Daneh has a minion!

Gleamies the Teren

There once was a strange tower located deep in the wooded area outside of Veta. In the tower there lived a princess of fair looks and physique. This princess disdained the quiet and solitude of her tower and wished to leave, but alas that was not possible. The tower had a magical spell that turned the passageway behind the door in her room into a dead end whenever the princess opened the door. This spell also made the door at the bottom of the tower invisible to the naked eye so that anyone who ventured close could not get inside. The only way out was a single window at the top of the castle, which just so happened to be in the same room the princess was in. So why didn’t the princess try to escape through the window? Unfortunately, the tower was 20 ft high, and unlike the famed Rapunzel this princess did not have long hair to lure a passing prince to rescue her.

Not too far from the tower there was a deep cave that was the home of a mighty dragon named Daneh. Daneh was quite the versatile mythical being, for she not only could breath fire (as is expected when meeting dragons), she could breathe ice as well. In addition, whenever Daneh was angry she could shoot lightning bolts when she flapped her wings. Because this dragon had such great power, the tower had purposely been constructed near Daneh’s cave to dissuade people from trying to rescue the princess trapped inside. It was a scheme straight out of the fairy tales. However, even the best schemes tend to fail….

One day Daneh was playing in the forest with her best friend Gleamies the Teren when she heard beautiful singing. The curious dragon walked to the tower but could not find an entrance at the bottom of the tower. Daneh’s interest didn’t waver through, for she could still hear the beautiful singing. So the dragon stretched her wings and took to the skies. As she flew to the top of the tower she saw the princess singing and brushing her hair. Daneh was awed but restrained herself from getting any closer to avoid scaring the princess. The dragon flew back to her cave.

Daneh looked at her red rreign plushies. She began to recount the well-known tale of how the red rreign had saved the people of Veta from a harsh winter:

One year, Autumn seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye. Taken by surprise, the community found itself waist-deep in snow well before they could tend their fields. With the harvest frozen and the weather showing no sign of relent, it was all the people could do to huddle close together in their homes with what little firewood they could gather, cold, hungry and miserable.

On the coldest night of the season, a familiar sound echoed from the mountaintops -- the old rreign was coming again! The townspeople came to the windows to watch him wheel about in the air, curious as to what he would do with no food to steal, and fearful that he would finally turn his wrath upon them.

What they saw next drew gasps of wonder and disbelief. The great red beast landed in the deep snow and clawed about for a moment, then promptly took to the sky again, belching great blasts of flame over the frosted landscape with careful precision.
He was thawing the fields!
Cautiously, families crept out of their homes to watch the rreign at work, dipping and diving in and out of the clouds as he went. As the last bit of snow and ice melted away, he landed again, spreading his wings and dipping his head in a gesture of peace.

Overjoyed, the community set to work at the fields once more, the red rreign close at hand to keep everyone warm all the while.

Danek glanced at the fairytale book, then glanced at her red reign plushies. The metal wheels turned in her head until she ultimately made up her mind. She turned to her sleepy teren friend and said, “I don’t want to be known as a fierce dragon that destroyed everything in its path. I want to be a heroic dragon like the red rreign.” The next words that came out of her mouth were spoken with firm conviction. I’m going back to that tower. And I’m going to save that princess.”

Early the next morning, Daneh flew to the tower to see if the princess was still there. She was, sadly sitting in a corner, knitting. When Daneh called out to the princess to get her attention, she was really surprised to see a dragon outside her window! When Daneh announced that she wished to help the princess escape, the princess gave the rreign a very skeptical look. This look made Daneh realize that she hadn’t really thought how she was going to get the princess out. For instance, the window was way too small for the rreign to get through. The princess also shot down another idea that Daneh had. The princess was adamant about not jumping out the window and letting Daneh catch her. Finally, Daneh used her ice breath and created an icy slide that wrapped around the tower. After getting assurance from Daneh that the slide was safe, the princess hesitantly climbed onto the bridge and slid all the way down to the ground with ease.

Daneh tried to get more information about the princess by asking her how she got into the tower. The princess explained that she was tired of her role as a princess and wanted a different life. Apparently the final straw was when the princess’s family tried to arrange a marriage for her. The guy they had chosen liked her, but she didn’t really feel the same way. When she had tried to get some more freedom for herself, she had been punished by being locked in the tower. As thanks, the princess offered to groom Daneh and make her scales shiny and beautiful. Daneh was intrigued by the story and decided that the princess would live with her, since it was apparent that she didn’t want to go back home.

Over the next few days, Daneh and the princess spent more time together. The princess kept her word and groomed Daneh’s scales scrubbing them as hard as she could to get the dirt and old scales free from the rreign’s body. Daneh introduced the princess to her forest animal friends. The princess smiled at the forest creatures but for the most part remained rather aloof. Apparently the princess preferred to look for plants and herbs than play with the forest animals that Daneh played with each day.

