Reverse Chronicles

Zeul and Zealle

The road from Lyane to Toulse is known as the Eastern Breath hills. Winds from the east blow on the hills all year round. The hills are covered with lush green vegetation. This road is very popular to merchants and adventurers who want their merchandise and equipment to be magically enhanced in Toulse. One of the most enchanting spots in the hills is the field of tulips, which stretches on seven hills.

The field of tulips is a morning walk from Lyane. The colors of the flowers are variegated. Though there are some spots of only a single color. In a sea of color, there are islands of red, yellow, and purple. There were even tulips whose flowers had petals of different colors. We walked by the road through the field of tulips.

“Josh,” Franz kneels on the ground and picks a tulip from the side of the road. “This is for you.” He gave me a tulip that had seven colors.

“A rainbow tulip!” Keith exclaims. “Now that is very rare. I’ve read in books that only one rainbow tulip blooms in a year, where and when the tulip blooms in the field has always been a mystery. That is truly a lucky find!”

“Thank you, Franz.” I look at the flower with awe. The lower part of the petals is red, then going to the tip, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple tips.

I carried the flower with my two hands, while we continue on our way. The morning on the hills is pleasant. The winds brush against our bodies as we walk against it. Birds chirp as they flew by. There are no merchants and adventurers on the road, but the morning is still young. The hills are known as one of the safest roads in the world. There are only a few monsters, all of which are docile.

By the time we passed the tulip-covered hills, a small village can be seen on the horizon.

“That must be Zeul,” Franz points at the village.

“THE Zeul?” Keith looks.

“What about Zeul?” I ask.

“Zeul is called the village of fairies,” Keith answered. “It was founded by seven summoners who made a pact with fairies. From then on, fairies lived together with people in that village.”

“That sounds fantastic!” I feel excited. “We should go and visit.”

“Let’s go!” Keith cast Levitate and flew us to the village.

Suddenly, I feel something cold in my receptacle. It feels like the frost of winter.

“Wait,” I bid Keith to land us down.

“What, why?” Keith landed us.

“There is something in my receptacle,” I grab the cold item from the receptacle. It was the dragon egg!

“The dragon egg?” Keith approaches and touches the egg. “Woah! It’s freezing.”

“What should I do? It’s cold as ice.”

“Put it here,” Franz opens his bag. “I’ll carry it for now.” I put it inside his bag.

“Wait, I can do something about the cold.” Keith began waving his fingers. “Ice Resistance.” A light azure magic circle appears above Franz. The air surrounding him suddenly begins to have a faint red color.

“What happened?” I ask.

“I enchanted Franz with Ice Resistance. Now he is less susceptible to the cold and ice element. I just learned the spell yesterday, since you received the dragon egg. I thought it might come in handy.” Keith explains.

“You are prepared for everything,” Franz praises him.

“Of course, I must prepare just in case you suddenly want to run off, go rescue people, and put yourself in danger,” Keith laughs.

Zeul is a few meters away. We walk and finally enter the village. The village is quiet and peaceful. There are people who are doing their everyday chores, with fairies. Some are watering their plants with the help water fairies. There are also those who are drying their clothes with wind fairies calling for the winds.

“The stories are true!” Keith’s eyes brim with excitement.

“Greetings, travelers!” a woman wearing a long white robe approach us. She has a dark long hair and green emerald eyes. She looks like she is in her mid-30s. “This is Zeul, our humble village. I am the village chief, Amanda del Valle.”

“Del Valle?” that last name, I swear I have heard of it before.

“My last name, yes.” Amanda smiles. “We are a family of summoners, descended from one of the seven founders of this village.”

“How are you related to Adrianna del Valle?” Keith asks, which hit a nail in my head.

“Adrianna? You know her? She is my daughter,” she smiled genuinely. “If you know her then you must have come from Lyane.”

“We do,” I answered. “About magistrate Adrianna, she gave us this,” I get the egg from Franz’s bag and shows it to her. “The egg is as cold as winter.”

