The Inner Kingdom

Chapter Fourteen - The Action

Location: The Castle

◑ Angie ◐

Every time I wake up it seems to be at the sound of someone knocking. I realized that this time I was not in a warm bed, and my face was pressed against a cool surface.

When I opened my eyes, all I could see was two giant moons illuminating the night sky, and tiny lights below that startled me so bad, I hurriedly scooted away from the glass so fast that I fell backwards onto my head off of the dresser.

Pulling myself up from the floor, the pain I felt in my neck made me feel sorry for the person knocking on the other side of the door.

Stumbling through the darkness in the room, I finally made it to the source of the noise.

Putting on my most irritated face, I opened the door to find Leo on the other side...again.

"Why does it always have to be you?" He sighed heavily backing away from the door.

"My sentiments exactly. Why are you here?" I questioned, feeling like I was having a déjà vu moment.

"I don't know what possessed me to come here," he muttered, starting to turn around and then changed his mind. "I am here to try to talk some sense into you and your sisters."

"Okay, talk." I gestured for him to continue while leaning against the door of the room after closing it softly behind me.

My response must have shocked him since he just stared at me speechless. "You're not going to dispute me?"

"I am too tired to argue with you right now. I will give you five minutes to talk."

"All right, I am going to get straight to the point. I want you to reconsider returning to Earth."

"That was very precise, and it deserves a clear-cut answer. No," I responded, turning my back to him to go back into the room.

"How can you just ignore your sense of duty to your world? What about the family you will be leaving behind? They are expecting to see you again one day. If you leave, you will never see your real parents."

No matter how hard I told myself not to listen to him, and to just walk away and close the door, I could not make my hand turn the doorknob. "What do you expect from us? We were taken away from the only home we have ever known and brought into this world where we are told that this entire world is depending on us to bring peace. In less than twenty-four hours I will be eighteen, and back on Earth I will just be another girl trying to get into a good college. Not a girl literally carrying the weight of a world on her shoulders."

"I understand that this must be difficult."

"No, you don't understand. In two days, you expect us to turn our backs on everything we have been raised to believe is true and believe in a destiny that was told to us by someone who tried to trap us here."

"You must understand why he did it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and listen to reason. Your world is no longer about you or your sisters." Leo stepped closer to me, forcing me to look up into his face. "How do you think Nolin feels knowing that your parents entrusted their babies to him to keep safe, and he in return handed the dragon warriors over to people, who would soon come to betray their own world?"

"What would you do if you were in my situation?" I asked deflated and confused by the many emotions going through me.

"I'm not going to say I wouldn't be angry. You have every right to be upset, and I know Nolin regrets ever lying to all of you," he stated backing away with his eyes still on me. "I believe you already know what to do, and in the end you will do what's right. At least that is what I would do."