The Shadow Of The Dragon - Chapter Two

Chapter Two



"Softened were the voices in the brakes of the wondering birds on seeing the fair body. Will there not be relating again of that which befell the paragon at the stream of Amlwch"

- T. Stephens
"The Gododin of Aneurin"

The Lady Elzbeth was in her cottage nervously pacing. Where was Shamus? Her first contractions had started an hour ago and pacing was helping to ease the periodic pains that gripped her every few minutes. It would be hours before the child she carried would be born and she was not yet ready to be confined to a bed until she was good and ready to birth the child she and Shamus had been awaiting so eagerly. Elzbeth was a beauty unrivaled in the sidh as a princess to the Zenian throne. She was gracefully tall and elegance seeped from her very person. She had long pale silver hair that shimmered like tinsel on a christmas tree and it curled gently down her back. Her eyes sparkled the palest of blue hues. Her complexion was flawless except for the childish freckles across her cheeks. Today she was clothed in a soft gown of the palest green that made a starteling contrast to the blue of her eyes. It had a silky white shift over it and a rose sash was cinched above her bulging pregnant belly. She also wore a comfortable pair of kid slippers on her feet. A gleaming silver chain hung upon her neck which held a soft white tear-shaped gem. Yes she was a sight to behold. But she held a secret and had been in hiding to protect that secret for nie on 5 years now. Suddenly she wrapped her her hands around her distended belly as another twinge came and went. "Where are you Shamus?" she said in her futile hopes that her telepathic link with Shamus would respond this time. She continued her nervous pacing and she looked through her windows toward the great castle in the distance. He should have been back long ago and now he wasn't responding to her Mind Call.

Suddenly a great firey bird flew through her window. She wasn't startled as she knew this great bird, but she was surprised as "He" had not visited her in some time. The bird morphed back to human form and her heart stood still. Gods he was a beautiful site. He stood well over six foot and had long ash brown hair with specks of silver in it. His eyes were a cool pool of graying blue. His chin and nose almost seemed arrogant betraying the softness to his chiseled features. He was garbed in resplendent hues of red and orange and wore shiny black boots. She searched his eyes for the beauty in his heart. She knew it was there buried deep inside afterall he had once been her champion and had offered her the world and his love. And as she looked at him her heart lurched. Would her heart always react this way in his presence she wondered? Oh God how he had the power to make her grow weak at just a scent or sight. But just why was he here and why had he flown? He had stayed away from her after she had chosen Shamus. Oh he appeared in cases of importance so she also knew he would never be standing here in her home unless something awful had occured. He had sworn never to visit her here, afterall he was consort to her sister, the Dark Lady Arys, now.

With an overwhelming sense of dread and fear gripping her heart, she spoke, already knowing what the only answer could be. "Circumstances must be grave indeed for you to be flying through my window Nix. What is it? What has happened?" she said clenching her hands together.










Nix stared at her with a heavy heart and contemplated what to say to the only woman he'd ever loved, still loved if truth be known. What possible way could he tell her that the man she had chosen as her protector was dead? How did he tell her that at this very moment there were forces posed to kill her and the child she carried? With a heavy heart he knelt on bended knee before her and stated simply "Shamus is dead Beth." There, he'd said it.

Her worst fears confirmed, Elzbeth sunk to the floor with grief. Grief for Shamus, grief for the child who would never know it's father and mostly grief for the loss of her inability to hide the egg safely anymore. She moaned aloud a cry of deepest dispare. Unable to bear her pain any longer Nix cried out "Elzbeth,... I mean Beth..., oh by the Goddess, why must I deliver this news to you?" he said his heart breaking for her. Gathering strength and resolve for her he helped her up and held her gently in his arms as she weeped the tears that only pure grief knows. And with determination he pleaded with her "Beth you must leave here now, tonight. They are coming even now for the egg and the child you carry."

"Who Nix, who would dare do this thing?" she asked.

"You know very well who did this my dear and why. And now you know to what extremes she will go to take the throne that is rightfully yours. You must protect your child and you must protect the egg. Shamus died to save you and the egg. You know what that egg holds and you know that Arys can never truly rule without it's contents."

"Nix my labors have started this day, I want my child protected as well as the egg but if I leave the sidhe we both know I will die." It was common knowledge that no royal blood could exist in the outside world if nobely born in the sidhe. It was too well known to them both, but there would be no place safe enough to hide in the sidh. No place that Arys didn't have ties. This fact they both knew all too well. "How can I leave, I don't know the outside world it is too strange a place for me to go to birth this babe."

"Beth you and I both know that here within the sidh, Arys's reach is far too great. You would surely die and all that you and Shamus have done to protect the egg will have gone for naught. For me to save your child and the egg , they must be born in the otherworld to have a chance." he stated grimly. He continued to hold and rock her, both for her comfort and selfishly to etch the memory of her for the last time. In so doing he felt the child move within her.

With all the courage he could muster for himself and for his beloved Elzbeth he released her and gently placing both hands on her face kissed her brow. "I know the way to get you out of here," he stated dropping his hands "but we must get you away now, before Arys's ravens return. There is a way to do this. A rift is, this day, building between our world and the human world. It is the only chance we have to get you out. There is nothing I can offer other than this promise, the promise of our faith. No matter what happens the future of our world will be saved with the disappearance of the egg and your child. Eventually a time will come that the future hatchling can decide it's "chosen". Until then I solemly vow by all that is holy and by the goddess herself that until my dying breath I will see to the protection of both the child and the egg."

Knowing she didn't have much time left, Elzbeth kissed him one last time stepped away from him and looked up at his face and said resolutely "Nix, I have loved you since I made you my champion. Alas fate and Arys had other plans for us. I know your love and I acknowledge your words to be true. You are right, there is no where left for me to run to. In fact I am tired of running and tired of hiding. I have no choice but to trust you with my child's life and the safe keeping of the stone's secret. I am ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to save my child and to protect what Shamus and I have guarded these past 5 years."










