The King's Beloved

The full moon's light touched Luna's little body. And suddenly, the little sprite shone bright and her eyes turned full white and glowed. As if someone possessed her, she started speaking in a mysterious voice.

"When the chosen one

Who is not one of us

Unveils the hidden Truth

The barrier shall be broken

And the path to the unknown shall open

But take heed and be weary

For in the unknown lies trials untold

The pits may be fiery

But take heart! For history is about to unfold!"

After speaking mysterious words, Luna continued to shine bright and glowed for a whole more minute before fading to her normal state. Rania, Elliot, Ducis, and the other sprites were all bewildered by what just happened.

"Luna, are you alright?," Rania asked as her face grew worry for the little sprite.

"Huh? I'm fine, why? Did something happen?" Luna asked, totally unaware of all the things she just said.

Everyone gaped in unison as Luna scratched her head, trying to remember if she missed on anything.

"You glowed bright and started uttering some disturbing words like some lunatic, midget," Ducis answered with his usual sarcastic tone.

"Hey!," Luna got angry. "Did you just call me midget?!"

"Oh? I don't see any problem with stating the facts," the dragon replied yet again, as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"Grrrr...you…..meanie dragon! I'm not a midget!"

"If you're not a midget then what are you? Tiny?"

"Wraaa!!! Nooooo!" Luna's face grew redder and more annoyed.

"Hahaha," Rania chuckled as she watched them.

"Stop squabbling, you're noisy," Elliot stopped the two. The kind and gentle Elliot was no more and he returned to his usual self. "Just tell us what it means."

Luna was confused. "Tell 'what' means?"

"Luna," Rania called her. "You have indeed been...well, as it looked like, been possessed by something? Then you started saying…"

"Yeah, yeah," the other sprites agreed.

"When the chosen one, who is not one of us, unveils the hidden truth…." Rania tried to remember what she heard as she told it to Luna. "The barrier shall be broken, and the path to the unknown shall open".

"But take heed and be weary," Elliot continued. "For in the unknown lies trials untold, the pits may be fiery, but take heart, for history is about to unfold".

"Yes, that's what you said. Would you know what it means, Luna?" Rania asked.

"I said that?" Luna got more confused.

Rania turned to Elliot.

"It looks like she really doesn't remember."

"Well, it's useless trying to guess what it means. We should research it instead."

"Yeah, you're right." Rania agreed and turned again to Luna, "It's okay Luna, let's look for answers together, okay?"

"O...okay!," and Luna smiled.

"But we should probably sleep first, right? It's almost midnight," Rania reminded them.

And so everyone agreed to rest and start looking for answers tomorrow.

Few hours passed and the sun was back to wake everyone up. They did, as discussed on the previous night, researched about the meaning of what Luna's possessed body said.

Good thing, Anguis, Elliot's chamber had a great collection of books in its library. Aside from the bookshelf he had in his bedroom, he had a separate room that served as his library. It was big and very spacious like his room. There were beautifully lit chandeliers here as opposed to his dark themed bedroom. The bookshelves were all so tall and made of the finest woods you could see in the kingdom. There were also comfortable chairs and sofas all around, partnered with sturdy wood tables, and soft carpets on the floor. You could also see a few plants and flowers here and there, though it wasn't there at the beginning, but the sprites decided that the whole Forbidden Chamber could use a little bit of greenery, so they conjured plants and flowers in pots all over the place - luckily, Elliot didn't say much, maybe he liked it too - that or it was because Rania liked it - who knows? Only time would tell.

Rania loved this library amongst all the rooms you could visit inside the Forbidden Chamber and forest. She loved how cozy it was and so relaxing, especially now with all the flowers and plants at the corners and the walls, and the tables. She also liked the smell of books, and whenever she read them, just the sound of the pages flipping gave her tiny joy. Yes, Rania was a book lover. Despite being born in modern times where humanity had done a lot of improvement when it comes to technology, she still enjoyed the classic books.

Elliot, on the other hand, also liked staying in the library to read books not because he liked the idea of reading, but because the stories he got from those books made him feel like he was free for a moment. That he could go out and experience the world. Since he couldn't get out of the Forbidden Chamber, only his imagination and the books helped him understand what life was like outside. Due to that, he grew to respect all the authors of those books which he read - well, that's basically every book in the library - he had been staying there for years.

