DRAGONQUEEN: RISE OF THE SILVER PHOENIX

Chapter 2 - Aftermath

Rebecca stirs from her sleep. The smell is the first that sends warning bells through her sleep-addled mind. Instead of smelling the telltale smell of anesthesia and disinfectant of a hospital fresh air mixed with a dusty smell greets her nose. She hears a man shouting orders. She could not hear everything, but what she could make out is that the Greenwood keep security had been heightened to the maximum.

Wait, he said keep. She opens her eyes and focuses on her room. The room is as large as her apartment in New York with grey stone walls. In the corner, she sees a wooden bath, instead of a bathroom door. There is a cupboard that belongs in the middle ages, but the wood looks relatively newly treated as if it was done in the last decade or so.

Rebecca shifts onto her back and finds herself in a nightgown that made her throw off the covers and shudder in horror. She screams in panic. The searing rough scratching material she is wearing made her realize she is not having a dream. This is real. Two armed soldiers in plate armor rush into her room brandishing their swords instead of guns and with noisy, clamoring steel armor on instead of suits or police uniforms. One has leather armor and the other chain mail armor.

For a second she stares at them with eyes wide and filled with panic, fear, and astonishment before she reacts in complete shock and anger.

"Where the hell am I?! Why am I dressed like I am in the middle ages? Why do you have swords? How long was I out?"

The men blush and avert their eyes. "Your majesty, you are not dressed."

"It is Rebecca and you have not answered my questions! I'm covered in this disgusting nightgown out of the neanderthal era!" Rebecca says her angry voice seems to echo back at her in the large bedroom. Rebecca furrows her brow in anger as she stares at the two men, who are embarrassed by seeing Rebecca in a sleeping gown. Another shudder of disgust runs through her for this thing she is wearing. It feels like she is wearing a material that is meant for packaging onions. The material is light cream. A rope collar chokes her neck and thin rope cuffs around her wrists feel like it is on the verge of cutting off the blood supply to her hands.

"Because, I am the one that is supposed to answer your questions," came a very aristocratic voice that sounds like it belongs to an opera singer. "You can return to your posts gentleman." The two men nod, sheath their swords, and leave the room. "This must be a shock to you."

Understatement of the year, Rebecca thought while rolling her eyes at the statement.

Rebecca looks at the older woman with some interest. She has flowing sandy blond hair and emerald green eyes. She looks like Lisa, but older. She wears an emerald green corset dress with embroidered floral decorations almost the same shade as the dress.

Next to her is a glum-looking Lisa that follows her into the room. "I did try to warn you about this Rebecca. I am sorry if this is still a huge shock to you."

"I am not wearing a dress like that! Urgh! Get this thing off me! It feels like I am wearing a flour sack. I prefer cotton!" Rebecca continues to lash out.

"You don't have a choice. This is the latest fashion of this era." Lisa tries to calm Rebecca, but her eyes seem sad and puffy and it looks like she has been in a heated argument with her mother that she lost. You can still see the discomfort between them and the way that Lisa is trying to stand away from her mother is telling Rebecca she hasn't buried the proverbial battle ax yet.

"Fashion?! You know how little I care about fashion! Answer me! Where am I? What the hell are you talking about? What is going on? Why am I supposed to wear something that looks like it belongs in the Jurassic era and who are you?" Rebecca counters.

"I am Leticia of the Greenwood sorcerers bloodline and my daughter you already know. You are in my keep in the village of Dragonvale a part of your kingdom. You have returned after growing up in the future two thousand years from now to your original timeline twenty years after your parents' death. They..." Rebecca silence Leticia with a raised hand.