Ryan was back that morning. He was just sitting down enjoying the always perfect palace food. The food was always amazing, and he doubted Drake appreciated his luck. The tea, for example. Ryan didn't even like tea, yet he had already had two cups.

Ryan was right; Drake didn’t appreciate the food that morning. Mostly because Vanda ate it when she found Drake was asleep and whoever had left the food there hadn’t chosen to wake him first.

Drake woke up and looked at Vanda, vaguely wondering why she was in the library, then wondering why he was in the library, then remembering, then wondering why his owl was standing on an empty plate that smelt like bacon.

“… That was mine.” He informed her, but she didn’t seem to care.

Drake rolled his eyes and got up. He snapped his fingers and she hopped onto his arm. Drake walked back to his room and fed the other raptors, then he picked up a cage of small mice and headed back downstairs, Vanda with him.

Ryan had just finished a large fried breakfast, his third cup of tea, two buttered rolls and a cinnamon cake. It took his mind completely off the unpleasant events of the day before, and so he wasn't bothered when he ran into Drake in the corridor.

"Morning!" He greeted cheerfully, and only then caught sight of the cage Drake was carrying.

Drake looked over at Ryan and gave a nod as greeting. “Want to meet Spot?”

"Huh? Sure I guess... what's with the mice?" He replied, at that moment he was more interested in why Drake would be carrying around a cage of mice than he was about a puppy. Did the palace have vermin troubles? The thought made his breakfast seem slightly less appealing. Nah, it couldn't be, the royals would never tolerate it.

Drake looked at Vanda and then at the mice. “Well… they’re about to be eaten so they’re suffering from emotional trauma.”

He started walking again.

Ryan followed Drake. The Prince's answer had only given Ryan more questions. In fact, he spent several seconds deciding which he wanted answered most.

"Eaten by what? Or who?" Was the question he settled on.

Drake walked into a dark room and Vanda hopped onto a perch by the door. Drake put the cage of mice down and picked up something else.

“Say hello to Spot.” Drake said, turning back to face Ryan and holding up a very large, very angry looking, dark green, four headed python.

Ryan screamed. What had practically been thrust into his face was his worst nightmare. Not just any worst nightmare, literally the worst of the worst nightmares. The one he’d had when he had eaten that quiche that had gone off, that someone had put the super hot peppers in, and the mushrooms of questionable origin.

He backed up against the wall and was paralyzed in terror, as he stared unblinkingly at the monster that was glaring at him with eight evil eyes.

“What?” Drake asked, pulling Spot back. “You said you wanted to meet Spot. This is S, that’s P, O, and T’s on the far left. Spot.”

"Y-y-you s-said it wass-sa puppy," Ryan stuttered with great effort. He was only able to say anything at all because Spot had been taken further away. Still, he was unable to will any of his muscles to move.

“No I didn’t. I said I begged for a puppy. I never said I got a puppy.” Drake corrected and put Spot back into the pit.
He opened the mouse cage and poured the rodents into the pit. “For some reason, I was allowed to keep the snake, but not a puppy…”

Ryan finally got the courage to start sidestepping toward the door. Most of what Drake was saying wasn't even registering to the tall boy. He was fighting back the sudden urge to vomit as he heard strange noises from the pit.

"I-it would probably eat the puppy!" Ryan snapped.

“Hm?" Drake looked away from the mice and over at Ryan, "No. I got Spot while begging for the dog as a ‘shut up, it’s an animal’ thing—… you’re afraid of Spot?!” Drake gasped as if truly shocked. “Oh he won’t eat you. Well… S and O might, but there would be a fight over who got to kill you and since they don’t like to fight with each other you’ll most likely survive.”

"It's a monster!" Ryan snapped, infuriated by Drake's attitude to the fear Ryan felt he was right to feel.

“Don’t insult Spot.” Drake rolled his eyes and pushed Ryan out of the room, leaving the door open so Vanda could get out. “He just looks different than other snakes, but that’s all he is, he’s not a monster. He only eats those little mice and only once a week. After he’s fed, Vanda could hop down there and survive—you’re in no danger, I swear.”

"I think we should kill it, just to be safe!" Ryan announced, apparently now he was out of the room, he wasn't as frozen by fear. Now he just shivered slightly, and had gone so pale that he was nearly rivaling Drake.

Drake narrowed his eyes dangerously and growled a deep, demonic growl. He tipped his head forward but kept his eyes locked on Ryan, like he was preparing to strike. His eyes darkened even further. One leg went behind him a bit and he got just the slightest bit closer to the ground. His talons, though hidden by his gloves, extended and his hands came up, set and ready to attack at the first sign that it was time.
“… I don’t think so.” Weak, easily destroyable human.

