuun and we need to rescue
her or the world will be destroyed. Is that it?” Liselle asked,
trying to get it all straight in her mind.

“Yes. The world of Ryallon will go ‘poof’.”
Yebisu curled her wings forward and created a yellow ball of light
between them that went ‘poof’ in a puff of smoke. Vevin giggled at
the sight. He put his hands forward to create a purple ball of
light. Then he made it go ‘poof’ with a puff of smoke. Both
creatures’ orbs actually made a poofing sound. The biggest
difference was that Vevin’s had purple smoke while Yebisu’s had
yellow smoke.

“Poof!” Vevin exclaimed. He did it again,
each time yelling poof. “Poof! Poof! Poof! This is so much fun
Liselle. You should try it! Poof!” he said with another flash.
Vevin started jumping up and down in circles, tossing out little
light balls that went ‘poof’.

Liselle giggled as she watched her lover’s
fun. The flowers in the small clearing were watching Vevin and
enjoying the show as well. Nobody noticed the furious look that
grew on Yebisu’s face. The bird didn’t like being mocked and felt
that the dragon was deliberately trying to make her look like a
fool. “Will you help or not?!” Yebisu shrieked.

Vevin stopped and everyone turned back to
the yellow bird, including the flowers.

Yebisu settled her ruffled feathers, folding
them behind her back. “I’m sorry I yelled. I’m just so worried
about the princess. You are the only one who can save her, Child of
Flowers. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do
so.”

“I will . . . try to save the princess . . .
if we get the opportunity? . . .” she said hesitantly.

The bird stuck its head forward
incredulously. Beady black eyes were open wide. “Try? . . . If you
get the opportunity?” Yebisu began walking back and forth on the
stone, talking to herself. “I might save the world if it’s not too
inconvenient. I wouldn’t want to interrupt a bath or a nice meal to
do so. I’m sure the princess doesn’t
mind
being locked up.
They never do mind after all. Whatever dark cell she’s in is
probably a nice break from the beautiful palace and all the
attention she normally gets.” Yebisu turned to stare at Liselle. “I
know things, Child of Flowers. I know that you are the only one who
can save the princess.” Her voice became gradually louder, rising
to a shrill pitch. “You must save her or the world will suffer
terribly. Tell me you will save her!”

“Alright! Alright, I will . . . probably . .
. save her . . . maybe,” Liselle mumbled. She didn’t like so much
pressure and just couldn’t bring herself to commit fully.

“Probably?” Yebisu repeated in a choked
voice. “Maybe?”

“Well . . . I honestly might try, but I just
don’t feel like I can say that I will definitely save her.”

“I don’t want ‘Probably’. I want ‘Yes, I
promise
that I will save the princess’,” Yebisu demanded in
a stern tone. “Promise me you will save the princess. Promise me
now, Child of Flowers.” Yebisu was leaning forward. Her beak and
crown feathers were on fire.

“I will
not
promise,” Liselle stated
defiantly. “I can only tell you that I
might
try to save the
princess.”

Vevin took a step forward. His posture
showed that he was ready to attack the bird should it try anything
stupid. The flowers were alarmed by two of their favorite creatures
in the world being at odds with each other.

Yebisu looked at Vevin’s bared teeth and
pulled back. Then, with a scream of outrage, she shot into the air.
A brilliant burst of light brightened the clearing and surrounding
forest. Then the Yellow Bird of Sunshine flew away to the
south.

Liselle put her hand on Vevin’s shoulder to
prevent him from taking off after Yebisu. He was angry at the bird
for upsetting his lover. Yebisu had left without Liselle promising
anything and there was no sign she was going to come back, which
made Liselle happy. She didn’t want to talk to Miss Sunshine
anymore.

There was still the matter of the missing
princess, but Liselle was going to wait until they reached Tathan
to make decisions about that. Part of her was bothered by the need
to discuss it with him first, but they were a team. Even if her
cousin had a tendency to be paranoid, he was wise to the ways of
the world.

“I don’t like the way that stupid ball of
sunshine spoke to you,” Vevin said angrily. “You said you might
rescue the princess. I think that’s nice of you, much better than
what I would do to a princess.”

Liselle stepped back and held Vevin at arm’s
length. “What would you do to a princess, darling?”

“Well . . .” he trailed off with a blush.
His skin was a cream color with a hint of purple. When he blushed,
the purple darkened, much as a human’s cheeks would redden.

“Yes?” she encouraged him to proceed.

“I am a dragon, you know . . .”

“Yes, I know that. What exactly would you do
with a princess?”

Vevin dug his toe into the ground. “I would
nom her.”

“Nom her?” Liselle asked, her brow furrowing
in confusion.

“Oh yes. ‘Nom, nom’.” Vevin made a chewing
motion with hands on either side of his face as though holding a
drumstick. Liselle stared at him as though he had just lost his
mind. He went into more detail. “Nom, nom is the sound you make
when you’re eating something. You are ‘nomming’ something.” Liselle
continued to stare at him. “Nom, nom,” he said weakly.

“Yes, I already know what nomming is, dear.
You mean you would eat the princess?” she asked uneasily.

