Chapter Twenty

Darkness engulfed Tatsuya as he walked under the archway and into the ring of trees. There was absolutely no sliver of light, and Tatsuya couldn’t even see two inches in front of him. He simply followed the sound of Ember’s footsteps in front of him.
“I could tell how curious you were,” she said. “You must not talk to many people often.”
“Yeah,” he said. “How did you know?”
“Because I feel the same way. You could imagine how lonely it is for hundreds of years, standing here guarding this place.” She stopped moving, and Tatsuya copied.
“I never really thought of it like that,” he said. “I would imagine that a lot of people would try to come here to steal the pendant piece.”
“Not very often. It’s a well kept secret, don’t you know?”
“Yeah,” Tatsuya said, a bit awkwardly because he had no idea what to say at this point.
“When you’re alone, and someone finally arrives, all you want to do is talk to them,” she said. “Isn’t that right?”
Tatsuya shrugged, but then he remembered how he was in complete darkness so she wouldn’t have seen his movements, anyway. “I guess,” he said. “But sometimes I just want to remain alone, you know?”
“It depends on whom you’re talking to. If I were here stuck with Kaida, I would have preferred to be alone.”
“That’s a bit harsh. Especially when you’ve been alone for hundreds of years.”
“I suppose,” she said. “But you don’t know Kaida any longer than I do.”
An odd silence lingered in the air between them before Tatsuya remembered what he had even come here for.
“So are you going to give me the pendent or not?” he asked. “As much as I would love to talk to you, I need it pretty badly.”
“The pendant may or may not come with time,” she said. “After all, I have been guarding it for hundreds of years. I am not about to just give it away to a little human boy who walks in and asks for it.”
“Why are you guarding it, anyway?” Tatsuya asked her. “I mean, why you?” It certainly would have been easier to get the pendant if a less stubborn guard were in order.
“Because I cannot let anyone get control of him,” she said. “The Dragon of Spring, the Dragon of Life. None shall control him, I will make sure he is always free,” she said with a fiery passion in her voice.
“Why do you care so much?” he asked. “It doesn’t seem like you are perfunctory about this at all.”
The noise of her shifting caught Tatsuya’s ear, and he could tell that she had sat down on the hard ground.
“It is a wonder what love can do to a person,” she said.
“Oh!” Tatsuya exclaimed. “So you’re in love with him or something?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s what got me excommunicated as a fairy.”
“But it’s just knowing another creature,” he said. “I might not know too much, but if we weren’t allowed to mingle outside of our species, a lot of us would be dead already.”
“Yes, but I was always under tight security,” she said. “You see, I was the heiress to the throne in my kingdom. I was supposed to rule after my father had died. And no one liked my father as a ruler, so even if one of our family members had one toe out of line, the consequences would be much more severe.”
“So you fell in love with a dragon and got kicked out?”
“Yes.”
“That seems incredibly harsh.”
“Why do you think I’m incredibly harsh? It’s because everyone is so incredibly harsh to me.”
“Well, if you’re in love with the Dragon of Spring, how come you’re not with him? Why are you just in his shrine? And you said you were alone for hundreds of years… what’s the deal with that?”
“He sent me here,” she said simply. “He said that the best way to prove my love for him was to protect him and to protect his shrine. So he left me here all those centuries ago, and he never really came back.”
“He didn’t even come to visit?” Tatsuya asked. “If you ask me, it seems like he’s just using you.”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “But we are in love. It is the strongest bond. I gave up power of my kingdom just to be with him. And he trusted me enough with this monumental task. It is obvious he’s not just using me.”
“If you say so,” Tatsuya said. “Are you the only protection that this place has?”
“Yes, mostly,” she said. “The fact that it’s hidden is a crucial factor. And it is very hard to access in the middle of this forest.”
“At first glance, you don’t seem like that much of a threat, though,” Tatsuya said. “I mean, when I first saw you I was surprised. You seemed like a little girl or something. And then you began acting strangely and I felt afraid.”
Ember chuckled her chliche evil-sounding laugh. “Oh, trust me, I am more than just a little girl. I might not be a fairy anymore, but I still have most of the magic, and it is not a toy.”
“What sort of magic?” Tatsuya asked.
“Kaida is the Dragon of Death,” she stated, “and her brother is the Dragon of Life. Just as each magical being controls an element, I also control an element. It might not be one just as powerful as life or death, but it is an element.”
“And what would that be?”
Ember snapped her fingers, and a tiny flame flickered in her hand as if she were holding a lighter or something. Her violet eyes shone in the dim light and made Tatsuya’s heart jolt when he saw her face clearly again. “Fire,” she stated simply.
She waved her hand, and certain branches in the circle of trees caught on fire and lit up the area. Tatsuya was finally able to get a good look at everything. Except for the fact that there wasn’t anything. The whole place was empty, except for the smell of burning wood filled the air from the bottom up.
