When I woke up, I was terribly confused for a moment. Then I remembered all of it: the forest, the tavern, and the fight. I looked over to Raghnall�s bed and saw that it was empty. But when I heard the water running from behind the door in the corner, I realized he must be in the bathroom. My ears perked up when I heard a soft sound coming from the bathroom, just over the sound of the running water. I got out of bed and held my ear against the wooden door and listened.
What I heard right then is something what would never cease to amaze me. When the soft melody and the almost feminine voice reached my ears, I felt almost as like in a trance. Raghnall was singing. The voice that was often mocking me and that at one time, at the fight, had been harsh, now sounded graceful, smooth and just plain beautiful. It seemed to be in a language I did not know, but I figured it must be Elven. And even though I could not understand a word of it, somehow I felt the meaning of the song. It sounded surprisingly sad, not like something Raghnall would sing. I don�t know how long I had been standing there, but I must have been focusing on Raghnall�s voice only and be completely absorbed by it, because I completely missed the water being turned off and moments later the door opened, causing me to be shoved backwards and land right on my bottom.
It was Raghnall, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. His hair was still wet from the shower and was not in its usual braid, but flowing freely down his back. He looked at me as if I had just sprouted a second head.
�Um�� We both said at the same time. And then there was the silence, the kind of silence that just stretches on and on and on, until someone says something. I decided to be that someone, feeling very awkward sitting here on the floor like this.
�You have a nice singing voice!�
And I agree, it might not have been the smartest thing to say at that moment, but I couldn�t think of any other thing to say. I realized this because right after I said this, Raghnall blushed. It was a tomato-like blush, making his whole head glow with the red shade. I actually thought it was rather cute, and giggled.
�You�you�� He stammered, which just made me laugh out more. Never had I seen Raghnall being embarrassed like this; in fact, I don�t think I had seen him being embarrassed at all. My laughter just seemed to make things worse. Raghnall looked like he wanted to strangle me, but had forgotten that he was only wearing a towel. As soon as he let go of the towel, it fell down his legs, right on the floor. The silence that ensued was even worse than the previous. For me, there was only one direction to look at. For him, there was only one way to go. While my eyes were as big as saucers, he turned, almost flew back into the bathroom and closed the door with a slam, towel forgotten on the floor. And while I couldn�t stop laughing, I heard a loud �GAH!� from the bathroom.
~
It was almost an hour later when I had finally succeeded into talking Raghnall out of the bathroom. He had refused to come out, saying he was quite comfortable there. It was only until I offered to bring him his clothes that he agreed. I laid them down on the floor, right before the door of the bathroom and he told me not to look. Sniggering, I turned around to look out of the window and heard the door behind me open and close. Within moments, Raghnall was outside again, fully dressed this time. I saw that he was avoiding my eyes and he still had a faint blush on his cheeks.
�Right. You can go in there now, I�ll be downstairs ordering breakfast.� He said in a way that made him sound a lot less self-confident than before.
�Fine by me. You know, maybe if you sing it, you�ll get it for free!� I said with an innocent smile, patting him on his right shoulder as I walked to the bathroom. And right before I closed the door, I heard him swear in which must have been Elven. I could only laugh at that.
After I heard the door to the hallway close, which signaled that Raghnall had left, I looked around me. The bathroom was actually rather small; there was a sink with a mirror above it and a bucket of water standing beneath it and a small corner with a wooden pipe hanging above it. On the wall in the corner were two buttons, one painted red and one painted blue. Even though I had never seen one before, I realized that this must be what some people called, a �shower�. We didn�t have them in our village; instead we just used the river and tubs to wash in. My dad had seen one before when he was on a trip and had explained how it worked to me. The two buttons on the wall were connected to two hatches. The hatches were seated in two pipes that came together in the pipe that was hanging in the bathroom. The two pipes were connected to two reservoirs; one with hot rainwater, heated by the sun, and one with cold rainwater. When one turned the red knob, the hatch to the reservoir with the hot water opened, making the water go down the pipe and flow to the pipe in the bathroom.
