Becoming (Chapter Six)

6. Enemy Within1

I was introduced to the main counselors of the city soon after the lovebirds’ dramatic reuniting. Their names were hard to remember, and there were eight of them. As soon as I saw them, I knew they were from the Elvin race. Why is it that elves always seem to get the upper hand in everything?
I had noticed that Nylan seemed wary of them, as if they would jump out and bite him any second. Later, he explained.2

“They are very powerful, Jade. Don’t get on their bad side, and that’s achievement in itself. There’s so much magic in them, they could probably hatch a new world. I may be more powerful than them singly but combined, they are unbeatable. You could say that when it’s time to vote for new officials, no one even needs to vote. I have to watch my back constantly. This is partly because of my faith. Some here worship them, but I worship Keeper.”
“Wow. They’re enemy within us, huh?”
“That’s one way to put it. The biggest of the problem is that they are so immature. It’s like you’ve got eight seven-year-olds in on room arguing over a toy.”
“Nice…”
“Yeah, but they’re too much of a threat if we don’t have them on our side, and they know it. They use that knowledge a little too well.”
Obviously I won’t be getting them angry anytime soon. 3

After that, I had a tour of the small village. Many of the houses were built on trees, and I noted how strategically placed they were for attacks, for defensive and offense. The most interesting was the dragon field.
As soon as I approached the dragon, I was immediately at peace. I didn’t mean to cause uproar, but suddenly the dragon was trumpeting, if that’s what you can call it, and people where running, yelling, shouting in joy, and some in panic.
Nylan just stood there, open mouthed, his face showing pure shock. What did I do? The dragon lay down beside me, staring at me so intently; I began to wonder if he was waiting for me to do something.
That’s when the eight counselors came marching into the dragon field, looking quite perturbed with the interruption. When they saw me, I knew I had already made them angry. But what did I do?4

So here I am, sitting in a small tree house, waiting for someone to come and get me. I had long stopped pacing, and time no longer seemed real. I had maybe been in here for an hour, but it’s not like I had a clock. This world seemed to be deprived of technology. This would provide future problems, such as my boredom, due to the fact that I had no iPod to listen to. My radio, that was tuned to hear the information of bear movements and attacks, was no good here, the signal was gone.
The guards outside my door seem to be more afraid of me than I am of them. They keep speaking in whispering tones, as if I were to hear, I’d rain fire on them from above. Once, I gave into curiosity and put my ear to the door.
“They say she’s the fulfillment of the great prophesy, but that could only mean-“
I made a move to make myself more comfortable, and the creak that I had made was followed by immediate silence. I almost pounded the door in frustration.
“Why isn’t anyone telling me what’s going on?” I said to the door.
Silence.
I sighed and gave up, and searched around for a blanket. The cabin was getting colder, and darker. I found nothing, so I curled myself in a corner, and what was left of the light faded. I feared the darkness, because it was unknown.
My eyes darted everywhere, back and forth, analyzing hallucinations and making them into imaginative creatures. My ears heard sounds that didn’t exist, even whispers of incoherent voices, all played in the echoes of my mind. The fear drained me, and soon my eyes were closed, even though I couldn’t tell the difference in the dark.
Behind them, the monsters stayed, still haunting me, seeing into the sleep that eventually came.
Outside, a storm started, not only involving the weather.5

“We can’t just assume she’s to be trusted!” yelled the head counselor, banging his fist on the table in rage. The force caused the simple log table to collapse, leaving eight, very annoyed counselors and Nylan sitting in one room.
All the people stood up simultaneously to avoid the table. There was a moment of silence that seemed louder than it needed to be.
“Trivlan!”
“That’s your fault!”
“It is not!”
“You just had to get abusive huh? What do you think that table thinks of you now?”
“It’s grateful I ended it’s life, it was tired of hearing your stupid voice.”
“Hey! My voice is beautiful!” the speaker, Reno, burst out in song.
Another, Palu, slapped him. “No, you’re just tone-deaf!”
Nylan was about to leave. They were just like little kids, but they had too much power. He decided to see if he could get any more laughs out of their conversation.
“No you idiot! The table fell because it didn’t like your smelly feet!”
Nylan smiled.
“You mean the table fainted?”
“No you did, what do you think?”
Nylan chuckled.
“I don’t care what you think, but at least I’m sensitive to this poor table’s feelings!” said one of the counselors, Eayno, bending down to pet the former table’s top, as if to sooth it.
Nylan couldn’t stop himself anymore, and he burst out laughing. Everyone turned to him, and surprisingly, most of them had confused faces.
“What’s so funny?” said Trivlan, the one who broke the table.
Nylan controlled himself, wiping a stray tear from his eye. “You guys are arguing like my younger siblings, that’s what!”
The room echoed with a few “humph’s” and “tsk’s”.
Nylan took the semi-quiet time to speak up. “I know we have no reason to trust her, but Gewayandale has proved she is the Dragon Master. So even if we decided to keep her locked up, she will discover how powerful she is before long, and come marching out to protest. You know very well that not even all of you combined could defeat this girl, knowledge of her power or not.
This was greeting with many reluctant nods, making Nylan quite proud of himself.
“So I say we inform her of our dilemma, because we do not even know if she understands what she is! Then, we will being her weapon and magic training immediately, and pick the best of the best to do the job.” Nylan leaned down and rapped his fist on the table. “Meeting adjourned.”