The days went by quickly. And thankfully nobody brought up the nightmares, and that was perfect in Katy’s mind. They went to the fairy preserve where Katy spent hours with the fairies; they talked and laughed as they chased the boys. The fairies of course chose to be there, they figured warlocks and witches needed to know about them. The only ones that didn’t interact a lot were the Acalicas, they of course barely came out of their caves, and when they did they made it rain or hail, they looked like small little men. Katy tried to talk to them but found them horrible and fouled mouthed, so she gave up and went to check on the other fairies. She found Abatwas, Alectos, which were decedents of the furies. She also discovered the Aguanes; they seemed to want to drag her into the water so she moved from their section quickly. Her favorite overall was the Alojas, they were decedents of the fates, and seemed to always be busy doing something, and were very polite as they spoke to her. Katy wanted to go into the forbidden parts, but was told that is where the Dark Fairies stayed, though they gave them information on them, the caretakers would not let them venture into their holdings. Katy wanted to see the leprechauns, banshees and the ‘vampire’ fairies, and the other dark fairies, but they were dangerous. They didn’t even get to work with them at school unless you stayed with creatures in your sixth thru tenth years. Katy tried for hours to try to sneak in to the area, but was caught each time by either Edgar or S.J., even Antonio caught her.
They went to the book store, Katy and Deen rummaged through all the books they could to try to find something more on the dagger, but they found nothing. They did pick up some books on defense, spells and of course potions. Katy saw one that will allow you to switch bodies with a person for a short amount of time. It seemed really hard to do, but she figured that might be a way to figure out some information. She also wanted to pick up a book about how to enter the fairy realm, but Sandra caught her and said she didn’t need to know that, and there was no reason for the book to be on the shelf, because though you can enter the realm it does not tell you how to leave, because nobody has been able to leave the realm on their own free will.
The couple of weeks passed quickly. Right before they left they visited the Dragon Preserve. Katy wasn’t one hundred percent excited but that changed.
Their first stop was to listen to a story, the myth of the first Dragon, Rechyna. Jamie told the story. “Rechyna, created the Earth from her fire. She was the Dragon Goddess that bestowed her creation to the creators of the creatures and the humans, giving them a place to dwell when not in their own dimensions. Humans are said to belong to Paradise, Limbo, or Metnal.” She then started to talk about the dragons. “The oldest dragon on record is thirty thousand years old; the oldest we have here is twelve thousand. We have the largest selection of dragons of any preserve. You can all explore by yourself. Please don’t go near the dragons, if there is a sign posted. Have fun.” After that they broke apart into two groups. Jamie then sent them off to explore. Edgar and Jane stayed and talked to Deen’s cousin, Jamie.
The boys ran ahead and left Katy alone. Well not alone, Edgar had assigned S.J. to keep an eye on her. Katy took her time and walked around the park. She stopped to view some of the smaller dragons and a couple of the nesting sites. She loved the baby dragons, their fire was not as dangerous as an adult, and they seemed to truly like humans. Katy even watched as a new young dragon hatched. Before she could even think about it she reached out and picked up the dragon that fit inside her palm, it was a small black dragon with a red flame down its back. “Conlaodh.” Before she knew what was happening a group of adult dragons circled around her.
“You named my child.” A large black dragon stated. “Why?”
Fear filled Katy, but she stood her ground. “I don’t know. I saw him hatch, and I couldn’t stop myself from picking him up and calling him that.” Katy told the truth she didn’t know what processed her to pick up a hatchling, let alone know why she felt that his name was Conlaodh.
“We are not mad; it is very rare for being such as you to have the power to touch a hatchling. Normally their body temperatures are close to four hundred degrees. Are you a Fire?”
“Yes.”
“That still doesn’t explain why she felt the need to name our son, Abra.”
“Yes, I know, Abarron.”
“Who are you?” Abarron asked.
“My name is Katy Fitz.”
“Your full name child.” Abra stated.
“Katherine Lillian Fitz.”
“May I see your wand?” Abra asked.
Katy, moved Conlaodh to lay against her left ear, and pulled out her wand with her right hand. She wondered why they would want to see it. “Holly.” Katy stated the type of wood.
“Interesting.” Is all that Abra stated. “Please when you are finished, put Conlaodh back with his siblings.” And then the adult dragons all took off.
Katy relaxed and stayed with the young dragons for a while but soon put Conlaodh back with his siblings and set off to view the rest of the preserve. It wasn’t until she reached the end of the preserve that she found something more interesting than the young dragon she had named. She heard somebody as they talked to themselves.
She walked up to the sign on the fence it said that this dragon was said to be twelve thousand years old, but his name and exact age was unknown as nobody spoke his ancient language. But she heard someone as they spoke. The sign said do not enter, but she looked around and found that S.J. was distracted by another Dragon Trainee, so she climbed under the fence in search of the talker.
“I can’t believe she hasn’t been born yet. She promised. I can’t believe it. She stopped my aging; I have been around since the beginning. Though the Xiuhoatls say she has been reborn. That they have seen her, that she named one of their young. Ha, that is as funny as the mortals thinking I am only twelve thousand.” It was a very large black dragon, his eyes were a fiery red, and he had to be larger than a small island.
“Who hasn’t been born yet?” She asked; her curiosity had got the better of her.
“Who is there?” The dragon turned around quickly his tail almost hit her.
“My name is Katy. What is your name?” She didn’t know how she could understand him or how she could speak to this ancient dragon, but she was.
