The early morning sun scattered pale golden streaks along the palace's long corridor, slanting through intricately carved windows and gilding the marble floor with a rare warmth amid the cool first days of autumn. Amer skipped happily along, his small pouch of herbs still tied neatly at his waist as it was every day, a habit his mother had instilled in him since he was tiny in case he ever needed it, telling him again and again that wherever he went, he must never leave it behind. The boy hummed a simple little tune under his breath, cheerful because the sky this morning was unusually clear, and because he had slept a wonderfully deep sleep the night before after so many exhausting days of illness. Since coming to live in the palace, the boy's world had opened up so much wider, with sprawling gardens, endless corridors he hadn't yet had the chance to fully explore, and in the heart of this seven year old, every corner of this place held some new mystery worth being curious about.
Suddenly, a servant approached, bending down to hand him a piece of candy, a smile so bright on her lips that no one could have suspected anything untoward.
"Healer Emma is treating the queen," the servant said, her tone warm, "so let me play with you for a while."
Amer beamed at the servant, his bright brown eyes full of the trust of a child who had never known deceit, who had never had to learn to be wary of false smiles hidden behind a friendly facade, for over the past seven years, his entire world had revolved around the absolute, protective embrace of his mother. Someone to play with, how wonderful! "Okay," he answered without a moment's hesitation, taking the candy from the servant's hand, its sweet taste spreading through his mouth making him trust this kind stranger all the more.
"There's a wonderfully beautiful place in the palace, let me take you to see it," the servant continued, her tone still maintaining that unruffled friendliness.
The servant took Amer's hand and led him along, the boy's small feet trotting happily behind her, with no idea at all that every step was carrying him farther away from his mother's safe embrace, farther from the familiar corridors patrolled by guards, drawing closer instead to a desolate, hidden corner of the palace that even ordinary servants rarely visited.
❖ ❖ ❖
The forbidden garden appeared before Amer with a strangely untamed look, wild grass growing thick over the paths, ancient trees hundreds of years old rising so high they blocked out the sun, and encircling it all, an invisible barrier shimmering with faint magical light that Amer couldn't quite see but could feel as a bitter cold radiating from it. The servant led Amer through the gate of the magic laced forbidden garden with ease.
The boy walked along, glancing curiously around him, his round eyes wide with wonder at this scene that was both beautiful and faintly eerie.
The servant suddenly began looking around warily, her eyes darting back and forth as though searching for something, or perhaps avoiding someone's gaze.
"Wait here for me," she said, her voice suddenly hurried, so different from the warmth of moments before. "I'll go get you more candy."
The servant hurried away, her steps so quick they were almost a run, leaving Amer standing there bewildered, watching her figure disappear behind the dense thicket of trees.
Suddenly, the ground beneath the boy's feet shook violently, making Amer stagger, nearly falling to the ground. Startled, he grabbed onto a nearby tree trunk, his small heart pounding in his chest.
A pair of blazing red eyes slowly opened wide in the shadows of the bushes, that gaze seeming to pierce straight through every layer of Amer's flesh, sending a chill down his spine.
Amer looked around in terror, his throat too tight to utter a word, his small legs trembling so badly he no longer had the strength to run.
A massive beast resembling a lion, with glossy black scales, claws long and sharp as blades, its breath rasping and reeking, its eyes blazing red, slowly stepped toward Amer, each heavy footfall making the ground around it tremble violently.
Amer stood frozen in horror, staring at the beast before him, his entire body stiff as though frozen solid by absolute terror. Mama... I'm so scared... That childish thought was all that remained in the boy's mind at that moment.
The beast bared its sharp fangs, threw back its head, and let out a thunderous roar that made the ground shudder, the sound crashing against the magical barrier and echoing back into a relentless, terrifying growl. Every leaf on the ancient trees around them trembled with the aftershock of that roar, and the birds perched in the branches scattered in panic into the sky, leaving Amer alone to face the massive beast in the empty clearing, with no one aware that the boy was in mortal danger.
