The Book.

Raisel could not find any inn that had space for her and her horse for a few coins. So she slept in an old farmer's stable with Fury and a couple of other horses. She slowly opened her eyes to see Fury and the other horses peering down at her, she fluttered her eyes for a while before she looked down at her hand to see she was snuggling the stranger's cloak, she threw it away quickly.

Fury neighed loudly.

“Don’t judge me, Fury…”.

She got up and washed off from a pail of water. She thanked the owner and gave him a few coins before she left. He thanked her and asked her to stop by when next she wanted.

She travelled through the city on fury, Molvania was the kingdom that had the largest library and if she needed any clues as to what she was looking for then she needed to visit the library.

She got down from her horse and tied him to a post, she patted him on the side, “Do take care Fury, I’ll only be a while”, she hugged him for a long while.

She got inside and moved to the attendant.

“Good day madam, I’d like to get a s…”

“You can’t find one here I’m sorry”, she said sparing her only a glance before going back to the book in her hand. Raisel noticed it was a book on plants.

Raisel stared in surprise, “This is the library"

The lady peered closely from beneath her glasses, “You want a book?”, she asked in disbelief.

“Of course I do, is that so hard to understand?”

“Well... no”, the lady took in her appearance, “It’s not every time you see a lady come to a library…dressed like…this…a sword by her side”

Raisel looked around, she did have a point, “It is very important actually”

“Well, what exactly do you what?”

“A book on pearls, gems, stones, you know what I mean”

“Oh, I see”, the lady closed the book in her hand, “Which one in particular?, Emeralds, sapphire, ruby, diamonds?”

“The heart of magic…”

The librarian looked like she had seen a ghost, “The heart of magic?”

“Yes, of course, purely for research purposes”, Raisel said quickly, “What else could it be for?”

“Somewhere down the hall, it’s on the farthest shelf, not many people go there”

“Of course, thank you”, Raisel left in the direction she pointed out. She moved quietly however she still managed to attract curious stares from the very conservative people in the library.

She got to the lonely part of the library, the last shelf, there was only one book left, so she stretched to reach for it and so did another hand.

Their hands rested on each other, then their heads rose to meet each other’s gaze.

“No!”, he groaned.

“What are the chances?”, Raisel said with a wide grin.

“Not you again!”

Raisel stared at him intently, he still had her necklace around his neck, “You have an odd colour of hair, very rare”

“I could say the same for your oddly coloured blue eyes”.

His hair was a ghostly white, they were full and framed his face, stopping just above his shoulders.

“Anyways, I need the book”

“I’m sure you have the wrong book.”

“No I don’t”, Raisel replied, “I got directions to the book from the librarian"

“You know what this is about right?”, he asked.

“Of course I do, do you?”, she questioned.

“Yes”

They stared down at each other.

“Fate seems to be in my favour, I keep running into you. Maybe it’s my chance to take what’s mine”

“Do you perhaps have a bag of gold you want to part with now?... Make that two bags of gold?”, He questioned, he leaned closer to her, “I highly doubt that”

“You thief!”

“Shh!”, He gently pushed her against the shelf and placed a finger on her lips, “Don’t say that”, he whispered.

The elderly librarian showed up unknown to them, “I heard there was a raucous at the back and it was affecting other people who were reading…”, she stressed the last part for emphasis.

They both detached from each other.

“So I thought I should come to check for myself. Is everything alright?”, she questioned.

Raisel moved away from him, “I’m sorry madam…?”

“Heather”, she offered.

“Madam Heather, I apologize for whatever inconveniences we might have caused. It is my ill luck that I just always manage to run into this man… I must say it’s very unpleasant, I’ll be leaving now for another s…”

“Heather, it’s always a pleasure to see you”, the man cut in.

“Dragomir, I didn’t see you come in.”, Heather smiled.

Dragomir?, Raisel wondered. Very weird name for a weird person.

“You weren’t at your table at that time”

“Oh, what seems to be the problem?”

