Fierce Beginnings

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. In fact, there weren’t even usually dragons in the Valley. Dragons preferred the water where they were akin to gods. On land, they were mere demigods, forced to make do with the pitiful food options available in this realm. On any other day, they wouldn’t have paid me much mind. Scrawny wizards were not their ideal meal, but this was not a typical day in the Realm of Elements. Edible, lone wizards did not usually traipse around outside their protective wards, fully visible, and loud as they please. If I had adopted that level of stupidity early on, I never would have survived exile for the last thirty years. Well, almost thirty years. In one week it would be my thirtieth anniversary of exile. Mazel tov.

I imagined the slitted eyes of the dragons tracking my movements. Sure, I could have just looked up and seen them, but I didn’t know what would goad them into attacking. Let them think I was ignorant of their presence if it meant I got closer to safety. Dragons aside, the moment I stepped outside my wards, my breaths were numbered. I was far too fragile for this realm.

Even in the day, the sky was so dark that it would almost pass for night. This sky was a dark emerald green, foreshadowing the coming of a particularly nasty storm. The raging winds blew the elastic trees with such force that they bent almost parallel to the ground. Trees were not meant to bend like that. They should be lying in a mass of jagged pieces on the valley floor. Instead, the moment the wind let up, the trees popped back up, turning the valley into a labyrinth of monstrous, bludgeoning clubs. The steady wind was keeping the trees from moving much, for the first time in this realm the wind was on my side. A distant roll of thunder had my stomach and intestines jockeying for position.

Why, you might wonder, would a wizard leave the safety of his wards, when a storm was brewing? Perhaps the question is, why would said wizard not turn back and cut his losses when the dragons showed up? That would be an equally valid question. Both questions share a response: because I am an idiot. I’m an idiot that heard something completely foreign to this realm. A sound that I had not heard in almost thirty years: the sound of a human voice. It was one high-pitched, echoing cry for help. In the instant I heard it, my thinking brain was cast aside, and my reactionary brain began steering the ship. Without a doubt, this ship was on the rocks, mere moments from sinking… or being smashed by a tree, either way, it was not ideal.

Perched on the Valley walls, two dragons the color of soot and sapphire stared down at my pitiful attempts to drag the unconscious, half-drowned body of a strange woman under one of my toothpick arms, and a large mirror under the other, slightly larger, toothpick arm. Slung around my neck in a makeshift sling, made from my favorite purple cloak, was an injured baby dreadwing. Blood and who knew what else was now stuck to, and seeping through my cloak. I tried not to dwell on that, but there wasn’t much else to focus on unless I wanted to let my mind wander over the details of my impending, violent death. I chose to glare down at the lump inside my cloak. I couldn’t really see the stupid thing, but I knew he was there.

The dragons were watching, but not attacking. If we were quiet enough, maybe the dreadwings wouldn’t come. It was possible that they hadn’t heard the stranger call out. In another hundred yards, we would be safe. Optimism, I thought wryly. Though a lot could happen over one hundred yards when you’re traveling at the pace of an arthritic sloth, especially here. I clenched my teeth together with each step, grunting and groaning internally, but doing it out loud would only draw death upon us sooner. Left foot, I chanted in my head as I lifted my left foot and dropped it in the weeds ahead of me. Right foot. Again, I followed my own direction. A slow chill ran down my spine as lightning flashed in the distance.

I looked in the general direction the dragons had been, trying not to look directly at them. They were still there. It hadn’t looked like they’d moved at all from their perch overlooking the valley. Still, I felt other eyes upon us. Left, right, left, right, I began chanting faster in my head, but my body was just about to its breaking point. My legs were cramping, my arms shook with the effort of moving forward, and the adrenaline was about done allowing me to play superhero. I was never meant to be a man of action or even a man of moderate labor. I was always meant to be the smart guy. I looked over my shoulder, searching for the dreadwings. They were there. I could feel them, even if I couldn’t see them. I may have been too delicate for this role, too delicate for this world, but my strengths never lay in physical pursuits.

“You are trying to escape the murder beasts?” the mirror asked, his tone was goading.

