The Reflection of Mount Flame Read online

  REFLECTION OF MOUNT FLAME

  CONNOR WHITELEY

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  This book is NOT legal, professional, medical, financial or any type of official advice.

  Any questions about the book, rights licensing, or to contact the author, please email [email protected]

  Copyright © 2023 CONNOR WHITELEY

  All rights reserved.

  DEDICATION

  Thank you to all my readers without you I couldn’t do what I love.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 1

  Professor Aleshia O’Kin loved Mount Flame.

  She didn’t know why she loved the amazing mountain that was the tallest in the entire Realm, but there was just something so alluring, amazing and breathtaking about it. It popped up in her dreams, her work, her everything, Aleshia had to find out everything about the mountain.

  Even if it killed her.

  As Aleshia sat on her favourite wooden rocking chair inside the wonderful log cabin she was staying in, she stared out over the amazing mountain range and towards her obsession, Mount Flame.

  Whenever the university asked her why she was requesting funding for yet another expedition to Mount Flame, Aleshia would always give them the same answer, because it was her duty.

  In all honesty, she had no idea what that duty was, but if she had ever wondered about leaving the mountain, her research or her field of study (Pre-Realm History), then that night without fail she would get weird dreams about the Mountain wanting her.

  Aleshia tried to push those awful memories away and she simply focused on the amazing view outside the log cabin. The wonderful blankets of thick white snow dusted the entire mountain range, like her favourite sweet sponge cakes she had had as a child.

  The wonderful smell of rich bitter coffee with a dash of caramel syrup made Aleshia wrap her hands round her mug of coffee next to her and take a massive sip of the battery acid.

  There was something just so peaceful, so wonderful so mysterious about the mountain range that Aleshia had once wondered about living here, just so she could feel the cold bite of the snow every morning, but the university and real life had always called her back.

  The sound of people talking, muttering and moving heavy equipment outside made Aleshia frown as that spoiled her perfect silence and she would have sworn she heard the mountains moan in their frustration.

  That was probably the only thing Aleshia hated about these expeditions, all these newbies, junior professors and interns that wanted to come along and get famous. She had no idea why they all believed they would get famous just because of they were travelling with an O’Kin.

  Aleshia loved exploring the world with her mother, father and brothers as a teenager. She loved discovering ancient cultures, tombs and even some magical weapons, they were fun to use before her father turned them over to the King.

  Spoil sport!

  But since her parents died and her brothers went off into the military, Aleshia had been left alone, and quite frankly she knew she would never be as great as her parents. They were the true historians, they knew everything about the Realm and all the other races on each side of the borders.

  Aleshia hated comparing herself to them, but that was the truth. She felt as if she was playing around, pretending to be far greater than she would ever be normally.

  That’s why she loved the mountain so much, Aleshia felt like Mount Flame understood her and wanted her to come to it.

  And Aleshia wasn’t going to disobey.

  Then Aleshia stood up and stretched her neck, forcing herself to look away from her beloved mountains, she smiled as she stared at her log cabin with all its desks, files and books scattered around.

  Her husband, Charlian O’Kin, just wanted her to clean up, but Aleshia wasn’t going to do that. This was her cabin, it was the only space in the Realm where she could work in peace to figure out why Mount Flame wanted, needed her to visit it.

  Just the thought of her husband made Aleshia want him here.

  After meeting him two decades ago in a lecture on the unification of the human tribes to form the Realm, Aleshia had travelled everywhere with him, and him her.

  They were married on an expedition, they would both stay up late each night talking about their adventures, arguing their hypothesis and celebrating (like married people do) each other’s successes.

  If Aleshia could have her way, he would be the only person on the expedition, but the university would never allow that sadly.

  Aleshia went to take a step forward but her feet touch an opened book, and Aleshia smile’s deepened. The opened book was on the very thing that allowed her to get her funding for the expedition.

  The Reflection of Mount Flame.

  In the tens of thousands of years since Mount Flame’s first historical mention only a hundred people had seen this so-called reflection. Aleshia was probably the most recent, and she loved the Mount for it.

  It was an impossible thing to describe, but Aleshia always mentioned about how smooth, strange and unnatural Mount Flame looked normally, but sometimes, just sometimes the Mount would become engulfed in fire and the flames would perfectly reflect the sunlight.

  When Aleshia first heard it, she knew it was a myth, a lie, a legend but after seeing it and becoming scared out of her wits, Aleshia knew for a fact it was no myth.

  But the one thing Aleshia could never understand about the reflection was why only certain people throughout history could see it. When she had witnessed it the first time, she had been standing with her husband, another professor and two interns.

  She was the only one who had seen it.

  To her amazement, Aleshia’s husband hadn’t tried to dust her off as a crazy woman, he had tried to help her figure it out and even his dragon had tried to be helpful.

  Aleshia wished she could remember her name!

