The boy who would be king - part 3/3

At first it had been covered by the fact that Aron could only see a very small portion of the clearing - due to the narrow path they had followed - but when Aron and the wolf finally entered the clearing, there was no more hiding it. Behind the old man Do'ruth to the left was one of the most amazing creatures Aron had ever seen. If the old man was Do'ruth, the legendary magician, then the creature must be Glaudir, the dragon. And it was. It was a magnificent dragon. Unbelievably large, it's body looking ferocious with the rigid scales, and it's impressive wings shed a purplish light as the dragon stretched them out. The dragon's face looked terrifying. Incredibly clear yellow eyes stared coldly at you over a mouth with razor sharp teeth that could have cut both the wolf and the bear in half without any effort. Through all this splendor, one tiny imperfection struck Aron: there was a small piece of black in it's left eye. At the moment this thought entered his mind, Aron also felt his necklace turn warmer. He realized what it was now: a piece of the dragon's eye. The mad knight had not been so mad at all. And somehow the little boy owned it. He owned a part of the dragon.

Do'ruth woke him from his thoughts, in reassuring him that there was nothing to be afraid of. "Glaudir is harmless to you, and you don't have to worry about your medallion. You didn't do it to him, and he knows that. Come sit with me, and I will tell you why you are here." Aron followed the old man to his hut on the right, which he hadn't noticed so far. Looking to the left, next to the dragon, he saw the wolf heading for a young girl - roughly Aron's age - that would take care of him. She must have come from behind the dragon, because a few moments before she had not been there. Although she wore only rags, and looked like she didn't even know what the words 'bath' or 'shower' meant, Aron still found her very beautiful. Do'ruth offered him a place to sit and a cup of hot water with some herbal leaves in it. He gratefully accepted, and the liquid revived his strength a bit. When the magician offered him some sweet bread, even more of his strength returned.

After watching the young boy eat and drink for a while, he started to tell his story. It turned out that most of the legend was true. They had to flee into the forest when the old king Aron had died. They took the king's possessions with them, and they had to fend of many brave knights at first, but gradually they were left alone and became more legend than reality. They would just wait. Waiting for the opposite to happen: for another legend to come true. It was said that one day a young boy, with the gift of dragon vision, would arrive and reunite the old kingdom again and restore peace. For years the old man and the dragon had waited, befriending most of the animals in the forest on the way. Wolf had been a faithful friend for some decades now. The young girl - which they named Muriel - was left by her mother at the edge of a forest, probably as a sacrifice of some sort. She was raised by the magician and all the animals around her. Wolf was her favorite, and Aron could see from the corners of his eyes that she was treating the poor animal with the greatest care.

Soon it was clear to Aron that the magician thought that he was the boy from the legend. He dismissed that idea as ridiculous. Him a king? Never! He hardly cared for it when he was still at the court in his hometown, with only a very small chance of ever having to be the next king, let alone him being the king of the entire land, when there were so many forceful kings around now. The weaker houses had all been conquered, and by now four almost equally strong kingdoms remained, that would never attack each other but would also most likely never be at peace with each other as well. Should the one attack another, they would both be left vulnerable to the attacks of the other two. With the 'elimination' of his fathers 'weaker' kingdom, this status quo had been established. The old man was confident that Aron - the younger - would be the one to defeat all those four evil men and reunite the lands. He simply did not doubt it, because it was foretold in legends. They talked a lot that evening. Muriel joined them when she had finished taking care of Wolf. Late that evening Aron and Muriel went to sleep, and they both slept a very deep and reviving sleep.

The next morning Aron actually felt less skeptical about the plan/legend. During the talks last night Aron had learned that there were actually large packs of wolves and bears in the forests, that were loyal to Do'ruth, Muriel and Glaudir. The bear they had encountered underway was a rogue one, one of the only few that didn't have a friendly relationship with those three. Inside Aron's head an idea started to form. Over lunch he discussed it with his companions, and they all liked it (Glaudir and Wolf couldn't talk, but they seemed to understand what he was saying).

In the next couple of weeks they executed the plan. Although his family had been completely murdered out, there were still friends left in the town and his father's former kingdom. And they also had friends in the other kingdoms. It didn't take long to establish a network of dissatisfied citizens all over the land. They would prepare the overtaking of the kingdoms on the specified night. What they were all made very clear to understand, was that there was to be no killing. No more lives would be lost, no more blood would be shed. That was a specific and unquestionable order from Aron. At first Do'ruth had not liked the idea, and suggested to use the unhappy peasants and all the animals of the forest to form a great army, led by him and Aron, and protected from the air by Glaudir, but eventually he had seen the reason in Aron's plan.

