Among Dragons (Editing)

Chapter 4

I felt my eyes flutter open with a start. My breath was an inward gasp, taking in the static air that snapped in my lungs with every inhale. Dark, stormy clouds swirled around my feet with lethargy. I looked around the room I was in, but it didn't even look like a room at all. It looked like I had been stuck into the middle of a storm, the large wisps obscuring any sign of an exit.

The only other thing in the cloud besides me was a teenage boy, who was standing and looking at me with a naive grin on his face. Little snaps of electricity bolted across his skin and through his brown hair.

"Seer," He said before breaking out into a wide grin again. "You seem young."

I stepped forward slowly, unsure if the clouds below me would hold. They did. "As do you."

That elicited a laugh from him, and a large crack of lightning snapped from one side of the room to the other. I jumped from the blinding flash and sudden loud noise.

"Do you know who I am, Seer?"

"Raiden," I said, repeating the name that Niram had whispered earlier. "The dragon of lightning."

"Quite right. The eighth dragon, and the final, for now." He began to pace back and forth, stirring up the gray clouds at his feet. Was this what all of the dragons looked like in their state of minds? Humans? Raiden even had on normal clothes, a gray shirt and black shorts. They also crackled with electricity.

"Do you know why I'm here?"

Raiden looked up at me suddenly, like I had interrupted an important train of thought. His blue eyes narrowed at me with scrutiny. "To make friends? To gossip about all the latest village drama?" His eyes skimmed over my clothes. "You don't look much like a Seer."

I tightened my jaw at his sarcasm. "No, I don't actually. I came from the realm of logic."

"Ah, that explains it." A smirk slid onto his face. "Isn't it ironic that a realm that claims to be entirely logical is actually so idiotic?" His laugh sparked through the air almost like the bolts of lightning did.

Aggravation twisted in my chest. "I was sent here to stop you from destroying the kingdom."

That elicited another laugh from Raiden. "Destroy the kingdom? Me? Why do they think that I'd destroy the only place that I am aware of at the moment that will worship me?"

I shrugged helplessly.

"Seems like the people of this realm don't have much logic either," He said with a knowing smirk. Amusement crackled in his eyes with a piercing sharpness. "I do have you to thank, though. I am now alive and free to do as I please."

"How do you know so much if you were just born?"

"How do I know so much?" Another amused smile. "A question only asked by the realm of logic, I suppose." Raiden continued his pacing back and forth in thought. His chest was puffed up high with his pride of being such a fascinating mystery to me. I struggled not to scoff.

"We are dragons, Seer. We know all, we are all. It's part of the reason why we are worshipped here like gods." His eyes locked with my own, and I could sense the power of it. It was a shockwave through my body, taking my breath away and leaving me feeling exposed. "We are gods. The gods of this realm anyways."

I just nodded and broke my gaze away to trace the ghosts the flashes of lightning left behind as they finished their streaks across the clouds. What was I supposed to say to that? He knew I had submitted to his power already, I could see it in the way that he looked at me possessively, as his first follower.

But he was still young and naive, as was I. Even though I knew he claimed to know so much, he didn't know the strength of the other dragons and what he could and could not get away with. The doubt was an undermining feel in the air, but it was still there, and I still felt it.