Waking Other Lives (Completed, Drakon Series, Book 1)

The Mission

"Abby, what's going on?" I asked. "How come you are here under the water, and you remember it all? Did grandma send you?" I wanted to hug her; I did, but not before I heard what she had to say.

"No, your grandma didn't send me. I have the ability to move in between the worlds; I'm the only one who can actually," she explained.

"I don't understand. I didn't even know where I was when I ended up in here, and you are telling me you knew about this place all along? How could you have known, how could you even possess the ability to travel back and forth? Do you know what's going on here? How come I ended up here, and what do I need to do to get back?" I said.

"Those are too many questions, my dear Sierra," she said, laughing. "Let me get to them one at a time... I've been calling you for some time now, but he always got in the way, not allowing me to explain."

"Who, Seth?"

"Yes, Sierra. Listen, this will come as news to you, but I want you to listen carefully to everything I tell you. The only way you can go back is to complete the mission, though I can travel freely in between the worlds, I do not have the power to bring somebody else with me."

"Who are you, Abby?" I asked, thinking I was losing my mind. This was not the Abby I had lunch with every day, gossiping and laughing about trivial matters, the one with whom I talked for hours on the phone in the weekends. I still remembered the many times we studied together in her dorm room till dawn before our Calculus midterm just to fall asleep in her bed from exhaustion, the many times we'd watched Baran's basketball games with a large popcorn on our laps, cheering for the team until our vocal chords were busted. It was also Abby who had comforted me till the morning when my grandma had had a stroke. No, this was not that Abby. "Are you using my friend's body as a vessel?" I asked, a new comprehension dawning on me.

"No, Sierra, I'm not. I am your friend, Abby, right in the flesh. I am, however, also something else."

"Yes? I'm listening," I said impatiently. The wait was killing me; I wanted to know it all.

"Let me start right from the beginning. Thousands and thousands of years ago, the Goddess of Fire created the Drakons to coexist with the humans. The Drakons had the ability to shift into their animal form, their dragon, any time they wanted. They were ferocious and powerful creatures at the time, as they are now which, I'm sure, you had the ability to witness for yourself. The Drakons and the humans lived peacefully for some time, but it didn't take long for the Drakons to yearn for something more. They believed that they were far more superior creatures than the weaklings they called humans, and they soon began to roam in the air, blowing their fire on them, killing millions and millions of them right at the spot, where they stood. It was then that the protectors emerged, your grandma being one of them, to save the humankind from extinction. The protectors were a group of ancient beings, with the ability to mask humans from Dragon sight, until they could start to reproduce once again."

This fascinating, yet so very hard to believe, the story had taken me in its firm grip, I was neither able to move, or speak. All I could do was listen.

"But, of course, this was not a permanent solution. The protectors needed to rid the Drakons of their beastly nature, but they didn't possess that kind of power. They appealed to the sister of the Fire Goddess to end the war between the two species. And, thankfully she heard them."

"What did she do?" I whispered.

"She put their dragons into dormant sleep, and she hid the key inside a few humans that passed from generation to generation."

"The key?" I asked.

"The key, or in other words, the light. You are one of them, Sierra. You are the light."