The hidden enemy

On the starry night that eloped the freezing desert, the strong Sea Eagle flew as fast as he could. Bran felt raging anger as he thought about the Dragon King who took Sienna with him. He could see it well from above the melted City Walls, he knew that Sienna decided to save them all and went with the dragon willingly, so straight as the deadly flock flew away, Bran reached Tyrell, who stood frozen watching as his sweetheart, in the hands of the killer Dragon King just disappeared into the dark horizon.

"Tyrell!"Bran landed and tapped Tiger King's frozen face.

"What?" Tyrell looked at him with an expression of utter sadness. He was broken.

" Sienna saved the Crystal City..."The strong eagle put his hand on Tyrell's strong shoulder."Go take care of your people and I will fly for Sarcos." Bran kind of ordered him and flew off to Sand City as fast as he could.

Tyrell watched the eagle blend within in the dark sky and change into his tiger form. He did not want to feel human any more! His heart was about to explode and his head was frozen with pain, he just lost and it was driving him crazy, but the responsibility was gnawing him like an iron shirt! He was the King! He had to sober up! He had to be stronger and keep up! The White Tiger saw that Crystal City was still fighting with the flames so he ran to help.

"Stupid dragons!" he growled as he saw his people running around with buckets of water to distinguish the flames. "Go take care of it and stop hiding. "White Tiger called on Tyrell who pushed his pain back to help his people.

"Open the aqueducts at full speed!"Tyrell started to call out orders to his warriors as he passed the nonexistent City Gate and changed into his human form. He navigated them to successfully subdue the fires, and then he arranged help and accommodation in his castle for families who ended up without homes. Luckily, it was just those whose houses were attached to the front line of the city walls.

Tyrell inspected the destroyed walls crashed into big pieces of glass and chuckled crazily...

"How to withstand the attack of the dragons, hm? I can cover all this city even in the hardest of metals and they will melt it at our heads! They will get us even if we live underground!"He called desperately. None of the tribes without magic had even the slightest chance to resist them. Dragons used to keep peace and defend the righteous in past times. They helped to protect weaker tribes and ensured stability, but after their King became a monster the only thing he was after, were gold-haired females. It was not many he took, because most of them were living in Northern Lands already, so the dragons kept to themselves and the people kind of forgot about them, not feeling their presence...

Tyrell watched his people working on cleaning the burned debris for a moment.

"They were so lucky that I went with Sienna around when the dragons attacked." he thought realizing that they all could be ashes already!

Tyrell felt as if his life passed away when he went to his office to write an explanation to Sarcos. He saw Magnus waiting for him with the paper and pen, all prepared and the falcon was sitting by the window.

"Ahh, you have everything ready for me?"Tyrell grinned painfully.

"Sure."Magnus nodded.

"Do you have any idea, why the dragons were here so soon?"Tyrell looked at Magnus suspiciously.

"No. What do you mean?" the old tiger shook his head surprised.

"My Queen mentioned his cursed name a mere two hours ago! I was taking her to Sand City fast, but here we go, the dragons are here already!"Tyrell was staring at the old man dangerously.

" They must find her out somehow...I'm so sorry, she was such a lovely beautiful Queen."Magnus looked into his King's icy blue eyes...

"She is still my Queen and will be after you be long dead." Tyrell turned away upset...

"Do you think Sarcos can defeat a dragon? " Magnus asked eagerly.

"I think so, he was getting ready for it. I just hope he is stronger than his monster."Tyrell bit his lips and Magnus had no idea what his King was talking about.

Tyrell wrote a short letter to Sarcos and sent the falcon to Sand City. Then he went to arrange the rebuilding of the houses which were melted and to fix the city walls till someone else would take advantage of their weakened state...

Meanwhile, in the quiet Sand City, Sarcos was practising his powers within his dark laboratory...He had to return from the Sandy Mountains because of Sienna's letters. She kept disturbing him all day, so he rather concealed himself deep underground.

"So what about appearing anywhere I like to?" he asked the Crystal Pincer.