I didn’t respond. It was the stupid mirror that had insisted that the dreadwing be cared for. Maybe that’s what had drawn the beasts in, the little monster. Why was I taking orders from a talking mirror? The lightning flashed again, closer this time, and scattered my thoughts. Was that a growl, or was it thunder? The fear was not as easily ignored now that I knew I was being hunted. It was one thing to think you were the prey. It was a different feeling entirely to know it. My stomach hurt. My limbs were trembling with fatigue, fear, and adrenaline, and my heartbeat was pulsing in my ears. I pushed myself faster. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left Right. The clearing was just ahead, a few more steps and I would be out of the trees. The woman groaned.

“Shut up,” I growled, the panic making my voice octaves higher than usual.

For a moment, I held out hope that she was coming around and would be able to get herself to the clearing. It was a hope in vain. She remained a lifeless puddle of dead weight. I broke through the trees and my cabin was in sight, maybe sixty yards ahead. Another rumble of thunder sent a fresh jolt of fear through me. I sped up, but my pace was still that of a slow walk.

Lightning split the sky flashing so brightly that my vision went white. In the same moment, I heard the growls of the dreadwings as they bared down on us. Without my vision to guide me, I did the only thing that had any chance of saving us. I dropped the woman and the mirror and threw my hands out to my sides. The ground around us erupted in purple flame. My breath came in gasps as I forced the flames out farther from me. Blinking rapidly, I tried to focus on the ground beneath us. The flames had engulfed me, the mirror, and the limp body of the woman. I could feel the flames spreading further still, but my vision was too spotty to discern the distance between the flames and our approaching death. Barring my teeth, I pushed the flames farther. A thought struck me, and I was fervently glad that this is one of the spells that did not take much concentration on my part. The dragons weren’t waiting to eat us, they were waiting for the dreadwings.

A startled gasp had me cursing. “Don’t move!” I said through gritted teeth. I assigned the part of my brain that was not holding the spell, or desperately searching for the next step in this plan, to respond. It was an unfiltered response.

“Well, the way the spell works, she can actually move-” the mirror began to say.

“Shut up,” I snapped, “and stay put.”

When my vision returned to normal, I almost wished for the ignorance of the moment before. The purple flames extended in a circle about fifteen feet from us. A few yards from the perimeter of the flames were a dozen dreadwings. The shock nearly broke my concentration. In the almost thirty years that I had been trapped in this realm, I had never laid eyes on a dreadwing. They looked nothing like the odd dog-looking baby that was ruining my favorite cloak. The dreadwings had always lurked in the darkness, testing my defenses, but never in my line of sight. Not a native of this realm, were there such a thing, I had dubbed them dreadwings simply to avoid calling them “the creatures” which had made them scarier in my mind at the time. Exhaling in exasperation, I couldn’t help but find a sadistic amusement in thinking the name would somehow make them less terrifying.

To call the creatures dogs would be a gross mislabeling of the enormous canine-esque creatures that stalked us. They were as large as Clydesdales, with the amalgamated features of a canine, feline, and aves. Their dark coats concealed the wings that I had only ever heard whooshing in the darkness. With a growl, followed by a sharp exhalation through its nose, one of the dreadwings took flight. Now that the fire had barred their passage, it seemed to lose interest. Its brethren were not so easily dissuaded.

Just up the slope from the valley, my clearing was calling to me. Even at a dead sprint, I wouldn’t make the distance before the creatures fell on me. I knew it. They knew it. Safety may as well have been in another realm. My stomach started to do somersaults. Much more of this stress and my heart would give out. It was hard to stay still when I was nearly jumping out of my own skin in panic. This could not be it. Not so close to safety. Desperation warred with helplessness making it impossible for me to form any sort of plan.

“Fine, you can talk again,” I said, “any suggestions?”

“I’ve got an idea,” the woman rasped, “can I move, or will I get set on fire?”

“You can move, just don’t leave the flames.”

“Mirata, any thoughts?”

“You are woefully outmatched,” the mirror said, “I don’t think they care about finishing off the runt, it appears they just want to eat you two.”

“Thanks for that,” she said as she pushed herself to her feet. “very helpful. Alright, I have a plan.”

“Setting them on fire is not much of a plan,” Mirata said, “especially if it also sets you on fire.”

She glared at the mirror, “I’ve got control over this one. We’re going to have to move quickly. Don’t move.”

“Am I moving quickly or not moving? I can’t do both,” I growled.