I undressed myself and the red knob. Immediately hot water came out of the pipe above me, and for the first time since I left the village I relaxed. I hadn�t felt how tense and dirty I was before. I started to rinse the dirt off, knowing this could very well be the only shower I would be able to take in a while.
~
When I arrived downstairs in the bar, very clean and fully dressed, Raghnall was already eating something, which vaguely resembled an egg. It was white, but instead of yellow, the yolk was a bright shade of red. When I arrived at the table, he graciously shoved back the chair on the opposite side of him with his feet. There was another plate sitting on the table, with the same thing on it as the thing he was eating.
�Ah, good morning, fair maiden! I sure hope you had a nice rest. And, as I promised, we would eat in the morning, so there you go!� He said, seemingly trying to act like nothing had happened. I decided to just go with it, and sat down on the chair. Picking up the fork that was lying next to the plate, I poked the �egg� around a bit. Raghnall seemed to notice my hesitation to eat it, because he asked:
�What? Not good enough? I thought humans liked eggs?�
�So it�s an egg? I couldn�t really tell�why is it red?� I responded, at which he just laughed.
�Are all you humans so picky? It�s not a chicken�s egg, if you must know, it�s a dragon�s egg.� He answered like it was nothing.
�D�dragon?� To tell you the truth, I was quite flabbergasted at that moment. Of course I had heard of dragons, but never had I actually seen one. And now there it was, right on my plate!
�Right! They�re actually quite common around here these days. You�d think dragon�s eggs were expensive and rare, but no! Nobody wants more dragons, because most people find them quite scary, so their eggs are just being sold around. There are tons of knights killing the dragons off, because kings pay a fortune for it. Don�t like their country being wrecked and all.� Raghnall explained.
�Knights and dragons and kings? I�m only a village girl�� I said, feeling quite small and incompetent right then. The Elf patted me on my hand and smiled at me.
�You�ll learn soon enough, trust me! But for now, just eat. We don�t want you fainting because of the hunger, now do we?�
I did as I was told and took a bite of the dragon�s egg. To my surprise, it tasted just like a normal egg. For some reason I thought it would be more spicy, because I had always associated dragons with fire.
�So,� I asked while I was eating, �what are we going to do today?�
�Today were are going to try and find Teagan.� Raghnall answered, without giving further information. Personally, I thought that was just a nasty habit of his. But I didn�t let myself get discouraged and just asked further.
�Teagan?�
�Yes, Teagan. Teagan�s a dragon slayer not too far from here. I once saved his life when he was stuck in a tree while a dragon was attacking him. He said he would do anything to help me if I just asked. I think right now is the time for him to do just that.�
�He�ll be coming with us?�
�If I can convince him, which I don�t think will take much. Last time I saw him, he had a weak spot for girls. I think when we have you on our side, he won�t say no.� He grinned, �Of course, when he doesn�t want to go, there�s always my arrows. I�m pretty sure he doesn�t fancy one of those in his bottom!� He finished his evil plan with the appropriate manic laughter. The few people that were in the room with us looked at him funnily, but Raghnall didn�t seem to mind. I scraped my throat to get his attention, at which he gave me a questionable look.
�Why would we need him, wherever we are going?� He rolled his eyes at that question.
�Because! Every quest needs a dragon slayer, of course!� He then hopped to his feet and grabbed me by the arm.
�Right! Come on, let�s get going. Can�t let that poor Teagan wait for us, now can we?� And he pulled me up and dragged me to the door of the tavern, greeted the ward with a wave of his arm and pushed me outside.
And once outside, I saw something, which I hadn�t noticed when we arrived the night before, in the dark. Instead of just a tavern at the edge of the forest, there was a whole village. From what I could see, it was definitely bigger than the village I had lived in. I guess one could even call it a city. The streets were made of stones, instead of just sand and dirt, like it was in my village. And while the houses in my village had been standing apart from each other, here they were all build in rows. People and animals were scurrying about the streets, and I silently wondered how I had missed this the previous night.
