THE DRAGON HEALER [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 1: THE RED DOOR

It was the depth of winter, among the falling snow and pitch dark sky, a tale awaited to be told. A tale that began in the dead of the winter night when two people walked with their heavy snow boots in a forest filled with gigantic trees—old and majestic trees that had seen so much. The trees had lost their leaves, leaving their branches and trunk dried out by the frozen cold weather. The branches looked like hundreds of straggling dark arms and the twigs were like claws that intertwined and waved in the wind. The darkness of the branches became a beautiful contrast with the whiteness of the snow that stuck to them.

The two people, drowned in their winter coat adorned with wolves' fur and their wool shawls, walked as fast as they could in the thick snow.

It was a man and a woman.

The woman was carrying something against her chest. Something swaddled in a few layers of thick black wool blankets.

"We are almost there, Hanna," the man spoke while turning his head slightly to Hanna, he walked a step ahead of the woman and gingerly craned his neck to watch the path in front of him.

"I hope so, Garlan. I also hope there is no more blizzard, and we can do this task well ..."

The man, Garlan, stopped walking, turning to Hanna again with a deep conviction in his brown eyes. "We can. We have to do this as instructed by our lady. For the good of our kingdom and homeland."

Hanna blinked and nodded, trying hard to be brave.

"It is a great blessing from the gods above, don't you think, Hanna? We have been married for years, and we have wished and prayed and hoped for a child but the gods have not granted us our wish until now. Now we have this task ... this perfect task!" Garlan lifted his arms up to the sky as if he was paying homage to the gods.

Hanna nodded harder this time. Courage started showing in her eyes.

The swaddle in her arms moved slightly, and a soft cry of a baby broke the silence. Hanna rushed to rock the baby gently while also singing lullabies in whispers to the child."We will love this child like we love our own. And the bag with gold coins that our lady has given us will help with raising this child," Garlan stepped closer and caressed the baby's head. But his eyes noticed that Hanna suddenly grew much more somber.

"Hanna? What is it?" he patted his wife's shoulder.

Hanna heaved and shook her head. "I just-I just cannot even fathom the pain in our lady's heart to have to ... to have to do this ..." the woman shivered and could not continue her sentence because her emotion brewed stronger.

The baby's cry subsided and Garlan remained quiet because he was not sure what the right thing to say was. His right hand still caressed the baby's head for a few more seconds before stopping and pulling his hand back to him as gentle as he could.

When the baby had settled a bit more, and the couple continued walking again. Once in a while they looked back to make sure noone followed them, then walked again with great care and silence.

The night had grown late, the sky was clear with stars dotted the vast darkness. The forest was quiet, there was only the sound of the boots getting in and out of the snow.

Garlan and Hanna arrived at a clearing in the depth of the forest, a clearing the size of about two soccer fields. The two stood still for a moment, admiring the only tree that grew in the middle of the snow-covered clearing.

The tree was massive, about two times the size of a giant sequoia. Its ancient age could be seen by the dark, knotted, rough bark of the trunk—a trunk with diameter so big that maybe fifty or more adults could join their hands and may still not be able to completely encircle it. The trunk was long with no branch whatsoever until up higher at which point the branches started showing and they were also impressive in sight.

"The enchanted tree," Garlan whispered with awe in his eyes.

"Look, the door ..." Hanna cocked her chin to the tree, to a spot on the tree where the gigantic roots intertwined as if they were forming a gate, and beyond the intertwining roots, on the trunk itself, was a door. A half-circle sturdy oak door painted blood red with a gold carving of a dragon in the middle of it. There were also some writings below the dragon carving, writing of characters carved in gold as well.

Garlan nodded. "Come, Hanna, let's walk again," he said and started walking across the clearing, straight to the red door with Hanna following close behind.

When the couple got to the front of the door, the two were quiet again.

"Where is the key that our lady gave to you?" Hanna whispered to her husband as her arms unconsciously tightened her embrace of the baby.

Garlan took something out of his coat pocket. A gleaming silver key. "It is here."

Hanna's expression grew more determined. "Do it, Garlan."

Suddenly a loud roar was heard from far away, a roar loud enough to rattle the red oak door. Garlan and Hanna startled and turned around to the direction of the roar. Their breathing became faster as fear crept within them.

"They have grown so restless these days. I hope all will be well again in our homeland here, Hanna." Garlan bit his lips as creases of worry deepened on his forehead.

"They are in a great pain and sorrow, Garlan. They are grieving the death of our beloved king, their master. I hope our lady can heal them ..." Hanna sighed before continuing,"Maybe the gods are indeed angry. It is a bad omen," she whispered with obvious tremble in her voice while her eyes focused on the baby in her embrace."Bad omen ..." she whispered again, now to the baby.

Roaring sound shook them again.

Then the two stood still for a moment as their heart became more weary by the sound of the roaring from far away.

"We have to go!" Garlan snapped himself back to the moment, turned to face the red door again, and placed the key into the key hole. His right hand was too shaky to get the key into the keyhole the first time. He tried a couple more times and was successful finally.

The key turned, and the red door creaked open.

Garlan heaved a loud sigh. Wafting fog came out from behind the door and the door creaked open wider.

Garlan took his wife's left hand, grasped it tight, and waited for the door to be completely open.

"This is it," Hanna tightened her right arm around the baby and her left hand grasped her husband's hand as tight as she could. She was scared, and she knew Garlan too.

When the door completely opened, they saw a tunnel and a light at the end of the tunnel. The couple stole a glance at each other and walked into the tunnel, a tunnel that would bring them to a world unknown for them.

The red door slammed shut behind them.

The gold carving of the writings on the door gleamed, it said:

This is the tree of the god Pan, a gift to the House of Evara for their service to him. May the majestic House of Evara be known forever as the House of the Dragon Healer.

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