The Dragon's Assassin, Secret's of the Eclipse.

"Nyria"

Kala had been running for hours, past the woods and the creek and Maya's house, she had been running for so long that her feet began to ache.

Kala stopped in the middle of the field, looking down at her bloody and torn feet, her eyes were dry and red from crying and sore to the touch, Kala collapsed to the ground and onto her side from the exhaustion of the battle and the running. 'what am I suppose to do?" she sobbed quietly to herself, the sunset in front of her was a pale orange and pink as it faded into the sky. 'I can't fight this anymore' Kala thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

***

Maya's eyes slowly fluttered open, her cheeks pressed against the soft bright green grass underneath her, yellow and white flowers surrounded her head and body, she lifted her hand resting it against the back of her head as she furrowed her brows. 'my head...' she thought to herself, Maya turned around and propped herself up on her elbows, to see that the green grass was only surrounding her, as if it were a soft mattress to support the impact of her fall.

It was like looking at a black and white hue, with half-torn trees and the ground covered mostly by dirt and little grass that was left. 'where am I?' Maya thought to herself as she got up from the ground.

She walked into the woods trying to figure out where she was, Maya remembered hitting her head on a rock "Am I dead?" she asked herself as she went further into the woods.

'No use if I get lost, I'm pretty sure I'm dead' she thought to herself.

"Well, not really" A voice said coming from her right, it was a gentle voice that echoed through the trees like wind, almost like a whisper but loud enough to hear, Maya made her way through the woods towards the sound, she came towards an opening in the field where patches of green grass grew around a pond that was in front of her, it was quite a large pond as it was the size of a swimming pool, Maya scanned the pond finding a crocodile like head resting on the water, it's jaws just under the water level.

"Who are you...what is this place?" Maya asked, the creature in the pond lifted her head revealing her bright white scales on her perfectly shaped body, the dragon reach out her left talon then her right to pull herself out of the water.

"I am Nyria" She cooed. "And this is purgatory, I am the carer of this realm"

Maya was star struck at how beautiful the dragon was, she was massive with her wings slightly tucked in and had a long matching neck and tail.

"Am I dead?" Maya asked, the dragon looked down at her with her pale yellow eyes.

"No, not really" Nyria replied, Maya looked back at the dragon all confused. "I was once the heir to the realm, but then I had no choice but to pass it on to my brother Deltora" Maya looked at Nyria in confussion.
"what do you mean no choice?" Maya asked, the dragon slunked forwards slumping her head low to the ground as she rested her body on the grass in front of the pind that she arose from.
"My time had come, death of a dragon like me comes when your three hundred years old" she breathed.
Suddenly sounds of birds calling echoed from behind Maya, and one of them sounded like an animal being attacked, Maya turbed to look down the dark forest as the noise became dostorted and less animalistic, it became eriee very quickly.
"How do I get out of this forest?" Maya said as she turned to look at Nyria, only to find more trees scattered in front of her creating a dark pathway.
Maya looked around in confussion wondering what just happened and where Nyria had dissapeared too, however a voice in Maya's mind told her to keep walking, so she did.
Maya had been walking for a few hours to find nothing was changing, the scenery still looked the same, she began to feel frustrated.
"Aw, is the little mouse stuck?" a familiar voice came from behind Maya, she turned around to see Mera, confussed and shocked Maya was confused. "wait, how are you?" Maya stuttered.
"This is the forest of Velvet" Mera said.
"Legend says that it eposes your true fears and all of your nightmares" Mera said as a sword slid out from under her robe ready to kill Maya. "It can also be nauseating, dizziness, tumoress and causes the most vivid delusions!" Mera swung her sword up ready to swing it down onto her, Maya lifted her hands to defend herself, squeezing her eyes shut, as she opened up her eyes Mera had dissapeared.
" YOU NEVER CARED, OR LOVED OR HAD A PASSION FOR ME WHATS SO EVER! " A voice yelled from behind her, Maya turned to see Ryder standing behind her, his eyes darkened as if he was possessed by a demon, his teeth were pointy and serrated like a wolves jaw.
"You left me behind, to deal with your brother, you are ungrateful and a spoiled young woman, I wish I had never given birth to you!" Maya spun around again to see her mother walking towards her in her nightgown that was covered in blood.
"you were useless, you couldn't clean a single dish, let alone cook a dish" Maya spun around again to see her old work supervisor Tom in an apron with meat, blood and animal organs splattered all over his apron.
"no... Please no" Maya sobbed, sje lowered her self to the ground and curled up into a ball, with her legs beant and her head tucked between her legs as she sobbed, the voices continued to echo around her head reminding her of her inner demons and depression 'but i cant be... " she said to herself. " I' ve been doing so well since Mar... " suddenly a memory came across her mind... Her first kiss.
The voices became louder echoing around her.
" you abandoned me! "
" you are nothing but a failure! "
" you let me down! "
Maya began to sob hoping for it to all stop.
Suddenly Maya saw light coming in from between her legs and arms as the voice's stopped.
"You have to keep going" a familiar voice said, Maya lifted up her head to see a hand in front of her, of course she didnt know who to trust anymore however the bright light and the soft voice brought her comfort, she reached out for the hand as she got pulled up onto her feet, Maya looked up to see Mar looking back at her.
"Maya, you cant give up" he said, tears welled up in Maya's eyes as she starred at him in shock.
"is this... All real?" she asked, Mar looked down at her tilting his head to one side.
"im just a spirit, I've been here this whole time guiding you along, but noa you have to destroy Deltora, hes going to break into this realm and destroy it too"
"what do you mean this whole time?" Maya interrupted.
Mar cocked his head to one side scrunching up his face as if he was remembering a painful memory.
"I watched you cry" he said. "I've watched you... wake up from nightmares, crying in the bathroom and at the funeral..." Mar took a deep breath as Maya's tears began to flow.
"But i have also watched you become a great mother, and I have seen you heal, and I listened to you say goodnight to me everynight" Maya collapsed to the ground as she cried uncontrollably, trying to catch her breath, Mar crouched down reaching his arms out to embrace her.
"but you have to be strong now, the final battle is upon us, you have to be strong... Protect our children" Maya's breathing began to calm down as she realised that he was right, that she had to move on and let go, but she also had to protect her children.
Maya starred at the ground, her fingers clenched into the dirt of the grass as her final tears fell onto the soft earth, Maya looked up to see her self in a clearing, facing towards Deltora as he turned around to find her starring dead straight into her eyes...

TO BE CONTINUED...

((I apoligise that its been aaaages since I last posted a chapter, I had recently gone through a horrible stillbirth with my son that still affects my mental well-being even today, I am slowly gettibg bacl into it so I can continue the series and finish it off, thank you for your patience and thank you for reading!!))