The Dragon Prince

Light in the Dark

There was light all around us. The glass portal had dissipated, leaving us in the middle of a brightly lit field. All around us were thousands of different kinds of flowers, but as I peered closer, the flowers seemed to glow with their own inner light. I looked up into the sky and realized it wasn’t sunny at all. The flowers themselves were radiating the brightness around us. It was terrifyingly beautiful.

I looked at Josh quizzically and let out a scream and struggled to pull away from him.

“Josh what the hell is going on?!” I yelled, the sound echoing across the field.

Josh's features had changed drastically. His laugh lines had faded, the streaks of grey in his hair had disappeared. It seemed as though his age had simply melted away. I was standing next to a young man who looked to be my age, but still resembled the man who had just been standing beside me. He turned to face me, and I could see that his ears had elongated into a point.

I gasped in horror and started to back away. “Arya, I told you there were things I needed to explain.” As he spoke I could see that his canines had been lengthened, making him look somewhat predatorial. I continued backing away and turned to run. I only made it a few feet until suddenly, he was standing right in front of me. I stumbled and fell backwards, hitting the soft ground with a shriek.

“Arya we don’t have time for this. We have to get to the Court. I know you must be confused, but it’s urgent.” I stared at him in shock as I realized that not only had his appearance changed, but his wound had closed on its own. “Josh, your wound...” he glanced down at himself and let out a melodic laugh.

“I told you it’d heal quickly. It’s going to leave a nasty scar though. Kelpie poison isn't something to mess with. Come now, we need to get going.” He reached out a hand for me but I refused to take it. “Look, we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. And seeing as I care for you, I’d rather not do it the hard way. Please get up and come with me.”

I gave him a hard stare and stood on my own, glancing around as I did. “Where are we?” I asked carefully. He looked at me and gave me a sad smile. “Somewhere I was sure I’d never come back to. The Dark Court. Aptly named if I do say so.” I finally took it all in, realizing that this place was so very far from the home I’d known and grew up in.

“And what are you?” I asked, giving him a good once over. His hair had lengthened to just past his shoulders and taken on a darker hue, almost inky black, and his eyes had changed to a deep gold, flecked with green.

“Arya, there are things here that will amaze and excite you. Beautiful, luminous things that will draw you in and make you feel more joy than you’ve ever felt. But there are also things here that will do nothing but seek to destroy you and thwart that happiness. There are things here that will kill you. Do you understand me?” I nodded slowly; my mouth slightly agape in awe. “Okay but that doesn’t quite answer my question. What are you?”

He looked into the distance for a moment and sighed. “Arya, I am a Fae. High Fae, to be exact. I worked for your mother and father for a long time. I was assigned to watch over you when you were born, because they were worried something like this would happen. Of course, they were right, and now I’m back in this gods forsaken place.”

I had no idea how to process anything he had said. Fae?! Worked for my mother and father?! Nothing was making sense anymore. I felt faint, almost as if I were going to pass out. “Arya, that’s not all. I need you to follow me.” He walked towards the middle of the field without looking back to see if I’d follow. I did, but at a slow, cautious pace.

He reached the middle of the field and stopped at the edge of a shallow, glowing pool of water. I stopped beside him and glanced up at him. “Arya, I need you to look into the pond. Try not to panic.” I was confused, but I conceded. “Why would I...” I looked into the pool of glassy glowing water as I trailed off, and saw what he’d meant to show me.

The reflection in the water was both me, but not me. My cheekbones were heightened; my eyes had widened, and the irises had grown immensely. My raven black hair now seemed to have a purple hue to it in the light from the pool and flowers that surrounded us. My ears lengthened and came to a point, just like Josh’s, but daintier, and arched high above my head.

“Arya... You’re a Fae too.” At those words I was hit with nausea. I was light headed, the world was spinning around me. I tried to turn away from my reflection. I needed to get away, but where would I go? I couldn’t go home. Not with that THING in my house and my parents missing. Josh spoke up again. “And so were your parents.”

The world went black.

I was floating, that much I knew. “Where am I?” I called into the darkness, but there was no answer. I wandered through the gloomy darkness for what seemed like forever, feeling that familiar radiating warmth around me. It was almost suffocating. I walked until I reached the edge of a small pond. I looked down into the softly glowing water at my reflection, but it wasn’t me that I saw. It was a dashing young man with long white hair, and beautiful azure eyes with what looked like stars in them. His ears were long and pointed, his high cheekbones gave him an alluring edge to his appearance. He peered back at me from the depths, and then spoke quietly, but his voice seemed to fill the empty void around me with crowding echoes. “Arya, come to me.”