Prophecy

Chapter 2

When I wake up, the sun still hasn't risen, although the sky is more gray than black now, and the first few stars are beginning to wink out.  The pain in my arm has mostly subsided, and my makeshift bandage is now soaked in blood, but I don't remove the cloth.  My legs are freshly sore, and there are imprints in my leg from the gravel on the path.  When I look around, I spot a sharp branch hanging low over the path, with my dried blood on it.  Taking a closer look at it, there's something unusual about this particular patch of dried blood.  It glitters in the moonlight, shimmering unnaturally.  I glare at it.

As if my life isn't hard enough without even more weird crap.

As I continue up the steep path, I begin to think that there is no end to it, that my life has come down to starving to death on this wretched mountain, until the path levels out to a more gentle slope. I feel my legs' soreness lessen as I pick up my speed on the more even part of the path.  After another sharp turn, I find myself at something new.

The path transitions from gravel to cobble and goes on for a few yards before encircling a fountain, which is just a statue of a wingless dragon holding a sun of crystal in its two front paws with a barely visible spout in its mouth.  I suppose that it once spewed water into the marble base around the dragon's feet, but now it is dry as a bone.  A cherry tree bearing fruit aplenty towers over the path, creating a kind of protective half tunnel over it.  The path splits into three others at the beginning of the large circular clearing and goes around the edge of it, the middle part that leads around the fountain dividing the clearing in half.  A thick wall of tree trunks surrounds the clearing, and little white flowers grow in scattered patches around the grass.  I can hear faint whispering somewhere behind the wall of tree trunks, and cherry blossom petals swirl slowly constantly around the clearing like a soft, pink tornado.

"Hello?  Is anyone there?" I call into the clearing, which immediately hushes the quiet voices.  My voice is coarse from dehydration, so I begin to request instinctively, "Is there anywhere I can get a little bit of water?  Some food would be nice, too, but if it's too much to ask..." I stop mid-sentence upon hearing the voices return.  "Hello?"  I repeat.

I whip my head to the left in time to see the wall of oak trunks twist and bend to make a broad gap form with a creak.  The petals change course to go over this new gap, and through it steps the most magnificent creature I have ever seen.

A dragon.

The dragon's sales dance with color, gold and orange flying across the hard surface. It silently looks into my eyes with its own narrow, red ones, possibly looking deep into me, deeper than I can imagine. I raise my hand, but before I can greet the beast, a creak behind me signals another entrance: a dragon with almond-shaped green eyes and scales flickering with emerald and dark sienna. Neither of these beasts have wings, like I typically imagine. The trunks have resumed their formidable stance as a wall as I look between the two dragons, trying to wrap my head around the situation. I finally manage, "Please don't hurt me."

I know. Real creative.

The golden dragon holds up its paw for silence, and I seal my lips. Maybe they don't need me to explain further? It does not part its lips, but I suddenly hear a voice speak clearly in my mind (one that most certainly isn't mine).

"We're not here to hurt you. You do not need to explain yourself, either. We are the ones who brought you here.  This place is an island just off the coast of Hawaii.  We brought you here so as not to alarm anyone else in your neighborhood." The dragon's voice is firm and feminine.  My mouth hangs open for a moment... until I realize I'm gaping.

"I'm sorry, but I'm still very much confused," I stutter.  I can hear the dragon chuckle softly, still using that odd telepathic method of speech.  I prepare myself to be defensive.