Guardian Dragons (7 page)

‘Thank you grandma. You know how
much these stories of yours mean to us all.’ He looked at her with
a respectful admiration. A strange old woman, but a kind
one.

Promptly escaping, while the going
was good he felt a twinge of guilt, not at leaving his grandmother,
he knew she would thoroughly enjoy her remaining walk, but more at
the fact that he could not control Heather’s mischievous deeds. She
was a headstrong girl and would never take ‘no’ for an answer, that
was for sure. Certainly, she never listened to him. Still, he liked
to be with her should anything go wrong.

He reached the courtyard where a small group of soldiers
were mounting their horses, readying themselves to begin their
duties. Unsure whether any would recognise him, he walked in a
different direction only to be deafened by the loud metallic
clattering of the Smithy. Breathing in the choking heat that
blasted out of the open doorway, he felt perspiration on his
forehead, his ears ringing at the deafening noise. Wondering how
the blacksmiths managed to work in such conditions he swiftly
passed by and headed towards a gate that would lead out of the
palace grounds. This was a smaller gate than the main one used by
the public. Only the workers of the palace, on foot, would pass
through this way, though he would not be leaving through the gate
itself. Close by a large evergreen bush hid a small hole at the
base of the tall wall surrounding the palace grounds. At the other
side of the wall, the bush had managed to seed its partner that hid
the same hole. Discovering this exit many
suncircles ago, when he had fit through the hole much
easier, it had remained unknown by anyone until he shared his
secret with Heather. Should it ever be discovered it would be
filled in immediately, being considered a danger to the Royal
Family. Should his father or older brother discover he was outside
of the palace without an escort, he would be in serious trouble.
Escorts are simply too inconvenient when one is attempting to have
fun.

Squeezing through the now fairly
tight hole, he remained undercover of the bush until he was sure no
one would see him emerge. Caution had paid off over the years and
he was not going to risk his hidden exit just because he was in a
rush. Other than the guards who were busy chattering to a servant
exiting the smaller gate, no one was nearby. On the outside of the
wall the palace was surrounded by a thicket of brambles and prickly
bushes of which he had a created a good route through with his
hideout safely secluded from prying eyes. Leaving the large leafy
bush, he made his way towards a cobbled footpath that would lead
him into a quieter part of the city known as the Merchants’
District. Large whitewashed houses were prominent within these more
affluent quarters and equally they liked their privacy, so their
grounds were large. His destination was to climb the steep hill
that leads to one of the huge heavy wooden city gates and then on
to the thick pine forest where the trees grow tall and thin and the
floor of the woodlands stays soft underfoot with the droppings of
millions of pine needles.

Passing through the city gate was
not difficult, he would simply tag along with a trader or cart
rider. No questions were asked of people leaving, only of people
wishing to enter the city. Both Leon and Heather would return
through a hidden underground tunnel that formed part of the city
sewers. This unsavoury secret way was the only other means of
entering unnoticed.

As he finally entered the woodlands, the musky fragrance of
pine needles blew up his nose with a warm whispery breeze. At last,
he could relax with the knowledge that he was nearly at the meeting
place of the Old Willow tree, on the cliff top by the sea. At the
forefront of his mind, he pondered on various ideas of how he could
persuade Heather to change her mind. He would keep the
promise but wished he had not been
the one to come up with this foolish prank in the first instance.
In his heart, he knew she was determined to do the deed and nothing
he could say would change her mind.

Chapter 10 Huphin
Beginnings

‘
T
ell me poppa, please
tell me again,’ Bryley nattered, not allowing her father out of her
sleeping chamber until he had told her of one of his good
adventurous stories, or surely she would never be able to
sleep.

‘I have told you all the tales I
know,’ Prince Gadon teased her, knowing full well that he equally
enjoyed the telling of the bedtimes stories just as much as his
daughter enjoyed the listening of them.

‘Every time you re-tell a tale,
you add something new,’ little Bryley eagerly explained. ‘So I will
always wish you to tell me everything you have ever
known.’

‘I see,’ attempting a stern
expression as he closely watched the puzzled look on her young
face.

A shimmering emerald-green
reflection of rippling water moved across her features. He looked
at the flowing water fountains that continually trickled out of the
tiny holes inbuilt into the surrounding walls of the pool, keeping
it constantly refreshed. The warm bubbling water serves as a
blanket for the huphins, who need to immerse most of their bodies
within water as they sleep. Aqua greens and shimmering blues warmly
glowed from enchanted gemstones scattered about the sleeping
chamber, lighting the room dimly. Bryley’s giggling echoed in the
watery chamber, she smiled at her fathers straight face.

‘I’ve already decided which tales
I want to hear,’ she said, confident that he would relent. This was
her favourite time,when she could choose to hear any story and her
father would think up all the words. ‘First, I want you to tell me
all about the whole world again, you know, how there are two sides
to the lands and the seas. Then I want you to finish off with the
legend of our race. I like that one poppa. It’s so
courageous.’

‘I see.’ He put his webbed fingers
upon his chin and frowned down at her as she settled into the
shallow warm water of her sleeping pod.

‘Stop all your “I see’s” poppa and
get on with my story. I insist. I just can’t wait any
longer.’

‘Very well little huphin Princess, we shall begin our
quest.’ Joining her in the green pool, he felt soothed by the
warmth of the water running over his thick deep-blue skin. Settling
his excited
daughter down, he
began his version of her chosen legend.

‘Upon our world of Aarabassa there
exist two very different huge oceans that wrap completely around
the planet’s surface.

The Dark Side, where the sun never
shines, has the silvery black Archeronian Ocean where the frozen
waters lay buried beneath giant blocks of black ice. Many cold
blooded sea creatures survive in these waters and many strange
creatures live on the lands that these waters protect.’