Finally the specified day came. It arrived in a promising early morning mist. Riding on the back of the dragon, Aron would fly over the entire land and set fire to the great haystacks that would secretly have been erected by the peasants. That would be a signal to everyone, man and animal, to commence their charges. At what felt like lightning speed Glaudir soared over the lands, and set fire to the haystacks with a single ball of fire breathing from his nostrils. Soon all over the land the haystacks were burning, and things started to happen  simultaneously and rapidly. From the forests large flocks of wolves and bears entered the king's towns, aided by the peasants who cleared the way. Because of the preparations of the peasants, the animals would all know where to go, and scared to death by such terrifying and unusual enemies, all the soldiers would surrender instantly. Their weapons were confiscated by the peasant militias and in only a couple of hours the 'battle' had been fought, without a single drop of blood or a life lost.

The captured kings were brought before Do'ruth and Aron in the town hall of Aron's home town. Fearing to be beheaded at the least, they begged and pleaded for their lives, especially when Glaudir joined the party and growled loudly to the miserable kings. But in words of premature wisdom Aron spoke to them: "Many years ago a wise man ruled these lands in peace and prosperity. His subjects were happy, and life was good. But you - all of you - defiled his legacy by claiming parts of the land as your own, and even more shameful also desiring the parts you could not obtain after that wise man's death. In battling over the land and fighting each other, you have ruined a once beautiful country, of which many great songs were once written and sung. You have enslaved your people, so that they hardly have anything to eat, while you feast every night on everything they break their backs from before sunrise to after sunset. You should be ashamed of yourselves! And if that wasn't enough, you also killed the people that got in your way, as if they were nothing but an inconvenience. But if you think I will do the same to you and sentence you to death, which you actually deserve, you're wrong! I am sentencing you to life. I want you to live, be free, and live a happy and peaceful life. You will be equals with the people you oppressed for so long, because there will be no more inequality while I am around. And you might wonder what will happen to the treasures of your forefather? Well, they will be used for the good of everybody. They will be used to build good roads between your towns, to make sure everybody has a proper house to live in, and the right tools to work on whatever it is they are best at. There will be peace in my time, and travelers will marvel at our prosperity, and write songs about us, that they will sings at their homes. And once again, this land will be the subject of legends. But with one difference, that it is real and still here."

After having spoken thus, Aron retreated into his room, and found Muriel sitting on his bed. She looked more beautiful than ever, in her new dress and with her hair decorated with a marvelous tiara. Throughout the last few weeks they had grown really close to one another, and Aron knew what he would do next. He had faced a dragon, lead an army and spoke from the heart to a crowd of thousands, but now his knees were trembling, his hand palms were sweaty and he felt his throat closing. But he did it anyway. He got down on one knee in front of Muriel, looked into her beautiful eyes and took a little bag from his pocket. Out of the bag he removed two rings. At first sight, they seemed to be made of pure gold, but if you looked closer, you would see they were made of the clearest glass you have ever seen. The rings were perfectly golden yellow, except for a single blotch. Black, but depending on how the light fell onto it, every single color in the world. Do'ruth had used his magic to change the necklace into these two magnificent rings. Aron took Muriel's hand, and offered one of the rings to her. "Muriel, will you make me the happiest man in the land? Will you be by my side for the rest of our long and prosperous lives?" With a nod Muriel accepted the proposal, because the tears and her emotions took her breath away.

Throughout the land celebrations were held, in honor of the unification of both the land and the happy couple. That night, after a long and festive celebration, Aron led Muriel to their bedroom. "So as of tomorrow we will be king and queen, what do you say about that?" Muriel asked. Aron suddenly realized he had not thought of that yet. He would indeed be king, even though he never showed interest in becoming one all those years in school. "We'll see about that tomorrow my love, tonight the world is just about you and me!" In his mind he pondered over it a little. Would he be king? Should he be king? He would rather just explore the lands outside his own, together with Muriel, Glaudir and Wolf. Be free. Go anywhere. See the great things the world had to offer him. He decided to put off the decision until tomorrow. Because tonight was only about one thing: him and his lovely black haired princess...