The Mark of Arella(Book One of the Dragonfly Chronicles)

Chapter One

Lilly found herself in a strange room. Things were hazy and she wasn't quite sure where she was at. She could see a bed with a beautiful red haired woman laying down and grimacing in pain. There was a handsome strange looking man sitting by her side holding her hand. "Everything will be all right my love, just breathe deep". Another beautiful woman with the same strange appearance and long raven hair was at her side whispering words of comfort as well. In the corner of the room, she saw a man with a young boy on his lap. They were very quiet as if waiting for something to happen. The young boy squirmed in his chair. "What's wrong with her papa?" he said. The man whispered to the boy, "she is about to have a baby my son" The boys eyes got wide as he gasped and watched the scene before him.

Lilly was shaken out of her dream by Robyn who was now her college roommate. "Did you fall asleep doing math again?" "Come on Lilly, we need to get dressed and meet Shannon. The guys will be meeting us at the Fox in two hours." Lilly groaned and got up. She loved her friends, but hated going out in public. She would much rather be at home painting or reading a book. Lately she had been so consumed with these vivid dreams that she began to paint the strange people. She had painted the young boy first. He was so delicate and beautiful. His eyes were a piercing deep blue and his hair was black as night. He couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 but she always found him to be the most captivating of all the people in her dreams. It was like she was drawn to him by an unforeseen force but could not explain why.

Then, there was the golden woman. She only came into the dream a few times, but she was bright and formidable. The people in the dream seemed to revere her and also fear her. She tried painting her a few times, but found she could never quite get the golden light that surrounded the beautiful woman quite right. Maybe it was because the golden woman rarely showed up in those dreams. Mostly she just saw the red haired woman and a small baby. The dreams seemed so real and had been haunting her for as long as she could remember. Robyn pulled her out of her thoughts again by throwing her clothes and shoes at her.

Lilly and Robyn met at Shannon's house and left together to drive to Boulder. They were on their way to see their favorite band Helio Sequence, play at the Fox Theater. She always hated going out to night clubs. They were loud and you could never hear what anyone was saying to you. She never understood why you would go out with friends only to not be social with them because it was too loud to talk. Then, there was the problem of always being approached by drunk young men trying to start up conversation with her. She had no interest in making new friends or meeting new guys in these kind of places.

It was about a 25 minute drive from Allenspark to Boulder and while driving there, Lilly reminisced about how she came to meet her best friends. When she was 8 years old, she moved from Boston to the small town of Allenspark, Colorado because her family was attacked in their home by 3 invaders. Her mother and father managed to fight them off and were able to call 911 for help. Her father had been shot in the shoulder and her mother was badly beaten. Lilly was knocked out during the invasion and had no memory of the fight. After searching for weeks, the police never found the intruders and this bothered her parents immensely.

Things were never the same after the invasion. Her parents were always on edge so they left their home in Boston and moved to the small town of Allenspark to "be in a small town and away from the big city life". Lilly met Shannon, Robyn and Sam on her first day of school. She remembers Shannon coming to her in the lunchroom and saying "We are going to be best friends, so you might as well come have lunch we me and Robyn." Shannon was right, the three girls had a lot in common and became fast friends. After school that first day, while walking home, Sam came to her side and asked if he could walk with her. He was so sweet and cute that Lilly couldn't help but say yes. It turns out they lived 3 houses away from each other. There hadn't been a day since then that she didn't see Sam. In fact, it felt weird to think about not seeing him.