  As Aleshia picked up the book, she slowly closed it and wished that the expedition would get underway soon, she had to go to the mountain, she had to see Mount Flame and answer its call.

  The entire expedition waited for two things, Charlian to return with his dragon from the university with new equipment after some stupid interns had got drunk and urinated all over it, and most importantly they were all waiting for the weather to clear.

  Aleshia hated that factor. From down here the entire mountain range looked so peaceful and wonderful, but if she really focused she could clearly see a thin veil of white around the top of Mount Flame.

  Meaning it was a full scale blizzard on the mountain, and no dragon loaded up with crew and equipment could easily survive that.

  But Aleshia had to get to Mount Flame, she needed to see it, savour it and answer its divine call.

  No matter what others said.

  Even her husband.

  CHAPTER 2

  Honourary Professor Charlian O’Kin leant against the warm stone walls of the university and stared out across the courtyard with its stunning maple trees, roses and talking tomatoes as he waited for the new equipment.

  Charlian couldn’t deny he didn’t love being back at the university in the Capital for the day before he had to fly back off into the frozen wastelands towards Mount Flame.

  There was just something good about the university, it felt comforting, alive and filled with knowledge that Charlian just wanted to learn. He loved learning more than anything else in the world (except his wife and dragon, of course) and that was why he became a professor, in a way, because he never ever wanted to stop learning.

  The amazing refreshing smell of the roses sent a wave of pleasure down Charlian’s spine, the amazing plants at the university was another great benefit.

  As the sounds of students talking, laughing and groaning about their latest piece of “impossible” coursework, Charlian just focused on the sense of life here, he was going to miss it when he went to the frozen wastelands.

  Charlian loved his wife that was a fact, but he didn’t enjoy all the strange locations she wanted to go to. Maybe it was her historical training that made her want to go to these random places, but Charlian wanted to explore the “real” ruins of the past. Like temples, ruins and destroyed cities.

  Not some mountain in the middle of nowhere.

  Charlian wondered if his military training was partly at fault here. He had always loved to serve as a dragon rider with his dragon, Octon, fighting for the Realm against the orks in the North, the dwarfs in the west and all the damn creatures from the south.

  But when he saw that beautiful, sexy Professor Aleshia, he couldn’t help but become fascinated by her, her history and her ambitions, and Charlian had learnt a lot of the Realm’s history from military school, so he impressed her and the university offered to make him an Honourary Professor.

  The sound of massive wings flapping
overhead made Charlian excited as he looked up and focused on his amazing dragon float down to the ground. Charlian was always stunned by her beauty with her long wings, deep fiery orange scales and her killer smile.

  He was glad he had taught her decades ago how to hide all her hundreds of dagger-like teeth inside her mouth, because those things were scary.

  As Octon landed gently, she smiled and Charlian and he went over to her. Charlian ran his fingers gently over her fiery scales and was amazed by their coldness, he didn’t realise how much he had missed waiting for her.

  “Got our fish?” Charlian asked.

  “Sure thing Boss,” Octon said as she waved her massive tail.

  Charlian didn’t need her to go and catch fish for them whilst he waited, but she had looked like she needed something to do, and Charlian had fond memories of playing in the university’s lake when he first met Aleshia, so that seemed the perfect place.

  “Professor O’Kin!” a man shouted.

  Charlian turned round and frowned when he saw a tall stuck-up looking man wearing a posh black suit walk towards him with a piece of parchment. At least there were ten young men walking behind him carrying boxes of equipment.

  “Yes Lord Chancellor Duran,” Charlian said. He hated the head of the university.

  “I need you to sign these forms saying you will personally cover any costs incurred due to damages on your expedition,”

  Charlian laughed. “Why? We didn’t need to sign any forms before,”

  “That was before you and Professor O’Kin allowed interns to urinate all over the equipment,”

  Octon started laughing. Charlian playfully hit her.

  “Of course Lord Chancellor,” Charlian said bitterly and signed the forms.

  Duran turned, clicked his fingers and walked away as the young men came over to Octon and started attaching the boxed of equipment to her.

  Charlian looked at Octon. “I don’t know why you don’t burn him,”

  “Cos boss, that’s murder. And murder’s bad,”

  Charlian smiled and shook his head. Aleshia might have called Octon childish, but that was why Charlian loved her. She was a fun, amazing dragon that he would protect to the end, no matter what Aleshia thought.

  “True,” Charlian said, “how long until we return to the wastelands?”

  “Come on boss,” Octon said, “it ain’t that bad. Mount Flame is fun to fly around, I love rolling about in the snow!”

  “So you’re prepared for flying to Mount Flame even in a snow storm,”

  “Yea!” Octon shouted, “Blizzards are the best!”

  “Carrying me, the team and equipment?” Charlian asked.