I didn�t have a lot of time to look around me, though, because Raghnall had already continued walking down the street. Quickly I ran after him, and I noticed I could hardly keep up with him; he was walking quite fast.
�Raghnall�?� I asked, a bit uncertain.
�Yes?� He answered, but didn�t stop walking.
�Could you, just, hey�stop!� I shouted that last word, forgetting we were in a busy street, and blushed when I saw the people around us looking at me. Raghnall had finally stopped, though, and was now looking at me with a questioning look in his eyes.
�Do you even know where this Teagan lives?� I questioned him.
�Not exactly. He said he lived in Brednah, which is the city we are in now, but he didn�t tell me exactly where.� He replied and started to turn to continue his way again. I stopped him by pulling at his braid, at which he �gah�ed, pulling the braid out of my hands and to my amazement, started petting it.
�Don�t do that, okay? Do you even know how long it took to get it that length?� He said, looking very hurt, which made me giggle.
�You had four hundred and ten years time to do that, so don�t whine!� He pouted and let go of his braid. I got to the point. �But anyway, if you don�t know where Teagan lives, how are we going to find him then?�
He looked at me as if that was the dumbest question that he had ever heard. �We are just going to ask someone, what else did you think?�
�Ask someone? Do you know anyone who knows him as well, then?� I seriously doubted that he did, but to my surprise, Raghnall turned around and started to walk again. I ran after him, and he reached to a sudden halt when I was right behind him, causing me to bump against the Elf.
�We�ll ask her!� He said enthusiastically, pointing at a young girl of about 21 years old that was standing across the street, talking with another girl her age. She had long, flowing red hair and glowing emerald eyes. I thought she must have been around 5�7� tall, with slim waist and wearing a sky blue dress with a white apron. I looked at Raghnall.
�Do you know her?�
�No, but she seems pretty enough, so I guess I�ll take a chance.� And with that, he crossed the street and tapped the girl�s shoulder to get her attention. She turned around, looked Raghnall over, and said:
�What is it?�
�You wouldn�t know someone called Teagan, now would you?� Raghnall asked the girl, in a surprisingly polite tone. The girl seemed to be shocked by that, and her eyes got a dark look into them.
�Teagan, you said? Do you mean, by any chance, Teagan Anaheim?�
�Er, yes, I do believe he said that was his last name.� The Elf replied, seemingly as confused at I was at that moment.
�And you are a friend of his?� She asked, and I saw her turning her hands into fists.
�Well, not really, but I guess�� Raghnall responded, looking quite uncomfortable now. What happened next, was something that shocked everyone that was walking on the street right then.
The girl swung her left fist backwards, and before anyone could do anything, she had hit Raghnall square in the face. He staggered backwards and hit the brick wall of a house, then brought his hand to his nose to see it was bleeding. I could see he was as much surprised as everyone around us was, because he had a very shocked look on his face.
�If you see him, tell him he can go roll in the mud with the pigs, where he belongs!� The girl shouted, after which she turned around and marched away from the scene. And for a second of two it was completely silent on the street; not even the chickens and dogs were making sound. Everybody stared at Raghnall, who just yelled:
�What are you looking at?!�
at which they continued to go where they were going. I walked over to Raghnall and looked at his bloody nose. After quickly examining it, I ascertained that it wasn�t broken. Raghnall pulled away and touched his nose one more time, and I noticed that it already had stopped bleeding.
�Doesn�t hurt.� He stated, then continued, �What was all that about?� And right after he said that, I felt someone tapping on my shoulder. I turned around to see the girl that the girl that hit Raghnall had been talking with. She had straw blonde hair and honey brown eyes, and was about the same age, height and build as the other girl. But instead of a blue dress, she was wearing a faded orange dress with a white apron. She looked a little shy, but spoke to me anyway.
