Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Knights. I own Treisha, but all characters and such belong to Mineko Ohkami.
ALERT: Spoilers! There are going to be major spoilers of anything from book one through book 24.
Chapter one: Is this a dream come true?
"Damn it." Treisha cursed, shoving another branch away as it slapped her across the face. Her cheek burning, she felt a trickle of sweat slide between her shoulder blades. She grimaced and wiped sweat from her eyes.
She looked towards her feet, and scowled as she was once more reminded of how she followed no path. She glanced towards the sky, and was also reminded of the descending sun. She wiggled her toes, but she didn't need this action to remind her of her fatigue.
Lost, that's what she was. She hated to admit it. Her mind kept flipping back to all those lessons in wilderness survival, compass navigation, GPS work, she was even reasonably competent in maps. Despite all these wonderful skills, she was undeniably, completely….lost.
She was also lost to how this had happened.
Had she not, minutes ago, been sitting in a bookstore with friends? Had her brain finally failed her, and it had been an illusion that she'd been sitting in the Japanese Manga section, skimming the shelves with hope written in her young eyebrows? After 17 years of living on this green earthen planet, had Treisha Cigma finally abandoned her marbles, and had insanity swept into take her?
She could have gone upon the witness stand in court, and swore with the best of conviction, that she HAD been sitting in that bookstore, and that she had been desperately searching for a particular book. A lie detector could have been linked to her brain waves, and not found a single line out of place, and still, she would have sworn that she'd been sitting among books, and not under a canopy of trees.
"I am not insane." She growled to herself, slapping at her shoulder, feeling the phantom caress of an insect. "I am not."
Treisha shoved another branch away from her face, only to once again have it snap back at her, but this time her quick reflexes moved her away from the threat.
She paused, and settled onto a nearby fallen tree. She ran a hand through her shoulder length brown gold hair.
"Breathe." She said, sighing, and shutting her eyes. "You are a Search and Rescue Officer. You are smarter than this. Think."
And she did think. She forced her mind to consider the situation from every rational angle she could manage. Despite her strained efforts, Treisha failed to form a reasonable explanation for how this had happened. She instead moved her mind to thoughts of how she was going to survive the night. She shut away thoughts of court rooms, insanity, and mysteriously appearing woods, and instead turned it to the quickly setting sun.
"Shelter." She said firmly. "Then a fire." She continued, and breathed deeply. She didn't worry about keeping calm. She'd been stuck overnight in a forest so many times they weren't countable. The only difference was that she usually slept with her SAR team. (Search and Rescue)
A twig snapped. Treisha's head jerked up in alarm. Despite all her training, she had not been trained in defending herself against forest animals.
Soon, Treisha realized it was human words she heard, and not that of an animals. With this knowledge in mind, she rose to her feet, cautious, as was her nature. She lowered herself to the ground, and peered through a cluster of dark green ferns.
She saw a man sitting on a fallen log much like the one she'd lounged on, only larger. The man appeared young, no more than early twenties. He had one leg crossed over the other, and long golden yellow hair cascading over slim, strong shoulders. Her eyes moved to pointed elfin ears, to pale skin, to bright gold eyes. He wore a long pair of white pants, which disappeared into knee high brown boots. He wore a tunic, but only the white sleeves and cuffs could be seen, because an over layer of brown covered it.
"Rune?" Treisha laughed in disbelief. Immediately, the fairy prince lunged to his feet, on guard at once. Treisha knew he was prepared to summon his sword.
"Whose there?" He called blindly, and Treisha paused a moment to relish the sound and pitch of it. It was nearly the same as she'd dreamt it. Smooth and graceful notes, calm and composed pitches.
"No." She laughed, turning away from the scene. She faced the log she'd been sitting upon a few moments ago, and shut her eyes. "No." She smiled.
She'd never been the type of character to dismiss the unusual, or even the paranormal. Indeed, she worked at a Magic Shop in Portland Oregon. There, she'd both observed and participated in rune casting, palm reading, and concocting herbal remedies for varied ailments.
However, she also knew when the fates were screwing with her, and this felt like one of those times.
"Hello?" A voice called.
"Of course," she mumbled under her breath. "If that's just the fates screwing with me again, I do say they picked a damned good choice."
"Is anyone there?" Came that beautiful sing-song voice again. She sent a glare towards the heavens.
"Well, since it seems you've decided to draw this out…" she trailed off with a sigh. "I guess I should indulge before the dream ends, and you decide you've had enough of this game."
"Who are you?" Asked Rune, having stepped through the surrounding brush and into the open. Treisha turned to face him.
"Not a demon, so no cause for alarm." She laughed.
Rune hesitated, and then relaxed, and let his hand drop, sword summoning forgotten.
