Dragon's Blood

Grimp

One thing that certainly had not changed for Iyla was her trouble sleeping. Each night, vivid dreams invaded her mind, some much clearer than others. She dreamt of being chased down by Amaroks that multiplied every time one of them was struck down, always waking in a cold sweat just as one of them finally pounced on her. She dreamt too of the fire that had claimed her family, as she often had in the past. But these dreams too were even more clear now as she had the whole story. She saw visions of her father and her brother on their dragons, fighting a faceless foe she knew to be Kade. She saw them falling from the sky, she saw flames consume them and she felt her own fear, trapped in the darkness, listening to muffled screams from the terror unfolding outside.

She also dreamt of her mother, imagining her voice and her face looking down on Iyla as a new baby before closing her eyes and slipping away ...

Rarely did Iyla dream pleasant dreams, but the more time she spent at the castle, training daily with her daggers and bow, taking history lessons to build an understanding of her world and hanging out with Bill and Faine just simply having fun, the more often she got a more peaceful night. Possibly because she was just genuinely exhausted, but also because she was building good memories and she felt content and at home. Some nights recently, she had even had a good dream or two. Just normal weird dreams, like turning up at archery training wearing pink fluffy slippers and mittens then finding her bow was made of spaghetti.

But one particular night, Iyla's sleep was once again invaded by troubling dreams, more vivid and more real than any she had had until this point. It was dark again, and this time there was a distinct smell of damp and smoke. She was in a cave this time, a scene that was unfamiliar to her. The huge grey dragon from previous dreams however, was familiar and was skulking in the darkness. It looked even thinner and weaker than it had before, taking short shallow breaths.

"Are you there?" the young man she had also seen before was looking straight at her from his crouched position by the dragons head and as their eyes met she felt a jolt, a familiarity that she had not felt before. His eyes were bright green and they seemed to look straight through her. He was stroking the dragon gently with one metal-gloved hand.

"Yes," she heard her voice as if it was inside her own head and realised that this was exactly where she had heard his voice too, he had not moved his lips but his whispered voice had appeared inside her mind and, for the first time, she had been able to answer him.

"I'm trying to find you," he said.

"Why?"

"He's coming for me."

"Who is?"

"We need help..." his voice was growing fainter and Iyla felt as if she was being tugged backwards, away from the scene in front of her, "There's very little time..." were the last words she heard as her eyes sprang open.

Moonlight was streaming through her window and she shivered, sitting up in bed. It occurred to her that she never had spoken to Sam about her last dream, this one was staying clear in her mind and she suddenly had no doubt that these dreams meant something more, they weren't just random collections of thoughts and fears as she had once thought. Each one seemed to follow on from the last, each time she saw a bit more. Maybe the more settled she felt in this world, the more she was allowing herself to be open to things that were far from the normal she used to know. Every other dream she had became foggy soon after waking, and related clearly to things she had seen or experienced. Apart from turning up to training in slippers and mittens, she'd never done that of course. But still, training was a real thing, she did it everyday and it therefore appeared in her dreams. This dragon, this boy, man, whatever he was, where had they come from? And why did he talk to her? And why had she finally begun to speak back?