The Sky Lands: Cursed

Chapter 15: False Dreams

  Amber didn't know what the necklace was like until she went inside. 

  It was incredible; with mountains, rainforests, and oceans. 

  Amber raced straight for the mountains. 

  She heard no sound. She felt no breeze, no grass. She felt... alone.

  Amber couldn't feel anything here. She couldn't hear anything here. Suddenly, something shot up her spine. The grass! She could feel it! She ran, glad to feel something other than loneliness. Then, as she ran on the grass, facing the mountains, she felt like someone else was here. 

  She stopped, looking around. A single dragon sat on the beach, it's back facing Amber. Her sister? No. Shimmerwings? No way. Coral? No. Borealis? It was certainly black. But Borealis was in the real world, not here. 

  Amber ran up to it. She got halfway and spread her wings, hoping to catch a rush of wind to pick her up. 

  But there was nothing. So she tried to fly anyway, and rose into the sky for three seconds, getting higher and higher. 

  Then she plummeted to the ground, right above the sand. Headfirst, she fell, rocketing straight into the hot sand. It filled her mouth, crept into every gap in her scales, making her feel uncomfortable. She shivered, but then attempted a shriek that never escaped. A talon was holding her down. 

  Amber was running out of air. The sand filled her mouth and up her throat, and even her coughs were silent. Her throat was parched, and she longed for a breath. 

  "Stop fighting, dragon," A voice snarled. 

  Then the talon was gone. Amber burst up, gasping for air that had now arrived. The black dragon sat facing her, smug as Coal. Amber tried to speak, but no words escaped her. Then, the dragon lunged and everything went black. 

  Amber's eyes flickered open. She felt something around her, but even with open eyes, she saw nothing. There was something covering them. 

  Amber rapidly shook her head, and the cover fell off, falling down onto whatever was below her. She saw everything. 

  Her talons, all four, were bound behind her back with something, exposing her belly. The thing binding them was holding her up. They were chained. 

  And she was hanging over lava. 

  "Help!" Amber screeched. She had her voice back. She recognized a chamber inside a humongous volcano. She heard an answer to her question. 

  "No. I brought you here for a reason," A voice said from behind her. The black dragon. Something shoved into her back, and she cried out with pain as something hit her spine. It wasn't sharp, it was round. And hard. 

  The black dragon wandered around, walking on thin air and stopping in front of Amber, holding a ball out of pure iron. His wings were broken and horrid- filled with holes. He was at least seven times larger than Amber, and billions of times scarier. "This can't be real. You can't walk on thin air. Is this real?" Amber cried. 

    "A bit. You see, I'm not really here, and neither are you. We are in a separate section of the Dream Lands called the Vision World. Here, we can both be here and both remember it, while not being real and just at home. But, anything that harms you here will affect you in real life. And yes, I am walking on thin air. My breed of dragons has... an ability. We can walk on air here. Quite interesting, eh?" The black dragon said. 

  "Who are you? Do I know you? What type of dragon are you?" Amber asked. 

  "You know me very well. But you have not seen me. And I am a Northern Lights dragon," The black dragon said. "I have a real name, but to those, I don't wish to tell, I am Dream Stalker. Because as a Northern Lights dragon, I can enter your dreams or take you to the Vision World. Isn't that wonderful? I'll answer for you, it is. Now, tell me where you're going." 

  "I don't know! My grandmother told me to go north to before the Ice-place. That's all I know," Amber said, panicked. 

  "Ah. Good. And do you know of the volcano?" Dream Stalker asked. The massive dragon sat down on nothing, playing with his claws.

  "What volcano?" Amber asked, scanning her mind for mention -any mention at all- of any volcano. She found nothing. 

  "The volcano that guards the exit to the Ice Lands. It's awfully similar to this place, you know," Dream Stalker said, motioning to the magma-filled chamber where he held Amber. He shot a talon out and chuckled as Amber cried out in fear as she flinched backward.  

  "I have no more use for you anymore. You may go," Dream Stalker said. He spread his wings wide, and his eyes turned from a dark gray to white. Mist formed around Amber as he whispered words she couldn't hear, and once again, the world faded to black.