Worlds Apart

Chapter 23

Light headed, I took a deep breath, trying to take this all in.
Your real mom, your birth mom, raised me when I was just a baby dragon, only recently hatched. She took care of me, loved me, and was the closest thing I had to a friend when I grew up.
I was silent - what was there to say? A dragon used to know my mom and dad, my 'parents' aren't actually my parents, and I was born on an entirely different planet!
I had no idea what to say.
Ava, I know it's a lot to take in, but you have to believe me when I say that your mother wanted you to have the best life you could possibly have.
"Then why did she abandon me?" I asked bitterly, tears forming in my eyes.
She didn't. You will learn more soon, but not from me. It's not my place to tell you what happened in your past. You have the learn it from the person who caused your past. And to answer one of your questions, yes, I'll give you a ride somewhere sometime. Anywhere in particular?
I shook my head. "Not now."
Well, if you change your mind, shout my name into the sky. That necklace of yours might help...
He let out a final roar, and beat his wings, rising up into the air.
Goodbye for now, Ava.
And with that, Akish flew off into the opposite direction of the sunrise.
"AKISH!" I screamed, my throat raw. "I NEED TO KNOW!" I fell to the ground in a heap, tears streaming down my face as I whispered, "I need to know..."
Jason ran over to me. "Ava, are you okay? That dragon kept roaring, you were talking to him, and... what happened?"
Shaking, I stood up, grasping onto Jason's arm. "I... He... Akish said that I wasn't born on earth - I was born here, in Desridore. Also, my mom and dad aren't actually my biological parents, and my birth mom was born here, too."
Jason said nothing for a minutes, just taking all this information in. "That's a lot to process."
"Tell me about it," I commented with a roll of my eyes.
"Did he say anything else?"
"Well, apparently my mom raised Akish and took him in as soon as he hatched. He also knew that I was Ava, the Hero of the Worlds."
"How would he know that? What, is there some kind of Dragon gossip circle I need to join?" Jason kidded, a joking smile on his face.
I mustered up a faint smile. "I have no idea how Akish knew. Apparently he used to know my parents, right? So he must've sensed their blood in me or something?"
"Oh. That's why he didn't attack us?"
"Yeah, I guess so," I lied, not telling Jason that it was actually my aura, my Light Powers, my ancestries involvement with dragons in the past.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. Do you want to keep walking?"
"What?" I stared at him in confusion before remembering our primary objective - to find Nald, not my birth parents. "Oh, yeah, sure," I responded absently, and we started to pick up where we left off.
"Ava, what happened in that dream, anyway? You never told me."
I bit my lip. "That's because I'm not gonna tell you," I stated simply, setting my pace to a slightly faster speed.
Jason matched mine, a hurt look on his face. "Hey not? It's about me, I deserve to know!"
"What you deserve," I hissed, clenching my teeth, "Isn't important right now." I held my tongue back from saying anything that I would later come to regret.
Journeying with the guy you like can get pretty awkward when you two aren't on speaking terms...
Jason glanced at me for a split second and then turned away.
A spark of hope blossomed in my heart. But then I felt myself wondering if he and I aren't truly meant to be.
Think about it, if Jason and I were supposed to be together, why in the world is this relationship so hard to maintain? It seems every minute of the day is spent with us bickering about random little problems and each of our own beliefs.
Now I'm starting to have doubts that Jason is meant to be in my life.
After all, I was born here - is that why I can travel back and forth between realms? But how did I get to Earth in the first place?
I let out a frustrated sigh, and tried to ignore what Akish told me.
Sadly, it was an impossible thing to ignore. How can I forget about the fact that I'm technically adopted? The fact that I was born on another planet and all I know, all I've ever known, has been stripped away from me?
All I've ever known is completely wrong.
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot though the back of my shoulder, and just before everything went black, a bitter taste filled my mouth, and I witnessed a man looming over me.
My body went limp, and my last thought was; Nothing's the way it ever seems to be.