Ryan backed up slightly at the growl, a little shocked. Why wouldn't Drake want to kill that horrible disgusting thing?

"Uh, fine...that's a no then." Ryan muttered.

“A very big no. I’d sooner kill you.” Drake snarled, wanting to be sure his warning held and was perfectly clear.
He was very defensive about his pets, they meant a lot to him; more so than anything else ever had… but he realized he was probably not saying this right, so he added; “No offence.”

Ryan glared back at Drake, but didn't say anything. He figured that Drake must want to keep it to scare more unsuspecting guests, or make it eat Pricilla.

“I think you should go.” Drake suggested, still mad about Ryan wanting to kill his pet… petS since Spot was four snakes in one.

Ryan shook his head while wearing a thin, exasperated smile. He was completely unable to see why Drake was so mad, and was actually rather irritated by it. Therefore, he turned around and walked off, without even saying a word.

Drake watched him go and then he got Vanda and walked upstairs. It was a boring day… he really didn’t have much to do.

He did, however, find a way to get behind the wall where the stick went… and found a way to break the entire lift without even touching the stick. That was amusing for a few hours.

Then he went back into the attic to look through the books there. He found another one that focused on the dragon gods, then he headed back to the main palace library to read it.

Eclipse had been quite content to let Drake run around mostly unsupervised for a couple of days, but the boy had gone missing for most of the day as well, probably to the market which was... fairly harmless in itself. Still... Eclipse disliked when Drake didn’t ask before he left. There were too many people there... clerics, visionists, wizards... not the sort of people Eclipse wanted around his Dragon.

From his window, Eclipse had just seen Ryan leaving the palace for whatever reason, and decided he had better check on Drake. Without Ryan as a distraction, Eclipse was more worried about what the young prince would get up to...

So he started down the stairs of the tower, and headed toward the library. It wasn't because he knew Drake would be there, but because it was one of the closer places that he could think to look. He had a book he wanted to put back there anyway.

Drake wasn’t sure what this book he had found was about. It was about the dragon gods, of course, but something else, too. It focused a lot on the people who worshiped the dragon gods… some of them were a little odd, and others were very, very, very, very, very scary. One in particular… made him feel weird while reading. Like he couldn’t catch his breath, like he were nervous or something. The book didn't have much infomation on what each group was called or where they were located... just told legends, mostly. Something about a demon cult...

It was about then that the large door to the library opened loudly right behind Drake, by Eclipse. The robed man had started to get annoyed at that door. It was loud, even if you opened or closed it carefully. The hinges needed oiling badly, as they creaked loudly every inch of the way.

Drake swiftly looked to see who’d come in, and everything else seemed to go dark.

He saw Eclipse standing there, but there were all these people behind him in dark blue robes, hiding their faces.

The doorframe was hardly better than a raw rock archway on an uneven stone pathway. There were no windows, just lava that flowed like a river through certain parts of the wall. Drake could feel the heat around him for a moment. The same, dirty, suffocating heat he’d felt in the dream and it caused him to jump up, move away.

Then it was all gone… Drake looked around feverishly. Clean marble floors, wooden doors, polished stone walls… his palace, his home

He couldn’t explain why he’d seen the other things.

Eclipse frowned slightly, not only did Drake's actions seem odd, but the odd thoughts of panic and confusion that he sensed from his mind were disconcerting.

“What’s wrong?” The man asked as he approached the boy.

“Nothing. What? Nothing.” Drake sat back down, this time facing the door and pulled his books over to him.

Eclipse felt suddenly more tired than he had when he left the tower. He rubbed the bridge of his nose between his eyes in slight annoyance and frustration. He would have pushed the issue, but he found that all his interest and enthusiasm for it had vanished.

Instead, he just sighed, and shook his head. "Alright then..." Eclipse answered coldly, but not tiredly. He never let tiredness creep into his voice.

Then he turned and headed into the shelves, returning a few moments later with a large tome, which he put down loudly on the table Drake was at.

Everything was so dark; the only light came from the lava running through passageways in the floor. There were those strange people in the dark blue robes standing, waiting for something.

And a voice... screaming. It was loud, and strangely high-pitched. It echoed down the corridor and you got the sense that it continued forever... It was a sound no human could ever make.

Then there was a load click. Like stone crashing against metal. Like a giant lock being opened. The stone of the floor and walls began to vibrate, though it felt like the stone was trembling at the terrible scream, it may have been a mechanism at work.