“Don’t move. I’m going to create an illusion of us running away from here and put a vale over us. Then we need to move slowly or they’ll eat us.”

“You can do that?”

“Do you have a better plan?” she asked as she pushed herself to her feet and glared at me.

Perhaps my tone had been a bit skeptical. “No.”

“Then shut up and let me work,” she said, matching my attitude. “Can you give us some cover?”

She was questioning my abilities now? Who was the one to keep her alive up to this point? I narrowed my eyes. “Ten seconds,” I said. I tried to keep the skeptical tone in my voice, but it came out strained.

Mirata counted aloud. When he got to ten, I forced the flames to flare up over our heads. A distorted bubble formed around us as our doppelgangers darted out of the flames. I could see through the illusion to the dreadwings beyond it, but as illusions go, it was very convincing. It was a higher level of skill than I had expected of the stranger. She looked like she was still a kid.

The dreadwings looked in the direction of the fleeing figures, but they were in no hurry to follow. Converging in a v-shaped formation, they were pointed in the direction the figures were headed. They still did not take off running as I had expected them to do. That wasn’t good. My hands began to shake as the exhaustion of the last half an hour caught up with me.

Looking at the woman, I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips, the question clear. She narrowed her eyes, but we all remained silent and as still as possible. The woman’s chin raised and the look in her eye told me that she was trying to convey something to me without words. Given the state I had found her in, I had every confidence that her idea would drip with the ignorance of youth.

“Drop the flames,” she mouthed.

“That is stupid,” I mouthed back.

She narrowed her eyes, then let them wander between the fleeing figures and the dreadwings. “Drop it or they won’t leave.”

The shaking was getting worse, and my vision was starting to narrow. Whether I wanted to drop the flames or not, they were coming down. It went against every survival instinct that I possessed, but I let the flames go knowing that there was a snowball’s chance in hell that I would be able to get them back up if the creatures didn’t take the bait. I forced my muscles to remain locked in place. Of course, that meant that my nose began to itch, and I realized that I had completely forgotten about the dragons. My eyes trailed to the high walls where they were sitting when I had last seen them. They were gone.

It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to remain silent. Every last drop of adrenaline was urging me to bolt, vamoose, skedaddle. Then the rain began. It was slow at first, but nothing in the Realm of Elements was ever done halfway. Moments after the first raindrop had made its appearance, its brethren joined it en force. It poured down on us so hard that it was as if we stood directly beneath a waterfall, but we stayed put. The green of the sky grew deeper until it was almost black. The storm was minutes away if we were lucky. Soon it would be impossible to stand, let alone stand still. The dreadwings began to walk slowly toward the fleeing figures, though a few continued to look back in our direction. I silently urged them to move on. If they didn’t take the bait soon, we’d have to choose the death we preferred: the weather or the creatures.

My stomach unknotted minutely when the creatures bolted in the direction of the decoys, but neither of us moved. We were still within easy reach if they decided to turn back for us. The woman flicked her eyes toward the clearing. I nodded. We each put a hand on the mirror but I shook my head, put the mirror under one arm, and then held out my other hand to the woman. She raised an eyebrow looking at my outstretched hand. I rolled my eyes, searching the pockets in my robes until my fingers found the carved stone key hanging from a leather cord. I held it up between us and flicked my eyes back to the clearing. This time she nodded. I wrapped the leather cord around my wrist and placed the key in my palm; once again I held my hand out. This time she took it, the stone key clutched tightly between our palms. The sound of the slow rumbling thunder in the distance obscured our clumsy steps. Trying to place our feet carefully was not easy in the overgrowth of weeds and plant debris around us, but we were making progress.

A gust of wind nearly ripped the mirror from beneath my arm causing us both to stumble. The woman kept her feet, but my tired legs gave out and I fell on one knee. The little creature inside my cloak whimpered. Instantly an enraged cry sounded above us. When I looked up, the creature that I thought lost interest earlier stared down at us. Even in the pouring rain and buffeting wind, the creature hovered as if it were treading water. I didn’t know what the creature was seeing, and I didn’t want to wait around to find out.

“You have anything else?” I whispered.

“Maybe?” the woman whispered back.

“Now’s the time for desperate plans. The others will be turning back. We fight one and run for it or we fight them all.”

