Page 38 of Finding Her (Lore of the Fields #1)
“That’s perfect. Thank you.” I felt a warm, fuzzy little feeling bloom in my core.
“Goodnight, my dear.” He stood there a moment, nodded awkwardly, and exited the room.
It took a while for me to stop pacing, my thoughts whirling and adrenaline pumping from the whiplash of the day.
By the time I decided to settle into the couch, it was too late to realize Graysen had forgotten to light a fire for the night.
Oh well . I didn’t want to add waking him up to the list of unfortunate interactions we had today.
Although the wind was howling outside and the cold was setting in now that I was still, I figured I could tough things out.
With a blanket wrapped around me, I opened the book with the prettiest picture on the front cover. “ Tales of Trebianna .” A quick skim revealed that it was heavily illustrated, with beautiful black and white charcoal art on every page.
The first story was the tale of the creation of Pyrans that Graysen had already shared with me.
The sexual nature of the couple was evidently watered down for this child-friendly version, but otherwise the story was an exact match, down to some of the specific language he had used in his telling.
Next, a story about the city Mercurians were from, housed within an active volcano named “ The Green Sea ” for its abnormal lava.
It was only a couple of pages. The next legend was slightly longer, explaining how the Thornian species came from a man who was trapped in thorns while running from a witch.
When the witch found him stuck, she laughed and attempted to put a curse on him to turn him into a thorn bush himself.
However, the man reflected her spell with a pocket mirror.
Some of the spell hit him, and some hit her.
Both were turned into spikey beasts feared by locals, for they had each received only half of the spell.
The next section in the book involved both species. It offered little new information to me, but was paired with particularly dazzling images.
There was once a king and a queen who lived on a small, beautiful island near the coast of their kingdom. The king was a proud and strong Thornian, respected by all. The queen was a wise and caring Mercurian, adored by her people.
Tragically, the queen died giving birth to a beautiful prince, a Mercurian like herself. He had deep blue eyes and a laugh that rippled the sea. As the boy grew, he looked more and more like the queen every day. The king was obsessed with the young prince and made the world revolve around him.
Every year on the boy’s birthday, the kingdom threw a party.
There was food, dancing, gifts, and a promise to forget disagreements for the day and be kind to one’s neighbor.
As he grew older, the people were filled with hope.
It was thought that if his ideals of charity, peace, and equality were prioritized, his eventual rule would exceed even that of his father.
On the boy’s seventeenth birthday, he wanted his own dragon.
The Pyrans of the land gifted him a beautiful pearly-white beast that shone rainbows when starlight reflected off its scales.
Its head and neck were adorned with strings of colorful flowers for the occasion.
A parade of traditional folk music accompanied it through the streets to where the young prince sat on a celebratory throne.
The dragon took to the child, as all others did. The crowd cheered when he stroked its cheek, and the prince’s joyful laughter rang through the air.
Golden steps were set to the dragon’s side for the prince to climb.
He mounted the beast, and it shot into the sky.
They gracefully soared through the clouds, becoming a faint line twisting under the daytime starlight.
The creature put on a show, flying in majestic spirals and loops.
The people waited with excitement to hear the prince share his experience upon return.
Applause filled the streets as the dragon returned from the show. Everyone crowded around waiting to see the prince’s smiling face. To their incredible shock, they found a dragon without a rider.
Panic broke out. Nobody was to rest until the prince was found. There was much ground to cover, but the people came together to find their beloved future king. It was two days before a yell erupted through the tropical air.
They traced the cry back to the coast of the kingdom’s pink, sandy beaches. There lay the boy, the pale and icy grip of death upon him. His bones were broken; he’d fallen from his newly gifted beast. All mourned, but none more than the king. He fell to the ground, scooping his son up into his arms.
The king tried magic. Enchantments, spells, and prayers. Nothing helped. The king knew his family line would die with his son. He kept the prince in a glass coffin in his castle, begging all who believed they had a chance of reviving his boy to try. Hundreds of attempts were made in vain.
One day, a beautiful female entered the throne room.
She had skin of porcelain and flowing, yellow hair.
She smiled at him kindly and, without a word, walked to the coffin.
She asked the king if he had another child.
He answered no. He explained that the prince was all he had left to remember his wife.
She asked if the prince showed potential as a ruler, and he cried as he shared stories of the boy’s charisma.
She nodded and opened the coffin. The king watched with wonder as she bent down and kissed his son on the forehead.
Color suddenly rushed back into the prince’s cheeks and strange crackling sounds erupted from where the breaks had been in his bones. Mouth dropping open, a gasp replaced his breathless state.
The female explained that she was a goddess who had come to help. She said that the divine must hide from the world, but when needed by good people, they would appear. All she asked was for the prince to use his second chance at life to spread more joy in the world. And he grew to do exactly that.