❖ ❖ ❖
In her chamber within the palace, Emma stepped inside, looking around in a panic when she saw no sign of her son, an unease rising in her so fast it felt as though her heart had stopped.
Elis entered right after, carrying a plate of pastries, her face also showing a flicker of confusion at the sight of the empty room.
Emma looked at Elis in alarm, her voice trembling with fear, her heart pounding as though about to burst from her chest. "Amer, where has he gone?" she asked, so frantic she was almost breathless.
Elis looked around the room, no less bewildered. "I only just went to fetch him some pastries," she answered. "Why isn't he here?"
"Go find him at once," Emma screamed, the panic inside her surging past every limit of self control, her hands trembling so badly the cup of medicine she was holding fell and shattered on the floor, but she had no attention left to spare for it.
Elis looked at Emma, flustered, her own voice beginning to tint with fear. "But the palace is so vast," she said, "how will we ever find him?"
"The scent of the herbs," Emma answered, her voice resolute despite her whole body still trembling, "he always carries that pouch of herbs with him." If I just follow that scent, I'll surely find him. That was the last hope she could cling to now, a keen healer's instinct she had never imagined she would one day need to use to track down her own son.
Emma and Elis hurried out of the room, their steps so rushed that the hems of their gowns swept hard across the doorway. Out in the corridor, the sunlight still shone as brightly as ever, but to Emma, the entire world had suddenly turned a shade of gray, heavy with dread, every sound around her seeming muffled, leaving only the pounding of her own heart and her son's name echoing endlessly in her mind.
❖ ❖ ❖
In his study, Henry sat at his desk, looking at the blue crystal, half moon shaped necklace with deep thought, his finger tracing gently over the pendant as though trying to find an answer hidden beneath that cold crystal surface.
"Why does my memory of that night stay so hazy," he muttered, his voice full of unease. "Was that person truly Serena?" If it really was her, then why is it that every time I try to remember, the image that comes to mind doesn't match Serena's face at all? That doubt had been simmering inside Henry for days now, like a small thorn lodged deep in his mind that he couldn't manage to pull out.
Kael came rushing in, bowing respectfully before Henry, his labored breathing showing he had run a long distance without stopping, sweat beading on his forehead despite the day's mild weather.
Henry quickly put the necklace away in its wooden box, hiding it as swiftly as an ingrained reflex. "What's happened that has you in such a hurry?" he asked.
"Amer is missing, Your Highness," Kael answered, his voice urgent, unable to hide his worry.
Henry shot to his feet in alarm, the chair behind him toppling to the ground with a loud crash he paid no mind to at all. "When did this happen?" he asked, his voice sharp with urgency.
"After treating the queen," Kael explained, "Healer Emma returned to her chamber and the boy was nowhere to be found."
"Send the soldiers to search the entire palace, leave no corner unchecked," Henry ordered, his voice hardening with authority, though beneath it lay a genuine worry that even he had not expected to feel so strongly for a child who shared none of his own blood.
"Yes, Your Highness," Kael answered, bowing before turning at once.
Henry and Kael hurried off, their footsteps echoing on the stone corridor floor, carrying with them an unease growing steadily in both their hearts. In Henry's mind, the image of Amer's brown eyes, so exactly like his own, kept surfacing again and again, mingled with a strange concern he had never before felt for any child outside his own royal bloodline, a feeling he hadn't yet had time to make sense of but which was intense enough to quicken his steps all the more.
❖ ❖ ❖
In the palace's garden ablaze with color, Serena placed a small wooden box into a servant's hand, the corner of her mouth curving into a smug, calculating smile.
"You've done well," she said, her voice sweet with false warmth. "This is your reward."
The servant took the wooden box with a bright smile, a flicker of greed lighting up his eyes as he felt the weight of the gold coins inside. "Thank you, my lady," he answered.
