The Draconian of Dicathen

Catching Up

Authors Note: No, I'm not dead, shocker. Again, I don't intend to drop this ff, but I apologize to my oh-so-patient readers. I won't be too detailed, but I am a single father fighting custody. So I hope that clears up my absence. No, it's not an excuse but an explanation. I know many of you have probably dropped this series, and understandably so, but regardless of how many people read my story of TBATE by the end of this, I'll continue to write regardless since I'm ultimately doing this for me anyway. Though I will try something new and write from a first-person perspective, reading a lot of other FFs and talking to their authors, they find it more fun and easy to get immersed that way. So for at least this chapter, I'll be doing just that and see if it sticks. 

"Hello, young one." 

I found myself suspended in a dark abyss, the voice echoing around me. A light from above drowned out the darkness. My lungs couldn't find the air needed to gasp appropriately at what towered over me. Ivory scales shimmered across the elegant form. I couldn't see the creature in its entirety, but it looked to be a dragon straight out of old fairy tales. Its onyx claws pressed against nothing as it approached me, revealing more of its physique. Feathered protrusions flapped back and forth over its body with a gentle motion. The dragon's flowing locks draped beside jagged horns. Yellow eyes pierced through me with judgment. Its jaw relaxed open, revealing a set of gleaming sharp teeth that would've made me piss myself—if I had a body.

"I wanted to ensure you'd be at least old enough to understand complex sentences for an average human of our world before having our first meeting. My name is Sylvia, and I am what your race refers to as a dragon." 

Her posture relaxed as she laid down, her neck upright and face staring at me with such gentle eyes. I couldn't help but allow my stiffness to relax as well, losing myself in the serenade of her voice ringing in my head. A small part of me still wanted to fight against it, but my will told me it was ok to let my guard down around Sylvia. 

"You don't know me, and that's ok, but enough of the trivial banter. Arthur, no...Grey, I entrust you with my daughter and pass on my hopes and dreams. Live your life to the fullest while you still can. Get strong. You don't know it yet, but there's more to this world than meets the eye. It's full of hardship, a hardship that you've tasted for yourself already, but there'll soon be a war beyond anything you or the rest of Dicathen have ever known. Prepare yourself for it, my dear, or else you will find yourself repeating what you've done as King Grey." 

My spectral arm reached out in an urgent attempt to reach Sylvia, longing for answers to my sea of questions. I hurried towards her, but instead, unknown forces pulled me back as if I were in a dream. She flashed me a warm smile and shrank with each passing second, the light receding with her. Then, darkness snapped itself shut around me once again.

My body jolted out of its unconscious state, and I was left barren with my thoughts and the sight of polished marble adorned in golden highlights. Once my nerves dwindled to a more stable calmness, I rose from the bedsheets that had me neutrally pinned against the comfort of the feathered mattress beneath me. I balanced my head on the support of my mounted hand against my lap. I gave the surreal meeting with Sylvia a quick review before coming back to my senses. I gazed, scanning the room I found myself inhabited in, noticing Sylvie's eyes staring at me with intellectual curiosity as she tilted her head slightly. 

Papa, did you have a nightmare? 

I rubbed her head between her horns with a gentle touch, giving her a very docile and conserved smile. 

It was nothing, Syl, just had a weird dream.

Based on how she kept staring at me, I could tell that I was just short of convincing her. But after a few moments, she curled up back into her little blanket nest she built for herself on the bed and closed her eyes.