Dragons Prophecy

Over the next couple days when the repurcusions didn't hit, Oreata realized that they weren't going to. While he sat in his chambers wondering at this development, Eshrenn and Sakuya had been in the library pouring through the birth records to find the Ryuu ancestry. Just when they were about to give up, Sakuya exclaimed, "I think that I found it!" Quickly walking over to her, Eshrenn bent over the book that she was reading and spotted his mother's name in gold. Following his mother's the line that led from Kyre's name, he traced it up about 5 generations to a name that he'd heard before.
"Who was Janato Ryuu?" He asked to nobody in particular.
"I see you've found your much exhaulted ancestry." A voice behind them cackled. Turning around they saw a woman that shouldn't still be walking the earth, she was so old.
"You know who that was?" Eshrenn asked.
"Yes I know who your ancestor, Janato Ryuu, was. I even had the pleasure of meeting him once." She said with a smile that revealed many missing teeth.
"Who was he?" Eshrenn asked, getting excited.
"He was the Dragon Emperor of Akkadia." The old woman said, waiting for the truth to sink in.
"Isn't that the country that is ruling us right now?" Sakuya asked.
"The very same."
"Then how did the Sorceress come into power?" Eshrenn asked, wanting to know what happened to his family.
"The Dragon Emperor had many wives, but with the last one, a beautiful young lady named Kira Ikokujocho, his first wives started dying, and she grew more desirable to him and he started to spend all of his time with her.
"Anyways, years before, When Janato was looking for his first wife, he came across a man who said that his daughter was available for marraige. When Janato looked upon the girl, he saw that she was hideous and threw them out of his palace. Little did he know that the people he just threw out were people that delved in all types of magic. The father swore revenge and he made his daughter beautiful and taught her all types of arcane magic. When she was ready, she went back to the Emperor and offered herself again. This time Janato accepted."
"So Janato accepted someone who wanted to kill him?" Sakuya asked.
"Precisly." The old woman said. "Anyways, finally, Kira got tired of playing a role and she destroyed all of Janato's wives and children, save one. Your ancestor." She said, pointing at Eshrenn. "She killed Janato and took over the throne just as her father had planned."
After a few minutes, Eshrenn asked, "Is Kira the sorceress on the throne now?"
"Very good. She is, and she's not planning on giving it up anytime soon."
"How can she stay alive that long?" Sakuya asked, horror written all over her face.
"Her magic protects her from the effects of time. It also protects her from mortal attacks."
"So then Oreata's raid won't end well, will it?" Eshrenn asked.
"Nope." The old woman said. Then her smile got wide and she pointed at Eshrenn and said, "Your the only one that can remove her from the throne. Permanently"
"How am I supposed to do that? I just found out that I can do magic, and I still don't know what I can do."
"You have to be trained like the first Dragon Emperor. By the wild dragons." Sakuya gasped when she heard this and Eshrenn asked,
"Aren't the dragons just legends?"
"The phoenix in which the Phoenix Throne was based on is supposed to be a myth, but you've seen it, haven't you?"
"But how come nobody see's their caves?" Sakuya asked. The woman laughed.
"Just because myths say that dragons live in caves, that doesn't mean that they do. Dragons are shape-changers and most of them prefer their human forms over their dragon forms."
"I have a question." Eshrenn asked. "Are the phoenix shape-changers too?"
"Yes they are." The old woman said.
"So there are more than one phoenix?" Sakuya asked.
"You better believe it." The old woman said as she started to walk away.
"Wait." Sakuya said, standing up. "Aren't you going to tell us your name?"
"My name is Vira." And with that the old woman was gone.
"Guess we better go tell your brother that I'm leaving." Eshrenn said, standing up.
"Don't you mean that we're leaving?" Sakuya said, getting up in front of him. "You weren't thinking about leaving me here, were you?"
"Wouldn't dream of it." Eshrenn said grabing her hand.
As they were walking down the stairs, Enishi met up with them. "Your leaving, aren't you?"
"Yes, Enishi we are, but it's going to be dangerous, so your not coming with us." Eshrenn said, facing his brother.
"Like hell I'm not. I'll get Oreata to let me go. Or I'll just have mom tell you to let me go."
"Fine." Eshrenn said, resigning himself to let his brother go.
"Absolutely not!" Oreata said, slaming his fist down on his desk.
"I have to go Oreata." Sakuya said, "And whether you like it or not, I'm going."
