Among Dragons (Editing)

Chapter 5

It was only when I returned to the silence and privacy of my room that the realization of what I had just agreed to registered in my mind. I was going to go off in this world that my entire life I had been told was a lie up until now, to negotiate with dragons? The whole scenario was so comical that it sounded like something a child would make up in their imagination.

I sunk to my knees onto the wood floor below. It creaked from my movement and shift in weight. For some reason, that sound of the wood, so real and familiar, struck a chord of remembrance through me. It sounded just like the old wood on my grandmother’s beach house, when I would try to sneak across it in order to take trips out to the beach past curfew. There was no mistaking that this wood was just as real as the other one had been, and that meant that it was my reality in that moment.

A tremor shook my body from the uneasiness of my nerves. It felt like a scream was trying to crawl out of my throat to pierce the air, but I knew it was only an intense feeling of dread. No matter how much I tried to breath in, the air never seemed to fill my lungs completely and entirely. I was always coming up short and wheezing just a little too hard.

With a hand that shook as much as a leaf in a strong stormy wind, I brushed a piece of hair out of my eyes. When the fingertip touched my skin, I was surprised to feel it wet with tears. I couldn’t believe how weak I felt. Hadn’t I always said how much I wanted to escape into another world and actually live? Why was I so scared now, when that wish actually came true?

None of the people I had in my worlds would ever react like this. Never. If they were switched in my situation, they would pick themselves off of hard floor, wipe off the tears like they never fell, and get rested for the grand adventure in store for them the next day. I could easily picture myself going through the motions and standing with a strong posture, rigid with pride and assurance in myself, but it was only my imagination.

Instead of being strong like I pictured, or excited like I wished, I was weak like I feared. My body curled into a heap on the hard, cold floor, and I stayed like that, letting the light pad of my tears hitting the wood lull me into sleep. 

~

 My eyes fluttered open with a blissful ignorance to everything. For a brief moment, I was able to admire the way the sun slanted through the window and brightened the light decor of the room around me. It brought with it a faint scent of freshness, something you’d only smell on a cool spring day. It was almost as if I could smell how clean and pure the land was.

Then reality crashed into its rightful place.

Pain from lying on the hard, unforgiving floor all night and dread for what the day had in store for me shot through my body in tandem when I finally picked it up from the ground. My neck felt like it couldn’t support my head all that well, and all of my muscles were screaming from the sudden change in movement.

A knock jolted me from the absence of thoughts in my head. “Miss Kindler?” The voice was muffled from the door. “Miss Kindler, I was sent to get you ready for this morning.” I could see the shadow of a body underneath the small gap between the door and the floor.

“Okay, you can come in,” I called back. It was a feat that I didn’t cringe at how raspy and raw my voice sounded.

The door opened with an old sounding moan, revealing a maid with a kind, open face. She stepped into the room with the loud clack of a boot, her expression immediately crushing into worry. “Oh, honey, what are you doing on the floor? Please, let me help you up.” She was over to my side in a second and her warm hands brought me up to my feet.

“Thank you,” I said down to the floor boards with a sheepish blush. “I was just lying in the sunshine for a bit.”

I could tell the maid didn’t believe me, from the way her face pinched tighter into worry. She seemed young, young enough to not be questioned why she didn’t have children yet, but also old enough that she wouldn’t be questioned if she did.