He pointed in acknowledgement. “Yes. That’s
it. I would eat the princess. Nom, nom.” Vevin smiled, happy that
she understood.

Liselle was horrified. “What do you mean you
would eat the princess?! Dragons aren’t allowed to kill people. You
said that dragons made an agreement. People aren’t allowed to kill
dragons and dragons aren’t allowed to kill people.”

“Well that’s true except when it comes to
princesses and thieves,” he explained with a shrug. Liselle stared
at him with mouth wide open. “Don’t look at me like that! I haven’t
eaten any princesses and I promise not to eat this one if we rescue
her,” Vevin reassured her unreassuringly.

“Well that’s good to know . . . Have you
eaten anyone at all?” Liselle asked.

“No! I’ve never eaten anyone. I promise I’ve
never eaten a person.”

Liselle breathed a sigh of relief. Vevin was
a carnivore, but eating
people
seemed wrong. A thought
occurred to her. “You can’t lie can you? Dragons can’t lie,
right?”

He tilted his head. “Why would you think
that?”

“I don’t know. I just thought . . . I mean
dragons are so noble and powerful. It seems to me they wouldn’t be
able to lie,” Liselle stuttered.

“Dragons can lie. In fact, we’re superb at
it.” Vevin put a hand to his chin in a thoughtful pose. “I’ve
noticed we’re excellent at a lot of things that normal people
aren’t.” He looked up with a grin. “I figured out recently that I’m
awesome. I’m very happy about that you know. I wouldn’t want to be
un-awesome like a lot of people.”

Liselle was getting frustrated. First, a
bird yelled at her and now Vevin was a lying, princess-eating,
more-awesome-than-a-lot-of-people, jerk of a boyfriend. “So how do
I know you’re not lying when you say you love me?” she accused with
her arms crossed. Tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.

Vevin didn’t see that coming even with his
awesome eyesight. “What? No! No, Liselle,” he said, taking her by
the shoulders. She didn’t respond except to duck her chin into her
chest. Vevin put a hand on the back of her neck and leaned down to
look into her eyes. “I love you, Liselle! You know that’s not a
lie. You know it with your heart, your body, your mind and
everything!” he said frantically.

It was true, he did love her and that
knowledge was in her heart, body, mind . . . and everything as he
so eloquently put. “But you just said you lie and eat princesses
and that I’m not as awesome as you.”

***

“What? No!” The conversation was hard for
Vevin to keep up with and he didn’t know which issue to address
first. “You are more awesome than me and I’m not lying to you,” he
said, hoping that would clear things up enough.

Liselle looked up, still standing with arms
folded. “But you do eat princesses?”

“No. I’ve never eaten one. It’s just a
craving and I’m going to resist it,” he said, determination
swirling in his molten eyes.

“I don’t understand why you would even have
a
craving
for princesses. It makes no sense,” Liselle
replied with a puzzled frown. “You said you’re not supposed to harm
humans. Why princesses?”

Vevin held his arms out helplessly to the
side. “I wasn’t there of course, but when the treaty between
dragons and humans was made, it was agreed that princesses would be
excluded from protection.” He tried to calm Liselle when she set
her jaw in anger. “Princesses have always been offered as
sacrifices to dragons in order to keep us from eating sheep and . .
. well . . . other people. The kings who made the arrangement
thought it would be sensible to keep the option open in case
someone did something stupid and killed a dragon. It gave the
kingdoms a means of peaceful resolution,” he finished as though it
all made complete sense.

Liselle didn’t say anything, just stood
there glaring at him. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark
purple hair. This just didn’t seem like a conversation which was
going to end well and there was nothing he could do about it. It
seemed unfair, after all he had never actually eaten a
princess.

“Why princesses? Why not a prince?” Liselle
asked quietly.

Vevin shrugged. “Princesses are really tasty
from what I understand. They taste better than anything else,
especially princes,” he explained. “I don’t know why, but it’s just
the way princesses are made or something.”

“That’s just ridiculous!” Liselle threw her
hands up in frustration. She turned and walked toward the pool. The
water was crystal clear. A few small fish swam about lazily. She
leaned down and ran fingers along the top, watching the gentle
ripples.

Vevin moved up behind her, saying nothing.
It was probably wiser to let it go. He got the impression that the
flowers were cranky with him too. It bothered him that he was
concerned about how flowers felt. It didn’t seem a dragon-like sort
of thing to be troubled by.

“This is a magical pool,” Liselle said. “I
feel it in my fingertips. I can’t tell what sort of magic, but it
is magic.”

Vevin changed his vision to one that would
be able to determine for certain what the pool was made of. “You’re
right, darling. It’s very subtle magic. I’m not certain which type
it is either.” He changed his vision back.

***

When Liselle turned to him, she saw purple
tendrils disappear from his liquid eyes as he changed his vision
back. Vevin had shown her what his eyes looked like when he changed
sight. It was very faint and most people would completely miss it.
Each type of vision had tiny tendrils of color. Purple tendrils
were the color of magical vision. Everything about him was magic,
which must be why he was purple, Liselle decided.

Liselle stood up and wrapped her arms around
his waist, leaning against his chest. “I’m sorry I was angry with
you, dearest” He was so warm, strong and wonderful.