Drake: Part Two by larin_ellotan |  |
It was one of my two days off today, and I decided to move
my furniture to the house mother had told me about. It was filthy-and tiny!-so
I ended up fixing a bit, first. I put my small wardrobe not too far from it my
night table, and put that right beside the spot the bed would be in. I would move
the bed in, After. The rest of the day was spent cleaning, and fixing up the tiny
bit of yard in the back to be fit for gardening.
By the time night came, I was pooped. I flopped
down in a clean corner and fell asleep in minutes. That was the first time I
had the dream.
***
I was wandering around in a forest, not knowing where I was going, where I
had come from, or where I was. It seemed familiar, though, somehow. I flew,
even though the gaps between the trees were very small, I wove between them
effortlessly, not even brushing a wingtip against a leaf. This was my domain,
my world. But, what was my world? Where was my world? The dream started to crumble
with my doubt, but I held on to it, desperately. I didn't know where this place
was, but I was going to find it, to once again fly between the trees. Then I
was floating in blackness, before going on to dimmer, regular dreams.
***
Good, thought the starry Draik as he released the younger Draik's mind from
his own. Lots of determination, a firm mind. He will be a fine Draik when he
discovers his magic, and learns how to use it. And grows up, he added mentally,
looking through the window at the tiny figure curled up on the floor. Yes, he
must grow up. He is much too young, now.
***
When I awoke, it was to the sound of Crokabecks next door. I peeked out the
window to get a good look. Joy, I thought to myself. I just had to get a place
right beside a Crokabeck nesting house.
I cleaned up the house a bit more before I went
back to the palace. While I was cleaning, and while I was walking to the castle,
I thought about my past again. Mother had never mentioned it, but I knew that
we were not related. Not because we were different species -- I knew seven pets
who had parents who were different species from them-but because of the way
she acted. I couldn't really explain it, she just seemed to act… strangely…
around me. I shook my head and forgot about it, heading to my mother's room.
It was a bit of a habit-no matter what I did,
wherever I went, on my second and last day off, I would spend the day with mother.
Today we went for a walk in the palace gardens, something we had never done
before. Usually, I went to her room and we talked as I cleaned her room.
The palace gardens were beautiful, and I recalled
coming here often when I was younger, before I became a servant.
We stopped by an old wooden bench in the shade
of many trees and surrounded by pretty flowers.
"I haven't come here in a long time," Malyice
said. She didn't really sound like she was talking to me, she was just talking.
"Last time I came here, I found a little bundle
of blankets sitting about here," she rested a paw on the center of the bench.
"And what should I find inside those blankets, but a little baby Draik?"
"Me."
She sighed. "I just found you. No note, no mysterious
cloaked figure, nothing. You were just there, waiting for me." Malyice smiled.
"Now you will be waiting for someone else."
That certainly got my attention "Who?"
"A Water Faerie came a few days ago, asking
about orphans. I told her that you had been, and would once again be, an orphan.
She asked a bit about you, and…" she shrugged. "She knows someone who wants
to take you in, Krenna. Her name is Vierna. She's a Human, but at least you'll
have a home."
"She wants to adopt me?" it seemed so strange
to me. I had been left behind, abandoned right at this very spot, and someone
wanted me. Someone wanted me. The only one who had ever really made me feel
welcome was Malyice, and a few pets from the castle I had played with when I
was younger, like Sodin.
"She does, Krenna. You will have a home, a good
home, where you will be cared for, and watched over by the Faeries, I expect."
I smiled. Someone wanted to take me in, to adopt
me. I was wanted.
"But, why does she want to take me in?"
Malyice smiled. "Does it matter, Krenna? She
is a Faerie friend, blessed by the Faerie Queen herself, I do not doubt, and
she has a good heart. You will be happy with her, Krenna. She may not be real
family, being an owner, but she will love you. That is all that matters."
"Yes," I whispered. "That is all that matters."
***
"Hello, Krenna." I gazed at the water Faerie. She was very tall, about the
size of Illusen. She had wavy blonde hair, and blue eyes. "My name is Kelra."
Kelra. The name was very pretty, and hung in my mind, for some reason.
"Follow me, Krenna."
