Dragon Queen: Book One-Scarlet Reign

Chapter Thirteen- The Gardener

The light was so bright, Aelwen could barely open her eyes. When she managed to crack them open just enough to see before her, she was shocked to find her vision obscured by a web of tree branches and leaves.

Her body felt... very strange. It was as if she was as light as a feather and as intangible as mist, yet she still had substance to her.

She yawned and blinked as if awakening from a very deep slumber, and looked around. It looked like she was in a small oval shaped hole in a tree, but with branches growing over the opening. Aelwen glanced down at her body and gasped. It was red, as before, but it wasn't the body of a dragon. Rather, it was that of a tiny fawn made of red light. She would have felt panicked, yet somehow... it felt right. She felt calm.

The branches opened before her as if they were living things, and, as if by instinct, Aelwen hopped out. Her small hooves landed on beautiful turquoise and green grass which acted as the floor to an enormous forest. White sparks of light danced through the air like fireflies, while canopies of leaves high, high above sent down drips of water to the ground below.

She looked behind her to see a huge tree in the shape of a dragon. A dragon that looked just like her. In its chest was the hole she had exited from. It's wooden wings spread over her like a mother bird over a child. Willow-like leaves formed the membranes of the wings. The tree's soft bark seemed to call to Aelwen, asking her to come back into the tree, and nestle within its branches. She wanted to, but there was something else calling her. Something even more powerful.

The tiny red fawn wandered forward into the forest, and stared in wonder at the many trees within, all shaped like various people and creatures. Within each tree was a tiny glowing creature. Some were cats, others dogs, others bears, fish, or birds. Each was a different color, and each lit up the place in a dazzling array of lights. However, unlike Aelwen, all were sleeping, cuddled snuggly within their tree's hollows.

Something else stroke Aelwen as strange. Behind each tree shaped like a human... was a tree shaped like a dragon. They were attached to each other at the back, and seemed to grow into one another naturally.

Curious, Aelwen trotted back to her own tree, and walked to the other side of it. Indeed, behind the tree in the shape of her dragon form... was one in the shape of her human form, complete with flowing brown hair cascading down her chest made from willow leaves.

She stared in wonder. Where am I? she wondered. What could this possibly mean?

A soft bird call directed her attention to the top of the tree. There sat a fully grown phoenix, its blazing white eyes staring directly at her.

A soft sound rose in Aelwen's throat as she gazed at the bird. As she tried to speak, instead a soft tune emanated from her throat. She sang a simple melody, one that seemed to tell the phoenix all it needed to know. It nodded, and took off. Aelwen followed, her mind ariff with questions.

The phoenix flew past person-shaped tree after tree, with the tiny fawn trotting closely behind. A woman's voice grew louder and louder as they moved. She was singing a beautiful song with words Aelwen couldn't identify. But the voice felt so comforting, so understanding, she didn't really care.

Somehow, despite the strangeness of it all... everything just felt so right.

The trees were getting smaller and smaller, the people and dragons depicted in them younger and younger, until finally, they were only newborn babies and small, sprouting seedlings.

The phoenix stopped and flew directly above, disappearing into the floating canopy pierced by a beam of sunlight, which fell upon a tiny meadow, spotlighting it.