Dragonslayer

Chapter Five

Am I dreaming?

I think I am. Because I'm not Kai Sequeter anymore.

I'm Kayla Greendale and I'm eight years old.

My mother's crying. She's watching out of the window like she's waiting for a miracle, but she knows she won't get it. Someone else is crying too. Someone much, much younger than me.

I wrap my arms around myself and shiver. Our flat is bad, even by Boundary standards. We're on the top floor, and the roof is leaking. Water's puddling in the centre of the room, creating a dismal pool.

"I want to help," I mumble.

My mother shakes her head. "You're too young," she dismisses with a sad smile. "There's nothing we can do."

My brother coughs weakly. Four years old. Four years old, and dying of a horrible combination of lung cancer, influenza, and not enough to eat.

I haven't eaten a thing for six days. All my food goes to him, and my mother's too. Yet he continues to get worse and worse until I think I can bear it no longer.

"Food," Tomus groans, so I walk over to the basket and return with our last bread roll. It's hard and cold, like ice.

"Split it between you?" Mother suggests. I shake my head and pass it to Tomus. He's too ill to even register what's going on, but he grasps my hand. His fingers are burning hot. "Take some, Kayla," he whispers, moistening his cracked lips. "You look thin."

I force a laugh. Of course I look thin. I've forgotten what food tastes like. I no longer have the ability to be hungry. "I'm alright, Tomus."

He doesn't have the strength to argue. Mother comes over and feeds him the roll, and I'm thinking that if someone doesn't do something, we're all going to die. Tomus first.

***

I wake up in a cold sweat. I expected the dreams, I've been getting them for as long as I can remember, but there still not exactly pleasant. Especially now that Tomus is dead.

The wind caresses my bare arms and I realise that the dreams aren't the only reason I'm cold. I'm outside, in the fresh air- in the middle of nowhere.

Where's the city?

I twist around and groan. There's bruising on my thigh, and it's fresh. How? I haven't fought for a week. I punched a few walls, true, but that gave me knuckle bruises, not on the thigh!

Then the events of last night catch up to me and I swear, loudly.

I let myself get attacked, in my own room. I let my attacker overpower me. And I let him inject me with something that no doubt knocked me out and left me powerless to stop him from taking me anywhere.

Which leads me to the most pressing question- where am I?

Ahead of me, there is nothing but a barren wasteland, and golden sands swirling softly in the morning air. I turn a full circle, but I can't see anything but the endless desert stretching for miles around me.

I am outside the city. Outside the city.

"Funny!" I scream. "Really funny!" My only answer is the murmuring of the wind, and somewhere far away, a reptilian cry.

No, that wasn't a good idea. I don't know much about what goes on past the city boundaries, but I do know it's hard to survive. The panic's rising inside me but I squash it firmly down. I can't think about how I got here, I just need to find my way back inside the city. It can't be hard. The city's big, I'm sure I'll end up there eventually.