Zanna moved forward and gave me a warm motherly hug that was full of comfort and reasurance. Then Mason came forward and kissed me on the forehead. God, why couldn't life just go back to normal? I swear Raksha, you are never getting me into a dress. Raksha just laughed then disappeared. Zanna continued talking with her hands on my sholders, talking to me at arms length.
"And you'll have family, friends, and most importantly, love to help you along. Now, right now, we have to go talk to my mother and father. They need to know whats happened in the past few years."
Zanna hugged me again but this time it was a reassuringly, quick one. "I'll catch you up on the most important 411 of my parents on the way. Let's go." She let go of my shoulders, turned, and opened the door.
While my Mom's back was turned, Mason said, "We love you. Be strong. Your Mom may seem feirce at times, but if anything happened to you she wouldn't be able to live. Then I'd go down with her. Be strong and hold on." He winked and added. "Please, for your Mother at least." Then he followed Zanna out, leaving me to follow.
"First of all, my Dad's name is Papyiah Eric Drache. You usually call him Papa Papya. He seem's very... King-like, but he loves you and has never raised his voice to you. Ever. Even if you needed it, you regularly got into trouble. He's a High King, of course, but since I'm a Dragon... No one's higher than me. His shift is a phoenix.
"Now your Grandma's name is Iris Saphira Drache. Or Grandma I. She turns into a pegasus. She's very soft hearted. She acts as if she couldn't hurt a fly, but if someone she loved was hurt the hurter would be no more than a fly when she's done with them. You are the best thing in the world to her. Its annoying how much you too get along." Zanna grumbled, heading up a flight of stairs.
"Did you get that, Sweety?", my Mother asked, leading me down a corridor with pictures of the Drache family on the walls. There were torches hanging on the walls every six feet and every now and then a tapestry with a red scaled dragon, a fire-red phoenix, or a pure white pegasus with a long black mane and green-yellow eyes woven on it.
"Yes, I did. PaPa Papya and Grandma I. Phoenix and Pegasus. King type and soft-hearted but very feirce. High King and Queen. Did I pass the smarts test?" I joked, not fully meaning it. I wasn't listening much. My mind was other places but growing up at Camp I couldn't help but try to listen to the important stuff.
My Mom only smiled and said, "With exceeding expectations. Your father should be very proud."
Mason chuckled and whispered to Zanna, "Definitely a true Drache." They all started laughing. Hopefully, I thought. I won't have to forget this anytime soon.
At the end of the very long corridor, they took a left and then four more rights. They reached a staircase leading upwards. Zanna halted so suddenly, I almost ran into Mason. My Dad hadn't seemed to have noticed the sudden stop so aparently wherever we were heading, I probably should've known but, like alot of things, I didn't.
Zanna started whispering an incantation, in which the words I couldn't make out. "It's to let us pass up to the Grandparent's room. They couldn't let just anyone pass, now could they?" Dad whispered into my ear.
Zanna whispered the last part of the incantation and then walked up the staircase, with a signal of her hand, saying they could follow. Once up the stairs my Mom whispered another, shorter incantation, probably to set the guard downstairs again. "What would happen to a person if they should pass up the stairs without the spell?" I asked my parents, curiously.
"They would automatically be transported to the dungeons. There the guards would wait for orders from the High King and Queen. It's never happened before, but if it did we would be more than ready." Zanna said.
At the top of the staircase they entered into a sort of office. It looked abandoned. There was no furniture in the room or pictures on the wall. It didn't look like a King or Queen's office at all, let alone their room.
Then, out of nowhere, a lightning flashed and I couldn't see anything. My ears could hear a loud deep wailing sound. My ears felt like popping from the noise and I thought to myself that I probably should've closed my Dragon super hearing off for this. Then as quickly as it came the light and wailing was gone.
I found myself on the ground with my eyes shut closed and my hands over my ears. Mom and Dad didn't seem to have been effected. Mason leaned over and helped me up. "It's always hard the first time, but you'll get used to it.", he said.
"Yeah. Okay. I'm fine.", I replied. Be strong, Raksha reminded me. For our Mom. It was the first time she reall agknowledged us as 'us.' After I was up, I looked around, astounded by what I was seeing. Now this is a room for a King and Queen, I thought, not knowing where to avert my eyes first.
The bed was king sized, made of solid gold, and had wonderful gold drapings. The pillows were gold with the same Dragon as the comforter. Raksha looked closer and realized that the scales were red gold painted steel flakes. There were huge silken blankets with golden thread woven into the crest.