With that she stepped away from him shivering. The knowledge of the sacrifice she had to make rocking her to the bones. She was going to die today to protect the innocent and this gave her the fortitude she needed to resolve herself to her fate. She took the necklace from about her neck and closed her eyes and chanted aloud:

"Oh Good Goddess Danu and Good God Dagda, by all that is Dragon and by all that is named Peace and all that is good and all that is holy I give to you now to add a name. A name to the keeping of the secret and the past and the way. Let now the name of Nix and the Phoenix be to the keeping of the secret and the past and the way. Let also the name of my unborn babe when given be also added to the skroll of the keeping of the secret and the past and the way. So Mote It Be!"

With this she softly stomped her foot and placed the necklace around Nix's neck. She took a final look at the beloved home she and Shamus had created and a final look at the man to whom she was entrusting her child's destiny and said "It is done Nix, now let us be on our way" and with that he again took the form of a Phoenix and she the form of a Dove and they flew from the cottage towards the great waterfalls behind the castled that glistened in the distance. Behind them lay the "stairs", a secret passage that led to the human world.

As they reached the foot of the long spiraling staircase that seemed to climb forever inside a darkend shaft, they took their human forms again and Elzbeth cried out as a new and stronger spasm wracked her belly and her waters spilled from her. Nix stiffened and tried to comfort Elzbeth when a a great shaking of the earth began. This was no ordinary tremblor as they were so accustomed to feeling but a great quaking and as luck would have it a rift of the worlds. Dear God was it already too late, were the gods working against them or did Arys attempt to stop them. Nix held Elzbeth as the ground swayed around them dizzyingly and great stones and bolders started to fall in the shaft. A distant light appeared from atop the shaft and Nix, realizing this their only chance, once again morphed into the great bird and he took flight carrying the laboring Elzbeth from his talons as she was clearly not able to take the shape of the dove anymore. Elzbeth cried out in pain as her contractions grew stronger and closer and she knew it wouldn't be long. "Hurry Nix this babe must be born outside or it is cursed to die here with me this day."

The walls of the shaft continued to crumble and fall in shards and the earth around them swayed to and fro as Nix continued to rise to the "light" above. A great rumbling sound was all around them and Elzbeth again cried out in pained anguish as they popped out of the great mine and the "great void" that seperated the worlds. Nix gently returned to human form and lay Elzbeth on the ground. She was moaning and wracked with tearing pains as the babe inside her tried to make its way out to this new shaking world. With one last screaming pain and all the effort she had left, Elzbeth's child was born. A girl all wrinkled and loudly protesting her birth took her first breaths. Elzbeth was too weak to do anything and Nix new time was short for his beloved. He cleaned the baby and wrapped it in his cloak and gently put the babe in her mother's arms carefully supporting Elzbeth's head in his lap. Having seen her work completed Elzbeth lay back and closed her eyes and muttered "Le-o-ness......." and as the child heard her name for the first time, Elzbeth took her last breath.










Nix sobbed holding Elzbeth's lifeless form in his lap rocking with uncontrolled grief. As the world again grew still the babe stopped crying. He gently lay his beloveds body to the ground and hurriedly rewrapped the child in his cape and again took the shape of the great firey orange and red bird. He soared high and flew down the side of the mountains and saw a tiny town nestled in the valley below. As he circled the town he spotted a large cylindrical tower near the center of the town and gracefully landed with the child and again became man.

Chaos was reigning in the great quake's aftermath and he was unnoticed as he crunched on ice through a field of dead weeds carrying the child toward his destination. As he entered the front doors of the nearby hospital people were running about and bells and alarms clanged in the air. No one noticed him amid the confusion so Nix quickly found the nursery and an empty bed for Leoness. "I must leave you now little one, but I will always be nearby." he whispered to the child kissing it's brow. He also noticed another baby nearby that had turned blue and was obviously dead. He changed the name on the dead child's bracelet to that of Leoness and gently put it on Leoness's left hand. His plan was to let the humans keep to the saftey of little Leoness. And with that Nix opened a nearby window and took flight as the Phoenix once again, this time carrying the dead baby in his cape. He circled the field he had walked through earlier and seeing a hollowed stump in the center of it, softly dropped the necklace he'd been entrusted with from his neck letting it fall and depositting itself on a lump of snow still hiding in it's center. With the necklace seen to, he climbed again towards the sky and the mountains in the distance and the place that concealed his world. He gently picked up his beloved Elzbeth's body and began the trip back down into the sidh. He would take her and the dead child to Arys and pray that this would be enough proof to trick Arys into believing that Elzbeth and her baby would never pose a threat to her. "Goddess forgive me for taking the other child for this purpose, but it has to be this way."

The Great Alaska Quake, a megathrust quake, that day March, 27, 1964 that started at 5:36pm and lasting 5 minutes measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale. It occurred as the Pacific and North American plates ruptured in Prince William Sound. It was the largest earthquake ever recorded in North America and, until that day, the 2nd largest earthquake ever recorded in the world. 131 were dead and it would eventually cost over $300 million to repair the damage and the cleanup of not only Anchorage, but other cities and towns along the Pacific rim not just in Alaska but down on the lower 48 and Hawaii as well as a result of the tsunamis created by the disturbance in the sea floor. Tremors were in the 6.0 range or more and it would take 18 months until tremors and shocks would end. 9 of the deaths were in the Anchorage area. As fate would have it, 2 of the casualties that day were the parents of a baby girl named Leoness now truly parentless in a hospital in Palmer.