Lyzbeam: The Prophesy ~ Chapter 1

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innocent accusations2

LYZBEAM HAD DONE NOTHING.  THE YOUNG blue-green scaled Pygmy Dragon was being taken to the Monarch for stealing a sacred flask of Pinking Potion.  She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Lyzbeam had found the Potion lying among some ferns on her way home from the Dragon School of Intensive Learning.3

Lyzbeam was often made fun of at school.  Others laughed at her tiny, not fully-fledged wings which usually hung limply across her back.  They were too small for her to even fly and to top it all off, the scales on her body were all wrong.  The other dragons in her village were pink or a light red (even the males).  Very rarely would there be a fire truck red dragon which were always favored among the other villagers.4

But Lyzbeam was blue-green which was an impossible color to be among this race of dragon (but not entirely impossible if you take into consideration that it happened to her).  That is why she picked up the  Pinking Potion and started to walk home.5

The Pinking Potion, if drank properly, would eventually turn her scales a new hue of pink and then everyone would think her blue-green color was just a part of growing up, a phase.  Yet how to drink the Potion was a mystery to Lyzbeam.6

Then the authorities came out of nowhere and surrounded her pointing their bows and arrows straight at her. One of the dragons stepped forward.  7

“Where did you get that Potion?”  The tickle-me-pink colored dragon said to her.8

Lyzbeam looked down at the flask and back up at the dragon that had spoken.  She pointed to herself and he nodded with a look saying, Duh, of course you!9

She spoke even though she couldn’t come to find out how they knew she had the Potion.  “I found it in a fern about two miles back.  It was just lying there for the taking!”10

The dragon that had spoken laughed hysterically and looked at the others.  “Take her down to Him!” he declared and his crew tied her front feet together so she couldn’t get away.  Young dragons that couldn’t fly yet are useless when their front feet are bound together.11

The soldiers grabbed her elbows and flew off into the air carrying her with them.  12

That is how Lyzbeam came to face the Monarchy of the Northern Kingdom and found out what a real outcast she was.  Her trial would most likely put her in jail or even worse, expulsion!  Lyzbeam and her captors neared the palace where the Monarch lived and ruled.  They landed down at the front doors.  They were seventy-five foot double-doors and were studded with jewels.  The emblem of the North Kingdom, a fire truck red dragon from the days of the Kingdom’s youth, was pictured in the middle of the impenetrable entrance.13

Lyzbeam was dragged inside to face the Monarch, Andimar.  He was a rare fire truck red dragon and unusually large for a Pygmy Dragon.  He wore an emerald and ruby studded crown and held a scepter with a giant pearl embedded into the top.14

Andimar glared down at Lyzbeam from atop of a dais where his throne was placed.  “What is she doing here?”  He exclaimed rising from his throne and grabbing his staff.15

The solders dropped Lyzbeam onto the floor and she sat up shaking as she tried to explain. “Y-our soldiers g-g-grabbed me on m-my way home from sch-school, your Excellency.” She stammered.16

Andimar looked down on her panic-stricken face.  She seemed to look right through him.  He withdrew back to his throne because of the unusual feeling and tried to hide his uncomfortable thoughts. 17

“Fisher!  What has this young’n done that you have brought her into my presence?”18

A younger soldier stepped forward and gave his Majesty a straight answer.  “She is the one who stole the formula, sir.  We brought her here on your orders.”19

“Oh!  Well,” Andimar replied turning back to Lyzbeam. “is this true, that you would steal a sacred Potion laid down by my great-great-grandfather?  Something like this cannot be ignored or forgiven!  You will be punished unless you tell me otherwise!”20

He sat down but Lyzbeam stood where she was, her wings buckled to her body.  “I say your mistaken, milord.  I was merely walking home from school w…when I, I saw the Pinking Potion lying among some f-ferns.  I just wanted to…to be like everyone else, if you follow me, sir.”  She turned her body and stepped into the light from a window.  Andimar slunk back at the sight of a blue-green dragon but quickly gained back his composure. 21

“Enough!  The Pinking Potion would not just be lying about by the road for anyone to seize!  It’s preposterous!  I can’t believe this!  If you are going to lie, at least make up a more believable story!”  There were scattered chuckles from the soldiers, who were leaning upon their spears, in-between the marble pillars.  “I sentence you to expulsion from my land to the end of your days!  You have one day to take your leave. Go!”22