"Remember to keep your mouth shut," Serena reminded him, her tone suddenly turning several degrees colder, a veiled threat disguised as friendly advice.
"I'll remember, my lady," the servant answered, bowing obsequiously before turning and hurrying away, his footsteps quickly vanishing behind the garden's rows of trees, without a shred of concern for the fate of the child he had just lured to his death, so long as he had that generous reward in hand, every twinge of conscience seemingly abandoned long ago.
Serena gazed into the distance with a dangerous air, that cold smile still lingering on her lips. Once that beast finishes its work, every problem tied to that child of mysterious blood will disappear on its own, and I'll have no one left standing in my way.
"Emma," she whispered, her voice ringing with malice through the empty garden, "enjoy the gift I've prepared for you, sister."
Serena draped a veil over her head and turned to leave, her bearing as leisurely as though she had just finished some trivial chore, not just pushed an innocent child to his death.
❖ ❖ ❖
Along the long palace corridor, Emma and Elis ran, their eyes darting everywhere, both their faces strained to the breaking point.
"Amer!" Emma called out, her voice echoing through the corridor, carrying both fear and a fragile hope. "Where are you, Amer!"
Henry and Kael hurried over to Emma, and the moment Henry saw her panicked state, he quickened his pace even further.
"I've already sent men to search," Henry reassured her, his voice forcing calm despite the turmoil inside him too. "Try not to worry too much, perhaps he's just playing somewhere nearby."
"I'm tracking the scent of the herbs on him," Emma answered, her voice betraying an urgency she couldn't hide, her eyes brimming with tears though she fought to keep her mind clear.
"Then let's go find him together," Henry said, without a moment's hesitation, and in that instant, Emma felt a strange steadiness radiating from the man beside her, as though with him there, the weight of her worry was somehow shared.
Emma, Henry, Elis, and Kael set off together, four figures hurrying down the palace's long, endless corridors, every step carrying a nameless dread growing within each of them. The afternoon sun had begun to shift toward a pale orange, casting long streaks of light across the stone floor, but none of them had any attention left to spare for that beauty, all of them focused on a single goal, to find the boy as quickly as possible before night fully fell.
❖ ❖ ❖
Deep within the forbidden garden, the sunlight could barely pierce through the dense canopy of the ancient trees, plunging the whole space into a strangely gloomy shade of green, dim light just enough to make out flickering shadows moving through the thickets. The beast roared, shaking the ground violently, that horrifying sound crashing into Amer's small chest and making his entire body tremble.
Amer stumbled backward in terror, his small feet tripping over a tree root and nearly making him fall, but fear lent him an unimaginable strength to stay standing.
The beast lunged at Amer, its speed so great it made the air around them shudder. Amer ran, his small legs pushing as fast as they could, but the beast stayed right on his heels, its hot breath nearly grazing the back of his neck.
Amer tripped over a branch and fell to the ground, his knees and palms scraped raw and bleeding, the sharp pain flaring up, but his fear was so much greater that he didn't even have time to cry. Dirt smeared his small, tear streaked face, and the pouch of herbs at his waist burst open, dried petals and leaves scattering across the ground, leaving behind a trail of scent that his mother would later follow to find this very place.
The beast charged forward, its massive shadow falling over the small, huddled body on the ground. Amer squeezed his eyes shut, his small hands clutching his head, tears streaming down his mud smeared cheeks. Mama, please save me... That plea only rang out in the boy's mind, unable to break free through a throat gone dry with terror, and in that seemingly most hopeless of moments, the last image that flashed through Amer's mind was his mother's gentle face every night before he fell asleep.
❖ ❖ ❖
Before the great wooden gate surrounding the forbidden garden, Emma, Henry, Elis, and Kael all stopped at once, every one of their eyes fixed on the silent gate ahead.
Emma made to rush forward, but Henry quickly caught her arm to hold her back. Emma turned to look at Henry, bewildered, her breath still ragged from running such a long distance without rest.