“My name is Drakon. I am an ancient dragon; I am just turned three hundred thousand years old in December. What is your full name witch?”
“Katherine Lillian Fitz.”
“What are the names of your biological parents?”
“Richard James Solomon and Senka Elizabeth Poe.” Katy responded with distaste in her mouth at the fact that Solomon was her father. She had thought about switching her last name to Poe, but something inside her prevented that change, so she figured Fitz is better than no last name.
“May I see your wand? What elemental are you?”
“I am Fire.” Katy said and pulled out her wand.
“It is you! Finally! I can’t believe the Xiuhoatls were correct! Did you really name their new youth?”
“I named a dragon. What do you mean it is finally me?”
“Soon the war shall begin and Goodness will prevail once more! I shall spread the word!” With that Drakon broke from his barriers and flew to the sky, and left Katy alone, with her unanswered question.
Katy found her way out and ran to find Deen. She had to tell him about how she spoke to the dragon. About what he had said, when she spotted Deen, she yelled out. “Deen!” Katy opened her mind to him alone to show him that they needed to talk.
Deen broke away from the group and ran to meet her. Then they had a nonverbal conversation. “The dragon spoke to you?”
“Yes, he spoke to me, he said the strangest things. I wonder what they mean.” Katy opened her mind further to Deen to show him the whole strange conversation with Drakon.
“Wow. I don’t now but when dragons predict war coming, it does. We have to tell my dad. You don’t think it is because we found the dagger?”
“Who knows Deen, but I think we would have found it anyways, war or no war. We are connected somehow to this war.” Katy felt the fear in Deen’s mind, and she could not blame him as her own fear ran down her back like ice, freezing her core.
“Let’s go find my dad…”
“Fine let’s go seek him out. I thought he was with you guys.” Katy stated out load.
“He had to go, he got a message from the office, and he said he would meet us back at the hotel.” Deen said and wondered if there was a way to have him come back, because from what Katy said with the dragon taking off like that, it could not be good news.
“Okay, we will tell him back at the hotel…” Katy was about to suggest that they tell Antonio, Sandra or Jane, but all of a sudden all the dragons in the preserve broke from their chains and left. And the three people they were about to seek out ran to find them; with them were Jamie and S.J.
“Mom! What is going on?” Jerome asked, Deen knew better than to ask, he already knew.
“Professor, what is going on?” Riley asked Antonio
“We are not sure but they said that Alicha dragon that was here took off, and then called to the others. They followed this is not a good sign.” Antonio answered as he looked toward the sky.
“Antonio…” Katy opened her mind to him and allowed him to see what was said.
“WAR?! He predicted a war before he left! Goodness, this is worse than I thought. It is time to go back to the hotel and tell Edgar, he should be back from the office by now.” Antonio put walls up to prevent Katy from reading him, but Katy still felt his worry.
They all teleported back to the hotel and went right to Jane’s and Edgar’s room. They found Edgar, he was at the desk in his room as he read some paper work, and as soon as they walked in he shoved them out of sight. “What is up?”
“Katy, tell him.” Sandra stated, as she pushed Katy forward, but she kept her hands upon Katy’s shoulders as a sign of support.
“Okay so, I was walking along after I had stopped at a nesting area, I had picked up one of the babies, and named him, talked to what I believe are the Xiuhoatl dragons, after a while I thought I heard someone talking to themselves in one of the dragon areas and so I snuck in. There was this dragon he said his name was Drakon…”
Edgar interrupted with a question. “You understood him?”
“Yes, then he asked my name and my parents’ names, then he said it was me. Then he predicted a war in which good will win. Then he took off.” Katy gave him a condensed version while she let him watch the scene play out in her memory.
“That is bloody great, just bloody great. An Alicha predicts a war, and takes off with every dragon at the largest dragon preserve, that is not good. And just who does he think you are. I know you are and powerful witch, but who does he think you are?” His mind flitted to Katy’s wand and then he blocked them.
“Why would he ask my parents’ names and why would he ask to see my wand? What is special about my wand?”
“We don’t know; we will look into it. But right now it is time to pack and get ready to go back to school.” Edgar said and pushed the kids out the door.
“They are hiding something! I just know they are now. A file on me and now they block me and lie!” Katy was made as she focused that pain to pack instead of sparking off energy.
“Katy calm down. They may not know anything; they may not be lying to you at all.” Deen said and hoped that she wouldn’t start to spark.
“Look, I know something is going on, none of you are telling me anything. I am sick of being in the dark about myself. I am not asking you to tell me, I know you made an oath, but why do you get to know about me and not me?” Katy slide to the floor and the tears fell.
Deen went and sat beside her, he wrapped his arms around her. “I want to tell you Katy what I know, it is not much, but I want to tell you and I can’t. And that hurts me. I overheard dad talking to mom and they made me swear not to tell you what I heard. If it wasn’t for that stupid oath I would be able to tell what I know. It isn’t much but it may be enough for you figure out something. You are my best friend. I hate to see you in this pain.”
Katy hugged Deen back. “I don’t blame you.” Katy wiped her eyes, and stood back up. “Let’s finish packing. Oh and don’t forget your paper, you left it in Jerome’s room.” Katy said and made sure she had all her break homework in her bag. And just like that Katy was calm again, as Deen ran to Jerome’s room to grab the paper, Katy finished packing.
Kris Charles - Author 