A deafening roar shook the ground around them. The woman stifled a surprised scream that hid my groan of terror. The dragons were coming. When the woman did not respond I shook her hand roughly, “I don’t like our odds against all of them.”

“What was that?”

“You don’t want to know. Now, desperate plans?”

“Alright, fine, but this is on you.”

A delighted giggle came from the mirror.

“What is on me?” I asked, but she ignored me.

“Hold on tight, just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“I’m still learning. Sometimes my spells go a little…”

“A little what?” I asked, my voice rising with the fear settling deeper within me for each passing second that we were not in motion.

“Awry,” she said as she gripped my hand harder. “Here we go,” she said as she dropped the vale.

The creature looked as though it fell from the sky when it spotted them, but the woman was faster. A giant ball of orange flame shot at the creature, hitting it center mass and sending it careening into the darkness. Pure elation lasted for the span of a heartbeat before it turned to realization. The ball of flame was coming back toward us with no sign of slowing. I crossed my arms over my chest, still clutching the woman’s hand, and began chanting nonsense. The words didn’t matter, my intent did. Now was the time for unfaltering intent to shield.

The ball of fire smashed into us. Flames washed over my shield like a wave. I was concentrating so hard on the shield that it took a moment before I realized we were no longer stationary. The momentum produced by the spell sent us flying back toward the clearing which, while not ideal, was still a step in the right direction. The bigger problem was that it was also sending us up into the air. I clutched the mirror and the woman’s hands tighter as I closed my eyes. It looked like we would be entering the protection of the clearing from above. It would be an unpleasant, ugly landing, but if I could create a bubble around us, maybe the fall would not be enough to seriously injure us. I hoped.

My stomach dropped and I knew we were beginning our descent into the clearing. I kept my eyes closed and pictured a bubble around us. My concentration broke as I felt the woman’s hand ripped from mine. My eyes snapped open as I grabbed for her. The sky lit up as she sent another fireball at the advancing creature, but she had let me go before the key could allow her through the ward.

“No!” I yelled, still reaching for her. I knew it was useless. I was falling fast, and she was far out of my reach.

As I fell, I threw the mirror into the tall grass hoping it would cushion its fall. Then I locked the baby creature in a cage of my arms in what little protection I had left to offer. When we hit the ground, I rolled but the impact scattered my wits for a moment. The little creature whimpered again but did not seem any the worse for wear, but he was not exactly my focus at the moment. I pulled the sling off, setting the creature carefully on the ground as I whipped my head around the clearing. There had to be something I could use to get her down.

The light show that was happening above me proved that she was holding the creature off for the moment, but it would not last for long. Lightning split the sky burning a snapshot into my mind. The dreadwing, while lethal, was now one of many deadly problems. The woman hung suspended in the air, like a fly trapped in a translucent web. Her arm pointed at the creature as another ball of flame erupted from her hand forcing the dreadwing back. High above their fight, a speck of sapphire was slowly growing larger as it dropped with its wings folded.

“Think, think, think,” I yelled as I paced frantically around, giving the panic that had been bottled up free reign.

As terrifying as the creatures were, my wards were equally deadly to her; more so the longer she stayed in contact with them. The longer the physical contact, the more energy it would drain from her. If she stayed up there too long, the creatures would not need to kill her. A chorus of growls boomed over the storm followed by a roar that made my whole body tense in response. The second dragon had joined the fights.

An idea popped into my head. It was not a good idea, and by “not a good idea”, I mean it was a bad idea. A very bad idea. As I had told the woman earlier, now was the time for desperate plans.

“Left hand out!” I yelled up to her. I breathed a sigh of relief when she complied. “The moment the key is within reach you need to grab it. Got it?” I tried to sound optimistic that the key would be within reach, but I didn’t believe it myself. This was a shot in the dark at best.

She responded by giving me a thumbs up with the hand that was not spewing flame. I raced to the garden wall and grabbed a small metal bird. In deference to a friend, I said a silent prayer to a god that I did not believe in. Then, hooked the leather cord on the bird’s beak and began muttering another nonsensical command. The metal bird fluttered to life. I pulled my arm back and threw the thing as hard as I could toward the woman. The dragon was so close that I could make out the scales. The rest of the dreadwings were in sight; their formation pointed at the dragon. The other dragon was still out of sight. We would get one chance, and only one chance to save her life. The bird spiraled out of control, flying drunkenly, unsure which way was up. I tried to direct the bird up to the woman’s left side, but I used the bird to store spells, not to fly.

