Armageddon

Chapter 1: The Awakening

Selena Liongod opened her eyes and squinted at the sunshine streaming through her window like sparkling gemstones. Her heart soared when she saw that she was back in her room at the barracks in Alfheim. Well rested and rejuvenated, she stretched and was more relaxed, not feeling this way since—

She shot up in bed, head whipping around, remembering what had happened to her and her friends in Snowhaven. Flipping over her covers and inspecting her body, she gasped when noticing her wounds and scars: they were all gone. Even her left hand—no, Medusa sliced it off, but it was back. Selena lifted her left hand to check it, and sure enough, it was real. Exhaling in relief, she thought someone was playing a cruel trick on her with the tormenting nightmare from the Water Kingdom capital.

Thor, everything is fine, and we're back in the city. Selena zipped out of bed and snatched her robes. Thor, the Divinity Dragon, was her companion, half-brother, and best friend; the two shared a telepathic link, allowing direct and intimate communication between only a dragon and their handler, no matter how far apart they were.

However, he didn't respond, and she thought he was resting in solitude by the dragons' quarters. I'll go and visit him; he must be worried sick about me.

Selena rushed to get dressed and laced up her boots as her heart raced with excitement; she wanted to see her friends and family, her dragon, and her husband-to-be, Admiral Genesis Silver Altessa. But when she ran out the door, the barracks vanished, and she now stood within a castle courtyard.

Mossy flagstone paths separated the emerald sea into two, with a great oak tree standing tall and proud in the middle with dawn's light lancing through its greensward. Its enchantment beckoned her forward—the verdant lawns steeped in plushness and opulence.

A golden twinkle brushed against her ears when she heard Silver's voice. "There's my new apprentice." She twirled around on her toes, and there he was, wearing the same long white buckled jacket strewn with roped blue feathers, and his gleaming smile and ice-blue eyes hiding behind a pair of spectacles with his snow-white waist-length hair reflecting in the sunlight. Although Selena was a petite lady, his height gave him the privilege of towering over most people, aside from her father. He clapped his hands together after taking a step forward. "How do you like your new hand?"

She curled her fingers and tightened her knuckle, wondering how Silver could accomplish such a feat—especially since it looked identical to her old limb. She realized the replacement only when she turned her palm upward and noticed that her mark—a perfect circle with a crescent shape set within—was gone. A sudden loss of identity made her body feel limp and numb, her heart throbbing in her throat. "How did you do this?"

Silver's smile faded, and he squinted at her in disbelief. "Don't you remember? After you and Thor came back to Alfheim, I went straight to work on your new hand. You kept asking me many questions about how I was to accomplish this, and you were afraid of being put under for the operation. I can't count how often you said you wouldn't wake up."

More confused and addled than before, Selena neither remembered sharing this conversation with him nor recalling his plan to make her a new hand; she quickly realized she had no recollection of how she and her friends escaped Snowhaven and arrived in Alfheim. "None of this makes any sense." Silver's face immediately turned blank but didn't offer a reply to her suspicions. "Besides, I'm awake now." Selena's cheeks burned when he still ignored her words, and she suddenly felt the urge to scream.

Her ears tinkled with the sound of a child's laughter; a little girl appeared from behind the old oak and ran towards Silver. Selena couldn't help but notice how the child shared the same copper skin tone, chocolate-brown hair, and sparkling emerald eyes. "That's me when I was little."