Drake felt hands on his shoulders grip so tight he turned, sure someone was there… but no one was, the world snapped back to reality the moment he turned.

What in the name of the gods is going on? Drake wondered to himself as he glanced around again.

First the dreams, now this. It was becoming too much, it was too unexplainable, too sudden, too… without logical reasoning.

Eclipse stared down dubiously at Drake, his thin frown returning. Drake wasn't usually this jumpy, and something about the way Drake reacted, the waves of emotion that were obvious in his mind confused Eclipse.

Go away, go away, go away! Drake blocked his mind and stared at the book open in front of him like it would open up a portal leading far, far away and he just had to find the right word.

He couldn’t explain any of it... well, not completely anyway. The dreams were a mystery, these weird… hallucinations were unexplainable and at the moment he couldn’t stand the fact that Eclipse was right there, too close.
He’d been mad at Eclipse plenty of times, afraid of him often, but not like this. Drake was terrified, he felt like he’d die just from Eclipse’s gaze in an instant. He felt betrayed, but he didn’t know why.

He didn’t want to be in the room anymore… but getting up and leaving would look suspicious. It was an odd feeling to be afraid of being suspicious the first time you’re not up to anything.

Maybe I should go blow up another box of fireworks… then at least I’d have a reason to feel guilty.

Eclipse sighed, slightly, still getting odd feeling after odd feeling from the boy. It was making it hard to read. The thoughts were distracting, but he was too curious about them to block them out.

The paragraph he was trying to comprehend was complex, and in an old language that was hard enough to translate as it was. He had restarted the same sentence twice already.

He started the third time...

'Foreth the second age when the twelfth alignment of-' he started to read in his mind, but then another wave of paranoia came from the boy. '-third arrangement... what, no, that's not where I was, damn!'

Outwardly, he sighed again, gritting his teeth in growing annoyance.

That just made Drake even more nervous. The book made him nervous, having Eclipse at the same table made him nervous... and no matter how much he inched backward the chair wouldn’t seem to budge so he could only go so far…

The feeling returned, the feeling that someone had hold of his shoulders and wouldn’t let go. The feeling became tighter, more intense, and he just wanted to run, turn and run… the fact that he was sitting down was lost, it felt like he was standing.

Drake shut his eyes as the darkness returned. There was something… something he didn’t want to see. He didn’t want to have seen, but that didn’t make sense… He didn’t want to see it, but he felt like he had... it was the same feeling he got when he was around ice; the subconscious reminder, the little voice in his head going ‘Don’t! It’ll hurt!’ Something his mind registered from a bad past experience.

He was vaguely aware that he was breathing faster, and there was a screaming in his head that he didn’t recognize… yet he knew.

Eclipse growled. Not only were the waves of fear, confusion and paranoia getting worse, but now Drake was breathing heavily too.

He didn't say anything though. What could he say? Demand that Drake stopped thinking? Stop breathing? He had never directly told Drake about most of his powers, and he didn't intent to start now.
Also he couldn't tell Drake to stop whatever it was he was doing, because Eclipse had no idea what that was. It was new, but strange. Nor could he demand Drake stopped breathing. That would just get a sarcastic remark, and Eclipse was in no mood for that.

Eclipse slammed the huge tome he was trying to read shut abruptly in frustration and Drake was gone in a flash. He bolted from that table as if it were about to explode. The prince started out running and just got faster as he went. It was stupid and dangerous to start out going this fast after having not prepared at all, and having just been sitting down, but he just… had to.

Eclipse had stared in slight shock at where Drake had just been for a moment. He had meant the slamming of his book to startle the boy, but he had bolted from the room faster than Eclipse would have expected him to, even if he had lunged at the prince with a knife instead. Something was indeed wrong with the boy. He had never acted like that before.

That was when Eclipse noticed the book that Drake had been reading was left open on the table, so he picked it up to see if it offered any clue.

Chaucer walked over and grabbed the book tight out of Eclipse's hands. “Oh, there it is… I’ve been looking for this.”

"You have?" Eclipse asked in shock at having the book taken from him.

Why does today hate me? He wondered to himself.

“Yes. Fascinating research material. Very interesting indeed. I don’t know why it’s out here… Oh well.” Chaucer then walked back to his room, humming.

Eclipse slunk into a silent rage.

The open tome in front of him was suddenly like a large cooked meal, but after you had just eaten. Whereas usually it would be welcome and appealing, with promises of being an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. Now it had lost all of that, and just served to remind you how full you already were.

Eclipse was confused, and irritated enough to last him the day. The book in front of him was a challenge that he was no longer in the mood for, and just wanted to be as far from it as possible. So he headed to the tower, leaving it on the table.

