Firebolt(70)

“It is said that all the soldiers were forced to compete to keep them fit for war. In those times, the war was between your kind and mine,” Cheng narrated.

“Humans can be so horrible,” I said, moping. “Was it any different after the wall?”

“No. The only time things changed was when King Albert's father, King Louie, took over. He fell in love with a dragon, but never knew that she was one. They killed her in the end, but it also revealed one of our secrets, that we could take a human form. King Louie knew from then on that Metallic dragons posed no threat. When he became king, he studied the Metallic dragons and learned a lot from us. He discovered another secret; that we could be ridden. My mom said that these were exciting times, but he still killed a lot of the Chromatic dragons. It was only when King Albert claimed his dragon that things really changed for all of the dragons. He taught the others that the Chromatic ones weren't different from the Metallic ones. I know they look a little scarier and are a bit fiercer, but deep down inside, dragon is dragon.”

“You guys really loved this King, huh?”

“More than you’ll ever know. I wish you could have been here when they ruled. He believed that Chromatic dragons could be rehabilitated by getting the right nurturing. I guess it's why he started Dragonia.”

We went through a couple more individual exhibits. The first one was a blond guy with the most beautiful green eyes with a shade of blue. The era was right after the Vikings. They were a bit more civilized, but still needed Pantene.

“King William,” he announced. “He was the first bloodline of the royals. The sword he carries is none other than the King of Lion’s sword.” He smiled. “His queen was the fourth daughter of one of your French rulers.” I looked at the woman standing next to him with dark hair. She almost resembled the woman in my dreams, but not entirely. The women before me had larger eyes, higher cheekbones, and thinner lips.

We kept walking and went past a room featuring all-important figures that had been part of King William's Council. Surnames like McKenzie, Abbott, Johnson, and Smith had been there since the beginning. I wondered if some of them were Becky and Lucian's ancestors.

We exited King William’s era and moved to a section that had to do with famous foretellings. The first figure was none other than the beautiful woman living in Rapunzel’stower. They weren't very lifelike and a couple of features were way off. Like the wax doll's eyes in the exhibition were incredibly warm and friendly. Hers weren’t.

“Is she really three hundred years old?”

“Yes, still young for a dragon,” he said.

“Was she always into foretellings?”

“Those days it was more like fortune-telling or cup-gazing.”

“What, no crystal ball?”

He laughed. “I think hers is only used for decoration.” He went back to telling me the story about how humans used to seek out Moon-Bolts to tell them their futures, but that sometimes they didn't like what they heard so Moon-Bolts were killed for no reason.

There was a book on a wooden pedestal right next to her that a couple of young girls were flipping through. I smiled. “Is there really stuff written in that book?” I asked, still skeptical.

"Elena, that book is the real deal."





Chapter Twenty-Two





When the girls left their spot in front of the book, I took their place. Flipping through the pages, I read one foretelling after the other.

“Why are some of the sentences red and others are blue?”

“The ones in red have already been fulfilled. The blue ones have expired without being fulfilled, and the black ones, well,they still haven’t come to light.”

Unbelievable.

My eye caught a red one as I flipped toward the end. It belonged to a dragon and said that his Dragonian would be struck by lightning.

I showed Cheng and he smiled. “You think it's George's?”

“It's got to be. Becky was hit by lightning, and they forced her to claim George. The only thing is she feels his isn't important enough and they could've let it slide,” I said.

“Nothing written in this book is unimportant. Who knows, maybe a second part of that foretelling will come soon. It sounds as if a part is missing.”

I smiled and kept paging through.

I found a foretelling about Blake. It was about his Dragonian. Although the text didn’t use the exact words‘spawn of King Albert and Queen Catherine’, it sure implied it. I frowned. ‘Why is this one still black?”

“That’s the mystery. No one knows. It's the only thing that gives us hope,” he said sadly.

I read further. Many were black and my mouth became dry.