In the middle of the comforter was a large shield with a red-scaled dragon leaning on a sword that was as red as the dragon. I looked at Zanna and realized what I hadn't seen before. The same sword was hanging from her waist. It was shining like the sun. The hilt, I realized, was pure black with a red scale melted into it. A carving on the hilt said, 'Power is not without Love.'
There was a jacuzzi almost as big as a swimming pool. It was in the farthest right corner. On a stand near the jacuzzi were two towels, two bed robes, and two sets of silk night slippers. It looked as if someone was getting ready to take a bath in it. The jacuzzi itself must have cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Across the room their were two huge oak doors. They were wide open so you could see a huge ten foot swimming pool, pool chairs, and a huge veiw of the village grounds. A table near the chairs had about twenty towels, sunscreen, tanning oils, and a huge gold umbrella on it.
Back in the inside, opposite the bed was a huge fireplace made of solid gold bricks. A small fire was burning in the hearth. Just like my Mom and Dad's room, this suite had two chairs and a couch settled near the fireplace. This furniture was, wait for it, gold, though.
Between the balcony doors and the fireplace was a desk with a golden chair. Like in Zanna's room a shelf of books was behind the desk. Except the chair wasn't built into the bookshelf and the shelf wasn't that big. Near the shelf were about fifty filing cabinets that rose to the ceiling. A gold ladder was leaning against them.
The walls had pictures of the Drache family with golden frames. There was one over the fireplace, too, but this one consisted of the whole Drache family. It included Zanna, Mason, Papa Papya, Grandma I, Aunt Po, a cute young couple and me standing next to a random boy who looked liked my Fallen Angel that I had dreamt of many times before. A man's deep, old, voice took me out of my observations. "Well, well if it isn't my Zanny. Come here and give your Old Man a hug, Baby Girl."
I turned around to see my Mom hugging an old, red haired man. His flaming red hair and emerald eyes made Zanna a photo copy of him. His hair was combed back, neatly, into a ponytail and his beard went all the way down to the floor. It was cut to a point so that it barely sweeped the ground. He wore robes that trailed along the ground. They were embroidered with gold and made from silk.
A crown was placed on his head. It had a big ruby in the front and four saphires on each side of the ruby. He didn't look like he could be very mean right now but I decided not to judge the book by it's magnificent cover.
After Zanna hugged Papa Papya, she hugged an older looking exact photo copy of herself. She looked younger than Papa Papya but Raksha could tell she wasn't too far behind. The difference, besides age, between Zanna, was that her eyes were a marvelous green-yellow. Her hair was braided down her back and it was almost exactly twice Zanna's length. It was pitch black and shined brighter than the night sky.
A gorgeous crown was placed delicately on her head. The crown had seven stones in it. A huge blood-red ruby shone in the middle of the other six. A black rainbow opal, a saphire, and a diamond were on one side of the ruby. On the other side was a black pearl, an emerald, and a topaz stone. She looked very... Motherly. But remembering what my Mom had said, I decided not to judge.
"Come here, son. Still very shy, I see. You're my son, act like it." Papa Papya ordered, jokely.
"Sure Dad. I'm not shy, just respectful.", Mason replied stepping forward to give Papa Papya a hug. I knew how he felt. How are you supposed to address a king, if he was your Dad or Grandpa, too? I decided on giving him a hug.
I moved towards Papa Papya who was now free to give a hug to. Mason was giving Grandma I a hug now. When I was about to hug him, he looked down, realized who I was, and gave me a huge bear hug, that was rather strong for an old man, and two kisses on each cheek.
I blinked and before I could open my eyes again, a trillion visions flashed through my mind. I had just grew my memories of the ocassions with Grandma I and Papa Papya. They were all totally awesome. I knew now why my Grandpa was so ecstatic to see me. I was the light in my Grandparent's Worlds. Nothing was more precious to them. Now I knew what my parents meant. I was the light that lightened the Underworld's dark, dark world.
Papa Papya let go reluctantly and I hugged my eager Grandma I. Grandma I's reaction was the same, if not fiercer. "I've missed you, Raksha. Where have you all been? We haven't seen you since your thirteenth birthday. We've all been so, so worried. Did the Reds capture you?" Grandma I asked, letting go very, very reluctantly. I returned to Mason's side, silently.
I didn't know how to act so I did the only thing I knew how when meeting new people. I put my hands behind my back and averted my eyes but still staying respectfully acute and ready.