Anilyia (7 page)

“No. I have never known fear,” he replied
matter-of-factly.

“Never?” Tathan asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Come now, I’m sure you have a reputation for bravery, but everyone
feels fear at one time or another. In fact, facing your fears is
the definition of bravery.”

The dark knight spread his arms out to the
side. “No. I have never felt fear. It does not know me, nor have I
met it, although I have seen it in people’s eyes.”

They stared at him for a moment. “Not even
when you were a child, Sir Knight?” Liselle asked.

“Not even when I was a child. My mother
cursed me for my recklessness.” Sir Danth looked at them and said
firmly, “I have never known fear. I am the ultimate Knight of
Morhain and there has never been my equal. It is as simple as
that.”

“Well . . . alright then,” Tathan said. He
turned to Liselle and Vevin. “We’ve been given beds in a small
cabin near the stream. Your bow is there, Liselle and there’s food
waiting if you’re hungry.” Liselle and Vevin both nodded vigorously
and followed him to the cabin.

It consisted of two bedrooms and a simple
living room. The furnishings were well crafted, if basic. Mats lay
on the dirt floor. Pelt window coverings were drawn back to let in
the fresh evening air. They sat around the table in the living room
while Vevin and Liselle ate. It was a cool night with a gentle
forest breeze carrying pine scents that mixed with evening meals
being cooked. Their meal consisted primarily of fruits and nuts,
though one of the Druids brought elk meat for Vevin. He heated it
with fire and shared some with Liselle.

Tathan casually munched on a piece of fruit
and explained their trip to the village. “Some Druids tried hiding
off the road to surprise us, but I snuck around behind them while
our metal friend here popped into the woods on the other side,” he
said, taking another bite of fruit and gesturing to Sir Danth. “The
Druids came out onto the road scratching their heads after
realizing that we had disappeared. The next thing they knew, our
swords were at the back of their necks,” Tathan said with a grin.
Sir Danth chuckled happily.

The knight became serious. “They were quite
mad at us for catching them by surprise.” Tathan nodded. Sir Danth
continued in his deep, hollow voice, “Their leader, a man by the
name of Bromin, was wroth with us and yelled that it was
disrespectful to surprise a Druid. He claimed it even more
disrespectful to draw weapons upon them.”

“Wroth? I like that,” Tathan said with a
smirk. “If wroth means cussing so bad that the trees blush that
is.”

“That is precisely what it means,” Sir Danth
said. “The Druids chose not to lead us to the village, instead
waiting for you to arrive. Did you not see them?” he asked Liselle
and Vevin.

“Well . . . we did . . . briefly,” Liselle
answered, feeling embarrassed. Vevin looked anywhere but at Tathan
and Sir Danth.

“Oh?” the knight asked in amusement. “Do
tell.”

Liselle looked at Vevin. “Perhaps you should
tell this one, dearest.”

“Oh, me? Well . . . Not much to tell
really,” he stammered.

“Here now, Sir Dragon. You have piqued my
curiosity,” the knight declared. He put his elbows on the table and
the chin of his helmet in his hands like a child would when
listening to a tale. “Please proceed with the story.”

Vevin blushed deep purple. “I saw the Druids
hiding too. We decided to be nice and let them surprise us. Then
Bromin smiled at Liselle like he was hungry, so I got mad.”

Tathan sat up straight. “You didn’t eat
them?”

“No! Of course not. I just got mad and one
pulled a sword, so I
threatened
to eat them,” Vevin said
indignantly. “Bromin got cranky with me and said I couldn’t, so I
told him I could if I wanted to and they ran away.”

“They ran away because you told them that
you could eat them?” Tathan asked with furrowed brow.

“Methinks there are details missing from the
story, Master Tathan,” Sir Danth said, head still propped in his
gauntlets.

Vevin sighed, not wanting to continue.
Liselle put a hand on his arm and explained the rest. “He spoke
with his dragon voice and used something called dragon fear, which
scared them off along with every other living thing in the area.
For all we know they’re still running.”

Vevin hung his head as Liselle patted his
arm and smiled at him. Tathan and Sir Danth stared at their dragon
friend for a moment. Then they burst into laughter and began
banging their fists on the table.

“Brilliant!” Sir Danth exclaimed.
“Absolutely brilliant!” The knight’s laughter boomed out of the
armor, filling the room. Vevin looked at them in surprise. Liselle
was laughing as well and he finally joined in. The mirth lasted for
a good while.