I did, and she led me to the Meridell harbors.
We boarded a fancy ship called the Skarl, and she started telling me some things
about Vierna. The more I heard, the more I wanted to just get to Faerieland,
to get to Vierna.
"She's really anxious to meet you, too, Krenna,"
she told me when I asked for the hundredth time how much longer it would be.
"But you will have to leave this name behind."
"Why?"
"Vierna is different from other people, young
Draik. She can use magic, like us Faeries."
"So?"
Kelra shrugged. "This must be kept secret, even
from her pets. And in order to keep her pets from knowing about her, she must
be kept from knowing about her pets. Whenever she finds out a bit about one
of her pet's pasts, they will find out a bit more about her."
"If it must be kept secret, then why are you
telling me?"
"Faeries have a code clearly stating that whenever
a Faerie is about to cast a spell on a pet, even one of evil intentions or heart,
she must first give them warning, though the Dark Faeries usually break that
code."
"So. I won't remember anything about my past,
and so I won't tell anything about it to her, so her secret will be kept."
"I am afraid so. Eventually, if you prove to
be the right one, you may get your memories back, along with finding out about
Vierna's past."
I sighed. I wanted to have a home, but I wanted
to remember Malyice, too. "I can't back out, can I?"
"No," she whispered. "Now that you know about
Vierna, you are unable to turn back. You accepted her as the person who would
become your owner, and once a Faerie, or Faerie-in-training is accepted, there
is no taking back that acceptance."
I stayed silent for the rest of the trip, savoring
my memories of Malyice, of the friends I had had when I had been younger. Even
the memories of scrubbing floors, I cherished, knowing they would soon be taken
away from me.
We neared the docks of Neopia Central, and I
closed my eyes as Kelra started whispering, grabbing on to those faint wisps
of memories that were fast fading. Strangely, the memory I held on to most was
the dream. I clung to it, clung to the joy of flying between the trees. Then
even that was gone, and I was left wondering what I had been reaching for.
"Hello, little guy. Where's your owner?" asked
a voice from my left. It was a Water Faerie.
"I don't have one," I told her.
"You don't?" she asked, surprised. "Well, I
know someone who wants a pet badly. Her name is Vierna."
"What's your name?"
"My name is Kelra." The name stuck with me,
and it seemed as if I had heard is somewhere before. I shook off the feeling.
Kelra was probably just a common name.
"Come with me," Kelra told me as the ship docked.
I held her hand as we got off, and she led me to a spot in a forest. "Close
your eyes, this might be a little scary."
I closed my eyes, and Kelra began whispering.
Then there was a rush of air, and there was suddenly nothing beneath my feet.
Then there was, again, and I fell to my knees, opening my eyes to see white
paving stones.
"Welcome to Faerieland, little one," she told
me. I took her hand again, and she led me through the streets, until we came
to a building sprawled on several clouds, the bottom filled with water, the
roof, which was supported on white pillars, was a beautiful pattern of clouds
and stars, moons and suns, like lace filtering the sunlight.
"Thank the Grove of All that is Living you got
here, Kelra!" a pale-skinned, golden-red-haired girl wearing baggy, Lost Desert-type
blue pants and a blue-green blouse with short, baggy sleeves and pounds of embroidery.
Her pants had a bunch of embroidery, too, at the waist and the cuffs. "These
people," she shot a disgusted look at every Human and Pet lined up by the counter
of what looked like a potion shop, "are refusing to give me the money, just
because I'm not you!"
"Like every other time I go away for a bit of
a vacation," said Kelra dryly. "Little one, this is Vierna."
Vierna ran up to Kelra -- I now noticed she
had a sword buckled at her waist and was going barefoot-and whispered a bit
to her. Kelra nodded, and handed her a small bundle. Vierna sighed, put it in
a bag on her sword belt, and went over to me. "Do you have a name, little fella?"
"No," I told her.
"Then how about…" she pondered for a moment.
"Drake. Drake the Red Dragon?"
"I like it," I told her.
"Good," she whispered, and wrapped me up in
a big hug. I had never known such happiness in my short life. I belonged with
this Human, and she belonged with me. We were complete.
The End
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