‘Poppa,’ Bryley looked a little
troubled at her father. ‘I don’t want to hear about the monshaads
that live on the ice cap. I don’t like them.’

‘As if I would let a monshaad hurt
my Princess.’

‘I know but let’s not talk about
them in this story. Come on poppa, I want to hear more,’ she
insisted, becoming impatient for the story to get going. ‘Tell me
again of the sea creatures in the dark oceans.’

‘Gargantuan serpents with many
heads of sharp teeth live in the deepest crevices of the murky
waters.’

‘Do you think they have underwater
cities like we do?’ his daughter asked.

‘No. I don’t think they are very
clever, all they do is eat each other and sleep. There are colossal
dragons that can live on both the land and in the sea, capable of
freezing anything that moves with their ice-cold breath. Then there
are massive ugly fish creatures, of all shapes and sizes, carrying
many sets of oversized scissor sharp teeth for tearing their
victims’ bodies apart. Enormous octopuses with long spreading
tentacles spray burning acids at the many headed serpents. These
evil sea beasts have never learned to live side by side and survive
only by devouring one another.’

‘Oh poppa, they are horrible
aren’t they. I hope they never manage to get into our seas, don’t
you?’ Bryley shivered at the thought of what these monstrous
creatures must look like.

‘Let’s not forget that you have a
King as a grandfather. He’ll make sure that they never come
anywhere near our cities,’ her father assured her. ‘Now then, to
continue. Before the Magic Wall was created, to separate the Light
Side of the world from the Dark Side, many of these sea beasts
could also fly and they roamed around the whole of the world with
ever increasing appetites, consuming both land and sea creatures.
Then there was a great battle between the sea serpents of the Dark
Lands and the fire breathing dragons of the Light Lands. This
battle was ferocious and nearly caused the end of the gentle Light
Land dragon race. But there lived a great human mage and his
intervention with powerful magic prevented the evils of the Dark
Side from engulfing all of Aarabassa’s lands and
oceans.’

‘Poppa,’ Bryley often interrupted
the tale telling with never ending questions in search of
knowledge, ‘do you think there may be one of them left in our
oceans? Perhaps he hides deep down.’

‘Absolutely not.’ This was one
answer he was confident of the truth. In his position as Prince of
the Oceans he knew much of the politics of both land and sea and
would be one of the first to know of any evil presence.

‘Now I want you to think about the warmer and calmer
emerald green seas of our Perivvian Ocean. The sea creatures in
these waters are also cold blooded but they manage to live together
in much better harmony. That isn’t to say that they don’t feed upon
each other for survival, because indeed they do. The huge
whale
eats the tiny plankton.
Giant fish, with many rows of large sharp teeth, eat the smaller
vulnerable fish. Enormous octopuses spray deadly inks. But within
this ocean there exists an intelligent ruling race of sea creatures
known as the huphins, who, so legend tells, originate from a
combination of humans and dolphins.’

‘That’s us. We are the strong
leaders aren’t we?’

‘Yes Bryley. We have the equal
intelligence of any ruling land creature and we live by a complex
set of rules, not very dissimilar to human
civilisation.’

‘Poppa I don’t feel like a dolphin
or a human, in any way at all.’

‘We aren’t the first of our kind,
my little Bryley,’ her father patiently explained. ‘We’ve evolved
greatly since the beginning. So, shall I go on to the legendary
tale of how our magical race originated or shall you bombard me all
night so you have no adventure to dream about?’

‘Please do poppa and hurry before
momma comes and tells me it’s sleeping time.’

‘And so it goes that thousands of
suncircles ago there lived a human mage called Quintim Terchey,
who’s special magic skill was to heal. Many human mages are capable
of living prolonged lives by using their magic but healers in
particular can achieve the longest, free of any sickness or
diseases.

Quintim had made a whistle out of shells and whenever he
played it by his sea cave entrance, a beautiful blue shimmering
dolphin came and entranced him with her clever dancing skills. He
came to know her name as Lillyanna and they came to know each other
well. They learned to communicate with their Mindskills. He fell
madly in love with this Lillyanna and asked of her permission for
him to use his magic so that they could become one. By transforming
the upper half of her body similar to that of a female human and
also attempting to create two limbs on the lower half, her body
became similar to a female human with the exception of the many
fins and gills that she still needed for when she lived under the
waters. However, she was only able to shuffle along slowly upon the
land, as a large membrane joined her legs right down to her webbed
feet, so walking was not an easy task but could be done
with a little patience. Quintim had
all the patience in the world as their love for each other
deepened.

Lillyanna could not stay upon the
land for any great length of time and likewise he could not live
down in the waters, so one moonwake they swam into the depths of
the ocean bed and he created a magic bubble, whereby they could
both breathe. The bubble contained no water and there was no
gravity pull within the membrane but they could both move around by
sort of swimming within the dry air.’

‘That’s just like now poppa.
That’s how we get around our city, so things haven’t changed that
much, have they?’

‘No, I don’t suppose they have in
that respect. This was the foundation of our way of life below the
deep seas. The bubble slowly became bigger and better and they
lived happily for many more suncircles. Quintim never desired to be
parted from Lillyanna so he accepted living this way. The only time
they were forced to part was when she had to go find food, but she
never left his side for long.

Well now, eventually other sea
creatures began to notice this odd pair living on the ocean bed in
their bubble and even sea creatures like to talk, so word soon
spread amongst them..’

‘Poppa,’ Bryley asked with a tired
yawn, ‘do you think that if those sea creatures had kept quiet,
then the two of them would have been safe?’