Allies of Plaxas

Chapter the Tenth: Bella

The days are long and boring.

My life has fallen into a sort of cycle with the old lady that I'm living with. I get up and eat breakfast. After that, I go exploring on her grounds until lunch time and then I eat lunch with her outside. After lunch we do 'lessons' as she calls them, where she teaches me what she thinks I need to do.

Life here is different on Plaxas, though I still don't know where 'here' is. All the old lady can tell me is that we're on the continent of Kilerth, in North Litterem. She's never heard of Plaxas and has no idea how I might get back. So for now, I'm stuck here.

There's no school here. Everyone is taught at home, through their parents or guardians. And there's a strict sort of hierarchy, where everyone in the higher levels are served first. The lady that I live with, Sophie, is in one of the higher levels, the Rich. The highest level is royalty, obviously, and then there's nobalty, rich, middle class and poor. Below the poor are the savages, the bands of tribes that roam the forests of Kilerth. Sophie assures me that the forests on her land are safe, though.

Today, I'm exploring such a forest. The forests are the best part of her grounds to explore because they're different and full of interesting stuff. Right now I'm trying to find a cabin that Sophie told me about that her great great grandfather had built before her family was super rich.

I've never seen a cabin before, but I've heard of them. They're so different than the modern houses that we live in today. I think that they'd be pretty snug and nice, but when I tell that to Sophie she shakes her head and laughs.

I come to a clearing. On the other end of a clearing I see a broken down small house made of wood and I know that this is that cabin. It's really cute and I'd actually like to live in it if it weren't so broken down.

I move closer to it, studying the damage. It looks like something crashed into it, and recently, too. The inside of the wood of the cracked pieces are fresh and they aren't rotten--they don't even look like they've been rained on yet.

I hear sounds from inside the house--scuffles of something moving around. I jump, and I know that it's probably a good idea to move away, but I can't help wondering what's inside. I've always been like that. My mom says that when I was really little I stuck my hand in a ground dwarf hole to see what was inside. I managed to grab a dwarf and I pulled him out of the hole!

I sigh. Thinking about my mom makes me think about my old life. I can't afford to think about that right now, because it'll make me homesick.

I move closer to the shack until I can touch it. I look inside the open door.

It's hard to see inside it. Dim light filters in but all I can see in the corner are several scuffling shapes.

I spot a tail flop out into a spot of sunlight and dust billows up from the floor. At first I think that it's a snake because the tail is long and scaley, and I shudder. But at second glance, this tail is blue, and I've never seen a blue snake before. But I have seen a blue tail before. The dragon that brought me here had a blue tail.

"Blanq?" I ask quietly. It would be a huge coincidence that I found my dragon here, but it also wouldn't be. She couldn't have fallen that far away from me, and the roof of this cabin was crashed pretty recently.

A rumbling noise comes from the shadows, but it's not an angry sound. Instead it sounds like purring.

"Blanq? It's me, Bella. Come on out," I say, holding out my hand. If it's her I hope she'll smell my scent.

A face peers out from the darkness--it is Blanq! I jump forwards, about to hug her neck, when she pulls back and growls.

"Blanq? What is it?" I ask, pulling back to study her. Is she alright? Is she foaming at the mouth? Is she sick?

Blanq curls back up into the shadows and I move closer, hardly knowing what's possessing me. And then I hear it. The tiniest of noises, just a little squeak.

I freeze and inch backwards. Blanq looks up at me and finally seems to recognize me. She pushes something forwards, out of the shadows.

A baby dragon sits in front of her, blinking up at me.

"Oh, Blanq!" I say. "I didn't know you were pregnant!"