"Why are you stopping me?" she demanded, her voice full of confusion mixed with frustration. "I can smell the boy's herbs right here."
Henry looked into the forbidden garden with unease, a dread flickering in his eyes that he had never let show in front of Emma before. "This place is extremely dangerous," he said. "Let Kael and me go in."
"No," Emma protested at once, her voice hard and unyielding. "I want to go in too, to find him."
Kael stepped forward, his tone carrying a rare gravity, his eyes flicking toward the old wooden gate as though wary of something hidden behind that rotting wood. "This garden holds a vicious beast named Karol," he explained. "That's why there's a magical barrier around the whole garden." His voice dropped another notch, as though he himself had never dared set foot in this place more than a couple of times in his life.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently, staggering all four of them, and inside Emma, the fear for her son surged more powerfully than ever. Amer is in there, with a beast that vicious? No, I can't wait even one more moment.
"Please, open the magical barrier and let me in," Emma begged, her voice trembling with urgency, her eyes looking straight at Henry, not hiding the desperation of a mother at all. "I beg you."
Henry turned to look at Kael, the two of them exchanging a brief but meaningful glance.
Kael looked at Henry, nodded, then stepped toward the gate of the forbidden garden, placing his hand on the old wooden door.
A red light flared from Kael's hand, spreading across the door like glowing veins, and the door slowly creaked open with a low, groaning sound.
Emma, Henry, Elis, and Kael stepped inside together, four figures pressing deeper into the dense darkness of the forbidden garden, where, only moments before, an innocent child had still been fighting for his life. The instant they crossed the threshold, a bitter cold gust of air struck all their faces, carrying the musty smell of earth and rotting weeds, along with an unpleasant, rank odor that Emma sensed at once was the breath of the beast lurking somewhere ahead. She clenched her hands, fighting to hold back the panic threatening to overwhelm her so she could keep her mind clear, for she knew better than anyone that even a single moment's delay could cost her son his very life.
❖ ❖ ❖
Deep within the forbidden garden, Amer lay collapsed on the ground, his body covered in bleeding wounds, his breath coming in ragged gasps from exhaustion and fear.
The beast stood growling as it looked at Amer, its blazing red eyes gleaming with merciless bloodlust, slowly advancing step by step toward its small prey, its sharp claws raking deep furrows into the ground, and the low growl rumbling from its throat like an ominous warning of the terrible end about to come.
Emma and Henry led the way, with Elis and Kael following behind, the whole group scanning their surroundings with extreme caution, startling at every smallest sound in the dense garden.
Emma tripped over a branch, stumbling as though about to fall. Henry quickly threw an arm around her waist, pulling her close against him in an instant, unthinking reflex.
"Careful," he whispered, his voice so gentle it made Emma's heart skip a beat, the warmth of his arm spreading through the thin fabric of her cloak, and in that brief moment, amid danger lurking everywhere, Emma suddenly felt a strange sense of safety she hadn't known since that fateful night seven years ago.
Emma pushed Henry away, flustered, her cheeks flushing even as her mind remained tangled with worry for her son. "I'm fine," she said quickly, trying to hide the confusion rising inside her.
Emma hurried forward, not daring to glance back at Henry, afraid that if she looked even a moment longer, she would no longer have the composure to focus on finding her son. Behind her, Henry stood still for a moment, his hand still holding the warmth of that slender waist, and inside him, a new, hard to name feeling stirred, tangled together with the worry gripping the whole group. I can't let anything happen to her, or to the boy. He shook his head to clear the thought, hurrying after Emma, unwilling to let her face the danger ahead alone even for a moment.
❖ ❖ ❖
The massive beast bared its fangs, lowering its head to pounce on Amer huddled in terror on the ground, that fateful instant hanging by the barest thread, each second stretching out like an entire century for those still racing toward it from a distance.
Emma, Henry, Elis, and Kael rushed forward, and the instant they saw Amer collapsed on the ground in terror, Emma's heart seemed to stop completely.
