Hope (Knights of Av'lor - Book 1)

Chapter 5

A firm knock sounded upon Kathryn's door. "Come in."

"My name is Elena. I've been assigned to clean your chamber." She was a short woman in her twenties with thinning hair and a generous smile.

"Hi, my name's Kathryn. It's nice to meet you, Elena." Kathryn wasn't sure if she should leave or just hover in the background. She really just wanted to talk. "Do you mind if I stay while you clean? I haven't had another woman to talk to for a while now."

"I don't mind at all. I can work and easily hold a conversation." Elena stripped the bed.

"How is it that you can speak our language? It doesn't appear to be the chosen one on this world."

"My mother was from Earth. She taught me when I was young."

Someone else had been to this place and yet back home there was no talk of this alternate world. "Your mother was from Earth? How's that possible? Did she ever find a way back? Well, obviously not, or you probably wouldn't be here. Sorry, I'm just surprised." Perhaps people mentioned this alternate world and others dismissed it. Just another headline on the news far behind the latest murder or political scandal. "What part of Earth is she from?"

"Chicago. She told me the story so many times. She was cleaning her sink in the kitchen of her apartment when she blacked out. When she awoke in the middle of the market square, a bunch of Av'lorians gathered around her. A man who spoke English, which is considered an ancient language here, approached her and tried to comfort her." Elena smiled as she tucked the ends of the clean sheet under the mattress. "She was terrified and didn't believe what was happening, but she learned to live with what happened after cycles of searching for a way back."

It seems like kitchens are a popular starting point.

"The man who befriended her that day became her husband—my father. She often told me of life back on Earth." She smoothed the fresh sheet and spread clean blankets over the bed. "She told stories of how crime was spreading across her world and I think she was eventually glad to have come to Av'lor. Only when I became an adult did she share that she had been married with a child back on Earth."

Elena smoothed the blanket and moved toward the tub. "She missed them dearly, but said she never regretted re-marrying and having me. They both died last cycle during an attack on our village."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Kathryn couldn't imagine losing both of her parents. One was hard enough.

"They'll be missed." Elena smiled at her and sank to her knees to wipe the tub.

"Elena, what is Av'lor? Is it the afterlife?"

Elena smiled and shook her head. "No. Av'lor is a world parallel to Earth, or at least that's how my mother explained it to me. I didn't really understand what she meant. From the histories, the dragons brought a bunch of humans here from Earth to fight their battles."

"What the hell is that?" Kathryn hopped onto the bed, pointing at a creature the size of a rat sitting next to the door. It cleaned its red pointed ears and four eyes with a scaly paw. A long tail with some type of whisker on the end moved back and forth as if watching for danger.

"Oh, it's just a mouse." Elena tried to hide her smile without much success.

"No, that is some type of lizard-bug thing. A mouse is cute and furry." She wasn't getting off the bed with that thing in there.

Elena laughed. "My mother used to have a fit about the animals here too. I never understood that. Mice are great. They keep the bugs out of your room. It's the cats that you have to worry about. Disgusting things."