Raisel noticed she was smiling way too much. This was unsettling to watch, she thought.

“I wanted this book, the one on the heart of magic and I got here first…

“Did you now?”, Heather asked, twirling her hair around her fingers.

“Yes you see I did and this…”

Raisel took this as her cue to leave, with the book of course.

“Fury!”, she screamed as she got to him and untied him, “You’re going on the fastest ride of your life yet”, she mounted him and flipped the reins, “Go!

She saw the surprised look on the faces of Dragomir just before she rode away. Heather’s was more horror than surprise. She didn’t blame her however anyone will look like that if they had just lost the only book on the heart of magic.

***

Dragomir stared wide eyes at the slender frame of the young girl as she rode out into the streets on a horse twice her size. She was steady, in control of the beast. He couldn’t help but smile, soon he was laughing out loud. She had bested him. No one ever did, he was the trickster. There was more to her, he thought to himself, more he nee…

“Surely you don’t find this funny?”, Heather asked.

“No not all Heather”, he apologized, still trying to prevent himself from bursting into another round of laughter.

Dragomir wondered what she could need with the only book on the heart of magic. What was she? It couldn’t have possibly been borne out of sheer curiosity. There was more to it. Could she be searching for it? And if she was why?.

“I need to inform the guards, she can’t be far gone”, Heather replied, “The book needs to be retrieved”

Dragomir stilled at the thought of guards being hot on the trail of…he realized he didn’t even know her name. Somehow it bothered him. She could be in danger. He had to find her before they did. Anyway possible…

***

Raisel paid for a small-sized lodge, luckily for her this one had a stable on the side and Fury was resting alongside other animals. She flipped the pages of the book, there were paintings and sketches of what the heart of magic was supposed to look like. It was in varying shapes. There was no definite description of what it was supposed to look like.

Raisel groaned, she had no idea why she had left Avalon. She had felt a strong pull before now she couldn’t even figure out why. She remembered her heart-shaped gem. Dragomir!

It originally belonged to the ancient dragon kingdom of Islandia. The dragons had gone in search of wisdom and power and they had found the heart of magic.

The heart of magic made them wiser and stronger, causing them to prosper.

She closed the book and paused deep in thought, she had no idea that it formerly belonged to dragons. The stories her father had told her did not include this part.

She read some more, there were different clues on how it could be identified, where it was previously found. Raisel slept soon after, the book tucked under her pillow.

***

Raisel stepped out later that night, she was going to begin her journey, she didn’t have many clues to work with but at least she had the book in her possession. She could start by talking with anyone. Someone who had seen the heart of magic at least before it got missing. Her surest guess would be to meet with a dragon. Dragons were almost extinct or had gone into hiding as everyone believed. She had to travel far from human settlements. It would be a day's journey.

That was why she was currently in the market getting supplies, anything that Fury and she could survive on. She couldn’t predict how the journey would be. She just paid the lady for a loaf of bread. When she felt a hand clamp over her mouth.

Raisel wiggled against the hold, but whoever held her was no match for her, “Get off me!”

He removed his hand from his mouth and spun her around, still holding her.

“You!”

“Shh”, he whispered against her ear, it caused ripples on her skin, and she gasped audibly. His hand clamped her mouth again.

“Stay quiet miss”, he instructed.

“You don’t tell me to…”

“Shut up!”, he whispered and yelled.

“No!, Let go of me”, Raisel struggled against his hold.

He placed his forefinger on her lips, clearly desperate now.

She opened her mouth to say something but he pushed her close and pressed his lips against hers. Raisel stilled, confused for a brief moment. She was supposed to kick him in the guts for even attempting to touch her but she couldn’t bring herself to. Somehow she loved the feeling…

***

Dragomir didn’t know where to begin to look for the wild fox. He smiled at his metaphor. He could have just left without her and not looked back. Something however kept drawing him to this stranger. He had no idea what but he was blaming it on the fact that he needed the book she took with her. Either way, it didn’t matter what it was but he was going in search of her.

So when Heather offered that he went with the guards in search of her, since he was the only one that knew what she looked like. He was happy to oblige. After all the guards knew the streets and could guess where she could be hiding.

They entered the market in search of her, the guards had given their reason to be that, the market of Molvania was legendary and she couldn’t leave without getting something there. They had been searching for a long while now, he was too tired to protest at the absurdity of the notion.

You could imagine his surprise when he saw her in the market. He sneaked unnoticed out of their midst and went to her side. He blocked her from their view. Of course, he wanted to gingerly sneak her out of here and out of the kingdom.

However, she was shouting and attracting unnecessary attention to themselves. She was flailing her arms around and questioning him repeatedly he had no other option left so he kissed her.

It was supposed to be only to shut her up, even if for a brief moment but he had taken it further forgetting the real reason why he was here. He slowly detached from her, her lips were plump, and her skin flushed. He stared at her not saying anything. He watched how her expression gradually changed into anger before she could say a word. He pulled her along with him and half ran in the opposite direction of the guards.

The guards had noticed his absence and were beginning to look for him around.

When they were a good distance away from the marketplace, he released his hold on her, but he regretted it the moment he did.

“What was the meaning of that?”, Raisel shouted, “What’s even wrong with you?!”

“Hear me out!”

“No, I won’t…!”

“Just hear me out”, he said firmly, “Molvania is littered with guards looking for you. You have taken one of their most prized possession. The book was drafted long before the war, it’s the only one there is, there have been no books on dragons written before”

“Oh”, she said in a small voice.

“Yes”, he added, “They were in the market place that is why I asked you to stay quiet. I was leading them to you and if they found me with you, they would have taken you with them”

“So you came to save me?”, Raisel questioned, a small smile forming on her lips.

“No”

Her face fell, “What?"

He shrugged, “I want the book”

“Pfft!”

“Over there!”, a loud voice shouted.

They both turned to see a guard pointing at them.

“Come on!”, Dragomir shouted, “We need to leave the city at once”, he was running.

She was running beside him almost keeping up with him, “I need to take a few things”, she said breathlessly.

“What do you need and how important is it, we need to leave at once”, he said at the top of his voice.

“Remember the sole reason why you came back in search of me?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Turn south, the flaming red inn”, she shouted in her voice, she was wearing a dress and it was hard to run with it. She stopped and reached under her gown.

Dragomir slowed down, “What are you doing?”

She didn’t say a word, she pulled out a knife and cut out the flay of her dress, leaving it to stop above her knee.

Dragomir looked on stunned before running to catch up with her after she had left.

She ran into the inn, almost causing a raucous. A couple of me turn to gawk at her exposed legs as she took two steps at a time. She burst into her room and picked up the book where she had left it. Luckily for her, she had tidied up before, so she grabbed her bag and her sword. She was out the door in no time.

Dragomir had saddled Fury and was waiting for her outside the door.

“How did you know it was mine?”, she inquired almost breathless.

“I couldn’t miss him”, Dragomir said with wonder in his eyes, “This is a large horse, magnificent!”

He jumped quickly and held the reins, “Get on quickly, we need to leave immediately”

She paused and folded her hands across her chest, “No way I’m seating behind you”

He shrugged, “Okay”, he pulled the reins slightly.

Just then they heard the sound of boots running towards them.

Raisel threw a stocking-clad leg over Fury with no hesitation.

“I’ll advise you to hold on tightly”

“No!”, Raisel replied bewildered.

“As you please”, he pulled on the reins and tightly pressed his foot on the underside of Fury.

In an unexpected motion, Fury neighed loudly and raised his fore hooves high up in the air almost throwing off Raisel from behind.

“Ahhh!!!”, she screamed loudly and tightly held on to him.

Soon afterwards they were swiftly riding out of Molvania, her hands clasped tightly around his waist, for some reason he had a satisfied smile on his face, the guards were running on foot in pursuit of them.