"I apologize then." And Rune tossed her a smile. "But I don't come across wandering girls in the forest every day." He held out his hand. "I'm Rune."
"I know." She replied, having just realized she'd used his name earlier. She tried to form a rational lie and chewed the inside her cheek, an old habit.
Lies were scarce in coming though. Coming up with a story to tell Rune that both justified how she knew his name as well as why she was out here was a difficulty. Even now, Rune was raising a curious eyebrow.
"I caught your name in town." Treisha threw out finally. She'd easily discarded the idea of speaking the truth. She wouldn't waste the time on a person who was probably a mere figment created by her very colorful imagination.
Abruptly, Treisha had to lunge to the side, as a black haired boy came flying past her, sword already summoned. He was jerking his head from side to side, his eyes scanning the terrain.
"Put that sword away Rath. There aren't any demons here." Rune was growling.
"What?" The boy moaned, his blade falling to hang at his side, and then vanished the next time Treisha blinked. "There aren't?"
Treisha's eyes ticked from Rune, to Rath, and then she pursed her lips in wait.
Come on. She breathed silently. Go ahead! Make the dream complete why don't you?
In response, Thatz appeared at her back and clapped a hand on her shoulder.
"You better be asking directions to a diner Rune." Thatz groaned as he came to stand in the circle with the other three. "We haven't eaten since morning, and all this stumbling through the forest, despite the fact we've found…."
Rune cut him off immediately.
"Excuse my manners!" He said loudly, shushing the other boy. He motioned to his two friends. "This is Rath and Thatz." He motioned to her and paused.
"Treisha." She confirmed, smiling.
"He forgot already!" Thatz laughed loudly. "Talk about terrible memory!"
Treisha replied before Rune could.
"I don't think it's a matter of memory-loss Thatz. If my memory serves, the Dragon Clan has very good memories, among other gifts." Treisha wasn't being very careful with what she said. It didn't matter in dreams.
"How does she know we're of the Dragon Clan?" Rath asked, leaning over and whispering in Rune's ear.
"She's heard it in town, probably." The elf replied, and Rath turned to pass the message onto Thatz, who then turned in kind to whisper it to…thin air.
"So why the wandering in the forest Treisha?" Rune inquired.
Here came more quick thinking as she formed another lie.
"Got lost I think." She said smoothly. "I was traveling to Chantle, but I've lost my way."
"There are worse places to wander into." Rath snickered, and Thatz chuckled.
Treisha couldn't resist remembering the time the knights had mistook fairy forest for a demonic one.
"And what is the purpose of your forest wandering?" She asked them. "Not lost as well are you?" She'd decided that as long as she was caught up in this dream world, she might as well play around a bit.
"Demons." Said Rath.
"Treasure." Said Thatz.
"Guys!" Shouted Rune, closing his eyes, and speaking in a low tone. Treisha saw Thatz and Rath creep away from him, as if the fairy were a time bomb about to go off.
"We're returning to Draqueen actually." Thatz explained, observing Rune chase Rath, who'd taken shelter behind a tree.
Ignoring the two fighting knights, Treisha glanced to her current companion. Standing beside her, she saw not the powerful Earth Dragon Knight who would later wield the snow sword. Instead, she saw the youth who was barely out of his thieving days, and into his days of the sword.
She took in his brown hair, which fell to his shoulders in huge tussles that were nothing like the silky waves it would become later. He bore the scar of a cross on his cheek, though she could not remember who dealt it. He wore white slacks tucked into shin high white boots. He wore a sleeveless brown shirt, which he'd seem to have chopped the sleeves of, and then still wore them, meaning they were disconnected. He was grinning at his friend's violence, and Treisha noted the old thief in that smile.
Rune resumed his irritated position across from Treisha, leaving a cowering Rath by the tree, rubbing a sore butt, which had been kicked.
"We should be on our way." Rune said, brushing himself off. Thatz nodded vigorously.
"Yes!" he shouted. "With all this slaying of demons all afternoon, and this constant searching, I've been starved of my body's nutrition!"
"Shut up Thatz." Rune groaned. Thatz wilted, as anime tears became orbs of water beneath his eyes.
"But Rune, I'm hungry. This is too much work. The mission's finished, can't we go celebrate now?"
Rune heaved a huge sigh, and seeing he'd given in, Thatz punched a fist into the air with a loudly exclaimed "YES" which Rath joined in for with his own fist in the air.
"You wouldn't mind if I tagged along, just until you hit town?" Treisha asked them, and immediately, Thatz had taken her hand in his and was looking at her with big eyes.
"Yes, yes, yes," He exclaimed, his bangs hanging in his wide golden colored eyes. "You can come travel with us, and eat, and then you can…." Suddenly Thatz collapsed to the forest floor, as a huge boulder larger than his body fell upon his head. Rune was grinning smugly.
