Shattering Reality - COLLAB WITH @AtomicDaDragon

Chapter 11

Serafina's Perspective

My dreams are troubled.

First, my courtiers persuade me to stay in Awen, or our kingdom. My actions kill Alex, Ella and Majirica. Atomic survives, and goes mad, taking over the land, becoming a cruel leader, and enslaves the humans. I weep for them as she beats a child.

Then Majirica is fighting another dragon with glinting green scales, many times bigger that her. They could both be mistaken for large hills. They wrestle across the world, until the green dragon appears victorious. On her back rides, though I've never seen her, Elyssia. She looks at Majirica's dead body, and hisses ,''Mel dona, son'as.'' I wonder at this. I free you, slave? Majirica is no slave.

Then the dragon riders, elves, dragons and dwarves ride into battle against the humans. The humans outnumber us ten on one. Their force blackens the horizon. Massive machines and giants dot the force. All this happens on the Dead Fields of No Grass. The mottled land is covered in corpses. Elyssia, Ella, Atomic, Alexandra, Majirica and I lead the battle. Then, a monster flies over the battle. It is part eagle, part human, and part tiger. It's head is human with an eagle's beak, bleached white as snow. It's body is a tigers with eagle wings. It's fangs drip blood. Around it's neck is a purple stone, radiating power. The stone flashes, and many of our troops die. It cackles. Then from up the Angell River come ships loaded with help for us. But I cannot see the creatures that dismount their posts on deck, and flood the battleground as the dream ends.

**********

We walk in the rain forest. Majirica is not with us. She flies overhead, the trees grew too close together.

The relentless rain soaks my clothes. Despite my immunity to cold water, I shiver.

The forest shines in the emerald twilight. We're in the rainforest. Twitters of birds mingle with the drip-drip of the rain and other exotic sounds. Trees in this glade are thousands of years old, some of the oldest creatures on this earth. Blossom taught me how to tell how old a tree is by a quick glance. The leaves are slick with rain. Small creatures scuttle, twist, crawl and patter under my feet. Fish swim in a stream to my left. Ella laughs up ahead at something Alex said. I hear the faint laughter of Majirica, a melodic sound, brush my consciousness. She must have been listening to us silently with her mind. The sun shines in golden rays down to the forest floor, dazzlingly bright against the murky background. And all the while, the green silky appearance of the leaves makes me think of the green dragon, tall as a skyscraper.

''Look ahead,'' Alex says. ''There lies the edge of the forest, and then the riders. They hide well, are wary of outsider, but await you eagerly.''

''The password is Firestone,'' Majirica says in my head, to hide the information from hidden ears. The others nod as they get the same message.

''They are as ancient as the earth itself, and many of the dragons are the size of large mountains, for dragons never stop growing, and never die. Majirica is only a baby, for though she is larger than most buildings, she is miniature next to other dragons. Some have lived since the First Days, the Dark Times, before there were races, law and nations. From before the elves came on their gossamer boats across the silky, secretive sea. In truth, most Riders live as long as their dragon.''

I ponder this with awe. How can a race be so powerful and escape detection by all but those most in tune with reality and all it's secrets?

''How old are you,'' Atomic asks her.

Alexandra smiles. ''Two hundred eleven.''

''NO,'' we all cry with awe. She nods.

''I am two hundred and eleven count, yes. Our age does not show. Look. There lies Laza Bane, our city!''

At first I see nothing but plains, and the De'lor mountains miles away, but then I make out strange patterns in the shadows, twigs where they should not be, small flowers in larger clumps than natural. I blink, and suddenly, it's like the world shifts into focus. Those are paths, and those are flowerbeds, dappled with light. There are hills in the plains, strange but a closer look shows them as homes. Blocks of stone I took to be boulders are really homes, the rock carved to intricately I dare say it's dwarf work. Huge towers come into sight, and slowly, a city so immense it fills my vision east to west completely. A huge white marble wall surrounds the city of stone. The city is like a pyramid, slowly rising, until the center is almost a mile in the sky, where lies the castle.

The citizens slowly come into view, a pale face, a foot, a lock of hair. Then they come out, laughing and hailing our arrival. I smile and wave. They all look to be riders. They all seem frozen in youth, only nineteen or twenty. The men have long hair, and braids. They have pointed ears and almond eyes. The women have slender but strong builds, like the men. Both genders wear russet tunics, brown vests with a dragon stitched on the front, leggings and swords strapped to their legs. Some women carry a bow and arrow.

From within the crowd, a voice shouts,''Hail, Mother of the City!'' Alex smiles.

''Why do they call you that,'' I ask.

''I rebuilt the city after the war,'' she replies. '' I was the main architect.''

We walk to the very top of the city. I stare at the view.

I see the entire rain forest, mountain range, and fields we have traveled in when I look to the east. They are shrouded in darkness. Many small dragon villages dot the horizon. To the west, I see naught but plains and massive mountains. The sun sets. But the mountains.

At first, the sky seems white. But no, it's the snow capped tips of the mountains. Their bases are miles wide, and the tips are hidden in the clouds. The tips are invisible, but I know that they must be so tall no plants or snow, even, can rest upon them. This is the dwarf land, the miners of our world.

''They're big,'' Atomic says. But I remember that this isn't the true settlement of the riders, just an outpost.

''I got that much,'' I say. ''Really, though. They can average nine miles high.''

And dragons, dragons of every size and color fly in the sky. A shimmering rainbow fill the heavens. Jets of fire adorn the cloak of night as they roar. Most are larger than most hills, and may look like hills as well if they lay on the ground. I smile. This is dragon land.

This is home.