1 Fire and Ice - Part One.

Victor:

It is yet another glorious day with the sun shining brightly past the opened columns of the summer throne room. Summers are truly spectacular here. Winters on the other side, tend to get colder than anyone likes. Uncle sits on his oversized silver chair while I casually stand next to him. It feels like we are waiting for someone, but uncle didn't mention anyone arriving this afternoon.

"Vick, did you find yourself a suitable wife yet?" my uncle, the king of the fire dragons, asks me, his gaze lazily skimming through a scroll in front of him that I have no interest in.

"The one I spent the last night with just didn't do it," I answer sarcastically.

There is no need for me to marry. The ice fay that uncle specifically picked out for his mission will be arriving any day now, we will get the egg that has the young prince in it, and I am off the hook from the throne. No wife needed if I am not going to rule.

"You will get a disease sleeping around like that." My uncle shakes his head in amused disapproval.

"That will be the day I stop." I laugh at his concern for my wellbeing.

"I would prefer you get a wife this year. My son will still need to grow up and mature before he can rule, and that will take twenty years," he says without looking away from the thick scroll.

He isn't wrong, but he isn't going to be dying anytime soon. Even though, the danger of war with the frost giants from up north is a real threat these days. I will fight and help guide the young prince, but I will not rule. The pretense of royalty is becoming sickening and unfortunately, I am saturated in it. I am part of it, and I hate every bit of the fake games we play.

"Your majesty, the young ice fay has arrived," Norman, the ever so faithful butler, announces as he bows politely towards us, his form, even at his ripe age of seventy, still perfect.

My uncle looks up at the human butler and gives him a soft nod to let the fay in. At last, I get to fulfill my last big duty before spending the rest of my days hiding away at the boxing ring, taverns, and most likely the whore house.

The door opens and a wild teenager waltzes into the room dressed in, what looks like, leggings and a sweatshirt. Maybe not a teenager – nineteen or twenty, but what the fuck is she wearing to meet a king? Hell. This is not looking good for me. This wild thing doesn't have the brains to dress properly, how is she supposed to help me retrieve the prince?

"Good day, your majesty," she says with way too much joy in her voice as she dramatically and incorrectly bows in front of us.

"Good day Lizzy." My uncle chuckles at the small brunette in front of us.

This is not funny. Does he not understand that the fate of his son lies in her hands, which by the looks of it, are probably clumsy. It seems that on this mission I will need to do everything by myself. All I need her for is to hide the heat of the dragon egg from anyone looking for his heat signature. Uncle was supposed to find an experienced and powerful fay, not this wild looking thing in front of us.

"How were your travels?" my uncle asks Lizzy, the brown eyed girl, as she looks up at him with a large smile plastered on her face, showing off the dimple on her right cheek.

"So wonderful and fascinating," she responds, that ridiculous smile still on her face.

That is a lot of excitement for someone who was made to travel on foot for two months from the deep parts of the Siberian regions. Making her get here on her own was my uncle's way of testing the ice fay's resilience. She made a few days early, and with a massive smile on her face. I suppose there is one good things about her – she is resilient.

"You did not encounter any troubles?" my uncle asks to be polite, since he is clearly smitten with the mess of the woman standing before us.

"Uncle, is this a joke?" I try to ask quietly, but her brown eyes snap at me aggressively, staring me down with insult. Frankly, I don't care.

"Certainly not." He ignores my concern and smiles at Lizzy with pride. The man has gone confused. "Vick will show you to your room so you can get some rest," my uncle tells her, but she just looks at me from head to toe in disapproval.

Since when am I the tour guide?

"That's prince Victor to you." I clarify, glaring at her. There is no need for her to get chummy around me. "Let's go then, Lizzy." I walk past her to get this over with.

"That is Elizabeth to you, prince Victor." She snaps back with defiance in her tone.

Is this woman for real?

Baffled, I turn around to look at her, but there is absolutely zero fear in her eyes. My uncle laughs in the background, so I look up at him, but he is pretending to look at this scroll again, his greying beard hiding the entertained smile on his face. Clearly, he chose her for a reason, because he is enjoying the attitude on this one at the cost of my annoyance.

This will be a very long month for me.

