Dragonlord of the Rings

Kalina jumped with a start as she jerked awake. The wind outside was blowing throught the doors, which were being repeatedly blown againt the wall as the wind buffeted them back and forth.

She rolled her sleepy eyes. Ugh. She'd forgotten to lock the doors shut again. If she didn't, then then late autumn winds would blow them open, filling the room with the chill mountain air of Dragonskeep.

She got up lazily out of bed, grabbing a deep blue robe from a chair and slipping it on as she made her way to the set of twin doors. But instead of shutting them, she walked through them, out onto the carved stone terrace outside her rooms. It went for about twenty feet before ending abruptly at a cliff. Thankfully, though, there was a high railing to keep unwary wanderers from plummeting to their deaths.

She reached the railed ledge, and leaned against it, wrapping her arms around her and resting her elbows on the top rail. the wind blew her hair back from her face, and she squinted her eyes at the sharpness of the cold air. The coolness of itbrought her fully awake, which gave her time to think.

What had woken her? Not the wind, surely. It had never bothered her before. Many times she had woken with the sun shining and the doors flapping. So it wasn't that. What was it?

Perhaps it was that strange dream she had been having of late. She could never remember any part of it, except for a blurred face surrounded with yellow light. That was all.

She shook her head, dispelling the thoughts. There was no need to dwell on thoughts, especially upon dreams that she couldn't recall. Rubbing her hands on her arms to warm them, she turned and made her way back into her room. This time she made sure that she closed the doors and ran the bolt home.

The room was chilly, thanks to the wind, and a quick glance at the hearth told her that the sharp winds had caused the fire to out. Hopefully there would be coals left to restart the fire, else she would have to chip away at a flintstone to begin the flames again.

She went over and poked through the blackened coals hopefully. To her delight, a few moments later, near the bottom of the pile, was a nice little nest of red glowing coals. She stirred them up, and added kindling from it's customary basket, adding larger and larger peices until miniature logs were burning and the fire well established. Only then did she sit back on her heels.

She stayed by the hearth until the warmth had creeped into her. She piled on another few peices of wood to keep the fire burning well into the morning, then got up and went back to her bed. She took off the robe, hung it on the original chair, and crept under her covers, pulling the midnight blue hangings around her tall, four-poster bed. The cloth was warm, yet still very thin, so thin that there were light blue pinpricks of light from the stars outside the glassine doors, as well as a huge bulbous blue glow from the moon. The fire glowed an orangy red from the foor of the bed.

She lay still for several minutes, watching the light through the curtains and listening to the crackling of the fire. After several moments, her eyes began to get heavy, and soon closed as she fell asleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She opened her eyes to grey light filtering through her window. She sat up in bed and pulled the thin hangings aside, then opened her eyes in shock. Looking out her glass doors, she saw not the usual grey strip of rock that ran to the dropoff. Instead, the terrace was still there, but outside of the stone pillared railings was a deep green field, that ran off seemingly forever.

She got up from the bed, and went to her inside door, only to find it locked. She tried harder and harder to open it, but nothing resulted except for her banging her head against the hard carved wood. She turned back around, still confused and rubbing a hand on her aching head. On impulse she decided to go outside and investigate the strange happenings around her. She went to the wide doors, and opened them to a pleasant breeze rather than the usual buffeting winds that lasted until well past midday.

She stepped through the doors, not noticing that her nightrobes had instantly changed into a light colored daydress. She went to the railings and stepped over them, into grass that was still wet. The moisture felt nice between her bare feet. She looked at the horizon, and seeing the sliver of the just rising sun, decided that east was as best a direction as any. Plodding through the grass, it got higher and higher until it was near waist high.

As she kept on, she saw rising in the distance a thin crop of trees, and as she kept walking, the grass steadily turned into a mixed field of lavender. Bright purple flowers covered in drops of morning dew shined at her as they caught the early sunlight. They were her favorite flower, and she relished walking through the wonderfully scented blooms towards the trees. The sun had risen nearly all the way now.

As she reached the edge of the woods, the sun rose completely, and the entire copse of trees was silhouetted. She reached the edge, and her feet went from the soft, dewed grass to the light, crunchy litter of forest floor. She stopped and smiled, enjoying the view.

From the corner of her eyes, something gold flashed. Her head jerked in its direction, and she caught another glimpse of shining gold through the trees, swiftly moving away from her. Her eyes narrowed and she followed the glow.

