�As you might have heard, the world like we know it now is not like it was thousands of years ago.� Raghnall started. �Back then, this region and the surrounding regions were all considered as one big country. In the time I am talking about, the country was ruled by one man: King Rafer. This king was a good king; he gave all his people what they needed, and sometimes more. But this is not a story about King Rafer; this is about a Goddess named Aislin.
Aislin was one of the Goddesses people used to serve. There are hundreds more of them, as you may know, and Aislin was one of the most important ones. She was the Goddess of the Dream, and had created the Dream world, the world that kept the real world together. If it weren�t for Dreams, the world would fall apart. The Dreams of people kept this world alive and therefore they prayed every night so Aislin, asking her to give them good Dreams.
Now it was common knowledge that Aislin had quite a few children. She was married to Kael, who was a mighty warrior in that time. Kael was a mortal; he died in a fight with a demon. Aislin however, was immortal, and after Kael died, she was alone. A lot of Gods and some mortals asked for her hand; but she turned down all of them. Seemingly sick of grief of her husband�s death, she locked herself up in the highest tower of the God and Goddesses� castle, never coming out.
Months after Kael had died, there was a yearly festival for the Gods. The humans on earth sacrificed animals and made big fires in honor of the Gods. Everyone in the castle agreed that Aislin should not miss this, and just when they had sent someone to get her, it happened. A black figure on a black dragon flew up to Aislin�s tower, jumped in through the window, and came out again, holding a screaming and kicking Aislin in his arms. He jumped back on his dragon, and together they flew away.
Everyone knew it had been Keir, the God of Death. He had wanted to marry Aislin for years now, but she never accepted his offer. The last time he came to ask her had been only a week ago. Of course, the Goddess reclined again, like she always did. And when Keir left the castle, for he lived in his own castle far away on the Black Mountain, he had shouted:
�I�ll get you someday, Aislin, you just wait and see! You�ll be mine!�
Nobody had believed in his threats, but now it seemed like he had been serious. All the Gods, plus a few Goddesses that were brave enough, stormed to the Black Mountain to confront Keir. But once there, Keir seemed to know nothing about Aislin�s abduction. The Gods searched through the entire castle, but came back with empty hands. Everyone knew it had been Keir up there, taking Aislin from her tower, but there was no evidence. They had to give up and let Keir off the hook, and nobody has seen her ever since.�
�Then what?� I asked, confused as what this had got to do with us.
�Wait, I am not done yet. The humans on earth noticed that no matter how much they prayed, they didn�t have any dreams anymore. At first they panicked at this discovery, then they got angry. They put the blame on Aislin herself, claiming she didn�t love the humans anymore. Of course they didn�t know what really happened in the castle. Everything Aislin related was burned, and it was forbidden to pray to her. Do you remember I told you that Aislin and Kael had a lot of children? The humans tracked down most of them and killed them, not caring about the fact that they didn�t have anything to do with it.
Fortunately, a few of the children could escape. They each went to a different corner of the earth, and stayed there. They hid their true identity so that nobody would know who they really were. Pretending to be real humans, they got married and had children of their own. And because they were only half Gods and Goddesses, they died just like mortals. Their children had children too, and so forth. Not all of them mated with humans; there were ones that chose to marry Elves, Demons, Hobbits, Faeries, and even Dragons, when they had a human form, of course. Those descendants still roam this earth, and there are quite a lot of them. They don�t possess as much power as Aislin�s children did, of course, but have more power than the average human. Shaylee, do you see where I am getting at?�
�I don�t know�� I was even more confused than I was before. What was he trying to say with this story?
�What I want to say with this is that I am a descendant of Aislin, Teagan is a descendant of Aislin, and you are a descendant of Aislin.�
�Wha�what? Oh no, I don�t think so. You�re wrong. I�m not a descendant of her, why would you think so?� I stammered in disbelief.
�Shaylee,� said a voice behind me, and a felt Teagan put his hand on my shoulder. �has anything weird ever happened to you? Something you couldn�t explain?� He asked.
