Lily's Yard

Chapter 1 - Hey! Thief!

It was a dark day out, rain could start pouring at any point. The car park was busy with people rushing out to leave and return home. Inside the shop, a boy by the name Connor Newton was preparing to hide among the crowd leaving. He stuffed all the chocolate and energy drinks he could into his coat. He was well aware that since he was now 18 this could result in him being sent to prison, but he knew he was too good to be caught. He put his hood up and mouth mask on. An employee saw him and yelled,
"Hey! Thief!".
The employee chased after Connor, but Connor pushed through the crowd leaving the shop. Time to play it risky, he thought to himself. If he was going to get away fast, why not steal a car so he can ditch it somewhere and lead them to a dead end.
He rushed to a car but the driver already was in and drove off, he tried another one and another one but all the customers were already outside and getting into their cars. He panicked, but then saw a red pickup truck and knew it was his last chance. The door was unlocked! Connor laughed at the sheer lack of intelligence the owner of the truck had. He was about to climb in when a shopping bag was thrown into the truck. He looked behind him to see a young girl, he shrugged it off and tried to enter but the girl started pulling him out. She was way too strong for her age. Connor tried kicking her in the stomach but she pulled him out and started climbing into the truck. The rain started pouring and heavily, Connor noticed the employee looking around for him and he could hear police sirens.
He grabbed onto the girl trying to pull her out but she was just way too strong.
She rolled her eyes and grabbed him and threw him in and onto the passenger seat and then closed the door and drove off. Connor quickly got up and sat properly staring at the girl scared and confused.
"How fucking old are you?" Connor questioned her.
"12" she said while not looking away from the road.
"12? And you're fucking driving?" Connor panicked.
The girl just went "mhm".
"Just let me out yeah? I think I'd be safer outside" Connor told her.
"Maybe. But you'd also be in prison without me" the girl let him know.
Connor went silent, "So where are we going?" He moped.
"My house" she responded.
"Oh great yes that's just great, your house? I'm sure your parents are going to love seeing an 18 year old guy with you" Connor ranted.
"My yard" she said.
Connor was too confused and freaked to say anything so he kept quiet.
The truck stopped and parked on the pavement. They both got out and the girl brought the shopping bag out.
She led him to the side where through some bushes was a broken fence, she crawled through and so Connor followed sighing. The yard was weird, as soon as Connor went through the fence it was sunny, even though he could clearly see the rain from the otherside of the hole in the fence.
The yard was very green, lots of flowers, a slide, swings and many little ornaments.
"Wait here" she told him as she entered the house and closed the door.
He heard some yelling from inside, but then noticed the yard started to have a few drops of water. The drops suddenly stopped as the girl came out without the bag.
"Listen, nice yard or whatever but I really just don't care. I need to get back to my house. You're weird anyways" Connor told her.
"No" the girl said.
"Excuse me?" Connor said scared but trying to sound brave.
"I saved you and you will stay".
Connor laughed with fear, "yeah no".
Connor went over to the fence to crawl back through but suddenly the fence fixed itself and the bushes covered up.
Connor jumped back and looked behind him to see the girl looking at him sternly.
"Okay... I..." Connor was lost for words.
"Stay" the girl fiercely said.
Connor nodded and stayed silent.
She picked up a shovel and started digging in a corner of the yard. Connor wondered if she was digging his grave or something. He got scared she might kill him, after all she seemingly had special powers and strength.
"I uh, so what's your name?" Connor asked to fill the silence.
"Lily" Lily told him.
"Oh... cool... I'm Connor" he said.
Lily stopped digging, "come here".
Connor got up and slowly approached, he looked down the hole to see a weird purple light swirling.
"Jump in or I'll push you" Lily told him.
Connor was scared but also didn't want a 12 year old to seem tougher than him so he jumped in. He landed in a castle, confused. Lily soon landed next to him.
"What the hell..." Connor was amazed.
"Different dimension. Nothing special" Lily said.
"Nothing special? Are you hearing yourself? We are in another dimension like holy hell" Connor freaked out.
"Also, you should take off the mask and lower you hood or they might mistake you for an assassin" Lily informed him.
Connor looked around the castle to see knights and archers and decided to do what Lily said and took off his mask and lowered his hood.
"Black hair and brown eyes? You look like a typical protagonist" Lily smirked.
"Yeah well I don't exactly get to choose my hair colour and eye colour, Miss blue eyes and blue hair, as if that's normal" Connor angrily remarked.
"If you had to choose what colours would you want?" Lily asked him.
"Obviously blue eyes and silver hair" Connor huffed.
"Then you can't make fun of my eyes if you want the same colour. Here..." Lily said as she held out her arm. Connor felt something happen to him. Lily pulled out a little pocket mirror and gave it to him. Connor looked at himself to find out his hair was now silver and his eyes blue.
"How on earth..." Connor questioned.
"Oh come on!" Lily rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the front gates.
A knight opened the gates for them and they walked out.
They followed a path that lead to a tall mountain. Connor looked up at the mountain.
"No, no. Don't tell me I have to climb that thing" Connor complained.
"Maybe it'd be easier if you dropped the items you stole from the shop" Lily wittingly remarked as she began climbing the mountain.
Connor sighed angrily and emptied the chocolate and energy drinks out of his coat, he drank one quickly then dropped it and began climbing after Lily.
"How the hell are we in another dimension? How the hell are you so strong? How the hell do you have powers?" Connor interrogated her.
"You ask a lot. But I don't know any answers. I am just me, I guess I was born this way, my yard is my home" Lily said.
"Well what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Connor asked.
"My yard is like me. And it provides me with the portal to other dimensions" Lily explained.
"So it's not always this one?" Connor asked.
"It's random" she told him.
"Okay one more question then. Why me? Why bring me here?" Connor asked desperately.
"Because I don't want to be alone" she replied.
Before Connor could say a word they had reached the top of the mountain and Lily ran over to some ruins.
That's when he saw the dragon.