As they sat at the table relaxing, Tathan
had a thought. “So where did you end up after dashing into the
forest, Cousin?”

Liselle froze. She had forgotten about
Yebisu. At the moment, she was relaxed and didn’t really want to go
into it.

Vevin spoke up and ruined any chance she had
of putting it off until morning. “We came across a stupid, talking
yellow bird that looked rather tasty,” he said with a grin.

“A talking bird? That sounds interesting,”
Sir Danth said. “Do tell.”

“Oh yes. It was a very cranky talking bird.”
Vevin continued explaining, for which Liselle was grateful. The
incident had left a bad taste in her mouth. “Anyway, Liselle was
communicating with the flowers, smelling and touching them. They
guided her to a clearing with a pool in the center.”

“Ahh, a magical place then,” Sir Danth said.
He turned to Tathan. “Clearings with pools in the middle are always
magical places,” he said with a knowing nod. Tathan responded with
a knowing nod of his own. Liselle rolled her eyes.

“Oh yes. It was a magical pool. As you say,
they always are,” Vevin agreed. “Anyway, there was a big, bright
light in the middle that turned out to be Yebisu, the Yellow Bird
of Sunshine.” He said the last part in a mock dramatic tone.

“The Yellow Bird of Sunshine? Sounds
impressive.” Sir Danth chuckled.

“Oh yes, very impressive. Just ask her,”
Vevin replied with a wink and a chuckle of his own. “Anyway, she
dimmed her sunshine so we could see and then she landed on a
rock.”

“What rock?” Tathan asked. Details were
important to him.

“The big one next to the pool,” Vevin
explained. Tathan accepted that with a nod and motioned the dragon
to continue. “Anyway, Yebisu told Liselle to save Princess Anilyia
of Mayncal or the world would go ‘poof’”. Vevin cast a ball of
light and made it go ‘poof’ to emphasize.

“Poof?” Sir Danth asked.

“Oh yes!” Vevin exclaimed. He conjured up
another ball of light and made it go ‘poof’. “Poof, just like
that,” he said. More flew from his fingertips. “Poof, poof, poof,
poof, poof!” he exclaimed with giggles. It was his new favorite
game. Liselle rolled her eyes again and rested her elbows on the
table with chin propped in palms just as Sir Danth had done a short
while before.

Tathan watched how the dragon did it then
tried too. It took him longer to create a ball of light than it did
Vevin. His was orange instead of purple. Once he had it formed, he
tried to make it go ‘poof’. His went ‘plip’ like a sick bubble
instead.

Sir Danth burst into laughter and Liselle
buried her face in her hands and groaned. “No, no,” corrected
Vevin. “Like this.” He pulled up another purple light and made it
go ‘poof’ slowly. It was more of a ‘poooooooofffffff’.

“Ohhhh, I see,” Tathan replied and made
another ball of light. This time when he gestured it gave a
satisfying ‘poof’. It wasn’t as excellent as Vevin’s, but
respectable nonetheless.

“Well done, Master Tathan! Well done,” the
knight exclaimed with a smack on the shoulder. Tathan staggered
forward in his stool with a grunt. Liselle rolled her eyes at the
little ritual the boys played. It seemed a game for Sir Danth to
thump Tathan in the shoulder while Tathan did his best to avoid it.
The knight won the game more often than not.

“Anyway,” Vevin continued. “Miss Sunshine
Birdie insisted that Liselle promise to save the princess.” Tathan
frowned at that. Sir Danth stopped laughing. “Liselle refused to
make any promise, but said she might try if the opportunity arose.
Mrs. Sunshine got mad and flew away in a beam of light.”

Tathan stood up, moving to the window to
look at the lights from other dwellings. The small village blended
with the trees. Liselle worried that he would be upset with her
even though she didn’t feel like she had done anything wrong.

“Did the Yellow Bird of Sunshine poop
daylight on your head when she left?” Sir Danth asked
innocently.

They burst into laughter again. The knight
pounded on the table, causing it to jump with each hit. It was a
few minutes before anyone was able to talk with any clarity.

Tathan came back to the table, sitting on
the edge. “It sounds like you handled it really well, Cousin,” he
told her with a smile. It made her feel better and she smiled back.
“Did the bird really say the world would go ‘poof’?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes, she cast a ball of light
like Vevin’s and made it go ‘poof’ too. I remembered what you said
about people alleging the world would end if a quest wasn’t taken.
I wasn’t willing to make any promises.”

