Chapter 14

Third Person's POV

The five returned and entered the Reid homes; Emilia removed the blindfold from her eyes; she was now calm and not sobbing; the four knights were worried about Emilia; she looked at the four knights with a sad and worried expression. She sat down on the sofa and looked at her palm, which was slowly healing after she was injured on her scales.

"Are you okay? What exactly are you thinking?" Luke inquired as he sat beside Emilia.

"I'm fine. I'm not thinking of anything," Emilia lied, but Luke knew she was lying to herself. He held her hand, and the princess was shocked, as were the three knights.

"You cannot lie to me. I know it is difficult; you may wish you were not a princess and the chosen one, but you must accept who you are; we are always here for you, no matter what. The escape from Spence was your desire because you wanted your own life, so we supported you all the way," Luke comforted. The princess slowly looked at the first knight, knowing Luke wanted to comfort her.

"I appreciate your comfort, but why are you saying that to me? Are you currently comforting me?" Emilia inquired.

"Yes, I am, and you don't want to be consoled? I'm assisting you, and the other knights are attempting to assist you in becoming stronger," Emilia was still sad, and her eyes weren't changing; they were still the eyes of a yellow dragon.

"You are correct. I wish I wasn't a princess and the chosen one," Emilia sobbed. The three knights decided to comfort her by creating a firefly. They cast a spell, and the fireflies began to fly and circle them as the three summoned as many fireflies as possible, which began to encircle them.

Emilia was surprised to see so many fireflies flying around the room. The yellow dragon's eyes returned to the normal she had.

 "I think my eyes are normal again. Thank you for comforting me. I promise myself I will be stronger to avenge my uncle," Emilia promised. Luke smiled along with the three knights. He is glad he could comfort Emilia in the meantime.

"You are always welcome, my lady," Luke said, and she laughed as she caught the fireflies around her.

"What made you cry so suddenly earlier while we were eating? I wanted to ask you that," Luke inquired.

"I was hurt about how my father was looking for me; he's describing me as a yellow dragon, which is why people think I'm a monster," Emilia responded, slowly smiling.

"But it doesn't matter now because I have my own life, and I know what's right and wrong. You comforted me, and I'm happy about it," Emilia remarked, and Sean added a white butterfly glowing inside the room.

The princess played with the fireflies and butterflies created by the spell, which vanished in an instant.

"We'll have a job tomorrow. John reminded us to come to his small inn," Emilia advised, and the four knights nodded.

"So we need to rest early so we can get up early to start the day," Luke added, and Emilia nodded. They prepared to go to bed, and Emilia placed her cloak beside her mattress after removing it.

"Good night, everybody!" Ryan yawned, Emilia lay down, and Luke followed suit, facing the curtain between them.

He slowly closed his eyes and began to dream. He was startled to see many dead armies. Bloodied bodies had been cut, some rotting, and there was much blood on every step he walked in. He was confused about where he was and how he got there. Still, when he saw Emilia standing on the many corpses of the army, he approached her.

 "Emilia?" Luke came to a halt; he wanted to address her by name, but he couldn't because he owed the princess respect.

Emilia turned around to see Luke, but she had scales on both cheeks, and her eyes were the yellow dragon's. Luke was perplexed and caught off guard that Emilia's hand had turned into a large and bloody hand.

"No, this isn't real. It's just a dream," Luke murmured as he saw the three knights lying down with their eyes closed, blood on their chests as if their hearts had been taken out, and he backed away from Emilia.

"Come with me, my savior," Emilia said, and Luke closed his eyes and didn't move another step because he wasn't sure if the dream was real or not.

"Wake up, Luke!" Luke opened his eyes to find Sean shaking him awake, and he heard Emilia laughing as she prepared.

"Did you have a dream?" Emilia questioned Luke, but he did not respond, instead getting up and stretching his hand over his head.

"I made a small room for cleaning our bodies; you are welcome to use it." Sean elaborated.

"I had a bad dream, but let me wash first." Luke stood up, going to the small room Sean had created.

Luke went to where Sean had pointed, and there was water in the bucket. He began to undress and wash, but he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened in his dream.

"He's behaving strangely; do you think he's having a nightmare?" Emilia approached the three knights and inquired.

"Perhaps he has nightmares; let's just ask him after he washes," Sean replied, and they heard a noise in the small room.

 "What happened, Luke?" Princess Emilia was concerned as she approached the small washroom.

Luke was catching his breath after seeing a vision in which Emilia lay down with the other three knights and died; he heard a knock on the door, but as he looked at the bucket containing blood, he was hallucinating.