Drake kept running. Too many thoughts, too many feelings, too few explanations. He just wanted it all to stop! Stop or… be logical.
Running was good; it stopped the hallucinations. Can’t run and hallucinate at the same time. Not enough air. Have to focus on your breathing, have to focus on the movement and be sure not to trip…
Only problem was, he was used to running… it didn’t require as much concentration as it once had. His feet knew the land better than his eyes did.

These flashes… feelings… they were the same thing each time, weren’t they? Same … people, same feel... there was something similar every time.

They fit a few of the dreams, too…

It just made no sense! None at all!

When Drake finally stopped, he was at the entrance to the Market again. Four miles from the palace.

… Oops… I’m going to feel this tomorrow… he sighed.

Drake looked over and saw the entrance to a metaphysical shop he was more familiar with. It wasn’t about selling pre-made spells and things, more about knowledge.

Drake walked in and was instantly spotted.

“Ah, hello again Prince Drake.”

Drake looked over. “Oh… hello, Aaron.”

Aaron was the local Metaphysical know-it-all. Which Drake decided… might be of use right now.

“Have you ever heard about recurring dreams?”

Aaron seemed to think for a moment, and then nodded. “Fairly common… it’s your inner self communicating with your outer self. The difference between that type and a regular dream is that it’s the same dream over and over, or continuations. This is because the inner self feels that the outer self is not paying attention. Are you having dreams like this?”

“… Somewhat. Nightmares,” Drake explained.

“Oh? What about?”

“The last one I died in.” Drake stated, shuddering slightly.

Aaron just shrugged. “That’s usually a good sign, you know. Tell me what happened in the dream.”

“There were two paths and I chose one, but it stated getting impossible to go down it; there was a bad storm, and then a vine dragged me to the other path. And while I still tried to get back to the original road, I was unable to. The ground behind me was disappearing. I got away from the vines, but before I made it back to the first road, I fell into quicksand.” Drake explained, trying to make it as short as possible.

Aaron grinned his smile which he used to say ‘ah, now let me tell you what really happened’ every time someone stated something. “Two paths are the paths of life; the path you chose symbolizes the path you’ve taken in life. Forest or jungle?”

“Jungle.”

“Mm hm. Forest usually happens for people who enter this world afraid, but not always. A jungle symbolizes the unknown, the unfamiliar. People who walk through the fire, metaphorically speaking.” He winked. “In your dream, you chose a path, but something stopped you, which is your inner self telling your outer self that the life you live may not be the life you wanted or that you chose. Which is obvious in that you were forced to the other path, outside forces have halted what you choose for what they want for you. Quicksand is, of course—,”

“I already looked that up… you think that dream symbolizes real life?” Drake asked.

“Exactly. Were they all like that?”

“No… The others were different; I could feel things a lot better; it was a lot more intense... There were these people… And it’s the same place and the same people each time, but not the exact same event. It’s all logical in the dream; I remember them perfectly and I just don’t know what causes them,” Drake didn’t want to get too detailed with it. “It’s happened a lot, and now I’m seeing things while I’m awake.”

“Those don’t sounds like nightmares.”

“Well, they sure feel like it...” Drake sighed.

“No, no. I mean, those don’t seem like dreams. Dreams rarely happen in a series like that, and you usually don’t remember them for long, nor do they make sense. The images while you are awake guarantee it. Those are memories.” Aaron stated.

Drake stared at him for a while. “… Memories?” He raised an eyebrow, having a hard time believing that.

Aaron nodded, simply. “They can be triggered by anything, really. A little reminder, a familiar smell… or your mind is stressed, as is apparent with the dream of the two paths. Your inner self realizes there is a problem, and the only way it can let your outer self know is by bringing up things. The fact that they are nightmares is a bit disturbing…”

“It’s not possible; I’ve never been in the situations that are in these dreams.” Drake argued, crossing his arms.

“… That’s even worse.” Aaron informed, taking new interest in the case.

Drake glared. “… How do I make it stop?”

“These visions and nightmares are like pieces of a puzzle. You can’t complete it without all the pieces, but once it’s done, then the picture is complete.” Aaron said, giving a nod.

“So... I have to keep having them until all the pieces are there? This won’t stop?”

“No, just… let yourself have the ‘dream’,” Aaron advised. “Find out what your inner self is trying to tell you; it seems important.”

Drake shook his head. “I don’t want to; these dreams… they’re ruining my life, I can’t wake up from them till they’re over. I just want them to end, if it has been suppressed or whatever this long, it can be for a bit longer. I’m busy now.’