"I guess I can't stop you, can I?" Oreata asked. When Sakuya shook her head, he said, "Very well, but I want you to at least take Elise with you."
"Oreata, I don't think that we can afford another setback." Eshrenn said.
"Please take her with you. I want Sakuya to be protected and Elise is the best among my guard."
"Fine, but she better know how to protect herself." Eshrenn said finally.
"Oh, she does." Oreata said with a smile. Then he called out, "Elise Kenko! Please come into my chambers." And a girl about Enishi' age walked in. "Eshrenn Ryuu, meet Elise Kenko."
"But she's only a girl!" Enishi exclaimed.
"But I could still smear you all over the wall." Elise said venomously.
"Eshrenn, would you like to see if she'll work out for the mission?" Oreata asked.
"No. I'll let Enishi take care of this one." Eshrenn said with a smile. "Enishi? Will you do the honors?"
"Why not?" Enishi said, stepping forward.
Both Elise and Enishi had Phoenix Guard swords, so there were no advantages there. When Oreata yelled, "Fight!" They both charged each other and started to swing wildly. At first it seemed like they didn't know what they were doing until Eshrenn got a good look at their faces. They were playing with each other and not really trying to fight.
"Enough!" Eshrenn yelled, causing them to break apart. "If your not going to take it seriously fighting each other, then let's see how you are fighting together."
"Who are we going to fight?" Elise asked.
"Me." Eshrenn said, taking off his jacket. "I'm going to see if you can protect Sakuya, so be ready for everything that I've got." As Enishi got ready to fight, Eshrenn saw that Elise was still a little dubious about a 2-on-1 fight. That ended when Eshrenn launched his first wave of attacks. It seemed like his blade was everywhere and all that Elise or Enishi could do was defend themselves.
"You call that fighting?!" Eshrenn yelled, relenting a little. "Your supposed to be the best in the whole Phoenix Guard, and all you can do is defend yourself? Your a disgrace!" With her own yell of fury, Elise launched her own attack, and Enishi got caught up in her mood and jumped in with her. Eshrenn easily blocked each of their attacks as if they weren't even trying. This only made Elise push harder. Suddenly her target was gone. She stopped and blinked her eyes a couple times and saw Eshrenn standing on the other side of the king's desk.
"That's very good. You can come with us." He said, smiling sympathetically.
"I thought you said you were going all out." Enishi said.
"I guess I didnt, did I?"
"I thought that only a dragon can fight that ferociously." Elise said, catching her breath.
"Well, Ryuu does mean dragon in the old tounge." Eshrenn said with a smile. "And I had to make sure that you could take care of Sakuya if anything happened to me." And with a bow to Oreata, he wrapped his arm around Sakuya's shoulders and walked out.
Later that week Elise and Enishi were sitting in the gardens getting to know each other better when a messanger came looking for them. "The king requests your presence in his chambers immediatlly." The boy said, with a bow. When they got to Oreata's chambers, they found Sakuya and Eshrenn sitting in the love seat under the window. Sakuya had her legs across Eshrenn's lap and Eshrenn had his arms on the back, and they both looked very comfortable and happy. "Your majesty." Elise said bowing.
"None of that, Elise." Oreata said, smiling. "Your among the elite now, and we only use first names here, no titles."
"Yes sir." She replied.
"Ok then, down to buisness. For this mission, I'm putting Eshrenn in charge." Oreata said, recieving an outraged look from Elise. "He will be the main negotiator with the dragons."
"You know that we may be gone for a long while, don't you?" Eshrenn asked.
"Yes, I do. Which is why I hope for some positive results from the mission. Also, I have decided that the best disguise for you four to use would be that of four newlyweds on your honeymoons together." He said, the last part with a smile.
"What?!" Elise said with indignation as Sakuya and Eshrenn smiled at eachother.
"Elise." Oreata said. "You will stick to the plan or you will regret it." Then, to soften it up, he added with a smile, "Besides, it'll be good for you to act your age for once. You never know, Enishi might grow on you. I know he grew on me." And then he was all king again. "That is your mission. Dismissed." And with that all of them walked out of the chambers.
"You had something to do with the disguises, didn't you?" Enishi asked his brother, blocking his path down the hall.
"A little bit." Eshrenn said. "I only asked if me and Sakuya could travel as newlyweds and I guess that he thought that it would be a good idea for everybody to travel like that," And with that, he pushed passed his brother and continued down the hall. Elise walked up behind Enishi and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Just drop it." She said. "We've got to get ready because we're leaving tomorrow."