One evening a frantic group of forest minions ran toward Daneh, which made the rreign realize something was amiss. Daneh followed the minions to a nearby grove and hid in the bushes. The sight before the rreign was unbelievable. The princess was singing a mysterious song that had piqued the interest of the fairies that lived in the forest. But once the fairies got close enough to the princess, she muttered an incantation which immobilized the fairies. The princess then grabbed the trapped fairies and put them in a sack. With an evil smile, the princess pulled out a bottle made of some sort of crystal and said just loud enough for Daneh to hear, “That’s the last ingredient I need. Soon everything I desire will be mine for the taking!”

“STOP!”

The princess turned around in surprise to see Daneh emerge.

“What are you doing? You shouldn’t treat the fairies that way! What did they ever do to you?” asked Daneh, growing more concerned by the minute.

“Oh, the fairies did nothing to me…but I need their power,” replied the princess. “Their magic is the only thing standing between me and fame and fortune!”

Sensing Daneh was still confused, the princess began her tale.

“Well, I guess I can finally tell you, now that my dreams are about to come into fruition. I lived with my family in a castle by the sea. One day, I was told that I would be the assistant of a great wizard. For years, I studied various spells. My studies opened my mind up to the fact that there were more opportunities for me. I didn’t want to have someone decide who I was going to marry or dictate what was appropriate “princess behavior”. I mean, my parents wanted me to marry some backwoods guy I knew in the past! I wanted to marry that handsome duke with a prosperous business. But my parents told me that the duke seemed deceitful and vain and that the guy they had chosen for me would ‘serve as a good anchor for me’. I don’t want an anchor to tie me down! I want a rocket to rise to the stars!” Magic, money, I have to take every opportunity I can to get what I want. So when I found a spell that would help me achieve my dreams, I took the chance and tried to gather the spell’s ingredients. However, my plan was exposed before I could complete the spell. My parents urged me to give up my magic ambitions but I refused. The wizard who had trained me told my parents that the combination of my desires and my magical abilities was dangerous. So they sealed me away in that tower, which was specially built to block my magical powers. I could have stayed there forever. But now I’ve gotten another chance to get what I finally deserve.”

The princess continued, “Over these past few days, I was able to gather the ingredients I needed for this spell. I was able to use my hypnotic singing to lure the fairies to me and trap them using my incantations. All I need to do now is to drain the fairies’ power and combine it with the other ingredients I’ve collected to make the potion. With this potion, I’ll be unstoppable!”

“You won’t get away with this!” Daneh growled at the princess.

“Oh, I think that I will,” said the princess with a wicked smile, “and it’s all thanks to you. You see, the most important ingredients in this particular spell are a dragon’s breath and scales. While you were sleeping one night, I cast a spell on you to make breathe out your fire long enough to place it in this bottle. And those grooming sessions gave me your scales.”

Daneh felt heartbroken and angry. The angel rreign’s growling grew deeper as she moved into an aggressive attack position.

“Oh look. Are you trying to be a hero again, silly rreign? Remember how well that worked out the last time you tried,” the princess taunted.

Daneh tried to attack the princess with her ice breath to freeze the princess solid, but the princess had anticipated such a move and chanted an incantation that blocked the ice breath. Daneh took to the sky and tried to attack the princess from overhead. However, the rreign soon found that the princess was capable of use ranged spells in an attempt to knock Daneh out of the air. The two fought fiercely until the princess cast an ice spell that froze Daneh’s wings. Now unable to fly, Daneh crashed to the ground. The princess uttered an evil laugh and tried to run away from the battle. Fortunately, she ended up tripping over Gleamies, who had arrived to help her friend in the scuffle.

The brave little teren tugged at the princess’s dress in an attempt to keep her from getting away. Annoyed by this little menace, the princess cast a spell that turned Gleamies to stone! Shocked with grief and anger, Daneh unleashed her lighting breath at the evil princess. The attack hit the bottle, causing all its contents to spill unto the ground.

“NO!!!! Without that bottle, I’m powerless!” cried the princess.

Without any magic, the princess was unable to defend herself from Daneh’s ice breath. Soon the rogue princess was frozen in her tracks. Daneh grabbed the sack the princess had been holding and set the fairies free. The fairies were grateful to Daneh for saving them from the evil princess’s diabolical scheme. In return, they used their magic to remove the ice from Daneh’s wings and restore the petrified Gleamies back to normal. Daneh had mixed feelings about the resolution. She was glad things had turned out okay, but deep down she also knew that she was the cause of this mess. The fairies reassured Daneh by telling her that they would notify the proper authorities about the princess’ deviant behavior and ensure that this time she was placed in a more secure prison.

The princess incident had filled Daneh’s heart with newfound pride and determination. Daneh decided to learn how to use weapons and magic to protect others, so she set off to the Sacred Lands to train under the Wizard and the Battle Quest giver. And every Fireside, Daneh gathers around the Veta bonfire with the villagers in hopes of seeing her idol, the Red Rreign emerge from the fire. Each year she collects more and more Red Rreign memorabilia, and inside her heart the dream of being a hero is rekindled once more.


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Red Rreign story taken from Subetapedia article "Fireside".

Story by PiplupMagby34
background by colourlovers.com