Page 3 of Eliza's Cursed Dragon

Never in my life had I thought I would have to be afraid of these men who had protected me all my life.

This wasn’t the time to ask questions, so I followed Caspian through the dark woods and let out a small cry when we found the rest of our brothers.

“This way.” Charles pointed through trees. “There is a lake not too far in with a cabin where we can stay for now.”

“If it belongs to Father’s hunters they will find us there,” Richard cautioned.

“It doesn’t. It’s empty and hasn’t been used in many years,” Charles said confidently, making him seem much older than his seven years. Even when he was born he had seemed older. I remembered holding the baby in my arms and thinking that his soulful eyes could have belonged to an eighty-year-old.

Silently, we followed our little brother through the dark forest for a long time, each of us trapped in our own minds, trying to come to terms with what had happened. One moment we were the beloved children of King Julius, the next we were outcasts, creeping through trees in the middle of the night.

Caspian carried William while Richard and Philip took care of Harry and Eric who were only five. Now and then George or Alexander, another set of twins my parents had been blessed with, would each take my hand to help me over a fallen log or through a thicket of thorns ripping at my dress and hair.

The sun was just rising when we reached the lake Charles had mentioned. It was large and its placid water reflected the first rays of the sun on its glittering surface.

Dilapidated was too generous of a word to call the single hut standing by the shore. The roof had partially caved in and the east wall had crumbled. Charles was right about one thing though, nobody would find us here.

“Now what?” Andrew asked, plopping down on a larger rock, looking tired and deflated.

“We’ll stay here for a bit, fix the hut up, and decide what we’re going to do,” Caspian decided.

“Nan wanted us to go to the Outside,” I cautioned.

“We can’t win the kingdom back from the Outside,” Richard interjected with an air of haughtiness.

“We’re not going to plan anything tonight,” Caspian said in a tone that didn’t invite an argument.

Edward

The genius of my father’s business senses had always been infallible, but this last enterprise of his was even grander than anything he had previously undertaken.

Taking advantage of tourists wanting to visit Screaming Woods and Fable Forest, he first built a hotel right where the freeway divided, so the visitors had the convenient option to go to either town. The hotel was a success, not huge, but enough to give him more ideas.

He added an indoor waterpark, the largest in the world, and soon added another hotel and another. When local personnel resources dried out, he decided on another, even more elaborate project, which was where I came in. I had studied engineering and real estate development, and coming fresh out of college I thought I knew it all, having worked on construction sites every break from school.

Dad hadn’t liked my career choice at first, would have preferred I studied business administration and finance instead, but I wasn’t the type of person who would be happy behind a desk. I liked the outdoors, I liked hands-on work.

Still, when dad offered me this project, I realized I would have to spend a lot of time behind a computer screen. It was a compromise that suited both of us though.

After I picked the perfect site for a housing development, where all our new employees would live, I first built the large mansion my father expected. He had worked his way up from a lowly concierge to owning an entire hotel chain that stretched around the world. In his late fifties now, he reveled in luxuries as much as he expected them. Which meant that when he came to inspect and visit, he expected to stay in the luxury he was accustomed to.

Living alone in an eight-bedroom mansion seemed pretentious to me, but it wasn’t exactly a hardship either. Especially since I didn’t have to lift a finger for the upkeep. Gardeners, pool technicians, maids, a butler, a cook, and a housekeeper saw to all my needs and helped make the house feel not that empty.

Now, two years in, I was learning that college had taught me shit, but I held up my own. Thanks to the help of a couple of experienced superintendents, we had the first houses up and two even already occupied by managers for one of the hotels and their families.

“The werewolf applied again,” Jack, one of my foremen, informed me when I arrived at the jobsite.

That was the downside to having this place so close to Screaming Woods and Fable Forest. We lived off the tourism both places lured in. It would make me a hypocrite, like my father, if I despised Screaming Woods’ or Fable Forest’s inhabitants just because they were different from us humans. That wasn’t me. The only way I judged a person was by their actions, not their looks.

Dad on the other hand called them abominations. Since he was the one financing this enterprise and my boss—like it or not—I was forced to obey his rules. His instructions on this had been clear, none of the residents of either town were welcome to work here. I had no idea if I would have been comfortable or not in the presence of an orc or werewolf, and I wasn’t given the opportunity to find out.

Lately there had been rumors that whatever had happened to Screaming Woods and Fable Forest was spreading to other towns and villages in the area. Rumors of magical portals circulated, portals that were becoming increasingly unstable.

Whatever had happened to Screaming Woods had turned its citizens into orcs, witches, gargoyles, vampires, and any other supernatural species known, or even unknown, to man. Some people were repelled by them, others flocked to the villages. I didn’t judge either group. Live and let live, was my motto, as far as I knew none of the so-called monsters had ever hurt anybody.

Fable Forest, on the other hand, was filled with real-life fairy tale creatures. I didn’t know how that worked exactly, but I didn’t feel an urge to explore it either. It brought in income and gave me job experience and that was all that mattered to me.

“You know the boss’s instructions, no fairy tale creatures or any other kind are welcome here,” I reiterated my father’s instructions like I would have any others. This was not about what I believed what was wrong or right, this was his company. For now.

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