“… Well, that’s healthy.” Aaron rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

 

“I don’t care. They can’t be memories…”

 

“You know… sometimes people see memories that aren’t theirs exactly, but they are connected to it.” Aaron said, preparing to list examples.

 

“Clerics get that. I’m not psychic.”

 

Aaron shook his head. “Clerics aren’t connected to the memories they get, all the time. What is happening to you sounds like a connection; since you’re right… you’re not psychic; not at a cleric level anyway.”

 

Drake got flashes of the dreams he’d had and he was speechless because of them. Memories…?

 

“Someone is trying to tell you something, my Prince. I think you should listen. Just give in and let them show you; if it’s gotten bad enough that you’re seeing them while awake it’s getting desperate; and the powers that be have a habit of losing their patience. The next thing you see could be the piece that ties it all together and that will give you the answers you seek.”

 

“Answers? No. I have no questions. I know what I’m doing and I’m busy. These things I’m seeing are…”

 

“Scary?”

 

Drake glared. “Different…” he didn’t like the idea of admitting he was afraid of something.

 

“… I know it may not be my business, your majesty… but from the things people have said and… You didn’t always look like you do now. Your hair was always dark, your eyes were always red…ish, but it was a few years before it was as extreme as it is. My wife, as you know, works in the palace. She told me that as a baby your didn’t appear as you do now.”

 

Drake sighed. “I know, but that does happen to kids on occasion.”

 

“Sure… But, Drake… your fire power, your unique powers, your spirit… those alone have questions, don’t they? I think you should listen.”

 

“I think I’m busy!” Drake snapped. “Can you help or not?”

 

Aaron sighed and took a charm from behind one of the counters, “Take this. It’ll make them stop. Just hold it and state what you want.”

Drake took the charm. It looked like a pair of falcon wings made from Kyanite and held with small silver chain connecting to a larger blue and purple chain. “Thanks,”

Then he realized he’d been gone a while, and headed swiftly back to the palace.

 

Drake wondered what happened to his book… Eclipse’s tome was still there, but one look at it told him he didn’t have… well, the attention span to be honest. He’d have to find what language it was in, then find a dictionary for it that had a language he knew and translate each word… far too much work.

He grabbed the rest of the pile of books he’d had before and walked back up to his room.

Drake managed to be quiet enough not to cause a confrontation with anyone and sat down, reading one of the books he’d brought.

Another flash. Dark walls, loud screams and it was over.

With a shudder, Drake put on the pendant Aaron had given him, holding the wings in his hand for a moment. “I want the dreams to end…” he whispered.

It wasn’t sudden, it took a few minutes, but he became very, very tired.
He hardly had enough time to pull off his coat and his boots before he fell asleep in his bed.

He was sure that the dreams would be over.

He was wrong.




Drake yawned, waking up in a world what was dim, getting slightly brighter as the moments crept by. He felt groggy; sure he hadn't slept long... for a moment he wasn’t sure if he was awake or not.

The heat was the first thing he noticed. The next was the light… it was odd, odd light. It wasn’t very bright… it was dim, and it seemed to come from the walls.

There were also a lot of... people? Drake couldn't tell. A lot of blue robes, a lot of hidden faces…
It was so dark, he could hardly see anything.
“Hm?”

“We're here, time to wake up.” Eclipse announced coolly, “I want to show you something.”

Drake was put down carefully, but Eclipse kept hold of his shoulders, Drake wasn’t sure why.

He was waking up quickly. “Here? Where?” The smell of sulfur and ash was getting to him already. It smelt like poison in there— wherever there was.

He tried to back up, wanting to be as far from that place as possible.
Eclipse held him where he was firmly, and nodded to Ellipsis who was by his side.

Ellipsis gave a short look down at Drake, and hesitated a moment before looking away and moved to whisper something to one of the other people there, something Drake couldn’t hear.

After a moment, that person, a man, stepped forward toward the crest. The man stretched out his arm and began to reach out at the crest, his hand emerging from his long blue sleeve. The hand looked odd. It was old, and perhaps by a trick of the light, seemed a faint green color, with long, sharp-pointed, black nails that looked almost like claws…

Drake yelped, watching the clawed hand move toward the dragon crest. It didn't look like a person's hand, it had claws, it... it looked like it had scales and he could have sworn it was green.
What was going on? What was this?

