28 Chapter 28

In a panic, I stumbled to my paws and raced off, heading for where he disappeared to. Xyon! Dread chilled every vein in my body as I went to him. What do I do if it's something I can't beat?! What if I'm too slow to get there and I don't find anything?! I don't want to lose him! Desperation fueled my energy, giving me a temporary speed boost. Branches either snapped or gouged me as I just rammed through, giving up on carefully moving through. I came to a stop, frozen with absolute chilling horror. A monstrous green dragon that stood taller than the trees and seemed more like a small mountain, with a scarred and missing left eye, was standing in a clearing of its own making. It looked as if it'd just crashed down and knocked over all the trees rather than finding a nice place to land. When I finally looked lower, I almost dreamed in despair. A pool of red blood with torn bit of clothing was around its massive paws. From the scent alone, not even counting the clothes, I could tell who it belonged to. Unable to accept it, I screeched and flew out at full speed, going for the giant dragon's face.

It blinked at me slowly, then swatted me aside as if I was nothing more than an annoying fly. Overwhelming misery mixed with my spite in a torrent of rage and sorrow. I came at it with everything I had, but it seemed merely amused. I was nothing to this dragon...the power gap was too large. When it reached a point that I was more of a nuisance, it took one paw and slammed me into the ground with no trace of restraint. My entire rib-cage caved as almost all my bones snapped. Not one to give up so easily though, I pushed through the jarring pain movement brought and looked at it. Using whatever energy I had left with practically my entire pool of mana, I breathed my strongest flame, managing to literally melt scales off where it hit. I couldn't help but grin when I saw this, even as I ran out of mana. Its scream was enough for me. Enraged, it took its huge talons and sliced at me, ending the pain I'd felt.

I opened my eyes to see a ceiling above me, a window beside me, and a nice blanket on top of me. What? Was that a dream? I sat up slowly and looked around the room, then at my hands. Human again, just like before. The pain from earlier had been too much for me, so I pushed it to the back of my mind and continued on. I died not long after by staying here. Getting up, I opened the window beside the bed and climbed out, gazing at the lake. The setting sun reflected beautifully off the water, making it glisten like ice. I need to leave here, or I'll die. I don't remember how, but I know I will. Ignoring the bareness of my feet, I turned away from the only place with answers, walking down the road without looking back. There's no reason to stay. I should just live a normal life for as long as I can and forget about it all. What ever made me believe either one was reality? What if I was asleep that whole time as a dragon, and I'm still dreaming even now? That's the only logical conclusion. It isn't possible for someone to have two separate bodies in two different worlds, let alone wake up in one of them after dying. I started to recede into my own mind, refusing to accept what had happened. That means, even if I don't stop walking, I'll inevitably die because that's how dreams work. Following that thought, I kept going, not even momentarily taking a break. As I went down that road for days, not a single car passed and I further started to lose it.

Eventually, I even began mumbling, "It's all a lie. I've been asleep through all of it. Not a single thing was real. It was a dream," repeatedly. As it turned into a week and my legs were giving out, a car at last went by, the driver shocked when they saw me. They stopped the car and rolled down the window, leaning out to get a better look.

"Young girl? Are you okay? Huh? What'd you say?" I looked at him with sunken eyes.

"This is a dream. None of it is real. Nothing actually happened." Now he was worried and got out, stepping in front of me to make me stop. I just tried to go around, but he blocked me.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" My words were set on repeat, and when I locked eyes with him, a few tears began to fall. "Can you tell me your name?" My whole frame was shaking, my feet were bloody, my gut was empty, and my mouth was dry.

When he went to touch me, I jerked away and shrieked, "It was a dream! A lie! I'm asleep, even now!"

"I'm sorry about this." He grabbed me and pinned my wrists together with one hand, trying to get me to answer. "What was a dream? If you're asleep, there's nothing wrong with telling the dream people what happened, right?"

I looked at him with clouded eyes. "I didn't die. I only have one body. I'm not a dragon, and I never met the boy named Xyon. I never met him, so he never died." The man was stunned by my reply.

"Here, come with the dream person and tell me more." He got me into the passenger seat and turned his truck down the road to go to his home. "So, who didn't die?"

"Xyon didn't. My mother didn't...my father didn't...no-one did. It was a dream."