Its metal wings flapped spastically, rising foot by foot. The dragon would be on her in less than fifteen seconds. I willed the bird to flap its heavy wings faster, counting down as I watched. Fourteen, thirteen, twelve. The woman shot another ball of fire, but the dreadwing retreated before it hit. Eleven, ten. The dragon extended one of its razor-sharp claws at the dreadwing’s back, and the other at the woman. Nine, eight, seven. The metal bird was almost there. Six, five, four. The other dragon roared again; it was getting closer.

Three, two, “Now!” I yelled.

With a terrified scream, she looked to the left and grabbed the key. The moment her hand closed around the key she was falling. Like the idiot I am, I ran beneath her with my arms outstretched. I intended to help break her fall, but something hit the ground beside me distracting me at the very moment that I needed to be focused. Which meant that I was unprepared when the sopping wet woman fell on top of me taking us both to the ground.

“Ouch,” I groaned.

The woman groaned between coughs and rolled onto her side on the ground next to me.

“I guess it didn’t work,” I said in disappointment as I began to feel every abuse my body had sustained over the last hour.

“What didn’t-”

The sky lit up as a deafening boom shook the clearing. Brilliant purple jets began zooming spastically through the air decimating the creatures. They fell from the sky with holes in their wings and their coats on fire. The dragon roared as it fell atop the ward, rolled down the side of the dome, and bounced unceremoniously off the ground. The black dragon was barely visible in the dark sky, but it was keeping some of the dreadwings occupied. The eyes of the sapphire dragon landed upon me. Smoke curled out of its nostrils as rage propelled the beast forward. I clenched my hands into fists. We were about to see how well my wards had been prepared. They had never been pitted against a dragon. There was no time to stand and run. There was not even enough time to scream before the dragon slammed into the ward. It bounced off, reared back, scraped its back claws into the ground, and charged once again.

The ward held, but the dragon was not ready to give up. It slammed into the ward over and over until the hunting cries of the dreadwings rose above the storm. The dragon locked eyes with me. Despite the language barrier between the beast and me, there was no mistaking the understanding that passed between us. This was not over. Not for him. The dragon opened its razer-filled mouth and let out one final, deafening roar before taking to the sky. Vicious snarling filled the air until the creatures took their battle out of earshot. My whole body shook with fear and fatigue. I laid my head back on the grass and ran my hands over my face. Optimism had never come naturally to me, so I didn’t believe that we had killed some, if any, of the creatures. I was, however, certain that we had made enemies.

“Aelin Caslanta,” the woman said as she held out a shaking hand.

“Yulon Ekrep,” I said, accepting her hand and shaking it, “call me Yekrep.”

“Yekrep?” she gasped, “is it really you?” she sat up too quickly and fell back onto her side. Undeterred by her inability to maintain her balance, she struggled to sit back up. “You are Yekrep?”

“I am Yekrep,” I said louder, speaking each word slowly.

“Mirata told me that I could find you here.”

“Mirata? Wait, you came here willingly? Are you insane?”

“Possibly,” she said, “but I need your help.”

“Help?” I asked looking pointedly around the clearing.

“Yes. Help.”

A humorless laugh escaped me. I couldn’t help it. I spread my arms wide, “look around! I was banished to a realm that isn’t meant to support life in general. You want me to help you? I can barely help myself.”

“You don’t understand. If Mal’gen isn’t stopped he’s going to destroy my entire realm.”

“Aelin, I, well, now we, are stuck in a realm where there is no escape. There is little hope of saving ourselves, let alone an entire realm.”

“He said you’d say that.”

“Who said what?” I asked, irritation floating to the surface.

“Mirata.”

“The mirror?”

“The mirror,” she agreed. “The mirror! Oh no, where is Mirata’s mirror?”

I pointed to the tall grass where the mirror lay face down. Aelin rushed over to the grass and began picking the mirror up. I waited for the cry of despair that would signal the demise of the talking mirror. Instead, I heard Aelin’s confident voice say, “we’ve found him.”