“That was a good decision,” Tathan said with
a nod.

Liselle became very serious. “I asked if the
fate of the world really hung in the balance if I didn’t rescue the
princess. Yebisu insisted that it did. She seemed so desperate for
me to rescue the princess. I worry that maybe the fate of the world
really is in danger.”

Tathan shrugged. “It might be. I don’t know
for certain.”

That was an admission she didn’t expect.
“But you told me things like that were always lies to get
adventurers to accept a quest.”

“Well, that’s true in my experience,” he
said. “I can’t say the fate of the world
isn’t
in the
balance, but I have a hard time believing any one person, or group
of people, is responsible for the entire world and all life.”

Liselle nodded. “It all sounds so sensible
when you say it like that. Yet when I refused to make the promise,
Yebisu made it seem as though I hated the world.” Liselle was mad
again. Mad at being made to feel guilty and mad at being told that
the world would end if she didn’t do something. Vevin put an arm
around her shoulders in comfort.

“You are not responsible for the fate of the
world, Lady Liselle,” Sir Danth assured her. “I have been alive for
a long time and seen centuries pass. No one person is responsible
for the world. I believe that with all of my heart,” he said,
reaching out to gently put a gauntlet on her arm.

“But what if I am?” she asked. “What if the
world
does
go ‘poof’ if I don’t save the princess? How am I
supposed to feel about that?”

“Then the world goes ‘poof’,” Tathan said.
He made another ball of light go ‘poof’, causing Vevin to giggle.
Tathan smiled tenderly. “You do the best you can, Cousin. Maybe you
save the world, maybe you don’t.”

“But that seems too casual,” Liselle
protested. “If I’m supposed to save the world then I should do
everything possible to succeed!”

“That is very noble,” Sir Danth told her. “I
have even more respect for you than before, and I have never
respected an individual more than you, Milady.”

“It
is
noble, cousin,” Tathan agreed,
taking a bite out of another piece of fruit. “But if you’re the
only one who can save the world out of an infinite number of people
throughout an infinite number of years, then the blame falls upon
the shoulders of the gods for coming up with such a stupid
concept.”

Liselle blushed while Vevin and Sir Danth
nodded in agreement. “Well said, Master Tathan. Well said,” the
knight told him, attempting another pat on the back, which Tathan
managed to avoid.

“The point is, you shouldn’t feel bad if you
aren’t able to save the princess,” Tathan told her.

“That is the princess the merchant was
talking about, Master Tathan,” the knight pointed out. “He said the
Princess of Mayncal had been kidnapped.” Sir Danth turned to
Liselle. “You did say the Princess of Mayncal, yes?”

“Yes. Princess Anilyia of Mayncal,” she
answered with a nod.

“Well then. It certainly sounds like a noble
cause regardless of whether or not the world goes ‘poof’. Let’s
rescue her, Tathan,” The knight said eagerly. “Rescuing princesses
is knightly and I have an urge to do something truly knightly.”

Tathan looked at Sir Danth and sighed.
“Well, I suppose that makes sense with you being a knight and
all.”

“I think it would be fun, Tathan. Can we?”
Vevin asked hopefully. “That way I could prove to Liselle that I
have restraint by not eating the princess!” That got Tathan’s
attention. He raised an eyebrow at Vevin.

“Ahh, yes. I had forgotten that dragons have
a taste for princesses. A princess is the only human dragons are
allowed to eat without penalty,” Sir Danth stated. “Perhaps this
isn’t such a good idea after all.”

“Princesses?” Tathan asked in confusion.

“Yes,” nodded Sir Danth. “The agreement was
made long ago. Dragons like princesses and have always accepted
them as sacrifices. Kings find daughters to be inconvenient in most
cases, so it worked out well to exclude them from the agreement,”
the knight explained. “It also gave kings a bargaining chip in case
a dragon got cranky.”

Liselle was offended all over again. “Why
are princesses inconvenient?” she asked dangerously.

“Well, you can’t do much with a princess,
can you?” He began ticking off the points on his fingers. “They
can’t become king, they throw temper tantrums, they get picky about
which prince to marry, and they’re always going about getting
kidnapped, all of which is extremely inconvenient.”