ELEMENTO: A Pull Of Fate

"My name is Prince Aiden." I said it flat, like I'd said it a thousand times. "Heir of King Asher. Wielder of all four elements. The unstoppable." The titles felt heavy. Grumpy. A stickler. That's what they called me. Man, my life was such a bore. No friends. No first kiss. Just training and laws. Cold halls. Hot tempers. Father's voice in every room, even when he wasn't there. Then I found my kryptonite. And it's not green. She had brown eyes and a smile that undid every wall I built. Before then, I'd been getting these... episodes. Visions. Same details, every time. Day or night, didn't matter. I stopped mid-step beside the stone walls. My vision blurred. Silence pressed in, heavy and suffocating. Then it hit — another episode. A valley. Vast and alive. Green that hurt the eyes. And ten steps ahead, a woman stood with her back to me. Her body was stiff. Shoulders up, like she was holding back a storm. Wind pulled at warm, blonde hair like it was trying to tell me something. She looked like something out of a myth. I couldn't see her face. Couldn't tell why I was there. Why chase a mystery you couldn't solve? But I felt at peace. Deep, unnatural peace. A fulfillment I had never felt, not even at home. Something pulled me towards her. Invisible. Magnetic. Not magic. My best guess? Older. My sight snapped back. My heart was pounding so hard I thought my ribs would c***k. Whispers curled through the air. The ground trembled. A gust of wind cut past me, sharp as a command: Follow. I clenched my fists and forced a breath. The trembling stopped. Sweat cooled on my neck. My hand went to my chest. My necklace pulsed. Gold string. A round, purple stone. Old magic. Elowyn had passed it to me for luck. "For when you forget who you are," she'd said. I didn't know what it meant. Not yet. I wouldn't tell anyone until I was certain. But I had this feeling. A pull to be whole again. Bizarre. Beyond comprehension. Beyond normal. Beyond supernatural. It wasn't a what. It was a who. I avoided the courtyard. Avoided the guests. Avoided every pair of eyes that wanted something from "The Unstoppable." Their stares were chains. The stone walls were quiet. No Flora. No Ralph. No ceremony. Just me. Just stone, wind, and the hum in the stone. I pushed off. Air caught under my boots. Up. Focused. Only the wind. Only the pull in my necklace. Ten steps ahead. Always ten steps. Like she was waiting ten steps past the sky. Higher. Colder. The kingdom shrank below me until it looked ordered again. Perfect. Like the vision. Roofs like scales. Roads like veins. Then I saw it. Above. Not clouds. Scales. A dragon. Massive. Wings blotting out the sun. Black as burnt earth. When did that ever happen? Dragons didn't come to Asher's skies. My breath stopped. Terrified. Awed. My hands went numb. The necklace burned. The ground trembled though I was miles up. The command roared in my skull again: Follow. I couldn't take it anymore. I lost balance. Air slipped. Arms flailed. No ground. No wind. Just falling. Blacked out.