History

The eyes of the dragon still bore holes into her. Audra remembered every detail of it clearly. Too vivid for it to be a dream. Her hand kept fiddling with the phone in her hand as the scene kept replaying in her mind. She heard footsteps behind her and looked behind her to see a figure approaching her in the empty castle lawn except for her there had only been few guards patrolling on the boundaries.

The figure neared and she finally saw Karl's face glowing in the light hitting him from the bonfire in front of her. When she had walked into the lawn in the evening one of the workers came and lightened up a bonfire for her saying it's usually here for the guards because it gets colder and after a while Audra discovered herself to be shivering in the cold.

"I thought everyone was supposed to be at the kingdom's border for some sort of checkup" She questioned Karl remembering the note that had arrived with her phone later that afternoon.

"So you got the note" he confirmed and she found out the mystery sender.

"Where did you find this?" she asked him holding up her phone.

"I found it fallen by the kitchen and then it suddenly started to glow and you were standing there" he tilted his head in though clearly having been surprised.

She giggled at his expression switching on the phone and showing the lock screen where a picture of her was displayed.

"Yes" he nodded enthusiastically seeing it. "this was it. What is this thing? Is this some kind of magic?"

"This isn't magic" she laughed at his claim.

I haven't seen you laugh like this ever since you have been here" he suddenly turned serious and she paused mid laugh.

"It's not like it's been long since I have been here. Only four days" she looked back at the events.

"It definitely feels more than that." He too seemed to be thinking on the past events.

"Right it has been eventful days" unfortunate events she didn't say that part aloud.

"It's strange how even all of us have accustomed ourselves according to your presence. How long are you here for anyways?" His question caught her off guard.

"I don't know that either" she answered honestly.

"Where are you from really?" He looked over to her expecting a real answer. He was curious.

"Where I am from people don't turn into dragons" she started awkwardly unsure how to make sense of any of it.

"The what do you turn into" he asked stupidly and she laughed again.

"We don't turn into anything we stay as it is" She clarified motioning to herself.

"Then are you not a dragon?"

"I don't know that myself" after coming here she wasn't even sure of anything anymore.

"So people there don't have magic how do you live." He couldn't even imagine living without magic.

She held up her phone. "We have this. Almost everything is in here. We can talk to someone not with us. It can even store moments. Like how you saw my picture in this. It even has music on it and games"

He looked at peculiarly thinking she might really be crazy. "We can talk to someone who is not with us as well" he boasted.

"Like how that dragon talked to me through mind"

"We can only talk that way in our dragon forms. There is another way" he walked a bit further and returned with a leave and a stick. He made some markings on the leaves and then whispered something in a language she didn't understand. "et usque Audra uri verba" (let the words burn till Audra)

Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the leaf float and catch fire until it was all galloped by the fire and then it vanished from in front of Karl. After a second A small fire started midair in front of Audra and the leaf reappeared as soon as it was complete the fire vanished and the leaf fell in her hands. She stared at the leaf in her hand with astonishment then at Karl. It was a crooked smiley face drawn on the leaf.

"How was it?" he looked proud of it. "Your life must be boring without magic"

"That was cool" she accepted inserting the leaf behind her phone cover. "can everyone do it?"

"There are different methods for everyone we do it with fire. Marcello does it with air other people do it with water" he explained.

"Why does Marcello do it with air?" She found it odd.

"He isn't one of us" Karl's declaration surprised her.

"As in he is not one of the princes?"

"No, he isn't from here"

"Then where is he from. Wait. What even is this place?" she realized she had no idea where she was even living. If there is a King, there must be a queen her .... grandmother?

"First time I think being taught history is going to be useful for me." He sighed sitting down on the grass. "Have as eat it's a long story" he added dramatically patting the area beside him. First time she thought maybe they were normal kids like her in their own world, who studied had their own jobs to do, and hated history.

"I have always hated history too." She agreed sitting beside him in front of the blazing fire.

"The dragon world is divided into three kingdoms the fire kingdom the earth kingdom and the ice kingdom. This is..."

"fire kingdom" she guessed cutting in and he glared at her offended at the intrusion. "sorry continue" she quickly apologized covering herself more with the shawl.

"They were divided according to their powers. The fire kingdom controls the fire of course. The ice kingdom controls water and the earth kingdom the air and the plants"

"Which one is the strongest?" she asked curious.

"that can't be decided because if you see according to powers it maybe the earth kingdom because with air and ground they can practice to control fire and water too but that kingdom is near to nonexistence there is no rule their people have scattered and very few of them exist now. So they are not much of a threat whereas fire and ice have their huge population and army. Fire beats ice in means power and strength but ice has better weapons they are a bit more advanced and crueler."

"But shouldn't fire kingdom be crueler you know fire" she added dumbfounded and he gave her a look that said how dare she insult his kingdom.

"We are fiercer and angry but we are very soft hearted" he praised himself smiling with a hand on his heart and she chuckled at his acting. "look how nicely we are treating you …" she raised her eyebrows ". I mean Ian is an exception he is nice to no one. But the ice kingdom they are very cold hearted just like their name they have killed a lot more of our people forcing us to be fiercer that's also the reason princess Idalia returned to her father" she gasped hearing her mother's name but fortunately for her he didn't notice too lost in his story.

"Who is princess Idalia?" she asked.

"I am getting to that part." He noticed her impatience. "Almost 100 years back there used to be a lot of wars between the ice and fire kingdom. There used to be continuous fights. The earth kingdom divided taking sides. The fights went on for almost 50 years and the earth kingdom seized to exist. The leaders of all the kingdoms tired of all these wars decide to join the two kingdoms to stop the fights. After many discussions it was decided to marry the only prince and the first princess of the two princess from ice kingdom. The prince was our king the king Harrison and the princess was Queen Orianne from the ice kingdom. There were celebrations throughout all kingdoms everyone was happy to mark the end of the wars tired of bloodshed and life loos this was a new beginning. Few years later Princess Idalia was born and everyone was overjoyed to get an heir for the entire kingdom she was to bring glory to the entire dragon world. She wasn't just a princess she was the princess of the entire dragon world to rule all of them she was their symbol." He spread his arms in the air to emphasize the effect and she saw the awe in his eyes. "But then after 5 years there was an incident in the ice kingdom's palace and the royal family was slaughtered. Queen Orianne's parents were found killed and her sister was nowhere to be found. No one knows who did it they never found out. Some say it was the sister, some say the fire kingdom and some doubt people from the earth kingdom was jealous…."

To be continued...….