She continued following it, as she caught flashes of gold, further and further into the trees until she could no longer see the field of grass and lavender behind her.

She kept coming closer and closer until, eventually, she was within a few feet of the shining gold, though yet she could not tell who or what is was.

After a while she could dimly see the outline of a person running ahead of her, the gold this time clearly shining from a crown of yellow hair. It seemed that the person, whoever it was, had purposefully slowed down to let her catch up.

Eventually, they came to a small breaking point in the trees, and a dip in the ground where a small creek flowed along. The person in front of Kalina took a flying leap over the sparkling water, and dissapeared behind a tree. Kalina heard the movement of feet stop, and assumed that whoever it was had hidden him or herrself behind the huge oak.

Gathering her skirts about her waist, Kalina, too, leapt across the stream, landing with a slight slip on the damp leaves on the opposite side. She dropped her skirts and ran up to the tree. She leapt behind it, expecting to apprehend whoever had been running from her.

"Aha!!" She shouted as she jumped behind the massive trunk, only to find that there was nobody there. Her face became a mask of confusion as she circlde the trunk; once, twice, three times she went around without finding whatever she'd been chasing.

She heard a laugh from above her, and looked up into the branches of the tree. She saw nothing. The laugh sounded again, this time behind her, and she saw, craning her neck, that there was someone on the very edge of a branch. She spun around and raced towards the end of the shadows cast by the limbs, but before she could say anything, someone dropped down in front of her. Kalina nearly screamed, but stemmed her voice to remain silent as she looked at the man in front of her.

She had no idea who he was. But he somehow seemed familiar though she'd never seen him before. His skin was pale, and his hair was the brightest gold she'd ever seen. And his eyes were the lightest shade of blue.

He smiled at her, and for some unknown reason she smiled back. She opened her mouth to say something, but he brought his hand up and covered her lips with his finger, and shushing her. She complied, and the finger moved from her lips to her cheek, and down the side of her face until they cupped her chin. They were the lightest touches she could imagine, barely there, and at the same time like hitting a stone wall.

His other hand reached up to grab hold around her waist, and he spun them around slowly. When he finally stopped, his hair was silhouetted against the newly risen sun, and his hair and eyes glowed. Kalina laughed at the contentment she felt.

Her own hand reached up to trace a line along his chin, but before her hand could reach him, the sun behind him grew brighter and brighter, until it was so bright that she could no longer see him or her surroundings.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With a jerk, Kalina wrenched awake in her bed. She sat up, covered in sweat, which was unusual for autumn, even with a full-blazed hearth. She threw aside the curtains to her bed, and stepped out onto the floor, not bothering with her outter robe. She went through the once again flapping doors to the balcony, almost at a run.

With a jolt, she slammed into the railing, out of breath, and she sank her trembling knees to the ground. Good gods, what had that been? She covered her face with shaking hands, her eyes bringing forth unbidden tears. She didn't know why she cried, but she let the salty drops flow. After a while, she sank to the cold cobbled floor, and fell asleep.

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

With a sudden, wrenching, twist of the sheets, he was awake. His breath was coming fast, and he was covered in a sheen of sweat, something very rare for him.

He threw the fur blanket off of him, it crumpled to a heap at the foot of his bed. He jumped to the smooth, tiled floor and made his way to the giant double doors that led from his chambers to the outside gardens.

The night air swirled around him as he threw the doors open. His blonde hair whipped back from his face as the wind whistled past him. The air was still cold from the winter, but was warmer than usual since spring was on it's way.

The wind dyed down, and as it did, he closed his eyes. Why did he keep awakening? He sighed, one of many in the past few days. He had dreams like this every once in a while, but not enough to wake him while he slept. And all had occurred once. All save this one, and he could never remember anything but for a tanned face surrounded by dark hair. And bright sparkling eyes.

He sighed again and dropped his head, rolling his shoulders trying to rid himself of the tension that had mounted there. The knots were not entirely from the dream. His father had been coming to him for the past fortnight with tales brought in from other realms. The darkness of the south was spreading, and without aid from the north it would soon overtake all the lands. Ugh. He hated being the son of a king, but it was a duty thrown at him from birth.

A third sigh and he shut the doors again and shot the bolt home. He crawled back into bed and pulled the bearhide blanket around him again. When the warmth had finally seeped back into his spirit, his eyes glazed over in slumber.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He stirred slightly as he felt a breeze tickle his nose. He stuffed his face back into the pillow, willing sleep to come again.

