A dark blue cloud shimmied out of Jack's chest and rose to the ceiling. Serena pointed her finger at it and a spark of green light hit the cloud. It evaporated.

"Well?" Serena smiled.

Jack waited, but there was nothing. He went over to Eli and touched her arm.

"Hey," she whispered, "Jett—"

It's gone. Just me. He faced the Enchantress and a smile stretched on his face. He was free from the curse. At long last, after all these years!

"I can't hear your thoughts!" He turned to Eli. "Ha, I'm free." Now he could just go off. Be on his own. Not worry about what side of a person he was standing or avoiding crowded places. He didn't have to hear the thoughts of the women who kept thinking about how he might be in bed. He didn't have to learn about what people thought of him in the privacy of their minds.

"It's a relief?" Serena asked.

"Oh, yes!" Jack shouted. "I feel lighter, too. Yes!" He kicked the air in front of him as adrenaline seemed to rush through his body. The purple glow on his chest came but didn't hurt. Maybe it had been affected too, whatever it was.

Serena laughed through her nose. "And I gladly accept payment as well."

His smile faded. "Payment? But you said if I freed you, you would—"

"That's a dragon's promise. I was only pretending to be a dragon."

With a hand gesture, the rest of the ceiling came crumbling down. Green sparks of light shattered the dragon's breath stones on the shelves.

"Oh, my goodness, Jack, we need to get out of here!"

Jack was trying to work it out. What did she mean by payment? If she wasn't a dragon, that meant Eli couldn't become a Seeker. If she couldn't become a Seeker, Jett wouldn't be saved. But what was payment?

Eli tugged on his sleeve, urging him to help her carry Jett who was still passed out. But then a coil of green smoke dove into Jett's chest and he turned black. In the next moment, his body floated up and began to enlarge. His skin cracked, becoming scaly. A tail grew behind and his arms and legs became thicker while claws stretched from his hands and feet. Green cloud masses surrounded Jett and he wailed as his body transformed.

Something whistled through the air, but then Eli's body lifted from the ground. Her boomerang melted when Jett breathed fire. Jack was too slow to grab her and stunned at what was happening before him. All around dragons were growing from colorful smoke that hissed out of the shattered gemstones.

"You can go now, my son."

"That's payment?" He looked up at Eli, struggling against the green smoke that held her like a snake coiled around her waist.

"Help me!" she called down below.

"I have a country to conquer, take back from the fraud queen and my cheating husband what is rightfully mine, but you don't have to be a part of that. I grant you freedom from your wish and give you freedom to do as you please with your life. I know you have wonderful dreams of traveling the world."

At her words, images of his dreams invaded his mind. He saw himself as a world-renowned aeronaut who mapped the unknown lands. He would be the first to venture beyond Trident and discover the mysteries of the world. And he saw himself working at a gallery somewhere. Maybe not as Jack Ogswold, but he could reinvent himself and it would be just like the Kaleidoscope.

"But what—"

"If you so wish to save this girl and this Piet, your curse will return, and you will suffer as you had. Every day. Have they become so important that you would return to a life of constraints and stress?" Serena said and then turned her back. She bowed her head. "They were all after me when I tried to get close to you. To help you. The old Seeker tried to kill me, so I trapped my own soul into a gem, knowing one day my son would find me. You wanted to have the curse lifted, didn't you?"

Jack nodded slowly, but he couldn't think straight. He had come this way for himself. It was all about him. Wasn't this all what he wanted? Above him, Eli was screaming to not listen to the Enchantress. That she was lying. That she wasn't trying to actually help Jack. She just used him to be released.

"She fears you, that's why she's giving these—!" Eli cried out and he raised his gaze. Her body was slowly shrinking, and a yellow shield was forming around her like a cocoon.

"Go now, my son. This doesn't concern you." Serena released each dragon up to the sky and with a gesture of her hand, they began to burn the area, all the while wailing as if they didn't want to do this. Jett Dragon was flying amongst them, crying tears of molten lava, but he could only growl.

Why was Jack hesitating? He could kill her. He had a gun. Then everything would be okay.

"And, if you must know," Serena created a throne out of stones and shattered gems, "if you kill me, your curse will return and worse than it was before. Not just the left side, but the right side, too." She sat on the throne and with remaining gem pieces created a gem ball, molding the pieces together with sparks of fire. Once the ball was smooth, it turned into a crystal ball through which the dragons in the sky could be seen.

"What did you come here for?"

He found his voice. "To cure my curse."

"Then, you have no reason to stay." Serena made hand gestures over the ball and Jack heard more wails of dragons. "The police are looking for you. I'll keep them at bay. And this is for you as well, I've had enough with this."

A gold crown appeared on his head. It was heavy, but it somehow felt right.

"It was to be yours'."

Gold was hard to come by. Only the royals had gold. He took it from his head. He could take parts of this and sell it, make enough money to get a good airship. He could be off. The gold shimmered in the dim light. Jack swallowed, feeling its weight over and over.

In that instant, the past few hours vanished. Who was he but Jack Ogswold? No matter what anyone thought. He could still be that, but in a place where no one knew him yet. And it was possible now. He was his own person, and he had his money.

And people listen to me, too. Who can resist me?

"You are one of a kind, Jack. I look forward to your greatness in the future. So long." Serena with her gem ball and throne vanished in a puff of green smoke and Jack was alone in the cave. Far away, he could hear men's voices. They were probably the police.

He thought about Eli and Jett, and then he didn't. The past was the past, after all. Whatever Jack he was then, he sure wasn't now. With sure feet, he marched out of the cave, or what remained of it, and found a path through the forest.

Between scraggly black branches, he saw a green puff with a black dragon. A yellow gemstone shimmered amongst them.

"Jack!" came Eli's voice. "Don't leave us!"

Heat reached him. Jack snapped out of a daze. The forest was burning. He saw policemen coming toward him, but they were fleeing. He spotted Eli, the yellow gemstone, trembling in the air as the Enchantress sent puffs of green smoke around the stone.

"I won't let you turn me!" Eli shouted and the green smoke receded.

"Shut up, wench!" Serena snarled. The gemstone shattered and a golden dragon emerged out of yellow and green smoke. The dragon cried tears of crystals that were absorbed into Serena's dress, making her taller as if she were a cobra rising to strike. Jett and Eli Dragon both cried as they breathed fire on Dragon's Wood, destroying it.

Jack ran, clutching the golden crown. Overhead, many dragons of various colors, but all with ink-black eyes were heading for the surrounding cities. He came upon a village on his way to a main road. 

Amidst the fleeing people, he stole a hanging shirt and hid the crown in that. In moments, he found himself back in Birdbury. Dragon flames danced toward the city. Police were calling out formations, trying to protect the land, but their canons were destroyed, melted to molten metals.

At last, Jack found the airship right where he left it, and soon, he was off into the sky where dark green, ominous clouds began to swirl like a coiling snake. He shook his head, trying to forget. All he needed to do was go far away. He broke above the clouds and was filled with a calm. Up here, the sky was basked in sunset gradients, coloring white fluffy clouds.

Jack put the ship in autopilot and sat back in the seat. He took out the golden crown and set it down next to him. Its shimmer in the sunlight took his breath away and he stared at it, filling his thoughts with all the possibilities that lay before him. He shoved the images of all that happened in Dragon's Wood to the back of his mind.

Never look back. The past is the past, and a future awaits, he thought and sped off toward the sun, wondering with a laugh, what ever he would call himself now.

================== End of Part One ==================

Note from Author: Tell me what you think of the story so far in the comments below.

And, what do you anticipate will happen from here on?