Drake was aware, then, that this was another… hallucination, dream, whatever. He had the pendant on, it was supposed to stop these… but he’d told it he wanted the dream to end, and Aaron said the only way that would happen… was for the memory to piece itself together. He hadn’t said “Stop them” or “I never want to see them again” he said he wanted them to end…

 

 

 

He groaned, trying to fully wake up, to get back to the present—no… back to the real world, because this… couldn’t be real. His attempts were in vain, the slight consciousness he’s regained faded back into the dream.

 

Eclipse did not offer anything in way of explanation or comfort. Meanwhile, the strange hand moved toward the mouth of the dragon and the molten lava that poured from it, while it's nostrils seemed to exhale a constant stream of foul-smelling smoke.

The hand did not stop half a foot away from the lava, nor did it stop a few inches away. Eventually, the long nails touched the lava, and flames rushed along them, making them seem to melt.

But the hand didn't stop, it continued until the fingertips touched the lava. The man growled in pain, and his arm trembled as he fought to pull away as his fingertips melted. Burned and blackened bits of flesh already were being carried off in the stream of lava.

Still the man continued, his fingers in to the knuckles now. The man's growls of pain had become low, and sounded inhuman. Much like the growls of the monsters Chaucer had once brought back from a hunting trip, one of the few ones where he actually returned with something. The monster had howled and growled all night, causing half the castle not to be able to sleep, and the rest to have horrible nightmares...

By the time the man's palm started to enter the stream, and the last parts of his fingers had crumbled off and dissolved in the molten rock, he looked near collapse. His tortured growls and ragged breathing sounded much like when Chaucer had ordered the monster destroyed the very next morning, afraid of them escaping. Tortured, and far too low for a human to manage. The growls grew louder each moment, and echoed down the dark empty halls, creating a chorus of agony that surrounded them.

Drake let out a terrified scream, watching this… thing purposefully melting off its own hand! Drake could smell the burnt flesh, hear the popping of the bones in the extreme heat as they broke down, see the blood vessels vaporize! Yet this beast of a man continued!

Drake tried to turn, tried to run, tried to do anything but watch!

“I wanna go back to the ship!” He pleaded to Eclipse and then looked at Ellipsis. “I don’t wanna be here!” His wide eyes begged for help, for an explanation.

“Just watch,” Eclipse instructed; his voice terrifyingly calm for what was going on.

Ellipsis remained silent...

The man put his hand all the way in to the wrist. The stench of burned flesh hung in the air like toxic gas. The man let out a loud scream of immense pain as the skin of his arm started to turn black and peel away.

It was loud, and strangely high-pitched. It echoed down the corridor, and could be heard even from outside the building.

Then there was a load click. Like stone crashing against metal. Like a giant lock being opened. The stone of the floor and walls began to vibrate, though it felt like the stone was trembling at the terrible scream, it may have been a mechanism at work.

Eclipse's hand gripped Drake's shoulders tighter as all this went on.

Then suddenly, the man pulled back. His scream suddenly stopping and he fell to his knees, cradling his hand. Which although appearing not totally human, was still completely unharmed. Not a single burn or scratch.

The man was gasping for breath, and still trembling.

Drake was breathing fast. He wanted so badly not to have watched, not to see, but he had...
What kind of thing could do that?

Drake didn't know what to do. Eclipse's strong grip kept him from moving, and he didn't even know where he was, so he couldn't even hope to find the way back to the boat... If he did find the way back, then what? Why had he been brought here to this horrible place full of monsters?
No one would tell him anything. Eclipse had said they were going to visit his home. He said Drake would like it...

Drake definitely didn't like this.

He felt a burning inside his chest, an anxious feeling he’d felt many times before. He knew what it was, this feeling. It was his power, his magick, ready to be summoned should he just drop that final guard.

Would it be enough? That beast had just purposely tormented itself with the burning, flowing rock— would Drake’s fire have any effect on them?
The burning grew. It didn’t hurt, it never did. It made him feel safe. It spread through his chest and then up through his shoulders and down his arms where it stopped at his hands, getting stronger and stronger.
A flicker, nothing more than small, blue flames formed at his fingertips; a fraction of what he could do. His mind was worried, so his magick was preparing for action.

Drake had fallen asleep holding onto his favorite toy, his plushy red dragon. It wouldn’t burn, luckily. It was soft, velvet and cashmere, but magickally enhanced not to burn. At the moment, it felt like one of the only things he had left. His dragon and his fire.