"You are not able to do that yet."The bluish figure noted. "You will need to be detached from the earthly matter and you are not. You are still bound to the ground and the sand," he noted.

"I'm not an eagle."Sarcos sighed, "I just wanted to check on my Queen, " he sighed."I feel as if something is off with her."

"Not yet possible."The Crystal Pincer shook his head.

"You are useless then!"The Flaming Scorpion appeared in Sarcos's mind as well. He opposed these experiments because he felt as if they were denting Sarcos's heart.

"My Queen is more important than anything!" Sarcos only bit his lips when he warned him.

"You are so stubborn!" the Flaming Scorpion was upset.

"You know my mission, so do not disturb me if you do not want to help.

"Exactly, you can't fight flame with flame."The Crystal Pincer noted.

"Yes, you can."Flaming Scorpion growled...

"If you do not mind Sarcos's body to be cooked in the process."The Crystal Pincer smiled."You are just jealous and it is so cute.." he chuckled..."Sarcos will need freezing powers within him, they can counter the flames quite well." he noted.

"And you have them?"Flaming Scorpion hissed.

"I can tap into them because as you know ice is a crystal too," Crystal Pincer noted...

"Sienna does not like cold men, she likes passion, I would not like to be icy anyway..." the Flaming Scorpion growled. He was upset with Sarcos for risking his body way too much. "The man is crazy for power! He always has to be the best!"The Flaming scorpion shook his head thinking."Watch out, Rem is coming!" He noted and disappeared.

"King Sarcos!" Rem shouted and banged the door to the laboratory, Sarcos was locked in because he was in a state of deep concentration and he did not want to kill anyone by accident...

"What is going on?"Sarcos sobered up. He kind of had to bring his soul inward to keep his mind safe after these experiments...He shook his head and went to unlock the door.

"He took the Queen! Darren's King took the Queen!"Rem spitted out in panic. He was so worried about her. "Captain Bran brought the news, he wants to accompany you to the Northern Lands."

"That was what I felt! Good! My bond is deepening..."Sarcos was trying to think." I want to know exactly what happened!"He walked with Rem to see Bran.

The strong eagle was breathing out after the fast flight and getting some strength back. He bowed to Sarcos lightly and started to talk straight away as the strong Scorpion King approached.

"Let's go!"The Flaming Scorpion called disturbed. His mate was in danger!

" Wait!" Crystal Pincer hissed..."We are not done! He will not kill the Queen yet, he is waiting for the Red Moon." he reminded them and Sarcos halted to think first.

"Why would the dragons attack the city, when Sienna was not in there..? That is quite interesting." the Scorpion King was thinking.."Who could betray us? Hmmm..."

"It could be anyone."Crystal Pincer noted.

"Apart from the Kings."Flaming Scorpion added.

"And Darren, he will not act recklessly and no one from Crystal City will do it. They are all scared of Dragons. It must be someone else."Sarcos thought.

"It must be someone who wants to end our Queen."Flaming Scorpion noted.

Far away, the new bright day came over the Northern Lands...

When Sienna awoke, she was lying in the four-poster dark wood bed, covered with a warm royal blue velvet blanket embroidered with small silver stars. The painted high ceiling caught her eyes straight away as she opened them. It depicted a big black dragon playing chase with a princess. It reminded her of fairytale illustrations, Sienna noticed that the cheekily smiling princess looked quite similar to her, but when her eyes glanced at the black dragon, her mind sobered up instantly!

"The Dragon King!"Sienna whispered, and the adrenaline hit her blood. Fear took over her mind, which changed to panic as she realized he must heard her again!

"I need to calm down."Sienna thought "Breathe, Sienna, breathe.." she whispered to herself as she breathed deeply sitting in the luxurious bed.

"It is fine, everything will be fine...I managed to negotiate, so he can be reasoned with..."She muttered quietly to herself.

"Sure, if you give him what he wants..." her inner voice scoffed.