�Um�maybe I can help on that matter. Derry, that�s the girl that just hit you,� She said with a nod towards Raghnall, �was one of Teagan�s many girlfriends. And the day before yesterday, she was supposed to go to a bar with him but he didn�t show up. She went to his house, and found him, um, busy with another girl.� She blushed a little after saying this. �On behalf of Derry, I�m terribly sorry. She usually doesn�t act like that, but considering the situation�I hope she didn�t hit you that hard?� The Elf smiled at her in response, and shook his head.
�It�s okay, really, it doesn�t hurt. Now please, would you be able to tell us where Teagan lives?�
�But of course! He lives in the Moonanemonestreet number 117, that�s a right turn there, then left, then right, and then right again. You can�t miss it!� She said with a big smile.
�Thanks a lot, miss, I owe you! We�ll be on our way now, goodbye!� Raghnall started to walk to the direction the girl had pointed us, dragging me with him in the process. He waved to the girl and she waved back, seemingly happy that she had been able to help us.
Raghnall and I walked right, left, right and right again, like the girl had said. And it seemed like she had been right; after we turned right for the last time, I saw a faded sign with �Moonanemonestreet� hanging on the corner of a house. I saw Raghnall searching for number signs, but most of them were so faded that you couldn�t read what it said. On one of them, I saw �94�, so I started to count the houses and stopped at the house I thought must have been number 117.
Number 117 was almost the same like all the other houses in the block. It was made from bricks and had a brown roof, made of roof tiles, had one little window that you couldn�t see through because all of the dust that was on it, and a big, wooden door. It would have been exactly the same, if it weren�t for the fact it was painted bright blue. Above the door, I also saw a sign on which I could read, after a bit of squinting:
Teagan Anaheim, dragon slayer at your service!
Beside me I could hear Raghnall mumbling something about why he wasn�t surprised to see this, after which he stepped forward and knocked twice. At first, it remained silent, but after a minute I could hear the sound of someone moving inside the house. I heard someone walk to the door, then a sound that sounded like someone removed a lot of locks, and then the door opened.
In the door opening appeared a huge man. He must have been around 6�3�, but he wasn�t fat. In fact, the sleeveless, white shirt he was wearing showed off quite some muscles, but not enough for him to be burly. He had short, messy, raven black hair with almost icy blue eyes and I guessed he was about 26 years old. He was wearing loose, brown pants, and like I had said before, a white sleeveless shirt that was, I stated with a shock, splattered with blood. And, like Raghnall, he had big, black boots on his feet. Overall he was a very handsome man, but right now the look in his eyes reminded me of how my dad looked when he had returned from a night of drinking with his friends.
�What�� He murmured, and then he noticed Raghnall. At first he just looked him over, like he couldn�t believe his eyes. Then he almost jumped on the Elf with a roar, giving him a big bear hug and pressing him to his chest. �Raghnall, old friend! I thought I would never see you again! Where have you been all this time? I�ve asked around about you a bit, but nobody seemed to know!� Raghnall was almost squashed and I saw that he was starting to become blue from the lack of oxygen, at which I giggled. Teagan seemed to notice me, seemingly unaware of my presence until then. He let go of Raghnall and gave him a sly smile. �Who�s your little friend there, huh? Someone I should know?�
And I think I understood right then why Derry was so upset about this man. He looked me over and for a minute I felt like a cow on a market. Then he grabbed my right hand, placed a kiss on it and looked at me with sparkling eyes.
�Hello there, beautiful lady! I believe we haven�t been properly introduced yet!� At which he poked Raghnall hard in the ribs, making the Elf make an �oof� sound. Raghnall looked annoyed, but introduced us anyway:
�Teagan, this is Shaylee. Shaylee, this is Teagan Anaheim, the dragon slayer.�
�The one and only!� Teagan exclaimed with much enthusiasm. �Shaylee, you are truly the most pretty girl I have ever seen!� I blushed a little after he said that, not being used to compliments that much. Raghnall seemed to have enough of the show, and pulled my hands free, breaking the contact between Teagan and me. To my surprise, he did not let them go right away, but kept them in his possessively.
