The Journey To Orillion

Chapter 2: Home

Esmeralda, I do not believe this is an ordinary dream. I am real; you are currently standing in my cavern, and the water dripping from you is making a small puddle. Dreams would never cover that much detail. You must understand, you are magical! You have magical ancestry, and you have a great destiny awaiting you. Listen to me, Esmeralda, the people you live with, aren't your actual family. Your father was my mother's champion, which means that your father and my mother were bound together by a spell so tight, they spent the rest of their lives together, and they died in battle, fighting to protect each other.

Esmeralda thought that through and said doubtfully, "That can't be right. My father was a farmer, too poor to keep his daughter. He couldn't have had a dragon! I would have been raised with him if that were the case."

But you see, Adracia said, your father gave you away to protect you. He knew the battle was coming and sent you away to keep you alive. As Esmeralda contemplated this, something started happening to her physical form.

~in Esmeralda's bedroom~

Esmeralda's maid, Cami, the woman the family has had for nearly 16 years, walked in through the birch door into Esmeralda's room with a basket of clothes. Cami then, noticing the sleeping girl, quietly walked to Esmeralda's bright yellow dresser to put up the laundry she had folded. Cami checked the clock to see how long it was until Esmeralda's softball practice. It's nearly noon, Esmeralda should be up by now. Cami felt that something wasn't right, (Esmeralda and Cami have always been best friends, being there to talk to each other when they felt alone) but she thought she could figure it out once Esmeralda was up and around. She dropped her basket lightly on the black and white striped rug, then calmly walked over to Esmeralda's bed.

"Esmeralda, dear, you must wake up," Cami said, shaking the bed lightly, her wrinkled hands gripping the mattress. Esmeralda did not move. She didn't awake and said, "Oh, Miss Cami! Good morning. Thank you for waking me." Cami felt a prickle of panic crawl up her spine. She shook the bed, adrenaline helping her push harder.

"Esmeralda. Wake up, dear. Please," But Esmeralda did not wake up. She was as still as a stone. "Oh, dear. Oh, dear!" Cami said, anxious. "Terence! Oh, Terence, come quickly! Elisha! Please, it's Esmeralda!" The old miss was deaf, but she heard the rush of feet as they clambered up the stairs to the source of the cry.

Terence rushes up to his daughter and looks for a pulse. "What's wrong with her, Cami?" asked Elisha fearfully.

"I don't know, Mistress. She won't wake up." Cami looks over at Terence, who is trying desperately to get a heartbeat, and Elisha follows her gaze.

~in Adracia's home~

"So, to be clear, my father found your mother's egg in the woods while he was gathering firewood?" Adracia nodded. "And while trying to figure out what the rock was, he accidentally hatched it?" Adracia nodded once more.

Your father raised my mother on his large plot of land out in the country. They settled near the lake, too. My mother was not an aquatic dragon, but still a sapphire blue for her chill. Your father sacrificed everything for her, and because of that lake, my mother met my father, making me. Your father hatched me but shortly died in battle with my mother. My father went after another female aquatic dragon, and I was raised with her. Because of my parents, I have the element of ice and flight, my mother, and the ability to swim and breathe acid, my father, who was a rare hybrid himself. I am the outcome. I am the hybrid of an ice and acidic/aquatic dragon.

"I bet life was hard at the beginning. Not fitting in..." Adracia's voice cut in sharply.
You need to leave. Now. I can feel you getting weaker by the second. You must go back now, or you may never return!

"Wait! Where can I find you?" Esmeralda asked hastily.

We will cross paths again someday, hatchling. Forgive me. Adracia pulled her long neck deeper inside the cave and opened her mouth menacingly. The glass-like dragon snapped at Esmeralda before she had time to scream.

~in Esmeralda's bedroom~

Esmeralda leaped from her resting place and let out a horrible scream, piercing all the innocent ears in the mansion. Terence jumped back in surprise, and covered his ears, as did the rest of the family.

When her haunting screech ended, her "father" ran up to her bed and embraced her once lifeless body hard. "Are you okay, dear Esmeralda?" her father asked, the fear in his voice not bothering to be hidden.

"Mistress Esmeralda! You are alive!" rejoiced Cami.

"Oh, Esmeralda, are you okay? What happened?" her mother asked, a little relieved. They continued to bombard her with the same questions and hugging her so tightly she couldn't possibly breathe to answer them.

Esmeralda pushed them away. "Why?" she yelled at them furiously. "Why didn't you tell me about my actual father?" tears formed in her eyes as she slowly lost control of her emotions.

"Did you think I was too young? Did you not want to hurt my 'innocent' ears? Or was Dad such a disgrace to you, leaving you for his dragon, leaving you for battle, being different, that you didn't want to tell me about him?" Esmeralda balled her fingers into a rock-hard fist. "Were you ever going to tell me?" the tears gathering in her eyes left and traveled down her cheeks.

"Oh, dear..." her mother came to comfort her and opened her arms for a hug.

But Esmeralda didn't want comfort. She wanted answers. "No! Stay back! Answer me, Elisha!" yelled Esmeralda, using her mother's true name. "Are you even my real mother?" that question never occurred to her before. That must be the dragon's words coming back to me. She said 'family' not just father.

"So you've figured it out," Elisha said solemnly. Terence put a hand on his wife's shoulder comfortingly.

"Cami, do you wish to explain?" the maid took a deep breath in; she knew that Esmeralda would not enjoy what she had to say next. Cami sat down on the bed next to Esmeralda.

"Esmeralda, your mother died when you were very young. And as you know, your father was a champion, and he was always with his dragon. Your father was something extraordinary: fighting for freedom and reining against the Dark King's rule over the dragons." Cami looked Esmeralda deeply in the eyes. "I am sorry we didn't tell you sooner. Or that you found out this way." her eyes drifted to the bed she was sitting on.

Esmeralda couldn't say anything. She didn't have to, either. Esmeralda reached over the bed and gave her maid a long, much-needed hug.

"I am sorry, everyone. I shouldn't have lashed out like that. You may not be my actual mother and father, but you've treated me so well for the past 15 years. I shouldn't be yelling at you for your secrets; I should be thanking you for your care," Esmeralda said, looking at her foster parents.

"But I need to know what information you have, and I was hoping you could enlighten me," she said with a mischievous grin.

Oh, dear, thought Cami. "Yes, mistress. What do you want to know?" the family gathered around Esmeralda's bed, anxious to hear what would come out of her mouth first.