Chapter Seven: My oh-so-pleasant chat with a crazy old man.

Ari's Perspective

"What'd you say?" I said icily, once the strange hobo-girl left the room.

"You are Miss Artisan."

"I'm a McC-." I stopped. I am most definitely not going to brainwash myself into thinking I'm a McCallistor.

"I knew who your birthparents were." Great. So they are dead.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!?!?!" I shouted. "YOU MARCH INTO SOME ROOM, FIND ME LYING THERE, TALK TO THAT ONE CHIC AND YOU ARE BOTH FIGHTING ABOUT WETHER OR NOT YOU SENT HER THE LETTER, YOU DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT ASKING HOW I'M DOING, AND NOW YOU'RE RIDICULING ME BY SAYING YOU KNEW MY PARENTS?!?!?!?!"

"That's not all, Miss Artisan. Brace yourself Princess, 'cause you're an elf. Be still, Miss Artisan. I was about to explain all of this."

"WELL.... START 'SPLAININ'!" I said, flopping back onto the cot. This is way too much to handle in one day.

I just then realized how extremely exhausted I was.

"Your parents, Alvaren and Raiyka were people of a Noble Birthright, Ari."

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!!! NOW you're telling me I'm royal?!" I groaned. My life is complicated on a WHOLE NEW LEVEL today.

"Well....yes."

"Great." I muttered. "Just Great."

"Okay, I guess I should tell you the reason you weren't here and don't know this already. We'll start off with Arasmus."

"What is it with you and making all of your names so difficult?" I said. I pushed away the thought that my name seemed to fit the stereotype.

"We'll get to that later. If you dislike his name, which is really common, call him the Dark Lord. He's known more as the Dark Lord because his name has become pretty much Taboo . Even his servants don't directly call him by name -- Lame, I know. Very, very few people have the guts to do so."

"Yeah, well, enough with the explaining of the name, can we get to the point?"

"Miss Artisan, I'm sorry, but if you want anything explained, you'll have to pipe down, Princess."

"When are you going to stop calling me Princess?" I muttered, folding my arms across my chest. But.. I decided to shut up.

"The Dark Lord was once a Royal Advisor for the Three Royal Families; The Artisans, The Altayrans, and the Hyperions. He worked under them for many years. But something came over him. He was actually a very dark and evil man, a man that only wanted power. He wanted to rid the world of all Good Magic, or Good things period. He soon wanted to be in control of the lands. He wanted the land so bad, in fact, that he planned to kill off all of the Royal Families, and the Loyal Servants, the Ryders.
"The school you and Kaydra are going to is going to have you trained to be one of them. Think warriors plus firey dragons on your side -- or, I ought to say, beneath you, -- hence "Ryders". Now, just for background information, this land cannot work, or survive without the help of Dragons. Dragons are the great mediators between the balance of Good and Evil Magic.

"He devised a plan, that if he could find a way to kill off the Dragons, and the people that represent this land, the world would be under total Anarchy, and would eventually be swallowed into nothing but Darkness and chaos." He took a breath, then continued.

"One of the man's servants were loyal to the Monarchs, and he told of the Dark Lord's Evil Plans. The man was cast out of the land, stuck between two dimensions. The land could finally relax, because one man, a Wizard, had prophesied that there would be a time that the land would be overthrown by evil if they didn't do anything about it. They figured that was the end of it.

"But Arasmus was smarter than that. Though he was stuck between two dimensions, he found a way to take the magic from both dimensions and put it to his use. He got stronger, and found his way back to our dimension.

"Years later, he found a witch who also hated the land just as much as he did. She is a very, very dark Enchantress. The worst part about it is she had disguised herself as a dependent, loyal citizen. Their daughter, Arna was born -- a dragon-child with red eyes and a sickly green complexion in fact, she was literally scaled. Arasmus became infuriated at her ugliness, and hid her off into the wilderness, left for dead.

"A dragon, one of the First and Oldest dragons -- Also known as Dragon Mother -- came across the poor child and took it in as one of her draclings. The child grew to be about 6 years old and lived in the cave with the dragon."

I hoped I didn't know where this was going.

"Arasmus's servants came across the child, and, most unfortunately, with the Dark Lord himself. He already hated dragons, and this wasn't helping. When he saw the girl, caked up with mud, disheveled hair and still with deep red eyes, he went mad. Or, I guess you could say, even more mad. He tried to kill the child, and Dragon Mother attacked him with great force. Arasmus ripped out the dragon's heart, eventually killing it. But not soon enough. Dragon Mother had cast a curse upon the Dark Lord that he would be killed by the Light, with the Ministry of the Dragons, aka the Ryders.

"He didn't leave scratchless, either. His eyes were gauged out, on top of 3 large gashes on the side of his head."

Ouch.

"The Royals had fought him loyally, on the battlefield with the rest of the Armies. Once they were inches away from the Dark Ones declaring defeat, your parents had been taken hostage and tortured to find the plans for the battle. They never said a word. The Dark Ones knew they had a daughter. So, they decided to torture you, an 11 year old. He put you in a cage with a Typhrusz. The Typhrusz is a very lethal pet of the Evil Ones, who is spoken in myth to have been trained by the devil himself. Its battle tactic is to cut you open enough to be able to suck your soul out through your blood. It almost killed you. But you were stronger than that. Under the ministry's eyes, you had defeated the Typhrusz, and actually killed it, instead of it harming you.

The Dark Lord was enraged. He now wanted to kill you. But, he thought, instead of doing so, he did something worse to your parents. He sent you to the Humanlands. Tossing you into the human world, taking away your memories and taking you to the worst people in the Humanlands, the McCallistors actually hurt them worse than you'd expect. After that.. Arasmus took them to the dungeon. Your parents... your parents were killed, inches away from their victory, along with the Altayrans."

I didn't know what to say.

I curled into a ball, my knees reaching my chin, and closed my eyes. I fought against tears. I'm going to keep my composure. I haven't ever cried in front of anyone. And, if I can help it, that isn't going to change.

"Ari Artisan... your parents' last wish was for you to be found, if you were still alive, and be protected until the time came that you were old enough to come home. They wanted you to join the academy. I won't force you to join. Just... promise me you'll think about it."

I looked up at him. I just barely met this guy less than half an hour ago, and he wants me to trust him? He expects me to keep promises already?

"You're not in New York anymore, Dorothy." Kaydra said.

I looked up. I just didn't understand this chic. Now it seems as if she's reading my mind.

"I am. Deal with it." she smarted off, then turned to the crazy man and said, "I've decided to go." The turned to me again and said, "You should go too."

"Why? It's not like anyone's gonna miss me."

"Ehm... look. I know I'm kinda a jerk at first sight, but I think you're kinda cool, you know?"

No comment on my part.

"So, you know, I haven't met anyone that would acknowledge my existence like you, and... I think we could be good friends and it'd be fun to go to school together."

My mouth helplessly gaped open. The only friend I've ever had was Bridget.

"What do ya think?" she said, holding out her hand for me to shake it.

After a while, I sighed, and said, "Sure. With friends like these, who needs enemies?" She smacked me upside the head.

"See?!?!" I said, somewhat giggling. "This is exactly my point."

 "Btw," kaydra said like she was texting on a phone, "I thought you could prabably use these. They could help cover up your scar."

Although I just met her, this was more like a peace offering than anything else.