Inverted

Chapter 2 Altered

     The night air was nice and brisk, but inviting.  Change stirred the air, as the wind swept suddenly east. The forests nightlife even seemed to halt in sudden anticipation for what was coming. Through the thick overgrowth of the trees, in a clearing lit by thousands of fireflies there stood a giant beast. If not for the moonlight one would barely see him.
   Suddenly the sky itself lit up in a blinding hue. The creature covered its eyes and an odd language seemed to tumble from its throat. The light faded and the creature looked up in the sky to see what may have caused such an odd occurrence. There falling from the sky was a form of something. The creature reached out and caught it. Suddenly his dull existence held a little bit of interest.
   "Hmmm...." it mumbled bringing the form laying in its hand closer to its face to see. It brought it face closer and upon inspection he found himself face to face with what looked to be a human female. The creature sniffed. It smelt like a human, but its features were off. The creature sat back on its hind legs and looked curiously at the female. Humans don't have hair like that. With one of its scaled hands, it took a piece of the hair between its talons. The creatures head cocked to the side.
    "Interesting." The creature said in is language. The human in his hand began to twist and soon, he found the female had sat up in the palm of his hand.
    She shot up, pointed her finger at him accusingly, said something in an odd tongue the creature didn't understand and was suddenly falling backwards and was still in the palm of his hand again.
    Very interesting.
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     I came too lying in a bed of leaves. The dragon! I quickly jumped to my feet looking to and throw trying to make sure my eyes hadn't played tricks on me earlier. They weren't. I rubbed at my eyes because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There in front of me no more than 10 feet away stood a giant black dragon. I'd say it was every bit as tall as the Empire State Building in New York. My eyes locked with its and it cocked its head to the side.
    "Ik bin Bao, en wat soene se jo kinne neame?"(1) The dragon spoke, in an unknown language. If it wasn't for the fact that it repeated this as it stepped forward I wouldn't have realized it was speech. It sounded more like gibberish and it's gravely voice didn't help the matter.
    So there are two options that I've been able to conclude. One, run and run like hell because I'm staring at a living myth; or two, stick close to this dragon while I try to figure out where the fuck I am. Glancing around again, I know I'm a hell of a ways from home. How I got here another question I'm gonna need answering. I took a step back and I guess that was a bad decision. It's wings flared up behind it, and smoke came out it's nostrils as it exhaled. I was so shocked and spellbound that I didn't listen to the sounds behind me. The dragon reached out towards me, and that's when I made the decision. Alright option one here we go. I went to take off into the thicket but barely got anywhere before an arrow lodged itself in the tree right missing my nose by a couple millimeters.
    The dragon grabbed me faster than I thought possibly honestly and I covered my eyes know what was to come next.
    "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!!!" I screamed, as loud as my lungs would allow me shielding  my head with my arms in the process. Nothing. I brought my arms back down and noticed the dragons attention wasn't on me. Rather he was watching a fight that was going down far below us in the trees. People were running towards one another, swords were clashing, arrows were going everywhere, but that's not what caught me completely off guard. The way they dressed, the way they moved it was like something out of a fantasy novel. Suddenly one guy disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind the enemy sending them flying into a nearby tree. Magic. It had to be.
    " Dêrom ferachtsje ik minsken." (2)The dragon grumbles and seethed. I don't know what it's saying but I can tell from the smoke coming from it's nose that it's pissed. I screamed again. This time though it got a little unwanted attention. The people on the ground started screaming, the other group that was clearly losing anyways turned and saw the dragon and took off. The group that was left however, they remained still before disappearing then reappearing in front of us in the clearing. There were about five of them. All of them got knelt down in a defensive position. Swords ready and withdrawn. The dragon growled causing me to whimper.  One of the people stepped out. They were dressed all in black and had there face covered with masks. He removed his mask.
    "Bao wat is de betsjutting hjirfan?" (3)He said angrily, in a voice that was smoother than milk chocolate.  The remaining people stepped forward and removed there masks as well. If this was a dream this would be the moment where I'd hope I'd never wake up.
     Everyone in front of us was incredibly beautiful. There were  two girls, they looked like complete opposites to be honest. Both of them appeared to be around my age, but where I was you're average plan Jane excluding my hair and eyes these girls could have been mistaken for fairies. In another situation I probably would have laughed. One  girl was short, with curves I would have dreamed for. Her hair was long and curly the oddest shade what appeared to be... I couldn't believe I was saying this but blue? Yes her hair was definitely blue. The other girls hair was the oddest shade of blond I had ever seen. It was more orange than anything. She towered over the other girl but her beauty was still just as demanding of attention as her friend. She stepped forward and whispered something to the man that had revealed himself first. I hadn't even paid him any attention when all the others revealed themselves. They were beautiful yes, but he was otherworldly.
