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Aein stood in awe, unaware that she was even standing until Finn's heavy body knocked her to the ground and out of the line of fire. But it didn't matter. No one was firing anything. Everything had stopped.
It was a dragon. It was their dragon. It was King Vadim, just as he had promised. With the sound of a raging bull, he let loose a river of fire from his mouth, turning the siege tower into an inferno. He circled around and struck the second siege tower. The air was filled with cries of terror and death. The enemy was retreating. Aein scrambled away from Finn and peered over the battlement. The ogres that had been pounding on the wall, the soldiers trying to scale the stones... they were all gone. They were all on the run. In fact, even the fog was disappearing, as if it could not withstand the will of the dragon.
Aein began laughing and crying, all at the same time as the sky filled with the bodies of birds - hawks and eagles and ravens. They were all here. They had all come from beyond the swamp, just as they had promised. She clung to Finn's neck, laughing. "They came!" she said. "They came!"
She ran off towards the castle, waving at the dragon to follow her. She shouted at the archers as she passed, "Put down your weapons! For the godssake! Put down your weapons! He fights for us!" The bailey in the castle courtyard was a seething ocean of chaos. "Get those horses out of here!" Aein shouted as Finn barked and herded the animals towards their stables.
King Vadim landed in the courtyard, his mighty black paws delicately touching the ground like a cat landing.
Queen Gisla came running into the courtyard, her sword drawn and soldiers around her.
Finn pulled himself out of his werewolf form, though Aein could see it caused him so much pain. "For the godssake, my queen! He fights for us! He is King Vadim from beyond the swamp!"
Queen Gisla looked at the dragon with confusion, as if she didn't understand what was standing in front of her.
The dragon slowly and gently shifted until finally only King Vadim remained. He stepped forward and Aein was struck by the look on Queen Gisla's face. The heat between the two of them in that first look could have lit every torch in the castle.
Aein fell to her knee and introduced them. "King Vadim, may I present her royal highness, Queen Gisla, ruler of the Haidra Kingdom."
King Vadim swept aside his long, indigo robe and walked over to Queen Gisla. He held out his hand in friendship. Aein realized this may have been the first time Queen Gisla met someone who was truly her peer and equal.
For once, Queen Gisla was at a loss for words. She stammered, "You are welcome... King Vadim. You are welcome to the Haidra Kingdom."
Lars interrupted them as he came running. He fell to his knee, but was traveling so fast, he skidded to a stop. Gasping for breath, he pointed towards the gate and announced, "The enemy is retreating. On all fronts, they have pulled back. They are chased back behind their lines by the archers and eagles. We have won the day."
A great cheer arose from the throats of everyone who could hear him. It was then that all of the birds who had traveled with King Vadim stepped down from the sky and began to transform into people, too.
Queen Gisla could not grasp what she was seeing. "They are all people?" she said. "They are all shifters?"
"Indeed," said King Vadim with confusion. "Did our friends, Aein, Finn, and Lars not tell you of us? I am so sorry that you were not made aware of my kingdom."
"They did. I just did not think..." She stopped herself and diplomatically covered her disbelief. "I was..." she started, but cut herself off.
Aein understood what was going on. Queen Gisla had dismissed the information Aein, Lars, and Finn brought to her about King Vadim as exaggeration or a hallucination from the swamp. Now the fiction was standing in front of her as truth, and she was realizing how wrong she was. Aein could not blame her skepticism. Who would believe stories of dragons? But now the queen had to try and remember all the information she dismissed, while not embarrassing herself in front a breathtakingly handsome king who also was responsible for saving her people.
Aein stepped forward. "...but we could not imagine how you made it across the divide," added Aein, as if completing the Queen's thought. Queen Gisla flashed her a grateful look. "Finn had a difficult time."
"Ah!" said King Vadim sympathetically. "A lone wolf may fall to the madness. But when you travel in a pack or a flock, you have strength." He bowed to the queen. "I am forever indebted to your people, Finn, Lars, and Aein, for coming to my kingdom and telling us of the black mushrooms. They have returned me to health and I owe my life to them."
"Your life?" said Queen Gisla. "The mushrooms?"
"I had been poisoned by the berries..."
"Poison?" she replied even more confused. She looked at Lars as if to check if he knew the berries he delivered were poisonous. "I understood they returned a shifter to human form."
"Yes." That one word from King Vadim carried all the weight of what the berries meant to his people, that returning to only human form was a fate akin to death.
Queen Gisla pulled herself together, as if realizing that even if she did not understand fully, she had a guest of state. And she knew how to take care of guests of state. "If you will come inside," said Queen Gisla. "We can sit down and talk about our two lands and I can thank you for the gift of your friendship."
"I hope you have not eaten the berries," said King Vadim with concern as he took Queen Gisla's armored arm.
His comment took Queen Gisla aback. "I was going to... but, I have not yet."
King Vadim let out a relieved sigh. "Oh my queen... we have such things to talk about and I am so grateful to know we have arrived in time."