Dreamworld (#JustWriteIt #FreshStart)

Chapter 7

When Ellie opened her eyes, she was confused at first. She saw nothing but a bright aqua color. After a moment, her eyes adjusted and managed to make sense of what was leaning over her. There was an aqua colored snout hovering about a foot above her, and eyes the color of molten gold watching her from above it.

"You're a.... a.... you're a....." Ellie couldn't manage to do more than stammer.

"A dragon, yes," came that musical voice she had heard before she passed out. Strangely, it sounded like it had a British accent. She also concluded that it sounded male. "I'm sorry to have scared you. It was quite unintentional, I assure you."

His body was muscular with a long tail and neck. He reminded her of one of those huge dinosaurs. What were they called? Brachiosaurus? Yes, that was it, but with slightly different proportions. His neck was a little shorter and thicker, to support his larger head. His head was streamlined, with no ears visible, and had a reptilian look with wicked looking fangs lining his mouth. His tail was longer and thinner than that dinosaur that she remembered, ending in a spade shaped plate, colored gold like his eyes. And instead of feet that looked sort of elephant-ish, his looked almost hand-like with razor sharp claws tipping each digit. To top it all off, he had enormous bat-like wings that sprouted from near his shoulder blades. There was a tiny clawed finger at the top joint of each wing. He was an even aqua blue all over his pebbled scales that was relieved by the gold that colored his eyes, the webs of his wings, his claws, and the spade at the end of his tail. He could walk on all fours or sit up on his hind legs and use his front claws like hands.

The strangeness of this whole situation snapped her from the edge of panic, a scream dying in her throat. "It's alright," she choked out. "Wait. I'm talking to a dragon? I must still be unconscious and dreaming or something." She sat up and put her head into her hands, shaking her head back and forth. This was all so unbelievable.

"Hey there, Qian! Thanks for meeting us here. Are we late?" came a familiar voice. Ellie turned and gaped. Connor was striding across the grass, cool as a cucumber. Does he know this dragon? Seriously? What is going on here? Connor also seemed different. Confident. In control. Older almost.

"A little late. Not by much though. You know how it can be with the time differences between worlds," the dragon answered, then looked back to Ellie.

Connor also turned his gaze to her. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? Ellie, this is Qiandor. We all call him Qian though. Qian, this is Eleora, but you can call her Ellie."

"It's a pleasure, Ellie."

"Wha? Uh, thanks, nice to meet you, but really. What is going on? Where am I? Am I dead? Or hallucinating?" Ellie was totally freaking out at this point. She felt as though she were drowning, being swamped by all these crazy and new things all at once and unable to keep her head above water.

Connor stepped up to her at this point. "This is all real. I promise, Ellie, that things will be explained. Just not right this second and not by us. There is someone who wants to meet you."

Ellie took a few deep breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Calm down. "Ok. Ok. Just...give me a second. Wait, how are we getting there? Wherever "there" is."

"You will be flying there on Qian. I need to stay here."

"What?" Ellie could feel her calm slipping.

"Ellie, I am a Gate Guardian. I need to stay here. I can leave for periods of time, but when I do, there is no-one to moniter the Gate. No-one to open it. So when I'm not with my Gate, it's totally closed. I've been seperated from it for a while, meeting you and bringing you here."

"And why is that again?" She was trying to prolong leaving the one thing that was familiar right now, Connor. Even though it turned out he was still virtually a stranger to her.

"I already told you that someone else would be explaining. I'll see you soon, ok? But I think you guys should be getting moving." Connor said this last part more to Qian than Ellie.

The dragon looked around, as though someone were going to jump out at them. Ellie snorted at that thought. Where are they hiding? Behind a blade of grass?

Connor leaned close to Qian and muttered to him, too low for Ellie to hear, "We haven't figured out why the Gate chose her, so until then, be careful. Never know what the problem is." Qian nodded.

The dragon turned to Ellie. "Ready to go?"

Ellie took a deep breath. "Sure," she replied on an sigh.

Ellie stood by Qian's shoulder, not knowing what to do. "It is ok," Qian told her. "Here, if I hold my leg up, you can step from there and sit just above my wings." With his help, Ellie was able to get on. There was a natural dip between the dragon's wings that she could sit in comfortably, and with her legs hanging down in front of the wings plus leaning forward to wrap her arms around the dragon's necks, Ellie seemed to be settled in as well as she was going to be.

"All set? Ok then, here we go!" That was all the warning Ellie had before Qian crouched slightly then jumped to gain enough altitude for a downward wing stroke, and then they were airborne. Ellie's eyes were squeezed tightly shut. When she found that she was still onboard and not falling, Ellie allowed one eye to open. The view made her forget her anxiety. She opened both eyes and sat up as much as she could while still keeping her arms around Qian's neck.

They were flying back toward the mountains. She saw another shape winging its way towards them. It quickly resolved into another dragon, which must be moving at a tremendous pace. This dragon looked to be such a dark purple as to look black with bronze coloring where Qian was gold. This new dragon slid into place, coasting beside Qian. The pair clasped front claws before Qian turned back to Ellie. "This is my sister, Briantha. You may call her Bria, if that is easier for you." The female dragon, who was just slightly smaller than Qian, nodded a greeting.

When Ellie looked over her shoulder, she could see so much farther than she could on the hilltop. There was the forest she had seen before, and the ocean beyond it. On one side of the forest were grasslands and the hint of what might be a city beyond them. And on the other side of the forest was a dark, shadowy smudge. Whatever was there was shrouded in a black fog. When Ellie turned back to facing forward, she forgot her questions when she saw where they were headed.

Before them was by far the tallest peak in this mountain range, which was really saying something. Riddling the side of the mountain were large caves that tunneled into the rock. Each cave had a ledge on the lip. Dragons were everywhere, circling in the sky or laying on the mountainside to bake in the sun. There was a dazzling array of colors to their scales and various metallic hues to their wings. Heads swiveled to watch them fly in and several that were already in flight swooped closer to take a look.

First Qian and then Bria landed on one of the ledges leading to a tunnel. After the Ellie got down, Bria held out a foreleg in a sweeping gesture. "Welcome to our home, the home of the dragons, Talyn Mountain."