      The dragons fingers twitched around me, but he continued his stare down with young man below. He toward over the rest of his companions. Standing tall and regal with not a trace of fear. He was so beautiful it was almost blinding. With hair that curled in long dark obsidian waves down to his neck, a strong powerful face that was so aristocratic you knew he was born from royalty. He was dressed all in black from his loose battle shirt that opened and exposed a thin shiny plated shirt of some sort.
    My eyes wandered back up to his face and our eyes connected. Electricity filled up the air and stirred everyone around us. His eyes were just as black as his hair. Almost soulless. You could get lost in those ebony eyes as I was surely finding myself.
    "Ik fûn har dat se myn minske is. Ik ha har sels fongen en har rêden doe't se nei de grutte boom út 'e loft foel. " (4) the dragon mumbled as smoke curled out his throat upon each syllable. His grip started to tighten rather uncomfortable, and I guess that's when all this finally hit me because I snapped into reality real quick.
   "PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN!" I screamed while banging hard into the dragons clawed hand. It gazed down at me for the first time since the other people came into the clearing and rose its scaled brow.  Looking towards the other humans.
  "Witte jo fan hokker taal se praat?" (5)It spoke towards the group of humans and they exchanged looks between one another. I'm over this I just want to go home. If this is a dream could someone please wake me up I have patients to attend to. Still banging desperately at this beasts hands, I now wonder why those other people aren't reacting the same way as me. It's like there used to this behavior? Maybe I hit my head when I tripped and I'm in the hospital myself. Thinking that I almost calmed down. Almost.
   Another man stepped forward, he was strikingly similar to the first male that had spoke but he had longer dark hair tied back behind his shoulders. He bowed down and then smiled as he said " Lord Bao, wy bedoele jo net te steurjen, nee wy wite net hokker taal it famke sprekt, mar as jo wolle, koe ik dit probleem foar ús allegear reparearje en wy koenen útfine wêr't se kaam." (6)The other man next to him froze and then turned to him to say something before Bao cut him off.
    "Ik fiel net dat se út dit ryk komt. Se is net sa't jo binne. It liket better foar har om ús manieren te begripen." (7)He began to lower me down towards the people. Even though he was a giant beast, the idea of the people of this world who didn't cower before him scared me more and I suddenly found myself clutching to his palm. He released me slowly and I grabbed for one clawed finger as he withdrew his giant hand. He backed away taloned arms crossed and wings rigid.
   The longer haired man stepped forward towards me and I found myself backing away. That caused a stir around us as the other people looked at me curiously. I was dressed in my normal light blue scrub pants with a scrub shirt that had little Bats all over it because October had been coming up. My long wavy red hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and I had ringed my eyes with a light brown eyeliner and black mascara but that was it. They whispered among themselves.  He stepped forward again with palms outstretched as if he meant me no harm and I found myself turning around and trying to run back to Bao only to come face to face with a brick wall. I almost fell backward if it wasn't for the arms that snaked out and grabbed me.
   Looking up after catching my composure I met those dark soulless eyes again. This time I felt goosebumps spread across the skin he touched and that unwanted electricity magnified the air again. He smirked as if he knew all to well. I pushed back out of his hands and almost fell to the ground again. But thanks to a hand stopping my fall I didn't. This one was gentle and less invasive. The electricity wasn't there and I didn't feel threatened. I came face to face with the long haired male. He smiled down at me and then looked up at the other man with a glint of pure amusement behind his grey eyes. Looking back towards the other guy he actually looked shocked. Then his mouth tightened into a scowl and he gave me a glare that froze me all the way down to my bones. There was a slight cough and then a palm was placed against my forehead and a bright searing pain shot all the way down my body but nestled behind my ears. I almost passed out but was caught for the up-tenth time that night.
    "Are you alright?" Came that same milk chocolate voice from earlier except now I could understand it. My eyes focused again and I realized I was lying on the damp earth staring up at those dark soulless eyes.

Translations.

(1) "I'm Bao, and what would they call you?"
(2)"That's why I despise people."
(3) "Bao what is the meaning of this?"
(4)"I found her she is my human. I caught her myself and saved her as she fell from the sky after the big boom."
(5) "Do you know what language she speaks?"
(6) "Lord Bao, we do not mean to disturb you, no we do not know what language the girl speaks, but if you would i could remedy this issue for us all and we could find out from which she came."
(7)"I do not feel she is from this realm. She is not as you are. It seems better for her to understand our ways."