Fisher and the soldier who had arrested her came and untied her bonds.  They led her to the doors and made sure she was well on her way before they retreated into the castle.23

What will Mum and Dad say?  Lyzbeam thought as she went home underneath the pink setting sun.  I’m already late from coming home from school and now expulsion!  Nothing could be worse!24

She looked at the setting sun on the horizon.  The sun could change colors whenever it wanted to so why couldn’t she?  Why didn’t anyone understand?25

*****26

Lyzbeam arrived home about twenty minutes after the sun went down.  Her parents had been worried sick and were desperately waiting for her at the door of their mud-brick house.  She could smell dinner about fifty paces from her porch.27

“Where have you been, Lyzbeam Roska Frevendom?” her mother asked as Lyzbeam approached them.  “It’s way past colored sky* and dinner has been ready for an hour!”28

Lyzbeam walked up to them desolately.  “I’ve been at the palace.  I leave tomorrow night.” 29

She stretched out her wings that had been pressed against her back ever since she had told the Monarch her story.30

“Expulsion?” Lyzbeam’s mother gasped and fell to the floor.  Lyzbeam’s dad was at her side immediately.31

He put her mom’s head in his lap rocking her back and forth.  He didn’t even look up at Lyzbeam when he spoke.  “What have you done?  I thought we were good parents and brought you up well.” 32

He seemed to grow as he spoke and his voice seemed to get more and more menacing.  “Believe you me, I will not let you curse out family!  You being born of an unnatural color was the first bad omen, and now this.  What’ll be next, Lyzbeam?  What’ll be next?” 33

Lyzbeam couldn’t believe her ears.  Her parents, her own flesh and blood despised her too. 34

Maybe, Lyzbeam thought as she walked to her room.  Leaving will be the best thing I’ve done for myself in my entire life.35

She gathered her few possessions that she loved and wanted to keep.  A pink scale brush, some old rusty coins the Northern Kingdom called money, a pink scarf, and a book called Pretty in Pink.  Lyzbeam came across a picture album that she had kept as long as she could remember.  She opened it up to the middle and saw a picture of her third grade class.  She was on the outside at least a foot from the others.  She had no friends and no one wanted to stand by a blue-green, unfledged dragon.36

Lyzbeam looked at other such pictures and in each one she looked more and more solemn.  She grabbed her album and her sack of assets.  She put some fruit and dried meat in another sack along with three canteens of water and a flask of fizzy juice.37

As she approached the door she saw her mom coming around out of her faint muttering about how such good parents she thought they had been.38

Lyzbeam stopped in front of them with a bag on both shoulders and her arms crossed over her photograph book.  “Goodbye, Mum, goodbye, Dad.  I shall miss you but I will not grieve for I know you will be all too glad for me to be gone.  But believe you me, I will not forget what great liars you were over the past fourteen years.  I bid you a good life and that no ill-fortune will come thither while I am alive.”39

With this she turned and walked out into the clear moonless night ready to start over.40

*****41

Lyzbeam pulled out some matches she had stuffed into her sack and lit the firewood that she had piled by the middle of the road.  She was about nine miles away form her house but was too tired to walk far. 42

Lyzbeam had pulled out her photos and was studying her past.  There were school photos, photos of her and her mum or dad, or all three, and photos of her backyard.43

One by one she threw her class photos into the fire.  The blazes caught on quickly and the picture shriveled up into a crumpled ball of coals and ashes.  She came across the pictures of her and her family.  She scowled at the lies before her.  Her parents didn’t even love her.  They made it seem like it was her fault that she was blue-green.44

Again she threw the pictures one by one into the consuming flames until she came to the last one.  It was she at colored sky smiling like there was no tomorrow.  Behind her were mountains, black against the setting sun.45

That is where I must go!  Lyzbeam convinced herself while she tucked the picture back into her knapsack. 46

She pulled out her pink scarf and wrapped it around her neck.  This would keep her warm for the time being.  Lyzbeam gently lied down by the dying flames that soon would become hot smoldering embers.  She pulled her sack underneath her head, improvising for a pillow.  She closed her eyes and fell into a dark, dreamless sleep.47

*****48

Lyzbeam woke up the next morning with a start.  She could hear someone coming up behind her.  She made sure that she stayed as still as possible and she opened her left eye that was on the side facing the earth beneath her “pillow”.49

