The Silver Crescent Prince

"I had to send him because Caleb isn't here. It's business as usual," he answered with a frown as if trying to understand her trepidations. "We have business all over the world and if something as serious as a blast takes place in a mine, then Daryn needs to be present there. He has to assess the situation in order to take future measures. Do you even know how many issues are raised from the government's officials about safe mining practices?" 

Dawn gulped. She didn't know how to answer that because what he said was pretty valid. But she kept staring at him, her muscles straining by the second. She licked her dry lips. She felt as if her whole world was about to slip away. The ground felt shaky and so did her knees. "When will he land?" She couldn't wait to talk to him. And what was the rush that he didn't wake her up? Why didn't he even leave a note? Why did they have gold mines? When did they acquire it?

"He is going to the Arc of Orinico in our private jet and so I assume that it should take him approximately eight hours," Gayle replied. 

"Then there's no way he is going to come by tomorrow," Dawn said in a whisper. The Arc of Orinico was present near the Amazon jungles, very near. Her mind was filled with unknown fear. She wanted to go to him like now. 

"He will come when he has things under control, which I assume will be under control by tomorrow max, so don't worry, okay? We have enough power to wield. Thankfully fatalities that took place were not of our employees, but that of our contractors. It won't come directly upon us, but still… you never know… The officials love to hackle people like us to earn money, else they become a pain in the neck." Gayle's words carried years of experience. 

Dawn nodded. "Okay…" She went inside and drank two glasses of water before going to Ensmoire. She didn't know why but she had to master her illusion magic today. For the first time she hoped that Brantley was her friend rather than a foe. He would have shown her the right path. She hoped that Ileus was with her. They said that he was such a powerful warlock that magic was natural to him, that he understood how to wield magic not because he knew spells, but because it was as if every magical thing was a process and he could decipher its equation, manipulate it and make it suit according to his situation. "Daryn…" she called him out. For a few seconds she even let her mental shields fall so that he could hear her, but she heard so many voices of other clan members floating around that she quickly raised them back. 

'I am not going to let you do that magic again,' said Quetz. 'It's dangerous!' She had to face an angry dragon as soon as she crossed the mist that surrounded the forest. 

So once again they flew back towards the mountains but Dawn said, 'I want to go towards the jungles, the deep ones.' 

Without a word, Quetz headed off to where she demanded. This time she was careful not to extract her dragon's nightmares, but now that she knew that could put her finger on the nightmares, she used the animals. The first one was a deer whose nightmare was to be chased and killed by wolves. The deer almost gave up running when it thought the wolves surrounded it after a run for life. 

Dawn focused on smaller animals, however each time she was able to pull their nightmares and create illusions successfully, but she wasn't able to amend it. She wasn't able to pull it back smoothly. By the end of it, she was beginning to have a headache. Suddenly it started raining so hard as if it was a precursor of premonition. She hated the fact that she couldn't master it however hard she tried. With regret in her heart she returned back to where Quetz was living. She wished she was born with some magic. Training was so hard. She wondered if her kids would be born with inherent magic. It would be wonderful.

'I won't be able to come for the next three days Quetz,' she said as she alighted him. 

'You should come everyday Dawn. It is important. Magic comes slowly. You need practice.'

'I know, but I have to go back to Lily Wyatt. There's some very important matter that is pending.' 

Quetz tilted his head. 'Trust me, what I am saying is far more important.'

'Don't push me Quetz,' she said with frustration building inside. 'Even I want to learn as much as possible and I am doing just because you keep pushing me, but I do have other commitments.' 

Quetz padded away from her. 'Try to come as much as possible, okay?' he said and flapped his wings to take to the skies. 

For some reason, there was so much tension in the air that she felt stifled. She took a long intake of breath and exhaled her tensions out. Not possible. The back of her shoulders, just beneath her neck, she had knots. She looked up and said aloud, "Daryn where are you?" 

--- 

Somewhere over the Amazon jungles, the jet wobbled and Daryn woke up with a jolt. The pilot announced, "There's heavy rain coming but there's no need to worry. We will reach Orinico as scheduled." 

But that wasn't the reason why Daryn woke up with a startle. He thought he heard Dawn. He was very guilty about the fact that he had to come in such a rush. She was sleeping so peacefully after a long day that he didn't want to wake her up. So he kissed her on the forehead, covered her with a blanket and then with one last look closed the door behind him. It was just a matter of two or three days. 

The gold mine was acquired recently by him and was managed by Sedora mostly. But she had called him on an urgent basis when a blast took place because the government wanted to talk to the CEO of the company. 

Daryn took in a deep breath hoping that everything was fine with Dawn. He knew that she must be so angry with him for leaving in a rush. Digging his phone out of the pants pocket, he opened the gallery and browsed through the pictures. When he came to the ultrasound photos, he kissed his babies and held his phone close to his chest. He looked up at the ceiling of the aircraft and whispered, "Dawn, I love you baby…" 

All of a sudden, the aircraft wobbled again as it sliced through the heavy rains over the thick Amazon jungles. Daryn looked out of the window to witness a sliver of lightning only a few hundred meters away.