The Bane of Everin

Chapter four

"That Everin, is a dragon skull" grandma announced as I took my hand back in shock. Strangely that isn't a surprise anymore, just more information that seemed to tug at my heart. I glanced at grandma, for once today her face wasn't laced with a snobby smile or a zesty grin of humor. She was genuinely happy.

"Do you finally believe me?" she asked. Do I believe her? My mind traced back through my memories. Everything about my family has something to do with dragons. I guess I never really grasp that. Our armor, our house, even village people called us the family of dragons.

"Yeah, yeah I do" I smiled as I took notice of the rest of the room. I no longer felt as if we were in a cave. I felt as if I was in a winter cabin deep in the misty mountains. Someone litterly built a cabin inside of a cave. There was even a wood roof with an antler chandelier. The east and west walls were covered with bookshelves overflowing with untitled tan covers as a fire crackled in front of me with two leather chairs and a bear rug by the mantel.

"These books...why no authors?" I asked, slipping one off the self and flipping through it. Sketches and scribbles filled many pages.

"They are journals from our families work" granny answered as I spotted the dates throughout the dirt infested pages. What in the world? Why so much information. They must be before man arrived on Eastewin. I'm missing something, I have to be. I put the book back in a random place I saw fit and caught up to grandma who seemed to develop a habit of leaving me when I didn't keep my eye on her. She fell back into a pig leather chair as mine was covered in a cowhide cover. I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out, I just raised my eyebrow as granny stared contently into the kindle wood logs. I wasn't sure what to say. Armor from centuries ago, and weapons so old I had never seen a mold to match them, ancient scroll written by dead people I guess, huge doors somehow built by dragons, thousands of pages of information about who knows what, and a real dragon skull. I should be going insane but somehow I felt as if I knew this existed all my life but my arms were just too short to reach it. I looked over at an open book on the floor beside my foot. bored, I picked it up and began to skim through its yellowing pages. Lost in all the inky scribbles my eyes wandered to the top edge of the page that was in mid flip. The corner would lean toward the fire then seconds later it would lightly flap the other way. I watched this odd movement of the page. I pulled some of my hair in between my fingers and made the ends point to the ceiling to see if whatever moved the corner of the book moved the slightly heavier ends of my hair. When the book page pointed right so would my ends, it was little movements but noticeable. I didn't feel a draft, but even if I did drafts don't have a pattern. I looked around the room to find something else that would wave in the abnormal wind current. All the informational journals were closed and neatly placed on the self with their cracked spines facing outward. Nothing! I looked at my lap as the fire appeared and disappeared from my peripheral vision. Wait! I jerked my head up to watch the dancing of the fire. The flame was dragged to the back of the fireplace for five seconds then dragged out near the bear rug for five seconds. Every three seconds the pattern would start again. I glared at the fire as I realized it was affected much more by the strange wind than the tips of my hair and the book page. I focused on the back of the fireplace, the smoke had made the stone black or that's what I thought until the fire was pulled to the back again revealing its secret. There was no back. There was a hidden tunnel behind the fire. My mind began to turn as my head slowly turned toward the skull. I took a deep breath in...and then out. It's not a wind current or draft. It's breathing from the tunnel behind the fire.

"Everin, about our family" grandma's voice yanked me out of my thoughts but not for long. She continued to talk but the fire would let me pay attention. I couldn't take my eyes off the mantle. Her words didn't even go in an ear they just kind of bounced back out of my ear.