  Octon roared a little and stared at one of the young men as they finished up loading her, Charlian wondered whether or not he had pinched one of her scales.

  “My question,” Charlian said.

  Octon cocked her head. “Does all the team have to come back?”

  Charlian playfully hit her on the nose. “Yes,”

  “Then no boss, flying into blizzards isn’t fun with other people. Can you and me please fly into one? Pretty please,”

  Charlian was probably about to say yes when one of the young men tapped him on the shoulder. He hated that. It was so rude, and why didn’t he just call Charlian’s name?

  Charlian turned. “Yes?”

  “You are all loaded up Honourary Professor, and Lord Chancellor Durcan has given you permission to leave,” the young men said before walking away.

  Charlian and Octon just looked at each other, he had no idea he needed that pompous idiot’s permission to leave his place of work. Charlian was now actually looking forward to returning to the frozen wastelands just to get away from Durcan.

  But most of all, he was looking forward to seeing the woman he loved once again.

  CHAPTER 3

  Aleshia loved the amazing bite of the freezing cold wind as it blew across the mountain range towards her. As Aleshia stared out over the thick blanket of crisp white snow that seemed to stretch on for miles upon miles, she couldn’t contain her excitement about the expedition edging closer.

  The air was crisp, cold and smelt slightly of pine as the wind kept blowing, she was glad it didn’t kick up too much of the snow. That would have been horrific as it would have blocked Aleshia’s wonderful divine sight of Mount Flame, she had to get there soon.

  The mountain was calling her.

  As much as Aleshia just wanted to kidnap a dragon and get to Mount Flame as soon as possible, she forced herself to remain rational. She had to wait for her beautiful husband to return with the equipment and Octon.

  Aleshia had to smile at the idea of seeing her fit, sexy husband again and even kissing him on his wonderful soft lips. She was looking forward to that.

  In the distance and just above the howling of the wind, Aleshia heard the shouting, talking and moaning of the expedition crew that were probably setting up their own experiments a bit further down in the valley.

  It was probably one of the few things she enjoyed about having interns along and even other professors, sometimes they came up with such amazing projects that might have even impressed her parents.

  There was one intern that had actually discovered magic crystals in the air once on one of her expeditions using some strange new technology from the Capital. That discovery that transformed the Realm’s understanding of magic and how it interacted with the natural world, and because of course Aleshia had been expedition leader, she got partial credit.

  Aleshia really hoped there would be another breakthrough this time, but she had to get to Mount Flame. It needed her.

  Aleshia wore her thickest fur coat, gloves and black fur hat as she started to walk through the snow listening to the crunchy snow under her feet,

  As she walked through the snow and tightened her coat around her body, Aleshia saw the interns and other members of the crew putting up tents, installing scientific equipment and some were even having snowball fights.

  Aleshia couldn’t blame them, but she needed them focused, alert and ready to move out at a moment’s notice. Aleshia was about to shout at them when she heard a distinct sound. It sounded like something flapping in the wind then she realised what it was.

  She stopped in the snow as massive amounts was kicked up in the air and it was like Aleshia was in a blizzard as something orange and fiery moved in the snowy conditions.

  When the snow settled, Aleshia smiled at the massive fiery orange dragon that stood in front of her. Aleshia heard the interns start to rush over to unload the equipment, but all she could do was stare at the majesty and utter beauty of the dragon.

  Octon looked as if she was a child of Mount Flame with her stunning colours and divine ability to roar out fire, Aleshia shook her head as she needed to remain calm, logical and rational. Mount Flame was something to be studied, not something to fall in love with.

  Then the most beautiful man Aleshia had ever seen slid off the dragon and walked towards her, Aleshia could only stare with a smile that went across her entire face at the man she loved.

  Aleshia couldn’t believe how even in these icy frozen conditions, her palms were turning sweaty and her heart skipped a few beats as she stared at Charlian’s tight black coat, long brown hair and amazing smile that could probably melt the entire mountain range if he really tried.

  And in that moment, Aleshia didn’t even care if he melted or damaged Mount Flame. She was so pleased to see him.

  When Charlian wrapped his strong arms around her, Aleshia was in heaven and she pressed her lips against his wonderful warm soft lips that she would happily kiss all day.

  “Professor?” a man asked and completely ruined the mood.

  Aleshia sadly broke the kiss and turned to face the little short man who dared to talk to her. She hated the man’s grey fur coat, cheesy grin and dark brown eyes, he just looked silly.

  “Professor,” the man said, “I was wondering where you want us to store the equipment for the flight,”

  Aleshia really focused on the man now as she realised he was talking to the Lead Intern Harriton, the person who looked after them when Aleshia was busy with other things. She still didn’t want to talk to him, she wanted to be with her husband, but she was a leader first.

  “Keep them here for now please. We will investigate the weather conditions on the mount top then we launch if appropriate,” Aleshia forced herself to say.