"Sure, I need to find out how to give him what he wants and stay alive..."Sienna thought."The Dragon King did not tell me he wanted to kill me, but if everyone thought so, there must be a reason for it! Anyway, he does not need to warn me at all!" she thought. "Well, there is no point in waiting yet, he already knows that I'm awake, so I better get ready to show him, I'm eager to help." she sighed for herself.

Sienna looked around the fairytale-like room. It was built of neatly cut stones with long arches and ridiculously high ceilings. There was a big fire in the room crackling in the open golden-brown ceramic fireplace, sending waves of warmth through the room. The beautiful colourful dragon life woven tapestries were hanging on the walls." It is definitely a girly room!" Sienna thought as she stood up and walked to the huge window with colourful stained glass depicting smallish dragons...She peeked out through the blue-coloured glass, but the country outside seemed misshapen somehow...Sienna looked at the window carefully and found the little latch. It enabled her to open a piece of stained glass and a strong wind hit her face suddenly. The morning country was frozen! She was in a land of snow! There was snow all around. It was pure white and sparkly. If Sienna had her warm modern clothes she would just love to come out and play in the deepest snow she had ever seen....

Sienna imagined playing in that snow with Tyrell or his White Tiger and rather closed the window.

" I have different things to worry about..."She sighed."The strange Dragon King and cruel Crystal Emperor...Two deadly riddles to solve. Well, the dragon comes first as I'm already here, so let's give him my full attention..." she thought and went to warm up to the impressive fireplace. Sienna stared into the fire, it was pulling her in, and she always wanted to play with it. It was as if the fire was showing her the most interesting stories.

Sienna smiled at the fire and looked back to the bed, it was from heavy dark wood with dragon decorations. The room had a stone tile floor with vine-red braided woollen carpets. There was a table with some fruits and crackers in the crystal bowl and a long golden carved mirror...and two doors. A big one probably to go outside and a smaller one. Sienna went to press the smaller door, it was a huge bathroom in there. With a bathtub, running water and a smallish tower-like toilet...Sienna shook her shoulders and decided to get presentable before she would go to see the King. She was not sure what kind of help he wanted but hoped he would not want her blood as a crazy hustler who came to her mind...Sienna refreshed herself and brushed her hair with her fingers. There were not many things in that bathroom. Sienna checked her long dress pockets. She found her lip balm and a small handkerchief. Sienna remembered the balm, but the silken turqoise handkerchief was not hers! She opened it curiously and found a tiger mark on it with her name embroidered in gold.

"How?"Sienna wondered thinking."It must be Ellaine. She had to sneak it to me as she hugged me!" she realized.

Sienna shook her head and smiled. Her heart got warmer as she thought of her cheeky mother-in-law...

"Pity I have no make-up..."She sighed and bit her lips. The bathroom had only a few bathing oils in there...and they all smelled more herbal than fruity. Sienna did not trust in the strange herbal oils! She could not detect what was what so she skipped them all together!

" I do not want to grow the scales, I rather ask the King..." she thought ."Well if I will be able to have a bath after... "she gulped.

Sienna went back inside the main room and looked into the golden mirror. She looked presentable but really could use a hairbrush. She checked the vanity table drawers and...

"Heureka!" Sienna smiled as she found a silver comb. But as she checked it carefully, there were a few long golden hairs stuck in it!

"Who's they are?"Sienna freaked out! She looked at the long hair, then at the comb, then at her own golden hair in the mirror.

"I will be looking much better if I brush my hair!"She grinned her face uncomfortably and decided to go wash the silver comb in the bathroom...She removed the stuck long golden hair feeling guilty and very weird, but whoever they were, was not there anyway! Then she dried the comb carefully and went to brush her hair lightly to look better.

"Sorry, "Sienna thought as she brushed her hair, she wondered about whose comb it was... " But I need to look my best to survive. " she sighed. After her long hair was done, Sienna cleaned the comb, washed it and put it back . She put more lip balm on her lips and decided she looked as best as she could!

Sienna looked at her reflection in the mirror satisfied and decided to find the Dragon King...She opened the biggest door in the room and peeked into the huge empty fire-lit corridor.