Dreaming Away

Chapter 2- Dreaming?

I awoke. But it wasn't like waking up from a good night's sleep. That requires a bed, a pillow, a blanket. I woke up on the cold, hard ground. I quickly stood up and looked around. This was not Mr. Sheplands' classroom... at least, I didn't think so- it didn't look like I was even in school anymore! Was I dreaming? Hallucinating? Were my eyes playing tricks on me? I pinched myself, and in return I felt the prickling pain of it. I take in that this isn't a dream. But I start to become confused. If this isn't a dream, where am I? And, how did I get here in the first place? I try to think. The last thing I remember is Mr. Shepland's class and falling asleep from boredom in the middle of another one of his crazy long speeches. But that doesn't even remotely answer any of my questions.

So, I start to look around with nothing else better to do. I look at myself. My pale skin glowed like the lights of millions of fireflies dancing in the dark of night. And in my new surroundings, I saw huge, spotted mushrooms wider than a fully grown male polar bear, crystal-like flowers, and grass greener than one has ever seen before. There were trees in all colors, purple, orange, pink, green, red, blue, yellow, and even gold, and silver. The leaves swayed from the cool, gentle breeze, some stood straight as a stick, some dangled, like the hook from a fishing rod, and some were fluffy, like the cotton candy clouds in the clear, blue sky above me. They came in all different sizes as well, lots were huge, taller than some of the skyscrapers in cities, and thicker than anything known on Earth. But some of them were small, almost like big bushes.

I felt as if I was in some sort of distant reality or universe! I guess it was just hard to explain. It took my breath away, I didn't know how to describe it. If there's anything it is, it's unearthly, as if it were a whole other world no one even knew existed! I was in awe, mouth hanging open and eyes wide as they could.

My curiosity took over my body and my feet started to slowly shuffle closer to investigate every little detail of this new place around me and soon enough, I found myself wandering down a winding dirt path further, and further away from where I found myself lying on the ground. I look around my unfamiliar surroundings trying to get a sense of where I am. The clouds were all white, no pollution, unlike where I just came from. This place smelled like lavender, orange blossom, and freshly cut lemongrass. Birds chirped, bees buzzed, and squirrels chatted in the distance. "Is this a dream?" I asked myself in wonder. I stood still in horor, suddenly, as I heard thunder roar! RRRRR! BOOM! CRASH! Or at least what I thought was thunder. It didn't make any sense though. There were no grey clouds in the sky and no rain from what the eye could see. Suddenly I saw the ground crack open from underneath my legs and fire shot out from the ground, followed by billowing smoke space black. "What the heck?!" I quietly shouted to myself, as I started to run towards it and came to the edge of a thick forest.

"What if there's people in there?!"

I needed to help put the fires out! Animals ran from out of the burning forest, almost trampling me in the process, until soon, I was at the edge of the forest, and the flames. They flickered and spread farther into the forest burning everything in their path. Just then I saw a giant, black dragon with piercing horns longer than a tree trunk and a tail as spiny as a thorny devil! Its wings the size of a two story house, and its claws looked as sharp as a samurai machete! Its black colour had swirls of dark purple and blue, almost like galactic but its scales shimmered when they hit the sun just right. It was so terrifying standing there so close it felt as if it could just reach out and pierce me with it's claws or bright yellow teeth, but so beautiful and majestic at the same time. I couldn't help but stare, memorized as the emerald green flames came bursting out from its mouth. It was chained up in the midst of the fire, growling, roaring, snarling, stomping, and flapping his wings trying to escape. A man in a knights' suit came out from behind it and held up his sword only an inch from the dragons' chest. He was going to kill it and I couldn't let him do that! "STOP!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. It was an animal that was frightened, it was just trying to defend itself, as it definitely didn't deserve to die. The man then must have heard me, because almost instantaneously he swung his head back to see who dared shout such a thing and at that moment, the dragon found its opportunity. It whipped its tail, knocking the man down to his knees. It got loose and flew away into the distance until it was out of sight. The man fell down onto his chest as I rushed to his aid.

"It got away?" He asked me in a weak voice.

"Yes, but it didn't deserve to die!" I told him sharply.

"It is but a helpless animal! It was only scared and trying to protect itself!"

He glared at me as he slowly stood up. I smirked,

"I guess you can't kill him now."

"You do realize that was a female, right? The dragon. You said he, it's a she!" He said angrily and confused,

"And that dragon does deserve it, that beast has wiped out countless numbers of villages all around the country!"

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for why he, she, it's doing this!" I quickly argued back. By the blank look on his face, I could tell he was at a loss for words and didn't know what to say next.

"Sorry, I got tongue tied, but you get what I mean."

He scowled at me for a few short moments, then picked up his weapon and stomped away in fury. I was alone again. But this time, I knew exactly what I was going to do, I would follow the man. So I started in the direction of which he went and marched up the hill I saw him disappear over. As soon as I had reached the top, I was too out of breath to look up and see the kingdom at the bottom of the steep slope below. But when I did, I gasped, it was a village with little cottages made of what looked like brick and clay. And a huge castle loomed over the village making it seem as though it were only one single house instead of hundreds or thousands. It was made of stone, with stained glass windows in what seemed to be every inch of every corner of the five tall towers and a drawbridge of every metal! Steel, iron, titanium- suspended with chains over a six foot wide, ten foot deep moat which led to two big oak wood doors at the front entrance of the stunning structure. It was truly a magnificent building! Suddenly, the doors started to open slightly as the drawbridge slowly lowered. I squinted my eyes to shield them from the bright, scorching sun as I tried to get a glimpse of who was coming out but I couldn't quite tell. So I slid down the hillside getting closer to the edge of the village. I walked down streets, sidewalks, alleyways, and paths as I tried my best to focus my sight on the figure coming out of the castle. They stopped at the bridge and waited until it was fully lowered before starting to cross. And I was just a couple hundred feet away from my side of the bridge. They reached the middle as I was at the bridge then stopped to see if I could recognise the person. But no sooner, I found them standing right in front of myself, staring me dead in the eyes. They looked me up and down before raising their sword in concern and asking who I was and what I wanted. I told them my name and that I wanted to speak to the man I saw earlier that tried to kill the dragon.