Nusantara: Taming a Dragon ✔

Still alive

For anyone who has yet to see this gorgeous piece of art from Chiel, this is the entirety of the Nusantara Archipelago which will be the playground for the second game. As you can probably tell, the island we're still on in this story is the tiny one in the middle ;) Seeing it like this really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

But I will bore you no longer and just leave you darlings to enjoy the new chapter. Cheers~ ( ˘ ³˘)❤

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"Ugh..."

What? Whose voice was that? Was it hers? Could that dry, groggy – bordering on eerie – tone really belong to her?

Opening her eyes and blinking several times until her vision cleared, Aleera glanced around the room... a room that definitely didn't belong to her. Well, it had to have been her voice since she was alone there. Sitting up and frowning at the lightheadedness that came with it, she now noticed the clothes she was wearing.

But wait... hadn't she been at the beach yesterday? Had Mawar dragged her to some party the previous night and gotten her so drunk that she couldn't even remember it?

"Weird..." she muttered, feeling her forehead upon realizing she showed none of the symptoms of a hangover.

So if she hadn't been drunk... what, then?

'Am I dead?'  she mused, her heart sinking to the bottom of her stomach.

Had she actually drowned? Was this Heaven? Granted, she had expected more light and maybe some more clouds in Paradise; but who was she to judge God's taste? If He demanded that everyone had to wear traditional clothing, she didn't really mind it. As a kid she'd been made to wear more dresses and skirts than she cared to count, because her mother had always been fascinated by her husband's British culture.

In truth, the sleeveless black Kebaya hugging her torso was really beautiful. Whoever had had the patience to sew an entire flock of multicolored birds spiraling around the fabric, was not only a very skilled artist but also had none of her envy. That had to have taken weeks – if not months – to create, and it made a very nice contrast to the pale green Batik wrapped around her waist, decorated with crimson flowers and held up by a yellow sash.

"So you're still alive."

She was still admiring the skill that had gone into making her outfit, when the male voice coming from the window made her jump out of her skin; and in her haste to turn around she nearly tripped on her own feet.

What first caught her attention was that she suddenly found herself the object of a piercing emerald stare, and for the first time in her life she felt utterly naked in spite of the fabric covering her. Trying to swallow the sudden knot in her throat, she took a moment to examine the young man perched on her windowsill and in just one glance she could tell that he was a native. Not just because of his attire, but because of his dark skin... although, if she were to be completely honest, the color seemed a bit too ashen compared to the Indonesians she had seen throughout her life.

And then she finally remembered seeing those same eyes earlier on the beach, but when she took a tentative step toward him he narrowed his eyes and growled at her... wait, what? He GROWLED?! And it wasn't just some half-assed attempt, like a human trying to growl. No, he had decidedly snarled at her like an animal – it sounded so natural and effortless, and she could tell by the tonality that it came from his entire chest as opposed to just his throat, as if his vocal cords and lungs were built for just that purpose.

Her confused stare, leaning more toward curiosity than fear, was suddenly averted when the door behind her opened and two young women practically spilled into the room in their eagerness to check on her.