63. Forbidden Tower

The exhausted Dev was resting on the floor, supporting his head with his hand and gazing at the stars and moon after a long day of spending some spiritual power to build the energy shield.
Though drained, his mind was fully occupied by Akshara to recharge his mind with warmth. Ivan could see that Dev smiled, laughed, blabbered, sighed, and looked worried. Ivan could see all those emotions within a minute.
Ivan asked his friend, "Dev! You have changed."
Dev reacted to him without looking at him, "What kind of changes do you see in me?"
Ivan replied, "I couldn’t figure it out, but I swear you have changed."
Dev answered him, "I am bewitched by a beauty. It is the cause of all changes."
Ivan responded to him, "Indeed, she is beautiful, packed with wit and talent. Dev... I need to acknowledge you... I don’t know whether you are aware..."
Dev nodded, "What is it? Don’t fly around the bush."
Ivan explained, "Axe once approached me asking for my fire."
Dev was surprised, "What... fire?"
Ivan explained, with a smile, "Yes. She told me that it was not easy to eat the fruits and foods you gave her. So she wanted to eat cooked food."
"If she doesn’t like to eat uncooked foods, she would have told me that. I would have brought anything for her." Dev remarked on his concern over her.
Ivan replied, "Maybe she found it uncomfortable to ask you."
Dev reacted, "What’s so uncomfortable about what she found in me...? Well, you gave your fire to cook her food?"
Ivan nodded and Dev sounded like he remembered something, "Oh... That’s why she had scorched fruits strung to the stick on that day..."
Ivan mocked him, "Once she complained about you... that you were fighting with her small pet birds..."
Dev laughed, "Oh... She even dares to talk behind my back."
Ivan told him, "Don’t blame her. She doesn’t know anyone other than you and me in the castle. Who would she prefer to talk to other than you?"
Dev placed a shock in his expression, "You defend her, Ivy."
Ivan replied, "Indeed, I have to. She is more like Nora to me, but Axe is younger than Nora. Axe turned out to be innocent; she wasn’t aware of the outside world. Dev, you take care of her well."
Dev smiled back, "I am well aware of my friend and my wife. She too treated you like her brother. I can see from her eyes that I’m a little jealous of you. She talks more naturally to you than she is with me."
Ivan mentioned, "Since I have a wild dragon sister like Nora, I am well aware of how to treat my human sister. Tell me what exactly happened that day. Why do you fight with little birds? Is your level of jealousy gone beyond your limit?"
Dev knitted and released to respond to him, "I am an innocent victim. It was they who provoked me first."
Ivan asked him, "What grudge do you have against her pet birds? They are not even the size of your claw?"
Dev dimpled, recalling the night he spent with her in his chamber, "Actually, I was admiring her beauty beside her that night while she was fast asleep. The little birds laughed at me. They said she wouldn’t love me if she had her memory back... They even mentioned some wolf-boy."
Ivan wondered, "Wolf-boy...? Who the hell he is?"
Dev continued, "I don’t know about him, but they glorified their Wolf-boy... they informed me that if Sara got her memories back, she would prefer wolf-boy over me."
Ivan countered, "What? It seems like you have an anti-hero in your love story. Did you ever ask her about that anti-hero?"
Dev stated to him, "Firefly, She has regained only partial memory. Anyway, I trust her, I trust my love. She loves me and I love her. Then why should I be bothered about any wolf or dog...? Ivan, let me sleep... It’s time to meet my love."
Ivan asked him, "Why the hurry, Dev?"
Dev replied, "I can jinx it to fuse her dream with mine." Then, we will... together..."
Ivan stopped him, "Dev, you're even haunted in her dreams too. That’s how you make her fall for you? Sleep. It’s inappropriate for a brother to discuss such things as what you do with my sister. Also, I am an unmated dragon, don’t torment me. Have fun in your dreams."
The smile and happiness binged in the air to let every dragon warrior enter into the world of dreams.
*****
Back in the castle of Ayruzglow,
Nora arranged a new room exclusively for Akshara, along with a gifted roommate. Akshara was confined to the dungeon with her pet birds, with no light. Indigo mentioned that the place used to be the resting place of a ferocious animal.
Nora and Indigo left the place and disappeared from the scene. Akshara was left alone in the hideous place of the dungeon and wanted the presence of Dev.
Akshara thought to herself, "My room is way bigger than the castle... I thank everyone who wished for me to get this king-size room. I especially want to mention, Nora and Indigo, who found such a wonderful place for me to rest. At least I was accompanied back to Frozen Crescent. Devil, you white dragon. Why did you leave all of a sudden without acknowledging me? When will you return? Come soon."
The air whistled through the dungeon to make a unique sound that shook the boldness of Akshara. Akshara wanted to examine the dungeon to confirm that the place was safe enough for her to sleep in.
The exhale of her breath, the weird place, scared her pet birds, so she covered their cage with a cloth. She carefully placed every single step towards the core of the dungeon. The place merely looked nasty, slippery, and stingy with the excretions of the ferocious animal.
Akshara closed her nose with her palms and widened her eyes left to right and up to down to find any form of light. She could find some fireflies behind a small rock. She collected some fireflies and tied them with a piece of her transparent outer garment to use as a torch.
She even wanted to get out of this place, but the wind blew heavily from one direction. Akshara thought it could be the way out, so she rushed in that direction and was traumatised to see the sleeping ferocious animal.
She said to herself, "I've got a roommate."
Akshara collected some of her courage and moved closer to witness what type of animal it could be. She took her firefly torch to examine it closely. She was a little confused about the shape of the animal.
Akshara diagnosed that the animal had a long neck, a large tail, and four legs. She talked to herself, "is it a giraffe... but the neck is not so long. It looked like the neck of a peacock or swan. (She then took her firefly torch to examine its legs.) One leg looked like a tiger’s paw, another looked like an elephant, and another looked like the leg of an ostrich."
Akshara was puzzled to draw the picture in her mind. She even looked closely, "and the tail was hairy like a horse. The animal's face had a beak on it. So much confusion! While creating this beast, God must be freaked out. What a weird roommate!"
The light from the firefly torch disturbed the sleep of the ferocious animal; it moved its pupil behind its eyelids. Akshara ran in the opposite direction to save her life and back to the place where her pet birds, Sun and Shine, were kept.
She barely slept in such a tremendous situation and finally closed her eyes for a while in the expectation of meeting Dev in her dreams.
But in the Forbidden Tower, Dev was working hard to fix the energy shield. Dev and Akshara slept at different times; many dawns had passed with the disappointment of not seeing their loved one.
In the dungeon, the ferocious mixture of animals that slept occupied two-thirds of the empty spaces, and Akshara occupied six feet of space for her and her pet birds.
*****