“This is the shrine?” Tatsuya asked. “There’s like nothing here at all. The pendant isn’t even in here. Is this like a fake one or something? To protect the real one?”
“No,” Ember said. “Kaida has led you well. You are in the real shrine. But do you think the pendant is just sitting out here waiting for someone to walk along and pick it up? I don’t think so.”
“So where is it?” Tatsuya snapped. “I flew all the way here on a freaking dragon, risked my life treading through this disgusting forest, and got attacked by you, and when I’m finally in here, the whole place is empty? I’m trying to save lives here, and you’re just playing games with me?”
“Of course not,” Ember said, her sinister grin growing across her face. “Why would I be playing games with you? This is not a game. This is, how you say, a matter of life and death, is it not?”
“Yes, it is, so I would appreciate it if you just gave me what I came here for. I know that you’re trying to protect it from evil and stuff, and how you want to ensure that Kaida’s brother will always be free and never under the control of some dinky human, but you don’t know how badly we need it and what it means to us that we have it. So if you don’t mind ending this stupid game, I would love it if you could just give it to me, and we can all move on.”
“Do you think I would just move on if someone took control over the Dragon of Spring?” Ember hissed. “I would be sitting here, continuing to be alone, with absolutely no purpose. I would have failed, my intentions would be gone. This is just so easy for you, isn’t it? To just walk in here and ask for what you want and take it and go. Well, I’m not going to make it easy for you.”
She moved into an attacking position again and hissed at Tatsuya. She definitely was not going to make anything easy for him.
“L-listen, please, just for a second,” Tatsuya said, trying to keep his fear under control. “You don’t understand. We’re not going to use it for anything unnecessary. You have to believe me, we’re not trying to take control of any dragon or something evil like that. We just need it so we can help someone who is dying, and to keep it away from someone else. That’s it, you can trust me.”
“Keep it away from someone else?” Ember repeated. “Why would you need to remove it from its sanctum?”
“We want to keep this guy who is trying to use it for evil purposes away from it, that’s all,” Tatsuya explained. “He’s the one who is really evil. He’s trying to take control of all four dragons so he can rule the world or have ultimate power or something of that sort. He even tried to steal it from me. Well, my father. Ten years ago when I was still young, he killed my father in attempts to get the power, but he didn’t know I was there, so it failed. Kaida thinks he’s after the pendants now, so we came here to get this one so he couldn’t get to it.”
Ember hissed and glared at Tatsuya in the midst of his explanation. “I believe you, young boy,” she said. “But do you honestly think the pendant piece is going to be safe with you? Why is it safer with you than with me? It is, after all, my duty to keep it safe. I don’t understand how it could possibly be safer with you.”
“Well, the person trying to steal it will know it’s here,” Tatsuya said. “And if it turns out that it’s not in here, and it’s with us, it’ll throw him off guard completely. Also, if he tries to come after us, Kaida will be there to help protect it.”
Ember hissed again when Tatsuya said Kaida’s name. “No. Absolutely not. I am not letting that pendant piece out of this shrine. I am not letting it out of my reach. I am terribly sorry that I cannot give it to you, but you will just have to finish your task without it.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I am sorry, but you are the one who does not understand,” Ember barked. She was beginning to get angry, and her violet eyes flashed against the dim light. “The pendant piece is perfectly safe with me, and I would advise you that you should leave this shrine and never return if you want to live longer than your measly fifteen years.”
“I don’t care about my life at all,” Tatsuya said. “I’m just doing this to help other people, and to protect the people I love. You know about love. I’m doing this for love, just like you are. You have to understand, I have to have that pendant piece.”
Ember scowled at him, put her arm on his shoulder, dangerously close to his neck, and pushed up up against a tree, right under where one of the branches was on fire. Tatsuya could feel her hand’s warmth even through his jacket and shirt. It was dangerously scalding. Ember hissed again.
“You will stay away from here,” she said, her voice deep again. “And you will stay away from seeking the power to control the Dragon of Life.”
Her hand continuously grew hotter and hotter on Tatsuya’s skin.
“Please,” Tatsuya said, his voice quivering now more than ever. “I can’t just go like that. You have to give me a chance. I need that pendant.”
Ember’s hand continued to heat up, and soon it was burning through Tatsuya’s jacket before it touched his cold skin.
Tatsuya yelped in pain, but Ember kept a tight grip on his shoulder.
“Stay away from here,” she said with more force. “And you will be glad that you did.”
Tatsuya broke from her grasp and fell to his knees. He tried to bend his head to look at his shoulder and noticed a massive burn that would be impossible to hide, for his clothes had burns on them, too.
“Now, if you please, leave.”