"We'd be happy to escort you all the way back to Chantle too Treisha, since that is our next stop. Besides, it would be rude of us to leave a young lady out in the woods." His smile was sweet, and the notion that he was ignoring Thatz behind him was obvious. Thatz had gotten to his feet now, the boulder having disappeared as easily as it had appeared.
Rune had begun to swiftly walk away, Treisha followed after, still waiting for the fates to stop screwing with her and yank her into the sky, and plop her back into the comic store.
The sun had begun to set.
A grin slipped onto her face. She'd always gathered amusement from Rune's unique ability to summon boulders from thin air, as well as machine guns, which were beyond this time period's technology.
She wiped the grin from her face with an air of irritation.
She ruled this ordeal could not be caused by insanity, so it must be a dream, brought on by either fatigue or stress.
Although it wasn't as if she hadn't dreamed of the DK before. She'd had numerous dreams in which she spent afternoons with these characters, fighting in their battles, or even just observing the sexiness of some of their appearances. As a result of walking by their sides so many times, it wasn't a surprise she'd daydreamed of what she would choose to do if she ever "did" get dropped into their world.
And yet it didn't feel like images conjured only by her brain. The sweat upon her back felt real. The ache of her feet felt real enough, and the scents of the forest seemed too vivid to be anything but reality.
"So Treisha," Rune asked as she fell in step with him. Observing his appearance through quizzical eyes, Treisha took a moment to wonder how he hid his fairy blood at all. It was written into every crease of his clothing, into the lines of his cheek bones, and the waves of golden hair. "Where are you from?" He asked her.
It was easy to say Treisha was not pleased with how high her pile of lies was beginning to mount.
"You could say I'm a wanderer, Rune." She wondered briefly if it was a bad sign she lied so easily. "I'm not from these parts, as you can probably tell." With this last sentence, she became starkly aware of the two boys flanking her and Rune, which were now whispering fervently.
"She's right." Thatz hissed into Rath's ear. "See her clothes? She can't be from around here at all." Rath nodded his head in response.
Treisha glanced down at herself. She observed that she probably fit into the style of this world more than any of her friends would have. Despite this, her clothing still set her aside from that of the knights.
She wore a pair of long brown velvet pants, and a tucked in black halter top. She was wearing a pair of heavy dark purple leather boots which felt like blocks of cement now, and she'd tied her jacket about her waist….a black velvet fancy dress jacket.
"Maybe she's from somewhere near the Southern Continent." Rath was mumbling to Thatz, and Treisha frowned.
The Southern Continent meant Arinas. They should have known better than to think her an Arinas resident. Then again, now that she considered it…did the three know that the One Winged Alchemist ruled that piece of land? No, they couldn't. They didn't yet know of his existence, not until the slaughtering of fairies began.
This brought forth another thought. Where in the series of 25 books had the fates drop her? It'd been immediately obvious that it had to be in the first ten, because the three hadn't undergone their transformation of book 11. They were still children, three warrior youths serving the Dragon lord and getting distracted during every journey they were given.
But Thatz had mentioned their current mission, and that it had just concluded. Could it be….that the fates had actually been kind enough to begin this dream at book one?
She sent her eyes to the darkening sky, and sighed.
Then smiled as she spotted smoke trails in the sky in the distance, the markings of the next city.
How long were the fates going to allow her this dream, before they ended it? How long until they sliced through the fabric of its existence, and jerked her back to reality? How long would they allow this surprising gift to go on, before they cruelly woke her up?
How long until her blissful insanity would be up?
So there you go! This is the end of the first chapter. Are you interested in seeing what happens next? What will the Dragon lord say when he hears they've found someone who knows everything that is going to happen to the Dragon Clan for the next several years? What happens when Treisha falls in love with someone in the series?
Stay tuned to find out!
Rath: What? That's it? I didn't even get to fight any demons.
Thatz: There wasn't any treasure.
Rune: Do I have to deal with this even "after" the chapter is finished? What gives miss story writer?
Me: I'll inform you that its my story…and you can all stop your whining. The next chapter has you having more fun anyway.
Rune: I highly doubt that.
Rath: (snickers) So pessimistic Rune!
Rune: You got a problem? (Tries to split Rath's head in two with his sword)
Thatz: (pushes the two apart) you guys are acting like two year olds. Stop it already.
Rune and Rath look at each other.
Rune: Hey Thatz.
Thatz: Yeah?
Rath: Demons usually guard treasure.
Thatz: TREASURE!
Rath and Rune glance at each other.
Rune: And he says WE act like two year olds.
Thatz begins the happy dance…..