Ballad

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Catherine looked over the heads of all the men that were standing around her platform. She softly cried as she moved her body into a graceful dance. How had it all come to this..

Her parents probably hated her. The last time they saw her was when she was still a small child with curly blond hair, brown eyes and little dimples when she smiled brightly.
That was so long ago.. About 20 years ago.. when her parents went to bed and never woke up.
She bowed when her dance was finished. She ignored the men and there sleazy remarks. She got off the stage and sank down. She used to love to dance.. But now..
“Get up you. You have to go up again.”
A rough hand pulled her up by her frail arm, and pushed her back on the stage. She sighed and shut off her mind. She didn’t hear the music of the whistle and violin behind her, she didn’t hear the men beneath her.. she just moved her body.
Her mind drifted back to her past. When everything was still great and when she was still innocent.
She came from a wealthy family. And because of that, she got kidnapped, and her parents got killed.. they only wanted to protect there dearest treasure, their child. The kidnappers thought both her parents family would give a lot of money to get back there granddaughter. But there came no reply to the wishes for money nor to the threats, so they sold her as a slave to get at least a little bit of the money they had seen in there future.
And that was how she got here. After so much pain and suffering, her previous owner brought her here and sold her. She wasn’t worth anything, except for this dancing. And her new master knew that too. She brought him loads of money and satisfied his lust as well when he needed it. She shivered as she thought of his hands on her body. She wanted to get away so badly, and if that meant taking her own life, so be it..

It was late at night. She was shivering because it was so cold. She didn’t even have a blanket to keep her warm. She just sat on the cold floor, with her arms wrapped around her knees. Around her ankle was a chain. She only was let free if it was her time to dance. She looked beside her.. The young violin player was sitting next to her. Shivering and softly crying. He was just a boy.. He was about 14 years old, torn away from his family as well. She moved quietly close to him, and hugged him tightly. He looked up startled. His clear blue eyes were red from crying. Her heart broke as she saw his vulnerability. She softly whispered to him “everything will be alright.” She kept her arms around her and kept repeating softly that everything would be alright, until he fell asleep in her arms as a little child.
The boy, named Ruben, sobbed even in his sleep. Catherine looked at his sleeping face and smiled softly. When she was that age, she had been the same, but there weren’t any kind arms that would keep her warm at night, or even gave some comfort or protection.
She sighed as she felt her dark past creep up on her. She looked around the camp. On her far left, were some drunken guards snoring loudly, and next to them were the food barrels, and about 5 sacks with water in them. Not that they got a lot of water.. On the other side were tents where their master slept, and hearing from the sounds coming from the tent, he was quite busy.
Catherine felt her heart grow cold. How many times had she been abused like that. She couldn’t remember… She needed to save Ruben from this life.. She needed to make his life better.. even if she would die from it. She didn’t really care. She sighed and thought that if she would want to escape, now would be the time.
She layed down Ruben carefully, trying not to wake him and searched her hair. The complicated pattern of her hair was held up by little hairpins. She pulled out one carefully and picked the lock. It was an old one, and easy to open it. It fell to the ground and she looked around quickly. Nobody had noticed. Now Ruben…
She moved silently with the grace of a dancer and softly started opening Rubens lock. This one gave her more trouble, but experienced as she was, it didn’t take to much of her precious time.
She had learned to pick locks from her previous companion. She was killed unfortunately and Catherine was sold soon after.

She needed to wake up Ruben. She wasn’t strong enough to carry him for long, and they would both need there strength for running and hiding that was going to come in the near future.
But Ruben, scared as he was, screamed when she tried to wake him, waking up Guy, the whistle player. She never had trusted him.. He always got special care and much more food then both Ruben and she got together. He started yelling at there master that they were trying to get away, but a light blue bulb flew quickly against the mans stomach and shut him up. Then a greenish one that came out of nowhere jumped the fallen down man and hit him unconscious.

“Follow us.. Quickly!” The greenish bulb said and ran towards them. Catherine grabbed Ruben and wanted to protect him, but then she saw what the bulbs were. Small dragon-like creatures as in the old stories looked at both of them. One was flying, the other didn’t have wings, but could run just as fast.
Catherine couldn’t believe her eyes. Her mouth fell open. Both she and Ruben were standing frozen.
“What’s all this wreckage?” The master came out of his tent, holding his pants up with one hand, the other holding a dagger.
“We have to go now.” The flying one said to the one on the ground.
“alright. You make a portal. I’ll push them in it.”
Soon after that was said, a small portal came visible, and got bigger and bigger. It eventually was as big as Catherine and then it was the turn of the green creature. It pushed both of them as hard as it could. Ruben fell, and Catherine started walking into to portal without much thought. Holding Ruben by hand.

The next thing Catherine noticed was a soft warm bed beneath her, the nice feeling of warmth that surrounded her. Smiling, she opened her eyes. She didn’t know where she was, and got scared. She looked around and didn’t find Ruben. She got up, felt that her head was spinning, didn’t care about it and stood up with shacking legs and ran/fell to the door. The bright room was spinning around her, but she didn’t care. Ruben had to be saved.. That was the only thing she could think off.
She heard soft giggling coming from one part of the room. She stood for a moment, trying to concentrate, feeling her mind slipping away from time to time. She was going to faint if she wasn’t careful. She moaned softly as she grabbed her throbbing head.
“You shouldn’t be up!” A soft but firm female voice said.
“Ruben..” she whispered.
“Catherine..” She fell the boys arms wrapping around her. “It’s so wonderful here.”
Smiling, she fell to the ground softly, fainting.

