Chapter CHAPTER X: ARAMORDT (5)

On land, Dāel was finishing the final parts of the job; the last attack of destruction. Dawn was coming soon. He could not even look at the remaining human, and directed others to do what had to be done. He didn’t want to be there, so he decided to annihilate the last remaining shelters. He went to examine the extremities of the already fallen kingdom, the further zones.

Only rubble remained in the place, some houses and shelters were fallen and flooded. Suddenly he heard a strange sound, coming from the last bushes of the area. Just before reaching the mountains.

He heard the sound again. They sounded like human voices. He approached the bushes, inspecting the place. Without realizing it, he crashed with an invisible energy field. A formed shield of transparent light. This seemed strange to him, and roared a short burst of fire to prove what he already was thinking.

The fire bounced back, it was the presence of a sorcery. He ran back, took a huge breath, and roared with all his might a portentous fire. The effulgence of the shield was broken, and electric flashes disintegrated in the dragon’s face. He was surprised because he knew it was the work of the sorceress, but he did not know exactly the reason for it.

He went deeper into the bushes, and he found some palms strangely placed on the ground. A stealthy wind blew, and when they moved, they revealed the hiding place where the children took refuge. Dāel broke the iron bars.

The three were sheltered in a corner of the hiding place, scared, except for the brave Erin, who threw useless rocks at the dragon’s face. The dragon roared fiercely, and then all got scared. The three oppressed remained in the corner.

Dāel knew exactly what he had to do. No one could survive, and these were one of the last survivors in the area, but when he looked through the eyes of the creatures, he couldn’t do it. He could not kill the innocent hearts that went into the mystery of the unknown. Argôn was right, these races had something special. They were pure souls. And the dragon felt it when he saw the children.

They screamed in fear, for they knew they could not face the beast. Dāel had to make a decision, he couldn’t kill them, nevertheless, no other dragon could see the creatures alive; for they were going to end up equally annihilated. He didn’t know what to do. He decided then, to put the creatures to sleep, with a fantastic breath.

“What do I do now? I can’t leave them here.” he said to himself. “Or perhaps yes. No, I cannot. They will be found and will be devoured. I cannot allow this, they are children for God sake! But if anyone finds out that I saved them, I will be expelled from the kingdom too. What is happening to you, Dāel! This is your mission!”

After circling a while through the hidden bushes in the area, an idea occurred to him. Risky, but probably effective.

“I know what I’ll do,” he said to himself. “I will take you out from here; I’ll hide them in the mountains. I will wait for Argôn’s trial to end, and I will call the Lord. The Golden King will know what to do with them. If the right thing is that they must be annihilated, he can do it because I can’t do it.”

Dāel then left the hiding place. He had to notify the colonels of his withdrawal, and he found one of them in the entrance of the fallen fortress.

“Felotti, how are you doing over this zones?” asked Dāel. “The sun is about to rise.”

“Commander, we were looking for you everywhere.” responded Felotti. “We have exterminated all the land.”

“With everyone? Is there no one left?”

“Absolutely no one left, sir” he said. “They have been all eliminated. Most of the army have already gone up, only twenty of us remain, as we were looking for you to retire. What are your orders sir?”

The dragon swallowed heavily. He looked around and saw that the kingdom had certainly been destroyed. There was no survivor.

“Your orders sir?” repeated Felotti.

“Go up to the Gardens, everyone. I will see you there. I must do something first.”

“Will you remain alone, sir?” said the colonel.

“Yes, Felotti, the Golden King already knows” said Dāel. “Come up and rest, we have fulfilled once again the mission that the King has given to us.”

The nineteen dragons began to fly towards the Garden, and Dāel meticulously hoped that these would be lost from sight, so he could return to the bushes.

He returned to the hiding place, grabbed the triplets, and flew with them to one of the mountains located just above the wooded area, towards the last mountains of the region.

“Grab yourself well, kids!” said Dāel.

High in the mountains, he found a small cave, where he placed the nervous children. He left them asleep, for he emanates the magic sleeping effect which would give him enough time to return to The Garden, and no one would suspect anything.

His plan was to talk to Wiz after the trial, and convince him to return to the cave. So he accommodated the triplets at the end of the cave, and headed towards the Hanging Gardens, not knowing that the Last Trial was already culminating.

Dāel arrived as quickly as he could, and no one suspected anything. When he arrived, the crowd was crazy. Everyone turned their attention to the baby. He took advantage of the confusion of the moment and cornered himself in between the crowd which didn´t suspect anything. He kept his secret momentarily.

Dracko, on the other hand, was stunned, and could not believe what was happening in the square. He turned to Wiz to demand an explanation.

“What is this, sir? This being is impure! It has saved his life!” shouted Dracko.

“I´ve turned him into an . He will be a Raēn doomed to live adapted as a human, since he wanted to be one. Every fifteen rimerians will be one of his physical years. He will not very likely survive, however. We will deliver him to the North, in the humblest village we can think of. Life gave this man to Elgoneth, but he didn´t knew what to do with him, and since he has given him to me, I ´m giving him back to life. It will be his own destiny, whom will decide.

“But, sir, he will remain a Raēn! He will remain a danger!” exclaimed Dracko.

“Well, he will be an impure human Raēn. It’s a curse, Dracko, what else do you want? Your aversion will not solve a thing, and if I have not taken responsibility for his death, neither will one of my creatures will.”

“I will not continue discussing this with you.” said the Golden King. “This kingdom will disclaim the responsibility of this baby.”

Dracko left the scene violently. He opened his immense wings and left angry, helpless as he disagreed with the King’s decision.

The Golden King sent for a large basket in the form of a waning moon. He was going to place the beautiful baby inside her, wrapped in his red cloak.

“Sir, do you want us to put his name on the basket?”

“Yes, that he is name is Argônæth Aramordt.”

“It is an old Dragomař word, sir. “said the dragon. “What does it mean?”

“Exiled for Love,” exclaimed the Golden King.

Two young dragons arrived on the scene, and placed the baby inside the basket. He was practically a newborn. They were waiting for the King’s guidelines.