Enchanted World: Elves and Vampires

8: Nightmares and Dragons

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Arwin was broken from sleep by the sound of soft, distressed moans that caused him to sit up and look around in the dark as he lifted a hand to his face trying to pinpoint exactly where the sounds were coming from. He was on the couch and the moaning appeared to be from across the room in the direction of the bed. Realising that it was Nora made him stumble off the couch to shoot an arrow at the switch causing the light to turn on without him having to walk to it and instead allowing him to run over to her.

“Nora. Nora.” Completely forgetting about his ability to calm minds for a moment, he shook her awake quickly. She gave a gasp upon waking up and immediately shoved away from him in an attempt to back away but he caught hold of her right before she could slip off the bed. “Nora, calm down.” Nora stopped pushing and her eyes widened when she seemed to realise her hands were against his chest. She immediately tried to move back but he caught her arms again to pull her away from the edge of the bed.

“S-sorry,” she mumbled, once again locking her knees against her chest.

“Don’t apologise. What was that?”

“Nothing. I-I woke you, I’m sorry.” He frowned taking a seat on the bed and watching her. She had little beads of sweat on her forehead, her rugged breathing and tired eyes clearly showing distress.

“Was it another nightmare?”

“Another?” She looked at him, speaking softly.

“When we were driving back in the car…” he drifted, “Is it… Is it our hurting your friends? I can alter the memory if you want, it will stop the nightmares.”

“What? No. It-It’s not that.” Nora shook her head. “I’m sorry.” She added her eyes closing and head dropping onto her knees. She seemed to have regained every bit of fear she had had since meeting him in the past few minutes, apologising like he was going to hurt her for waking him. How bad was that nightmare?

“What is it about then?” he asked softly.

“Nothing.” her voice clearly contradicted the mumbled word.

“You do not want to talk about it,” he said and smiled at the fact that instead of giving him another weird look for stating the obvious she just nodded into her arms. Sighing, he moved to lay down beside her figuring that neither of them was going to go back to sleep because she was still unsettled and it was almost 5 AM: just about the time he usually woke up to do some exercise.

“Why do you need a location spell?” He almost did not hear the question because it was muffled as she still did not look up.

“Location spell?” he asked, confused.

“The pendant hanging from your neck.” The mention of it instinctively made him glance down toward his chest.

“Oh, this.” He touched the cold amulet with the tips of his fingers, “It is more of a… connection. It makes it easier for me to summon someone instantly.”

“Who? The guy that sat beside me in the car? Um… Cu…” Arwin looked over to see her brows furrow creating an adorable line between them as she thought, “Cullum?” she sounded uncertain of the name.

“No. A pet of sorts.” he said.

“A pet?” She looked around before giving a breath of disbelief, “You’re going to tell me dragons are real, aren’t you?” He pushed himself onto his elbows surprised by the question.

“You know?”

“We’re not completely clueless, Arwin – your-your highness…?” she said both titles awkwardly, clearly uncertain of what to call him and it made him smile, “There are fairytales and rumours… No one from my city has ever seen one though... I doubt many humans have.”

“Arwin is fine. Probably not, they are from their own realm, we try not to disturb them too much and it is almost never necessary to bring them here. Dragons can be quite… moody and expressive. Tar is a mess most times, really.” Arwin smiled fondly at the thought of the huge grey animal. He could count the number of times he had summoned Tar since they bonded on his fingers.

Bonding with a dragon was tough. First, an elf had to learn the spell that would allow them to create a portal to the dragon realm and then they had to endure and stay alive for enough time to find a dragon they could tame long enough to bond with. Dragons ranged in power as elves did and weaker dragons were not only easier to bond with, they were the most common which meant an elf seeking a dragon would not have to risk their life by searching too hard for a rare dragon. Tar was rare, Arwin had only ever seen one other dragon like him and that was his mother. Arwin was luckier than most when it came to bonding with his dragon. He had been exploring the dragon realm for about three days hiding from dangerous common dragons and looking for a rare one to tame because it was expected that the future king would tame a very powerful dragon when he saw Tar’s mother. At the time, she was sick due to drinking something an elf had mistakenly left in their realm so all the 12-year-old prince had to do was get close enough to Tar – who was much smaller back then before he grew to be over fifty meters long – to put the little dragon to sleep so that he could heal the mother. He had gotten a few horrible burns and scratches trying to touch Tar that day from both mother and son, but it was worth it and it helped that he already knew how to heal himself like a pro even while fighting. He had been the only elf ever to bond with two rare dragons in such a short period of time. Being born from an immensely powerful line of royals elves definitely had its perks.

“Tar?”

“My dragon. He’s huge.” Arwin raised his brows in confusion when Nora let out an adorable snort of disbelieving laughter before seemingly realising that she had laughed and covered her mouth looking like it had been a mistake.

“You-you said I could see my family,” she said glancing towards the curtains.

“I do not trust that you will not run away,” Arwin replied honestly. Nora lifted her wrist before trying to pry the bracelet off with seemingly all of her strength as she ground her teeth and let out a soft growl, when it did not work she tried to bite it and Arwin laughed reaching to stop her. “Okay, I understand, stop that. It’s much too strong. You are going to break your teeth before you even scratch it. That is not the point though.”

“I don’t trust that I won’t run away either but we have a deal,” she said softly. Arwin sensed that there was more she wanted to say but kept it to herself suddenly sighing and looking towards the closet. The movement drew his eyes to the scar on her jaw.

“How did that happen?” He reached out to touch it without thinking causing her to jerk away from him when his fingers brushed her warm skin.

“Nothing happened.” She shoved herself off the bed and stumbled towards the closet before disappearing behind the doors.

He frowned looking towards the curtains. She was afraid of elves because their magic was unfamiliar to her, but had asked him about vampires and seemed quite terrified by them, as most humans did. Vampires did not scratch though; the mark on her jaw was a scratch, not a bite and vampires tended to stick to necks and wrists. It could not have been a childhood playground accident given her reaction. Arwin blinked realising he was glaring across the room and had unintentionally clenched his fists. He considered dropping it but did not like the way she reacted to him asking. Maybe an elf had hurt her… or a human.

The thought made his blood boil. He was going to find out, hopefully without having to go into her mind.

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