The beast lunged at Amer.
"No!" Emma screamed in horror, her voice tearing through the garden's stillness, her whole body hurling forward heedless of any danger, driven by a single instinct alone, to throw herself between the beast and her son.
Amer screamed in terror, his young voice ringing out across the whole garden.
"Aaaaaaa..." Emma screamed along with him, so consumed by desperation she could no longer tell whose scream was whose, her son's or her own.
Right at that seemingly hopeless instant, a brilliant golden light suddenly flared in Amer's eyes. Along his neck, a layer of shimmering golden dragon scales rose to the surface, appearing as though it had lain hidden beneath his skin since the moment he was born, waiting for this very moment of life and death to awaken.
A surge of golden power wrapped around Amer, swirling violently before shooting up into the air, transforming into a mighty fire dragon, its body blazing brilliantly across the sky above the forbidden garden.
The fire dragon beat its wings through the air, turned toward the beast, and threw open its jaws to unleash a roar so thunderous it shook the entire garden violently, the surrounding trees swaying as though about to be uprooted, and the leaves of the ancient trees swept up into a small whirlwind by the gust from the dragon's wings, spinning around the majestic creature's form.
The beast looked at the dragon with utter terror, hurriedly backing away, its once blazing red eyes now clouded with fear, its whole body trembling like some small animal facing the lord of the entire forest, in complete contrast to the ferocity it had displayed only moments before.
The fire dragon opened its jaws wide and unleashed a great, blazing torrent of flame at the beast without mercy.
The beast writhed in agony within the flames, its anguished roars echoing across the entire garden before it fled in haste, vanishing deep into the dense darkness.
Emma, Henry, Elis, and Kael stood frozen, staring at Amer, none of them able to utter a single word before the sight they had just witnessed.
That's the royal family's dragon power! Henry thought to himself, his whole body rigid with astonishment, his eyes fixed on the fire dragon circling through the air. In his mind, countless scattered pieces suddenly began arranging themselves into a shape he did not yet dare believe was the truth.
The divine dragon slowly dissolved into the air, the blazing golden light gradually shrinking and then vanishing entirely, returning the garden to a chilling stillness, leaving only the faint sound of wind stirring the ancient leaves and the lingering smell of smoke from the dragon's flame, the sole remaining proof that what had just happened was not a dream.
Emma and Elis rushed to Amer's side, dropping to their knees on the cold ground, heedless of their silk gowns getting smeared with mud. Emma looked at Amer with worry, her trembling hands cupping her son's small face, her fingertips tracing over each scrape on his skin as though every wound cut into her own heart as well.
"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice choked from having just lived through the most terrifying moment of her life.
Amer smiled at Emma, a weak smile but still carrying a flicker of peace at seeing his mother beside him, and then his eyes slowly closed, and he fainted right there in his mother's arms.
Emma caught him in a panic, her heart clenching so tight she could barely breathe. "Amer! Amer!" she called her son's name over and over, her voice breaking into uncontrollable sobs. Elis knelt beside her, her trembling hand checking Amer's breathing, and only when she felt his steady, if faint, breath did she dare let out a shaky breath of relief, tears still gathering at the corners of her eyes.
Henry stood frozen, staring at Amer, his entire body rigid as stone before the truth that had just been revealed.
Why does the boy have the power of the royal dragon? Henry wondered to himself, question after question stabbing deep into his mind like blades. Is he of royal blood?
Henry looked at Emma and Amer in bewilderment, his eyes betraying utter confusion, caught between astonishment at the power he had just witnessed and a vague premonition growing clearer than ever, a truth that, once acknowledged, would completely upend everything he had believed true for the past seven years. His hand clenched and unclenched, clenched and unclenched again, as though trying to grasp a truth that kept slipping just out of reach, while the sunset bathed the entire sky above the forbidden garden in red, casting over the scene that had just unfolded a color both tragic and full of foreboding.