But even so, there were still some sections he didn't explore much - like the romantic books section who made him feel cringey because he couldn't understand the thought process of the characters, and also some other unusual books which weren't that interesting for him, and books that were not yet appropriate for his age. Yes, he followed the age guidelines of the books in the library. He even only read books for 18+ when he was at that exact same age, which was just a few years back, now he's 22. And by 18+, it meant books with gore and blood spilling, and other horrible stuff, but not matured books designed for self indulgence - he doesn't have those in his library - which was the main reason for him not being able to comprehend romance. One could really imagine all the broad stuff he learned so far.

"Hmmm..," Rania mumbled as she pressed her left hand on her chin while sitting on a sofa, with her other hand holding a book that she got. A large pile of other books could be seen beside it on the right side of the table. "Still nothing here".

"But we've been to the library a million times!" Luna complained with all her might.

"Hahaha," Rania giggled. "Not a million, you're exaggerating. We've only been here around 20 times, I guess".

"That's a million for me," Luna got more weary and dropped herself dead amongst one of the books. "I can't take this anymore. I don't like books even if they're made from fibers of wood from trees."

"Hahaha," Rania laughed at her again. "You should go get some rest then. We've been here for hours already, just a few more and it's gonna be night again".

Luna's eyes brightened, "Really?!" And as Rania nodded, "Yippppeee!! I'm gonna go prepare some snacks instead!"

"Rania, don't spoil her, she's just forever lazy," warned one of the other sprites who shook her head in dismay for Luna.

"I'm so sorry, she's just so cute, like all of you are".

"Ahhh~", the sprites' hearts were touched and they all flew towards Rania to give her a big hug.

Ducis watched them with disgust on his face. Then, he continued sitting beside Elliot trying to look for answers in the books as well. But he wasn't really reading much. He was just waiting for a chance to bully the sprites. Only the sprites since he doesn't despise Rania anymore after she helped Elliot.

Days passed by but they still couldn't find answers. Elliot also, couldn't remember any books he had read that may have had the answer. Little by little, they felt that looking in the library was useless and started to lose hope in finding any answer there.

Until one day, something unexpected happened.

Rania climbed a ladder as she tried to take a book from the top shelf. However, the height of the ladder was not enough to reach the top, so Rania tiptoed to get it. Elliot noticed her from a distance and glided towards her to help. He was so fast that Rania was surprised when he quickly teleported beside her which also caused her to lose balance and fall from the ladder. Fortunately, Elliot had a really quick reflex and was able to catch her right away.

"Stop moving," Elliot ordered her as he carried Rania like a princess while the other books she's carrying fell to the ground. Elliot sighed, "You're one clumsy girl, are you?"

Rania blushed from embarrassment for a moment and replied, "I am not always clumsy you know. You're the one who suddenly appeared beside me so I was shocked."

As Rania tried to reason out, she accidentally stretched her feet, kicking the bookshelf behind Elliot, making it wobble, and finally, it fell hard on the ground, catching all the other bookshelf behind it.

DDUGGGGGGSSSHHHH!!

It was like a domino of bookshelves falling one after another. It caused a great uproar in the once quiet library.

"Oh no, I am so sorry!" Rania exclaimed. "I - I didn't mean to kick that hard."

"And you said you're not clumsy," Elliot smirked. "Are your feet alright?"

Embarrassed, Rania covered her face and shook her head. She DID hurt herself as she unintentionally kicked the very hard and sturdy bookshelf. Her delicate feet were sprained from it.

Elliot then, flew down to the ground and let Rania sit on a sofa to heal her sprain. As he was healing her, Rania noticed something under the fallen bookshelves, underneath the wrinkled carpet.

"Elliot look," Rania pointed her fingers beneath the carpet.

Elliot looked at his back, towards the place Rania was pointing to. And there, he saw a hint of a trapdoor underneath the crumpled carpet. After healing Rania, he went towards it and tried to scan any magic from it.

Ducis and the sprites all gathered towards them after hearing the loud banging and were all surprised as they saw the devastation that happened. Their eyes grew larger when they saw the trapdoor too.

Elliot decided to open it but Ducis warned him.

"Elliot, be careful. We don't know what's in there"

"I'm powerful enough"

"This is not about power, it could be something far more dangerous"

"Ducis," Elliot called out to him rather coldly. "Tell me".

"Tell you what?"

A moment of silence passed by.

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

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Title: "A Beautiful Catastrophe"

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Macy_Bae

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