Scaled Guardian

Chapter 5

"This woman," The female had gestured towards the one who had turned their head slightly when they entered, "is the queen, Azari."

Aallel stared at the seated woman. She wore a white cloak, the hood hiding her eyes. Thick, black strands of hair flowed down in front of her, ending at about where her hips were. She had slowly stood up and made long strides over towards him and his two companions.

She smiled, "Can I assume this boy is the one I asked you to bring home, Eiiyuu? Never?" She had asked the two others standing beside Aallel.

Azari didn't look at either of them specifically when she said their names, so Aallel wasn't really sure of who was who. Even though he didn't really know, he kind of just assumed Eiiyuu was the girl and Never was the boy. Those names seemed to fit better than it being the other way around.

Now that he was thinking about it though, what kind of name was Never? How did anyone ever get a name like that and why?

Aallel was dragged out of his thoughts when Azari had grabbed onto his hand, "Welcome. Welcome to our home. Welcome to your home, Aallel," She smiled kindly to him.

He just felt shocked, "M-My home?! What are you talking about?! I've never lived here and I never will! I don't want to! I just want to... go..." He had a hard time trying to finish his sentence, as he had started to cry. He brought the arm that wasn't being held by the queen up to his face and covered his eyes. What he couldn't say, he finished in his head. He said he had wanted to return home. The home he knew. The one with his family. He wanted those weird shadow creatures, or shadow dragons, dead. The ones who killed his family. He felt he wanted them to suffer. He actually wanted to be the one to make them suffer if it was possible. He wanted to see them ripped apart, as he had seen the white haired girl and her companion do the other day. He was kind of wishing, that just for a moment, he was like them. The claws and speed is what he wanted. Just enough to tear them down, all on his own.

He felt something squeeze his hand. He looked up slightly, still holding his arm to his face. He saw Azari smiling up at him. He realized she had still been holding onto his hand and that that small squeeze had come from her.

"We'll bring you home. You'll be home soon."

"H-How could you possibly ever do that...? I could be at the place I call home, but it won't be home anymore. I-It's different. It'll never be anything like it used to be." Aallel pulled his hand away and started to cover his face to try and hide away from all of them.

Azari only smiled, "When it is time, we'll show you your 'home.'"

"Eiiyuu," Azari made a gesture for the girl to come towards them. Aallel's guess at Eiiyuu being the girl seemed to be right.

"I want you to take Aallel to his room, please. And help him a little with anything he may need or want to know."

Eiiyuu only nodded.

Azari bowed before beginning to walk back to her place. Aallel watched for a few seconds until he was suddenly shoved. He turned his head to see Eiiyuu trying to get him to go down one of the halls.

Now that Aallel was thinking about it, he sort of felt like he was some prisoner or something as Eiiyuu was just walking behind him, shoving him to keep him going sometimes. He was brought past many doors, some being opened a little bit. He could see some people walking around in their rooms, wings and tail seeming to be slumped down against their backs, as if they were too lazy to even move them. They all seemed to just be doing things a normal person would be doing. Some were reading some books or listening to music or playing around on computers. Just plain, normal things.

Aallel found this to be strange. He didn't think these dragon-like people would do the things he found to be apart of his daily life. Thinking about it, he just assumed they would be totally different, just because of their extra features.

As he was walking, looking around the long hall, he felt a sudden grab at the collar of his shirt from behind and someone pull him to a stop with a jerk. He was a little shocked and stumbled back a bit, turning his head around.

He saw Eiiyuu facing a door while still holding onto his shirt. He even noticed that she looked like a normal human now. No wings, tail, or webbed ears.

"This will be your room," She spoke and went to turn the door knob, revealing a neat looking room. It has a bed, side table and a dresser.

"In this dresser," She walked into his new room and walked over towards the wooden dresser, "there are a few clothes that should fit you. If not, we can go and get someone to make it fit better," She moved towards the center of the room and leaned on her right foot, gesturing to the whole room, "And this is your own little space while you are up here. Do whatever you want. Do you have any questions or anything you'd like to say?" Eiiyuu placed a hand on her hip.

"I want to go home."

"You can't."

"Why not?!" Aallel spoke a little louder, as if he meant to yell.

"Because," She glared in his direction.

Aallel sighed, annoyed, "That's NOT an answer!!"

"Yes it is."

"Not a real one!! It doesn't explain anything to me!!"

"You don't need an explanation. Not now at least. You'll get your explanation on all of this tonight, at around 12:11 A.M."

He looked towards her, a bit shocked, "Why do I have to wait so late for you guys to explain yourselves?!"

"You're birthday's tomorrow, right?" Eiiyuu tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh...?" Aallel looked confused, as he thought about when his birthday was, "Uh... I guess... Yeah, it's tomorrow... How do you know?"

"You were born at 12:11 A.M., correct?"

Aallel kinda shrugged his shoulders, "I'm honestly not sure, I never asked about what time I was born... It never came to mind."

Eiiyuu sighed and placed her hand over her face, "We are pretty sure you were born at 12:11, so that's when we're telling you, 'kay?"

"Why do you have to tell me at the time I was born? What's the problem with just telling me now?"

"Because rules. We have rules up here, just as you do, down on your land." She walked over towards Aallel, who was still near the doorway. "I'll return about half an hour before 12:11, alright? Please, just stay calm about this, and you'll get your explanation."

She walked out and closed his door.

Aallel stared down at the ground and slowly lifted his head, looking around what is apparently his room now. He took slow steps over towards the bed and ran a hand over the sheets. All he did now was climb onto the bed and closed his eyes, attempting to dream all of this away.