Dragon Sword

Chapter 2 - A New World

I slowly began to wake-up. I was definitely more comfortable than I was the last time I awoke. I had an odd feeling that I was laying on grass. I opened my eyes, and looked up at the sky. The sky was a light pinkish color and the clouds were a light shade of blue! This must be a dream. I am still in my bed, in the hospital, I must be. Then I remembered Rose, the Goddess, and all that she had said. I started to look around, but I could not see anything except for grass and sky.

The grass that I was laying on was green, so at least something was familiar. I decided to just lay there in the grass and look at the pinkish sky for a while. I needed to think, to figure out what was going on & it was kind of neat to see a pink sky. That was when I heard a twig break. Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, with my sword in my hand, staring at a lavender horse.

A Sword in my hand? A lavender horse? The horse just stood there, staring at me and chewing his grass with a broken twig under one of it's eight hooves. He was the most magnificent horse I had ever seen. His back stood at least eight feet off of the ground. He was a large stallion, with a large saddle on his back with a crossbow hanging from the horn. He was not afraid of me, so I guessed that this was the horse that the goddess had spoken of... eight hooves??? What the hell???

As I took in my surroundings, I began to realize that this place was not all that much different from earth. There was a river about twenty feet from me that was about thirty feet across, and in the distance I could see what looked to be palm trees. Everything was the right color except the sky and the horse with the eight legs.

I sat down in the grass and began to examine the sword. It was astounding, a dragons head for a pommel, it's wings wrapped around it's fore-legs and body making the hilt, the rear legs and the tail making the hand guard. The blade was at least five feet in length and five inches wide. It was definitely a sword to be used for fighting, or to be hung upon a wall in a castle as a work of art.

I put the sword in its scabbard at my waist, and moved to get a drink of water from the river. As I walked to the river I felt odd, I could not think of what was wrong. As I bent over the river, I saw my face. It wasn't mine. The face that I saw looking back at me was a strong face with long black hair and heavy muscles on it's neck and shoulders.

I stood up and looked down at myself. I was very tall and very large. I guessed that I weighed about three hundred and twenty pounds and was about six foot ten! Then I knew why the sword was so long and yet it felt very comfortable. I was dressed in high-topped, dark brown leather boots that folded over at the tops just below the knees and a knee length armored, leather kilt and bracers stitched together with red thread.

I turned back to the river, got my drink of water and went to the horse. The horse stood it's ground and I climbed up into his saddle. It all felt so comfortable, so normal. I realized that the goddess had apparently thought of everything. Then I thought of money. I checked in the saddlebags. I found an extra kilt, a dark oilskin cloak, boots, food and more of the regular supplies. I must not wear too many shirts, as I could not find any. I then looked my clothing over more carefully and found a purse at my left side just in front of the swords hilt dangling from my leather sword belt & knives attached to the tops of both boots and another at my right hip. I opened the purse and found one hundred gold coins and fifteen pink stones, I can only guess that they must be some kind of gems. I did not know just how much all of that was worth, but I had a feeling that I would not have money problems for a quite a while.

There was also what appeared to be a rolled up piece of oiled cloth tied to the back of the saddle along with a pair of saddlebags hanging down the sides of the horse. I was about to turn and look in the saddlebags when I heard a woman scream somewhere off to my right, from the woods, on the other side of the river.