It didn't.

He lifted his head from the comfortable confines of his bed, and looked around. Wait a minute..... Why was the sun going down? Hadn't it just been evening? Gods, he'd never slept so long!

He jumped out of bed, wondering why the hells no one had tried to wake him up. He should never have slept so. His kind never slept for more than a few hours.

He paced the floor, still dressed in only his dark brown sleeping trousers. A chill wind made him look at the doors. **I thought I'd locked them**

To his surprise, both doors were flung back, and undoubtedly the source of the cold air, but the sight beyond them made his heart jump into his throat. For beyond the doors, rather than the gentle sloping stone tiles to the gardens, was a sheer floor of mountain granite, that went out for a few feet and dropped off abruptly. In the fading light of day, he could dimly make out a canyon wall opposit his own, maybe a few hundred feet in the distance.

He shivered, but not from the cold. He walked towards the doors, grabbing a heavy robe to throw over his bare upper half. He walked through the doorway as he slipped his arms into the sleeves.

Or, at least he tried to.

As soon as his foot hit the doorframe, it stopped. And try as he might, some force would not let him pass through. Shaking his head in both bewilderment and anger, he turned back into the room. On impulse, he headed straight for the door to the inner hall, his status be damned if any servants saw him dressed in only undergarments and a half tied robe.

But when he pulled back the door and stepped out, his heart once again tried to choke him. For instead of the usually brightly lit corridor of white marble, there was a dark cobbled hall lit every dozen feet or so with a small torch.

He tried to back up into his room, the only thing still familiar, only to have cold stone meet his backside. Turning, he saw that his door has dissapeared. He reached up and felt around, finding nothing, eventually slamming his fists into the solid stone. He winced as a slight pain laced through his fingers.

Turning, there was only one thing he could do. He chose a direction, there were only two ways to go, after all. He couldn't see any hallways branching off. He turned to the left and began walking, slowly should something fell decide to come across him.

After seemingly endless moments of walking, he heard a noise, far in the distance, and he immediatly looked up from the floor to see a flash of blue in the firelight. Then it disappeared into the shadows.

Curious, and for some reason not thinking of the danger such a strange thing could mean, he picked up his paced and followed it.

It continued like this, until he was close enough to see that whatever it was was human, and that the noise he'd heard initially was bubbling laughter as it tried to run from him.

He began to run, soon nearly upon the strange being. He reached his hand out to stop it, and it suddenly dashed to the side and dissapeared into the wall. **No** he thought, as he stopped. It was a well hidden turn-off from the main corridor.

Taking a deep breath, he turned and followed whoever it had been. The hall went straight for a little while, ane then he came upon a set of steps that wound up and around in a spiral. He heard the laugh again, this time distinctly feminine.

He went faster and faster until he nearly collided with someone. Skidding to a halt, he looked up the steps before him to see one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen standing before him. Her face was dark in the firelight, and her raven hair glistened with flashes of blue when it reflected the light. Her eyes were dark, and her smile white and sparkling as she looked down at him.

Forgetting trepidation, he took another step up until their gazes were even. She was much shorter than he, for he was eye-level and nearly three steps down from her.

She reached out her hand and he reached out as well and grasped it. It felt warm in his own, and she smiled even wider and stepped down until she was on the same step as he.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she shushed him by standing on tiptoe and kissing him. It was a light kiss, and breif, but it was enough to make the words on his tongue drop like a stone.

She came in closer and hugged him. He unerringly returned it, wrapping his arms around her. It felt so right. She leaned her head against his chest and sighed, he did the same whilst resting his chin atop her head.

He didn't even notice when the torches began to sputter and die, leaving the both of them in darkness.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With a slight jerk, he woke up in bed, he was breathing hard. He took a moment to get his breathing under control. Looking around, he saw that he had obviously thrashed about; the blanket was thrown off his bed and onto the floor, and his head was resting at the foot of his bed, his limbs splayed out in all angles.

His breathing still raspy, he rolled over and got to the floor. But almost immediatly his knees buckled and he fell on all floors. His vision swam slightly, and he leaned his head to the cold stone floor.

After a few moments, the room was no longer spinning. With a nervous shudder, he sat back on his heels, and crawled shakily back into bed, pulling the coveres up from the floor and burying himself under them.