 

 

Again, Drake fought to keep this… memory from returning. As much as he didn’t want to admit it; as much as he’d deny it from everyone else, he could no longer tell himself that this was just a dream… this was a memory, and he… somehow he knew what was coming next, without fully knowing. He didn’t want to see it again—to feel it again! He wanted to wake up! Wake up and tear the charm off and never sleep again. He felt his fire both in the memory and currently. It wouldn’t spread far without his order, and everything around him was fireproof… but it was still disturbing not to be able to fully control it after so many years of practice.
He was panicking and he really hated that feeling. He wanted to scream, but again the memory overpowered him.

The wall was beginning to move aside, the lava no longer flowing from the crest. Beyond it was a dark cave-like passageway. Warm air blew out of it, thick with the poisonous scent of the volcano. Like the rancid breaths of some giant beast. The blue robed people began to walk inside...

“Come along,” Eclipse instructed.

It was in a tone Drake recognized as the one he heard when he didn’t do something right, or couldn’t do something, but was supposed to keep trying…

Drake was fairly certain that forward was the last direction he wanted to go. However, he was so familiar with that tone of voice he took a step before he could stop himself, and regretted it the instant it happened.

His fire flickered again, growing bigger, as if it were trying to escape.

Eclipse stepped forward too, coaxing Drake forward softly. It wasn't a push, one that would alarm him. Just enough force to let him know that he wanted him to keep going. “It will be alright, trust me…” Eclipse assured him.

Drake kept moving, feeling and hearing his advisor's urging. He’d always been taught to obey Eclipse and Ellipsis…

In the back of his mind, though, the worry was increasing. His mind raced with hopeless escape plans. He glanced up at Eclipse for a moment, as he walked.

I have to trust them… he thought to himself, they’ve never hurt me. Drake wasn’t sure why, but that thought made him shudder and his fire grew large enough to be visible around his plushy dragon.

They followed the passageway in the dim light for a few minutes, slowly getting darker till it was almost pitch black. The people in the blue robes kept going as if they could see perfectly fine in the darkness... as silent and at home in the black as shadows. Soon it began to get lighter again. The same fiery glow as back at the crest, but brighter.

Soon, they came to the end of the passageway, and it opened up into a large cavern, in which there was a large lake of lava, which took up most of the floor. It was hot here, and it was hard to breathe, but perhaps that was partly because of the truly terrifying sight in the middle of the lake.

There stood, a huge statue of a dragon. Not just any statue, but one that seemed to be made from magickally suspended lava.

They looked up high where the dragon's head was. It was looking straight ahead with glowing red eyes that looked like orbs of fire. The drafts of hot air and the hissing of the lava sounded eerily like the dragon breathing. Even though from its horrible red eyes, you would swear it had life, it did not turn to look at them, or move at all.

As Drake was led closer to the statue, the lava let out a loud hiss that caused even the ground to shake a little, like they had been seen and warned to keep their distance by the nonliving dragon.

Eclipse and the others came to an abrupt stop.

Drake looked up at the monstrous dragon.

Drake's home, the palace where he lived, was full of dragon statues... but nothing like this. The calming statues he was used to were hidden from his memory now, replaced by images of this impossible statue.

Everyone else had stopped as if given some cue—as if this had all been rehearsed and planned for a long time. Drake looked around at the ‘people’ for a moment, hugging his dragon to him tighter. The toy's soft features and innocent face looked brittle compared to the towering beast in front of them.

Steam and ash poured from the statue's gargantuan jaws where rows of sharp fangs were shown. Nothing could compare to those teeth. Despite their molten material, the teeth were sharp, Drake was sure of it. They were huge, each tooth at least seven inches long... except the canines; they were at least a foot long on the top row, and eleven inches long on the bottom.
It was all impossible… but it was there.

Drake felt another nudge, an urge to move forward and he foolishly took a step or two.

Looking at this statue closer was even more daunting. It seemed to move. Heat waves caused the appearance of true movement, but Drake knew nothing of that. He was sure it was moving on its own.

It was so big; he couldn’t even see all of it at once. He didn’t care about the rest of it, though. The head was where his gaze was stuck.
He felt completely alone in that room, alone with that statue and his fear built up.

Drake's little flame grew large enough to enclose his little dragon, and spread up his arms, slightly. It also changed from a small, hot blue flame to a more common, but more dangerous red, yellow, white and orange one.
Drake was right next to the statue now and something in his mind screamed.

His throat made a nervous whimper he couldn’t stop, his eyes welled up with tears and he slowly started to back up, feeling nothing now but the urge to run from this place as fast as he could and never, ever look back.

One of the men in the blue coats moved, Drake saw it out of the corner of his eye and stopped moving, the movement causing his stare to fixate on the man.
The man moved and the air by him started to fluctuate, making it look like the statue's tail was moving. The man was abruptly hit into one of the many pools of lava and his scream was the same as from the green-skinned man who had stuck his hand into the crest, if not even more haunting in this deadly cavern.