When Catherine opened her eyes again, she moaned.
“Now don’t you dare getting up again.” The same voice said. “I’ll bind you to the bed if I have to. I’m Cyan. One of the laedrys’ here. Together with my sister, her hubby and mine. We kind of run the place.”
“Where’s Ruben?” Catherine asked after she shook the hand of Cyan.
“He’s playing outside. Don’t worry. This here is a safe place for children and for yourself as well. Although you have to be careful not to step on a dragons tale.” She grinned.
Ruben ran into the calm room and jumped onto her bed. “Look Catherine!” Catherine smiled as she saw both flitters who saved their lives.
“Oh right…” Cyan said “If you got those, that means your all invited to come to the ball masque.” Cyan shrugged and went away, mumbling something about getting a costume.
Ruben fell in Catherine’s arm and smiled brightly. “Will we stay here?”
“Of course.. If you want that”
“Yes very much! I already got a costume as well! And one for you too.” Now Ruben grinned brightly

All Hollow's Eve was scraping quietly and sinisterly at the door of the Lantessaman Sky when the last preparations for the large Balle Masquée were being finished. The first stars were already shining in the sky when Lucas finally put down the knife he'd used for carving pumpkins. He looked around pleased and declared the place ready for the festivities. It was 6.30 pm and within an half hour the guests would be entering the ball.
"Can I come in?" Cyan asked.
She tiptoed into the cavern, wearing her disguise, a very stylish long dress in softly shining silver silk. On top of it she wore a short black coat with sleeves that fit tight until her wrists where they widened, covering half of her hands. In her hands she held the small mask that she'd be using to hide her face during the ball. It was an old-fashioned mask that would not be fastened to her head. She'd have to carry it around, but then, what meant being a Laedrys if you couldn't show it off?
Cyan fiddled for a moment with the long, gemstone necklace she was wearing and then looked back at Lucas. "Are you ready?"
"Sure you can come. I missed you when I was decorating."
"I can't be all places at once." She smiled, "It takes time to look this good."
"And my costume?"
"I have it here, though why you have to be so cliché I'll never know."
"You call being an axe-murder cliché?" Lucas asked, fondling the non-cutting edge of his almost-real make-belief double-bladed axe, "I was certain you'd love it."
"I'd thought it was more something for Donriven." Cyan shrugged, "I was sure you'd come as a wandering lute player or something."
"That costume was taken."
"By whom?"
"Beats me."
Footsteps on the secret stairs alerted them to a new arrival and shortly after Trix entered the grounds, dressed in a traditional witch costume which made Cyan sigh again.
"You couldn't be any more original?" Cyan asked.
"Oh but I am." Trix nodded, "I'm a psychic witch. When people irk me I give them mental diseases in stead of cursing them to become frogs. Want to try a little OCD potion?"
Cyan laughed sourly, "Yeah ok, good for you."
"Wait till you see Donriven." Trix gniffled.
"It isn't funny." a more distance voice sounded from the entry way.
"It's your own fault for waiting too long before you secured a costume dear." Trix said, dragging Donriven into the cavern by one long floppy rabbit ear.
"Doesn't he look cute?" She asked.
"Want some blood to go with that?" Lucas asked, "You can be a vampiric crazy lab bunny with a few minor adjustments."
"No thanks." Donriven said with a frown on his face, "I just want this to be over."
"How are the eggs?" Trix asked, eager to predict the outcome of the clutch.
"I'm glad you asked," Lucas answered, "The smaller eggs on the tables are cocktail dragons. I presume they'll hatch today with the others but these ones weren't made with science so nothing is certain. The eggs in the center are the true Halloween dragons," he continued looking all the more proud because he'd made them, "Literally anything could hatch from these. There are eggs only reaching up to my knee, and there's even one reaching up all the way to my shoulder!"
"Yes honey. Quiet now before you hurt anyone with your axe." Cyan said, trying to keep Lucas from bashing in their heads with the axe he was still holding.
"Shall we open the doors then?"

An hour later all guests had gathered, all in costume, some more exotic than others, which of course pleased Cyan. With drinks in hand the gathered crowd stood surrounding the mountain of eggs in varying shapes. Chatting could be heard above the softly playing music, sometimes Screams and laughter sounded. And then, suddenly...

Crack!

The first egg broke and out flew a pale beige runner dragon. The dragoness looked around with her big vibrant eyes, displaying for the first time her brilliant shifting colours. Wave after wave of bright hues streamed over her body's fur, brightening the dimmed cavern as if fireworks had been set off within it.
The dragoness looked around and listened. Cocking her head se finally pushed back to the back of the crowd where a young boy was playing. He wore a troubadour costume, plucking the strings of his violin gently.
"Ruben!" The excited hatchling shouted, licking the boy's face, "I'm Hanabi!"

Unseen by most, the twin of Arashi, a tiny, pale violet dragoness with an equal mess of silver curly hair (and that's a lot of hair on such a small dragoness) flew, carried by the twin wings on her front and back paws, toward the back of the cavern. She searched and finally found who she sought, Catherine.
"My name is Yuuree." she whispered, her voice sounding like an echo of tiny bells.

The Dragons

name: Hanabi (fireworks)
gender: female
size: small
bond: Ruben
personality: Cute and Playful, Hanabi loves to run, and skip and slide. She enjoys long walks (runs) and sleeping in flowery meadows.
distinguishing feature: Her colour-changing fur.
favourite place: lively places with lots of people
power: Liven, Music

name: Yuuree (ghost)
gender: female
size: tiny
bond: Catharine
personality: It's hard to get a good grasp on Yuuree. She seems to always be acting out how other wants her to act. She can be both calm, serious and serene or wild, playful and aloof. Which one is the real Yuuree isn't known.
distinguishing feature: Her size. As part of a twin, Yuuree seems to have gotten only small amounts of nourishment, while her sister Arashi took most.
favourite place: haunted houses
power: Light, Second Sight

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