A caped dragon stepped over her kicking dirt into the dead fire.  It grabbed her knapsack and pulled out her food, dumping it on the ground.  It picked up her other bag and looked at the contents inside.  It threw Lyzbeam’s bag into the ashes and Lyzbeam stood up with a growl that protruded from deep inside of her throat.  Yet when he turned around and the cape moved aside, Lyzbeam gasped.  The dragon that was stealing her rations was as dark as a moonless midnight sky.50

“You’re…you’re…black!”  Lyzbeam finally forced out.  The black dragon gathered up the spilled food and turned to fly way.  51

“Wait!”  Lyzbeam shouted.  “I’m all alone. I’ve had an expulsion and I don’t know where to go.  I…I was wondering, well…if you could help me?”  The black dragon stopped, his navy blue cape blowing in the wind.52

He turned around and set the food he had grabbed on the ground before Lyzbeam’s feet.  Lyzbeam looked at him in astonishment.  His wings were fully fledged and he towered over her with his wings outstretched.53

He held out his hand and his eyes were now calm dark pools.  “I’m Negistrate, but my old friends back home used to call me Neggi.  I am a Southern Horned Dragon from the Southern Kingdoms.  I too was banished.  Judging by your size I’d say you were a Pygmy Dragon but the color is all wrong.”54

Lyzbeam looked down at her feet and played with her pink scarf that was still wrapped around her neck.  “I was born this way and yes, I am a Pygmy Dragon.  My color is partly why I left before my expulsion kicked in.  My name is Lyzbeam.  Nice to meet you…Neggi!”  She shook his outstretched arm and offered him some food and water.55

“So what happened to you?”  Neggi asked Lyzbeam as he stuck some grapes into his mouth.56

“Oh, I…” Lyzbeam knew if she told him what really happened, he would laugh and not believe her like everyone else.  She didn’t think that he would understand.  “I stole some sacred Potion.”  She looked up at him.  He seemed to look interested.57

“What did this Potion look like?”58

“Oh, it was, eh, Pinking Potion.  It was in a flask that had some rope wrapped around it.  Nothing much.”  Lyzbeam returned to eating but she could sense that Neggi was a little uneasy.  59

“So when does your expulsion kick in?”  Neggi finally said after some time.  Lyzbeam looked up at the sky; it was almost noon.  She knew she had slept late but not that late.60

“Uh-oh!”61

“What?”62

“I have to leave by this evening and I want to get away as fast as possible.  I want to go…” Lyzbeam pulled out the photograph of her, colored sky, and the mountains,  “…there!  My heart seems to be pulling me there!”63

Neggi looked harder at the picture as if he was trying to remember something from a long forgotten past.  He sighed as he took the picture from Lyzbeam’s grasp.64

“OK, let’s go!” Neggi replied picking up one of Lyzbeam’s sacks.  “If you don’t want the authorities on your neck scales anytime soon I’d suggest we move now.”  Whether he really wanted to go or not Lyzbeam never figured out but she picked up her sack and scurried after him.65

“So you know where I want to go?”66

“Do I know where you want to go?”  Neggi replied sarcastically.  “I’ve been there!     It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Southern Kingdom.  Its mountainside is covered with meadows and forests and streams.  The water is so clear there, that you can see every distinct shape of every scale!  The fruit is so juicy and luscious you will never put down the core of an apple until the last edible morsel is eaten.  Clemenkreme is a province of the Southern Kingdom that has everlasting rainbows across its blue sky.  It is so beautiful and so unbelievable that you have to see with your own eyes from atop the Mountain of Waterfalls.67

“The sun seems to rise and set and revolve around the villages.  It doesn’t seem like any sinister thing could happen to it.  Nothing but…” Here Neggi paused and Lyzbeam waited for him to finish, “but I’ll take you there even though I am banished.”68

Lyzbeam gasped.  “No!  You can’t, they’ll kill you!  If they see you walking through the land, they’ll think you’re up to no good.  That’s what they give expulsions for!”69

“My expulsion is almost up!  I’ll be fine.  I’ll be able to return and live my life how I want, OK?” 70

Yeah, if you don’t get killed first!  Lyzbeam reflected.  She wanted to continue the argument, but thought better of it and bit her tongue.  “You haven’t told me yet why you were banished.”71

Neggi turned to her and shook his head.  “Think, I would rather keep it under wraps for now.”  Lyzbeam decided not to pry at him for the answer and continued to walk down the path that were lined with her most hated plant---ferns!72