 

 

Drake kicked and thrashed. He had to wake up, he had to wake up, he didn’t want to see what came next. No! Anything but that! He’d been alive sixteen years, he had to be five in this memory… eleven years of suppression had worked so far! Why not keep it up? To remember… it’d shatter everything; prove things he’d questioned, but at this moment did not want the answers too.

He tried to shout, to yell, to scream and wake himself up. He even tried to move enough that he’d fall off the bed, but it didn’t happen. It felt like his body was much, much too heavy to move. He tried to pretend none of this was actually bringing up emotions and feelings he could only get from having been there. That is was just memorized feeling and smells… and sounds. That this was all… ostensible information!

… So his inner self pressed harder.

Drake’s attention toward the man who could no longer scream was suddenly driven back to the dragon statue's head as it quivered and suddenly really did move.

It lashed to the side and then forward, directly at Drake with its mighty jaws open.

Drake screamed in pure terror, he brought his arms up to cover his face and his body erupted into flames— from the top of his head where his simple silver crown rested, then surrounding his aqua colored flame retardant clothing, down to his boots and around the floor as a protective shield.

Drake felt a much, much different kind of heat abruptly, as the dragon’s jaws must have surely snapped around him. He held his eyes shut out of fear and felt colossal pain coursing through him, unstoppable, torturing pain!

His arms suddenly felt heavy, his entire body did. Holding his eyes shut as tightly as he did swiftly became tiring in itself.

It had only been a few seconds since the attack began, but his fire vanished by no choice of his own... it was simply and abruptly gone as if someone had hit a kill switch for it.

His arms dropped, uselessly to his side. His precious dragon plushy fell to the ground beside him. Drake was unaware of anything but the sudden darkness that enveloped him. His head dropped and his knees caved… and the last thing he knew, he was falling.

There was nothing but darkness and a dull pain surrounding him. His head ached with vertigo and throbbing pressure.

He felt himself being picked up, but couldn’t tell if it were real, or just his dizzy feeling.

A low, somewhat demonically happy voice whispered to him. It was Eclipse’s voice, but in a tone he’d never heard before. “You will thank me for this,”

 

Drake woke up, not really feeling anything. He was calmer than he’d been the entire night.

There was not even a hint of doubt in his mind on if what he’d seen had been fact or fiction.

It was all true… He never could explain why he’d woken up back on the ship and his dragon toy was gone, or why he smelt ash and sulfur on his clothes and hair.

Then he’d gotten sick… and had remembered some things the fever burnt away, only to return again now.

The scars on his hands, wrists, and arms… was it really Marina who’d attacked him? She denied it…

He wasn’t human.

His parents were.

That had never been explained. He’d wondered… If he wasn’t the same species as Eclipse, why did they both have TF’s?

The answer was apparent now. Because they’d turned him into something else… or… awoken something?

He didn’t know where that last thought had come from. Awoken something? How? Why? ... What? Why him out of the thousands of other people that existed?

That one book brought up the memories. He needed to get it back.

And he needed to get far away from the tower…

How? How could he escape? If he ran, which he’d tried before, the same thing would happen. The massive headache that would force him to return… as he thought about it, his entire situation was… frightening.

He loved having the top of the tower, but it meant he had to get past both Eclipse and Ellipsis just to get out of the tower. How could that have been missed so easily before?

Don’t. Do not panic, his mind ordered.

If he let them know what he found out… that would be bad. He’d have to try to pretend everything was normal. Fine. Perfectly fine.

Silently, he pulled his boots on and picked up his coat. Then walked out of his door and headed down the stairs.

 

In his room, Eclipse lay awake in his bed. His eyes staring coldly at the ceiling as he ignored the footsteps that passed his door at an ostensibly calm pace.

He had been awake through the whole thing, absorbing Drake's unconscious feelings like an emotional vampire. The sounds of Drake's thrashing in bed barely carried through the thick ceiling, but his feelings were clear as crystal.

 

At first, Eclipse had been annoyed, but it had become clear that this wasn’t Drake just being loud… Drake was asleep and for some reason he wasn’t able to wake up, even though it was clear he was trying… it went on for a long while.

Unfortunately, Eclipse couldn't read the thoughts that Drake was having. His mind had too many practiced defenses, and the answers were lurking too far in his subconscious to be found. Once the boy woke up the terror ended and that greatly bothered Eclipse. There was an unnerving feeling coming from the Prince, and then the boy left the tower in a way that made it clear he was hiding something.