Elizabeth:

The pompous tall man with nicely done blond hair, marches in front of me with long strides up the stairs, leaving me behind. Rude, if you ask me, so I jog up the steps energetically passing him in the process. He may be the prince, but he is arrogant, and father taught me to never let assholes walk all over me. Plus, what matters is that the king Eliazar is kind and funny, and he is the one that picked me to help bring back his son. The opinion of this entitled man-child does not matter.

Sadly, he is the one that I will be traveling with to the far north to find the dragon egg. Because the king was so polite in his letter, I assumed his nephew would be the same, but I was wrong. The nephew is a prick. No problem, it is just one month. I can do that. All I need to do is ignore him.

"This is your room." He abruptly stops in front of a white door with a number thirteen on it.

I hate that number, it is bad luck.

He glares down at me with his piercing blue eyes like I am a disgusting bug to him. The shallowness of this man to judge me based on my clothing is obnoxious, but I purse my lips into a thin line and keep quiet. My father also taught me to be polite. That lesson never stuck well, but I am doing my best.

"Wonderful," I state, but my attention is at the large window at the end of the long hall.

The light shines through the arched glass, creating a mesmerizing dance of rays through the lightly muddled glass. The shine is magical, reminding me of the winter caves back home during sunny days. It has been two months since I left, traveling on foot and sleeping in caves or under the stars, but I already miss home. I miss father and his silly jokes, but as the king stated in his letters, this is a very important mission.

"Lizzy?" A very familiar voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I turn my head to face the sound.

"Alex!" I exclaim and leave Victor, his fancy highness, behind.

Victor will most likely be offended by my behavior towards him, but he deserves to be ignored. The pompous man thinks he is the center of the world. Well, I am here to remind him he isn't. Just because we are to do this together, and he is next in line for the crown, it doesn't make him special. Being born royal doesn't automatically make someone any better.

It has been four years since I saw Alex and he certainly has changed a lot, but I still remember him as that fifteen-year old boy. Right now, his brown hair is cut short, and he has grown some stubble on his cheeks and chin. He grew another foot and his shoulders doubled, but the happy shine in his eyes is still there. He is still that fifteen-year old boy who I used to call a boyfriend.

"Look at you." I run at him and throw my arms around his neck.

He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight as my memories of him flood back. The good times we had when we were teenagers were spectacular. "You look amazing." I pull away to look at him in his red uniform. Even though his brown hair is now closely trimmed, his dark brown eyes and thick brows have stayed the same. "You made to head of the Royal Guard so fast?" I ask, noticing the gold stripes on his shoulders.

"I did." He straightens out his shoulders with pride, a wide smile plastered on his face.

He has become a very handsome young man, I bet the girls swoon all over him.

"Tomorrow morning, be ready," Victor says as he passes me, without bothering to acknowledge me.

Pompous prick, I internally insult him.

"Your highness." Alex's face turns to a firm respectful one, as he acknowledges Victor's presence. Barf.

"Yup," I tell Victor dismissively as I roll my eyes at Alex's respectful behavior.

His highness is pouting because I left him hanging. Maybe if he wasn't such a prick to begin with, we wouldn't be having this issue.

"You have not changed one bit." Alex laughs at my behavior. "What are you doing here?" Alex swings his arm around me to bring me into himself again.

"Well, since I'm a super powerful fay, the king wants me and the prince to do some training together." I half-lie only because I can't say what the mission is, but I can't lie blatantly because me and his royal highness will be gone for a month. "Well, I will be training him on the cold northern way." I look up at him with playful pride.

My overly confident and sassy attitude should definitely sell it. But then again, because of the way I generally behave no one takes me seriously, so I doubt anyone will believe I will be getting the egg with Victor.

"Oh, look at you. Going up in the world." He smiles down at me.

"Shut up!" I bump his chest with my shoulder. "You know I won't be staying here." I laugh. "But me and you should catch up after I am done. Apparently, I have to be ready by the morning." I roll my eyes.

"I've missed you, Lizzy." He gives my shoulder a light squeeze and plants a kiss on the top of my head.

"I've missed you too, loser." I smile.

Me and Alex were once a couple, I guess. I was fifteen and he was sixteen. We were young, inexperienced, and stupid. A friendship bonded us, but because we were young and hormones were high, we thought we were in love when really, we were simply horny. A year later, he went into the Royal guard, as I got a letter from the king for my father to start training me for a potential mission. I was never upset with Alex for leaving, I understood. We parted on good terms. Our friendship was more than failed sex and raging hormones.