A Light in the Shadows.

Broken

I could no longer see the earth below me.

It felt eerie, seeing nothing but sky.

It was sunsets and storms and the pure blue of a blissfully sunny day.

I realized I didn't need to beat my wings.

 The air currents were so strong I felt as if I went against them, they would blow me away like a leaf.

Then a voice spoke from what seemed like all around me.

 It was a soothing voice of a kind female, but radiated undeniable power

"another little skyling. ah, a special skyling, she brings the essence of my shadow brother to me"

"who are you?" I asked. "I'm what you are looking for, skyling" she said laughing gently. "You're the source?"

 "You mortals are so funny with your names. I am the essence of the sky, and I am what you call a 'source' to answer your question."

 "I read a book and it told me to come here to find instructions to stop the shadowstorm."

 "The shadowstorm." her voice darkened. "I am so sorry, skyling. I created a monster"

 "so it's real then?" I asked. "Yes. It is the result of my brother and i." the voice sounded so sad i didn't blame her for what she did. "We fought and it created the first shadowstorm, but it's chaos.

Skyling, there is another source. The source of chaos. The chaos is no brother of mine. He was born like us all but instead of our creation he was destruction. He took the chaos of my brother and I and did this. He put it on a loop, the world being destroyed over and over. But there is alway a dragon and an elf who can stop it. My darling skyling, you are the dragon."

"what?" I gasped "but..."

"I know you can do it. I still do not know who the earthling is."

"Maybe my earth sibling knows."

 "Wait, the earth source is non binary?" "Does that surprise you?"

"a little" I admitted. "But not in a bad way."

 "You must hurry. My brother and I are getting weaker and one day this world will not come back. You have to find the lock and key."

 "don't you know where they are?" i asked desperately "no, but here are the instructions your earthling brother gave to me to protect"

 "thank you" i breathed. "Anything for my skylings. And anything to stop chaos. I'm sorry I'm not able to play a bigger role in helping you." I didn't answer that.

 "I'll bring you home." she said. "Good luck, skyling.'' The sky shimmered around me and I found myself back on the palace roof.

The first thing I realized was that my wings didn't hurt. The second thing I realized was it was midmorning. The third thing I realized was that I was absolutely exhausted.

 I collapsed right there into a dream.

I made my way through narrow streets triggering my claustrophobia.

 I was desperate to get somewhere but where I was going and why I wanted to be there was a mystery to me.

I was running for what seemed like forever, hating the suspense of being trapped inside my body and not knowing where I was going.

I tried to turn into a dragon and launch myself into the sky but I couldn't.

There was no dragon inside of me waiting to burst out.

Just as I realized this I came to what my possessed body was running to.

 It was Jelequi, trapped by the gang.

Goldarn stood to the side laughing. "Jelequi!" I cried "what?" she asked. I looked closer and realized she wasn't trapped, she was standing in the middle of them.

 There was a stunningly pretty girl beside her and the way Jelequi looked at her made me so jealous it hurt.

 "What, you don't really think I would be friends with a dragon, do you?" my heart broke into a million pieces.

Of course she didn't really like me after all.

 Her eyes, usually sparkling with her gentle smile, were cold. "But," my eyes filled with tears like the fool I was.

 Let no one in.

 Why couldn't I have kept doing that?

Why did I trust her!? The other girl hugged Jelequi protectively. "I thought we were friends"

"you were useful for a while, I'll give you that" she said "you saved my life oh so many times, but you're just a useless dragon." the tears threatened to spill over.

Don't let her affect you, Seraphina, I thought to myself.

But she was the only one I cared about after mom and dad died and this was what happened.

 I loved astra but i already did when mom and dad died.

"No wonder the kingdom rebelled against you. You're annoying and arrogant and you think you know everything. You're broken, you said so yourself." I looked up and my tears finally spilled over.

Her face was made of stone as she stared at me, hugging the other girl and smiling sweetly at her.

Her words echoed all around me. "Useless, arrogant, idiot, annoying, oblivious, broken." a knife appeared in my hand, but i just curled up and cried.

 I woke up and real tears came to my eyes.

 It wasn't real.

Jelequi is still your friend.

 She doesn't hate you... probably.

You're a mess.

My heart was pounding and all I wanted was for Jelequi's comforting arms to be around me, for her voice from my dream to be silent, but the words just kept repeating themselves over and over in my head.

Useless, arrogant, idiot, annoying, oblivious, broken.

"I'm broken,"  I whispered.