"Stop right now! Someone is attempting to deceive me!" Emilia was surprised to hear Luke yell.

"Get out of the small room. I'll make him come out," Emilia advised as she cast the spell to open the small room.

"Luke! What happened?" Emilia dashed up to Luke, who was now dressed in his clothes and dripping wet.

Luke took a deep breath as he looked at Emilia and hugged her. She was perplexed about what was happening; she saw the bucket with no water but a blood stain.

"Luke, your hand. What's going on?" Ryan exclaimed as Emilia let go of Luke's hug and looked at Luke's hand.

"I'm sorry, I thought someone was mind-controlling me. I had a nightmare about the three knights and you, princess," Luke explained, panting.

"I'm not sure what was going on, but I have a vision of you laying down beside the three knights, dead," Luke explained as Emilia patted his back.

"I'm fine. Nothing happened to me. It's just a dream," Emilia reassured him with a smile.

Emilia was perplexed, which is why she decided to use the time spell to stop the time, and she was successful. When she returned to the time they were all sleeping, she used the rewind spell she knew.

She approached Luke, who was having a nightmare and sat beside him. And Emilia touched Luke's forehead, and she entered Luke's dream. She was cautious

 Emilia knows if she makes one wrong move, she will be stuck in Luke's dream. She looked around the dream and saw Luke trembling in front of someone, and she noticed it was her, with blood on her hands and everywhere.

But what surprised her the most was the woman's transformation into someone with a snake's tongue and scales all over her body. Emilia was enraged that someone was manipulating Luke inside his dream and making him believe it was true, which is why he had the vision earlier.

Emilia chooses to return to the present, and the three knights assist Luke in treating his wound. While they were treating Luke, the princess entered the small room and looked inside, where she saw a small snake escape and quickly disappear.

"Luke was right, someone is controlling him, and it escaped just now. It was a small snake. I don't know what it can do next," Emilia explained, and Sean was taken aback.

"You must be careful, my lady; we cannot enter your dream, so you must fight alone if that snake manipulates you," Sean advised, and Emilia simply nodded.

"How did you know it was a snake manipulating me? Did you use a spell to look into it?" When Luke questioned Emilia, she admitted to using the rewind spell.

"I use the rewind spell and enter your dream world so I can see what nightmare you had. Then I saw the snake figure," Emilia explained, and Luke was now concerned that if she had a nightmare, he wouldn't be able to do the same.

"I'm worried that I won't be able to cast that rewind spell; you have a lot of spells that I don't. I'm the first knight. I should be the strongest among us," Luke muttered, surprising Emilia and tapping his shoulder.

"Everyone has equal powers, I have limits, and that's why you four are here with me. That speaks has its limitations. I can't change your dream, but I can observe," Emilia and the three agreed with the princess.

 "You can practice the rewind spell to save me," Emilia explained to Luke.

 "However, remember that this spell has a limitation; you cannot alternate what happened in the dream, or else you will be stuck in someone else's dream for the rest of your life," Emilia added.

"We can also practice so that all five of us know the rewind spell!" Because they are energetic, Emilia slowly smiles.

"Enough with the chit-chat; we need to see John today for the job," Emilia reminded, and the three knights finished treating Luke's wound on his palm caused by the snake's manipulation.

The five finally prepared to go to John's small inn; they went outside the large room and exited the Reid homes; as they went down, Ryan noticed someone looking at Emilia and decided to keep an eye on her at all times.

When the five arrived at the small inn, John was eating bread and was surprised to see them.

"Good morning, everyone! You're all early, and I'm glad you're all here," John said as he finished his bread.

"What will we be doing today?" Luke inquired, and Emilia took the first seat.

"Right now, it's a little far away, but you need to get these five stones. The five stones are worth a lot of gold! I'll show you where they are on the map!" John indicates the location and shows Luke the five white stones.

"How will we know if it's the genuine white stone?" Luke was curious.

"You need this. Just wear these special goggles. It's magical. You can see it will glow if you look at the stone. For example, I have this stone I picked up. It's glowing," John explained, and Luke put on the magical goggles and was shocked by what he saw.

"Is it true that I can see it for myself?" Luke remarked, and John took up the map of the Eryen, telling the five that it was full of monsters.

"Be careful when you arrive there; there are monsters, and I expect you to fight some of them." John elaborated.

"I understand, thank you; I will inform our lady," Luke said. John simply nodded.

"Goodluck! There are many jobs for the five of you if you come back," John said quietly.

"We will be back all right, trust me, you don't know who we are capable of," the four knights said.