�No, I mean, I don�t know. Not that I can remember.�
�I think something did happen. Don�t you remember, Shaylee? When a group of Trolls walked by your village and they didn�t even see it? Everybody thought they had just been lucky, but it wasn�t luck. It was you.� I looked at Raghnall, my brain slowly processing what he had just said. It had been years ago, and yes, a group of Trolls had been ravishing the other villages in the neighborhood. Everyone thought they were done for when the Trolls walked by, but they didn�t even seem to see the village. But�
�How do you know about that?� I asked Raghnall. The Elf realized he had said too much and then gave in.
�I have been watching you for a while.� He confessed. �From the first time I saw you, I knew something was different about you. It was just a feeling inside of me, and when the stone that I gave to you lit up, I knew it for sure.�
�Stone�? You mean that stone that I touched when we met for the second time? The one that glowed?�
�Right, that stone. When a descendant of a God of Goddess touches it, it glows. It�s red when I hold it, green in Teagan�s case and blue in yours. My strength is fire magic, Teagan�s is earth, but I�m still not sure what yours is.� Raghnall explained.
�M�magic?� I stammered. Surely this was all one big joke! I fully expected Raghnall to start laughing any minute, saying that it was a bad prank and that I really had fell for it. But the Elf stayed serious, and I realized it really wasn�t a joke. �But�if all of this is true, and I saw if, then what does it got to do with where we are going?�
�We are going to find Aislin and free her.� Teagan answered my question before Raghnall could open his mouth.
�What? But why?� I asked.
�Don�t you feel it? Can�t you see this world falling apart? After Aislin was gone, the other Gods and Goddesses tried to take her duty, namely the creator of Dreams. Even though they tried and some actually succeeded into creating a short Dream, they just couldn�t take Aislin�s place. None of them were as good as the Goddess of the Dream herself, and after a while, they just gave up. Nobody actually believed that the real world would fall apart when the Dream world disappeared, but it does. Slowly but surely, pieces of this world are disappearing. And if the Dream world doesn�t come back soon, the real world will vanish altogether.� The dragon slayer explained.
�And how are we going to find Aislin? Nobody has found her in all those years, so why should we be able to do it?�
�Because we have something they didn�t.� Raghnall said.
�Which is?� I inquired.
�This!� And from his pocket he pulled a gray, arrow shaped stone. Raghnall and Teagan looked at it as if it contained the world�s secrets.
�What is that?� I asked, feeling rather stupid.
�This is an Arrow stone,� explained Raghnall, �it points to the direction of the person you want to find. In our case, where Aislin is! I got it from someone who lives in the mountains up North, which is where we will be going next. I told him all about our quest and he said he would like to join us, and who am I to refuse him that?�
�The mountains up North�?�
�They�re a bunch of mountains, in the North.� Said Teagan. �Most of them are rather high, and that is were Edana comes in.� He nodded at that dragon that was still standing behind us. �We�ll use her to fly to the mountains since that�s easier than to go by foot.�
�Right. So, Shaylee, I hope it is al clear to you now. Still have any questions?� Raghnall questioned me.
�No, I think it�s all clear to me now�just one more question: why didn�t you do this earlier? I mean, you are 1410 years old, why now?� I asked him.
�Let�s just say I needed something in order for my plan to work. I didn�t have it before, so I had to wait. But, now that I do have it, I�m sure my plan will succeed. Now, come on, Teagan, show us how to ride that dragon of yours!�
�Yes, sir!� Teagan replied mockingly. He patted the dragon on her head once more. �Listen, Edana, I need you to bend down low enough for us to climb on your back. Think you can do that?� And it seemed like the dragon really had understood what the man had said, because she turned around and laid down on the ground. I looked up; it was still pretty high. But before I knew it, Teagan had me by my waist and pulled us both on the dragon�s back, Raghnall following suit. Teagan sat at the end of Edana�s back, Raghnall in the middle, and me at the front. The bigger man gave the dragon a slap on her behind.
�Go, Edana!� And with that, the dragon lifted of. I felt as though I would fall of anytime, but Raghnall was behind me and he grabbed my waist. For some reason, it made me feel very save and I allowed myself to relax. As soon as Edana had made it high enough in the air, she began to move forward, gaining speed fast. The world below me looked very small, but I hardly looked down, too focused in my thoughts to see it. I silently wondered what I had gotten myself into�
