Valerian, The Legendary

The Elvas placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head. The kitsune held her skirt on both sides and spread it for the beast to look at while she bent her knees in greeting. Centaurs being the creatures who loved war would never bow their heads easily, at least, that was what the people knew before this. The magical creature leaned his torso forward and then bent one of his front legs on the ground.

The clar-awk stopped flying, landed on the ground, and let out a few tweets. Valerian smiled faintly and said, “Exalted Magicals, this is my magical companion beast, Fortuna. As for her true identity, you all seem to be aware of it very well.”

Fortuna came over and stood forward beside him and said, “Can you stop flexing already, Val? Grow up.”

The boy chuckled slightly and the tigress said, “You can take my word for it, and know very well that I have all that it will take me to keep it if they tried to violate the magical realms with their humane trash.”

The aura Fortuna radiated transformed very quickly, and scared the humans from the three delegations. Valerian patted the tigress on the shoulder and said, “You are scaring them, calm down, they all are wise people, they will not do such things.”

Fortuna snorted but did not reject his touch. This contact was enough for the magicals to notice that the bond shared by these two people was not shallow. After all, even though Fortuna was not in her original state, she was still a dragon, how can a dragon be touched by a human so casually?

After a few minutes, the four magicals exchanged glances and the Elvas took the lead and said, “We will be delivering the token of admittance issued under the name of our elders to your royal palace. ask your champions to be ready and also tell them a few things about restraint inside the magical realms. Or they will be sent back as corpses.”

The people nodded and replied, “We understand, Sire.”

.....

The magicals nodded, and then magicals vanished from their places gradually. Valerian looked below him and found that the magical circle was vanishing slowly, the material was burning into white smoke while a black trail was left on the floor.

Royal Teacher Jal said, “I guess, that was it.”

Valerian nodded and so did the rest of the people. Fragrantia said, “Now you all need to select a champion and get them ready to receive the token. I hope you all select a worthy champion.”

The people nodded and then they all decided to leave the Lumen Empire after lunch. Morgana had gone ahead and left in the morning. She said goodbye to Valerian early on. Fortuna began the daily training routine with Valerian and after two days, a blue color bird flew over to the palace.

Fragrantia had informed everyone in the palace that if they saw a blue color bird flying around, they are to inform her without any delay. The maid spotted the bird and then she rushed to the Empress’s study to find her.

The Lady rushed through the palace and found the blue color bird perched on a branch of a dried old tree. The Empress moved toward the tree, but suddenly the tree began growing new leaves, shedding old wooden bark, and even blue flowers began to bloom.

Fragrantia gasped and said, “Go, call the fourth prince.”

The maid bowed her head and rushed to call the fourth prince. Valerian was busy training with Fortuna in the training when the maid arrived and he followed her back. Fragrantia stood below the tree, and the blue Clar-awk was gazing back at her.

Valerian arrived with Fortuna behind him when the clar-awk saw him, the bird flew over to his side and then transformed into an azure token. Valerian raised both his palms to catch the token.

Following this, an ethereal voice sounded, “Your Majesty Fortuna, we would like you to visit our realm too, regards, King Memp.”

Fortuna replied, “I will come, but only when Valerian has finished his training, your majesty, forgive me, but I have a few prior obligations to meet.”

The surroundings fell silent and Valerian looked at the token, it was a collar badge in the shape of a Clar-awk. This badge was something filled with greater magic. The child handed it to Fragrantia and the lady said, “You will be needing to drop some of your blood drops on it to initiate the gateway portal.”

Valerian nodded and said, “I see, shall I go now? There is too much to improve, Fortuna is a mountain, and she does not budge at all.”

Fragrantia looked at him and sighed while Fortuna raised her head slightly. The empress said, “Fine, but do not forget to meet your sister and sister-in-law. Those two will be sad if you are gone without a word.”

Valerian nodded and said, “Fine, mom.”

He has begun calling her mom after the celebration, Fragrantia was the closest person he had now and she also saw him as her own flesh and blood. Many times she has shown this. If he did not reciprocate her emotions and affection now, then he might lose her too, thinking like this, he addressed her as mom.

Fragrantia nodded and patted his head, she was happy that he finally accepted her, but she was also sad and worried about the future this child will face. Although, she had given up the idea of looking into the things that were going on in the eastern continent, but when she saw his desperation, she decided to check things.

Her shadows were not limited to the western continent, but some of them were situated in the southern and the northern continent as well. In the past year, she has only discovered that the eastern continent was off limits, none of the humans and magicals were even going in that direction.

She did not tell any of it to Valerian, because she wanted to find something more substantial. Fortuna looked at her and said, “Val, you go talk to your family, I need to have a word with her excellency.”

Fragrantia was surprised by this, but she nodded. Fortuna was the queen of dragons, her title may not be that of an empress, but the queen was status was above all the empresses combined.

Valerian looked at the two of them and after nodding he left the place. Fortuna did not start talking even after the prince had vanished which confused Fragrantia, but the tigress said, “Your sneaking spell will not work here. Go away, or I will squat you away with my tail.”

Fragrantia smiled and understood that Valerian must have cast an eavesdropping spell from the shadow attribute and then said, “He is getting cunning.”

Fortuna nodded and said, “You must have found something about the eastern continent, right?”

The empress was surprised by how the dragon queen knew this. Fortuna did not care and continued talking, “I have been receiving words from my people all over the world that someone has been looking into the eastern continent. I will tell you now, you can stop doing this.”

Fragrantia was surprised and asked, “What do you mean?”

Fortuna sighed as she replied, “This is a matter that goes beyond the fate of continents. All you should know is that the eastern continent was sealed by the dragons. The reason is one person, and his strength that caused the deaths of Divinus, and Flos, along with my parents, Dracos and Senium. That is all, the rest of it is for Valerian to find out on his own so that he could wrap his head around it and grow stronger. If you or I told him everything he needs to know, it will divert his path and there is even a chance for the boy to break down.”

Fragrantia was still wrapping her own mind around this and said, “I understand, but can you tell me, why caused their demise, exactly?”

Fortuna looked at the lady and said, “You are Flos’s sister, so, I can tell you a little something.”

She flicked her tail and the two people were surrounded by a barrier of wooden vines. Then she cast a few blobs of light and said, “What I am about to tell you is something that you cannot and will not utter to a third soul.”

Fragrantia gulped and nodded, she was nervous, and Fortuna said, “The eastern continent has been united under one banner, and the person who rules there is the reason behind the death of Flos and Divinus. He is in possession of seven dragon treasures, and can wield three of them.”