�Right, enough already. Teagan, there is something I want to discuss with you. Shall we go inside or are you letting me stand right here, on the doorstep?�
And then it was Teagan�s turn to blush. �Ah, where are my manners? Let me show you in. I know it�s not much, but you know, you get attached to in after a while.� The man went into the dark hallway, and Raghnall looked at me.
�Listen, I want you to stay here and wait for us to come back.� He said in a very serious tone.
�What?� I said, very shocked. He couldn�t be serious!
�I can�t tell you yet what�s going on, but trust me, you�ll find out soon enough. It�s just important that you stay here and don�t try to eavesdrop on us!� I frowned and grumbled; that had been my plan exactly. �Just do as I say, please?�
�Right, right.� I gave in, �I�ll stay here and I�ll try not to eavesdrop. But you have to promise me to tell me where we are going and what is going on later!� Raghnall smiled at me in a way that could mean anything.
�I promise. Now you just wait here, it won�t take long.� And Raghnall let go of my hands and followed Teagan. For a second, I considered going after him and listen to what they were saying, but I decided not to. Instead, I lifted my hands and stared at them; held by two guys on the same day! But, I thought, it had not been Nolen�s. Not the person I had wanted the most�
~
The hallway was quite dark, and when Raghnall entered the living room, he saw that it wasn�t much different there. A layer of dust that must have been on there for years filtered the light. The living room was a mess; he could hardly see the table and chairs under a heap of books and clothes. There was an unmade bed standing in the room, and it was the only thing that wasn�t covered under stuff. Everything in the room was dusty, except for the bed, clothes and � much to his surprise, books. Somehow Teagan didn�t seem like the type the read much. When he looked closer, Raghnall saw the books were all about dragon slaying. �All about dragons and how to slay them�, �My first time of dragon slaying�, �The dragon slaying ABC� and �Slay! A discussion of what the best way is to slay a dragon� were only a few of them.
Teagan looked a bit unsure of what to do for a moment, but then he grabbed a chair, threw all the books on it on the floor and wiped the dust a bit off it. He repeated this with a second chair, and then made a graceful gesture for the Elf to sit down. Raghnall looked disapprovingly at the scene, but went to sit on the chair offered to him anyway. Teagan then sat down himself and looked at Raghnall with a questioning look in his eyes.
�So, what�s this all about then, huh? What�s so important?�
�I�ll tell you, but I�ll only tell it to you once.� Raghnall said, his expression and tone suddenly very serious and business-like. �I want you to listen to me very carefully. Also, I do not want you to tell any of this to Shaylee.�
�Shaylee? Why not?� Teagan asked.
�I will explain it to you later. And, on the subject of Shaylee, I want you to keep your hands off her. Understood?�
�Um�What? Why would you- oh. Oooh�I get it. You want to keep her for yourself right? Alright, I got you.� The dragon slayer grinned.
�No, it�s not like-� The Elf sputtered, and then gave up. �Never mind, you can think what you like. But what I was saying, the situation is like this��
~
I don�t know how long it took for them to come back. It felt like hours to be, but it was probably only fifteen minutes. When they stepped out of the house, both men had a very serious look on their faces. Teagan now had a long, black cape on and an even longer sword strapped to his back. When he saw me, his usual cheerful expression returned and he grabbed my hands.
�Shaylee!� He shouted, �I promise I will help you in your quest as much as possible! If you need something, just ask me for it!�
�Um�� I stammered, not sure of what to do. Raghnall saved me from him again; he pulled at the bigger man�s ear, causing him to whine in pain.
�Come on, you big oaf. Stop playing around, we have a lot of work to do.� My ears perked at that.
�Work?� I ask, curious now. Raghnall gave me a mysterious look, and said:
�You�ll see later!� and started walking to the opposite direction we had just came from earlier.
I hated him when he did that!