"Right…" I wasn't entirely conscious at the moment, but I snapped out of it when I felt something strange coming.

I looked at him, then scanned the trees before lunging at the wheel. "Stop! Turn around!"

"Woah!" He didn't seem to know what to do and took a lot of effort just to make the truck stop swerving. "What's up with you this time?!"

"You're a kind man! Please, don't keep going down that road!" But it was already too late. Guns started firing loudly. Before I could truly process what had happened, the tires had been blown, making us go out of control and crash. I gasped at the sudden flames popping up around me and checked the driver. He didn't have a pulse. Shoving the instant wave of emotions away, I crawled out of the burning vehicle and coughed, my body extremely weak and frail. I had glass stabbing me in multiple places with far too many cuts and bruises to count. I can't move...boots showed up in my line of vision.

"Oh Zavira~!" A young lady with a hood on walked up behind the large guy in front of me. She knelt and looked at me, smiling like her every wish had just come true. "You naughty girl~! Running away like that~!" She whipped out a knife and stabbed it through my hand into the dirt, pinning me there as I screamed. "No matter how far you go~, I'll find you~!" She stood back up and walked off, raising her hand then flicking it to the side. The guns fired and everything went black. I inhaled deeply when I woke up in the forest, slammed face-first into a low-hanging branch. What…? I looked around to realize this was when I'd been running towards the scream. Knowing this, I paused and waited. After a good ten minutes or so, the ginormous one-eyed green dragon flew away. My eyes clouded over when I saw this and I raggedly walked forward. When I reached the area from before, I saw the same pool of blood as I did back then. This is a dream. My vision blurred and I turned away, leaving the spot of death that seemed to haunt me. Where are we going next? No matter what, I wasn't returning to that cavern, especially in this state. I walked like I had earlier--continuously. My scales were blackening from soot as I went deeper, closer, to the volcanic home of the fire tribe. I ignored any beasts that attacked me, but not once did I let them knock me over. After a long time and my legs started to lock, I took to flying low over the ground, not letting anything stop me.

At some point, Kathgar had tracked me down and tackled me out of the sky, pinning me to the ground. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've seen you?! You left back then and never returned! Where's your little friend, anyway?" He was heavy, but I still made lifeless attempts at wiggling out of his grasp. "Zavi?" I looked up at him and he froze, then growled, "What'd you do?! Why are your eyes glazed over?! Speak to me!"

"This is a dream," I rasped. He fell silent to listen, but was still upset. "None of this is real. Dragons don't get that big. Xyon wasn't real, and neither was that dragon, so no-one died. Everyone never even existed in the first place."

"What?"

Looking him dead in the eye, I repeated, "This is a dream. None of this is real. Dragons don't get that big. Xyon wasn't real, and neither was that dragon, so no-one died. Everyone never even existed in the first place." There was a look of utter horror in those eyes of his that so perfectly matched mine.

"He died? What happened?!"

"This is a dream. None of this is real. Dragons don't get that big. Xyon wasn't real, and neither was that dragon, so no-one died. Everyone never even existed in the first place." He shuddered, freaked by the repetitive behavior I displayed. Not even a single word was different.

Rebuilding his composure, he tried to calm himself down, doing his best to ignore my creepy appearance. "Zavi. Think. Use your brain. I want you to tell me what happened. Why do you think this is a dream?"

Now, tears streamed down her face, but all she said was, "This is a dream (I'm scared). None of this is real (No-one helped). Dragons don't get that big (I was in danger). Xyon wasn't real, and neither was that dragon, so no-one died (I couldn't save him in time). Everyone never even existed in the first place (I've lost everything)." To my inner-self's dismay, he couldn't hear my pleas for help, no matter how loud I screamed. Thinking there was nothing he could do, I had no choice but to watch as Kathgar abandoned me there, where I didn't have enough strength to even get up from. Deep in my subconscious, I was inside a dark room devoid of light, crying silent tears as I whispered, 'Save me.' I blinked and looked around in confusion. 'Huh…?' I lay in the dark, feeling as if I was underwater…

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IMPORTANT

This counts as the end of the 'first book'. I'm currently writing the second one and will be uploading it hopefully more often than I did with this one...oops. Although it's the 'second book', it'll be uploaded onto this one like new chapters, since it pretty much picks up where it left of to some degree. Thank you for reading my story!