“The last ice dragon egg!” she gasps. “She gave it to you?” her face showed shock and amazement. “You must have did something that made you worthy to become the master of this great familiar. Well now, this is no place to talk. Come inside my house.” She leads us to the house in front of the fountain at the center of the village. “We have guests,” she spoke in a happy tone and our legs moved on their own on the seats on the saloon.

Amanda sits in front of us. She claps her hands and from the door behind her came a tray that is pushed by fairies. They arranged the tea kettle, teacups, biscuits, and other snacks on the center table. I feel awe and amazement as I see the fairies moving about.

“Amazing!” Keith shouts, his voice resonated throughout the room.

“Thank you, my darlings! Now you may go,” Amanda claps her hands again and the tray went back to the kitchen. “Now, about the ice dragon egg. You say it is freezing cold?” She stands up and picks a book from the shelf beside the kitchen door. “This should give us answers,” she opens the book that she got.

“The Dragon Codex!” Keith shouts again. He goes over to Amanda and takes the book from her hands. “There are only a few copies of this book left. I can’t believe I have one of it in my hands.”

“Now, now,” Amanda takes back the book from Keith’s hands. “The ice dragon, let’s see, where is it?” She begins to scan the book.

Franz pours a cup of tea and takes a biscuit. He adds milk and dips the biscuit on the tea. The snacks look delicious. I try the biscuits and flavors exploded in my palette.

This is delicious!

“Oh, here it is,” Amanda spoke. “The ice dragon egg can survive alone in the tundra. By emitting frost, it protects itself from predators. The colder it becomes, the sooner it is going to hatch. Recently, the ice dragon population has plummeted. Its cause can be rooted to egg poaching, as ice dragons leave their eggs in their nests alone. The last adult ice dragon was Zealle, the familiar of the Archsage of Fensir.”

“So the colder the egg gets, the sooner that it is going to hatch?” I ask.

“Once the egg starts to get cold, expect it to hatch any moment from that point on,” Amanda closes the book and hands it to Keith. “The ice dragon will hatch soon. As a summoner, I believe that, here in Zeul, is the best place for the egg to hatch.”

“We should spend the night here, guys!” Keith pleads. “I still have to finish reading this codex.”

“What should we do, Josh?” Franz turns to me.

“There are still so many I don’t know in raising this dragon. We should stay here for the night and wait for it to hatch,” I walk towards Keith and sits beside him. “I should read this with you. I have an ice dragon to raise after all.”

We put the egg in a nest that was instantly made by fairies. The nest is placed inside Amanda’s house, where we kept watch over it. Franz and I rotated our watch. He would take my place, when he is finished with this break and I would take his place when I have finished mine. Keith continues to study the Dragon Codex, absorbing all the information.

In a blink of an eye, day became night. We begin to notice shards of ice on the nest. Mist also began appearing around the surface of the egg. The people of the village and the fairies all came to Amanda’s house that night to see the egg and maybe witness its hatch. However, it still did not hatch.

Late at night, I take over Franz’s watch and bid him to go to sleep. I continue to keep an eye on the egg until the clock struck midnight. I am already tired and want to go to sleep. I touch the surface of the egg to feel it, but my hand froze. I pull it back and kept it warm. Suddenly, the egg began to crack. Cracks begin to form from where I touched the egg.

“Franz, Keith, Amanda!” I shouted as loud as I could. Before any of them could come, the egg hatches and out comes an ice drake. Its eyes are as blue as the sky. Its hide is as white as snow. Its wings are small but majestic. And its little head turns to me. We look at each other for a few seconds. I could still not believe that this dragon is my familiar. I pick the drake up. I cupped my hands made it land inside. It was as cold as ice, but the frost did not hurt me.

“It hatched,” Amanda finally arrives, wearing a smile as bright as the sun. “And it’s a girl. What are you going to name her?”

“Well, how about Zealle?” I smile. “The last ice dragon, Zealle.”