~
I felt like we were back at where we began; a forest. Raghnall said it wasn�t Lacuna�s forest; this was supposed to be Emacho�s forest. To me, there wasn�t any difference between the two, but Raghnall didn�t seem to share that thought. He said that the trees in Lacuna�s forest were slightly taller, and the leaves were greener, and in Emacho�s forest there were more deer, whereas in Lacuna�s forest there were more squirrels. The list went on and on and I had stopped listening after a while, just thinking about my situation.
Here I was, in the middle of a forest, with two men who were both considerably stronger than me. We were going to a place that was top secret, at least, for me. None of them would tell me where we were going, and when I asked, they only replied I �would see it later�. I suspected that this trip might be slightly more dangerous than I first thought it would be, seeing as Teagan had taken a sword with him that was almost as tall as me.
And I just wanted to know what the hell was going on here!
~
We had been walking through the forest for quite some time already; the sun had been behind us when we left and was now in right before us, shining in our eyes. Neither of the men wanted to tell me what exactly we were doing, no matter how much times I asked. After I found that they would never tell me, I gave up. And as we walked on in silence, I began to notice something that had not been there before.
While the trees we had passed earlier had been tall and green, with a lot of branches, the trees here looked slightly�scorched? Some of them were bend or squashed to the ground, but before I could take a better look at it, I tripped and fell right to the ground.
�Again�?� Raghnall said with a slightly mocking tone. I glanced at him angrily, and then looked at what I had tripped over. When I looked down, I noticed that I was sitting in a big hole in the ground. I squinted, and then rubbed my eyes. No, this couldn�t be�
I was sitting in a hole that looked like a gigantic footprint.
�What�� Was all I could manage out, before a terrible sound almost deafened me. It sounded like a huge animal crying out to his mother. I stood up, only to fall down again as the earth suddenly began to shake. More of that horrible sound, and then I saw it.
�It� was a gigantic red dragon running towards us at full speed. I couldn�t decide if I thought it was hideous or beautiful. Red scales covered all of its body, and it had amazingly black eyes and a long tail, that was wagging now, hitting trees left and right. Its wings were folded back on its back right now, but I could see they were black, and they looked very strong. The dragon stopped right before us, lowered his head and cried softly once more. Teagan then stepped up to it and petted its nose.
�Good girl�� He whispered to the dragon. It all seemed a bit unreal to me. I stood up and dusted my clothes off, then looked at Teagan again.
�What�what is that?�
Teagan looked a bit offended at that. �This dragon is called Edana. I tamed her myself a year ago and she has been completely loyal to me ever since.� He explained. I looked at the dragon and then back at Teagan; even though Teagan was a big man, the dragon was still so much bigger.
�But�I thought you slew dragons?� I asked.
�I do!� The dragon slayer responded, �But this one was so young�I had just killed her mother and she was all alone�I just couldn�t kill her too, so I decided to keep her and tame her. And I knew she�d come in handy sometime!� He said while giving the dragon a pat on her red snout.
�Come in handy? What are you talking about?�
�We�re going to fly on her back.� A voice behind me interrupted. I turned around to see Raghnall leaning with his back against a tree, looking very serious.
�Fly? You can�t be serious!� I said, shocked. Surely you couldn�t just go around flying on dragons?
�As a matter of fact I am. We are going to ride the dragon to�somewhere�to do�something�after which we-�
�Okay, enough already!� I interrupted harshly. �I want to know what is going on here right now, or I won�t be going any further!� I shouted. I had let Raghnall of the hook before, but this was the last drop of what I could take. They had better have a good explanation for this, or I would go back to the village and never think about this again. I saw Raghnall and Teagan exchange a look, at which the Elf nodded and then scraped his throat.
�Right. I guess it is time to explain it to you anyway.�
�Now we�re talking.� I muttered, and Raghnall shot me a look that clearly meant �be quiet�.
�Shaylee, have you ever heard of the Myth of Aislin?�
�What�?� I said a bit stunned. �Maybe. Yes, I think I have heard of her once or twice, but I don�t know the exact details. Why? What does she got to do with this?�
�Aislin has got to do everything with it. She is the person who started all this. Let me tell you about her��
