The Unlikely Hero

Chapter 19. Treasure Door

"I said relax, not drowse!" Soran yelled at me and I felt his small fist land on top of my head considerably painfully.

"Oww," I moaned as I glowered at him vehemently.

"Now, RELAX," he hissed through his teeth before softening his voice once again. "Let go of everything around you, just sink into the back of your mind. It's that easy! Just... think of where you want to go, what you want to see... forget the now and here - there is nothing here anymore-"

"There's you," I commented and giggled. I just couldn't help it.

That, by the way, earned me another fist on my head.

"You're impossible!" Soran exclaimed as he rose up from the bed. "You know the drill. Practice by yourself now."

I watched him exit the room warily and then plopped down on the bed on my belly. My hands reached for the pillow and I stuffed it under my arms, crossing them on the pillow and laying my chin on top of my hands.

The past few days have been the most horrible and the most fun I have ever had in my life. Soran took me through a harsh training course and I practiced day and night. When the sun was up, I was trying to get control over my dragon form. At first Ralph's potions helped me change my appearance (and believe me, they seemed to taste uglier and uglier by the minute), but later on I got the hang of it, which was rather surprising to both me and Soran. However, even if I finally could turn into a dragon at my own will, that did not mean my flying skills were any better. I had been practicing almost non-stop and it could be proven by the bruises all over my body. It was quite often that I found myself splattered to a cliff after taking the wrong turn, so to say. Well, at the very least, I was enjoying these self-learning lessons. Flying was simply divine. The air and the wind, the feeling of freedom and power in all my muscles and bones. The intoxicating heights my wings could take me to. If not for constant Soran's grumbling I'd be enjoying this immensely. To think, at first, I did not want to turn into a dragon. Ha! Stupid me.

Either way, if my flying lessons were going more or less smoothly, I could hardly say the same about my Dreamwalking ability. To the deepest convictions of Soran, I had to learn how to control my Dreamwalking talent as it was vital in saving the world. And so, I spent half of the nights trying to initiate my Dreamwalking. I had yet to succeed. Again, according to Soran, I merely haven't been trying hard enough, but I must do so for it is the only way to hold the black dragon back, seeing as I am "incapable of defeating Jeth". For a moment there, I was wondering why he had so little faith in me, but then again, knowing what I was up against, so be it. I actually wished there would be someone else brave enough to take on that dragon. And why did I have to be the one to save the world, huh?

"Ugh," I sighed as I rolled to my back, staring at the ceiling. I was dead tired.

Furthermore, I had no wish to Dreamwalk. If Dreamwalking meant ending up in the same vicinity as Jeth, then thank you but I'll pass. I wondered if perhaps it was my subconscious unwillingness that was in the way of developing my talent.

"I just wish I could Dreamwalk somewhere with another dragon, not Jeth. A dragon, but not Jeth," I muttered as my eyelids closed and without even my noticing it my consciousness slipped away. I merely registered a flash of a dark screen and my mind shrilled in alert as I forced myself to open my eyes.

Yet, as I did so, I was no longer in my room in Soran's Tower. No, once again I found myself floating in my bubbly state, but the location was unfamiliar to me. I was up above what seemed to be a barren cliff somewhere deep in the mountains. It was so high I could hardly see the earth below.

"Greaaaat," I muttered as I kept looking around trying to find any signs of life or at least something that would allow me to determine where I was.

"I should not have mentioned that stupid Jeth. If he sees me here I'll be a freaking splattered ball of flying material!" I grumbled as my eyes scanned my surroundings carefully.