Night of Discovery
Karen
I was yawning all through class. In fact, I think I even dozed off in the middle of Math class. Of course, Mrs. Hertz had to make an example out of me because of that.
"Miss Shayli, I understand you had some issues some time back, but that was a week ago, and you need to pay attention now."
I knew what she was talking about. See, I had to tell the teachers about Lyoko back when I was turning into a dragon thanks to Xana's bug and wouldn't be able to get to school without scaring the kids. They'd taken time between classes to see me and help me keep up with my studies even while I had a "case of scales," as Odd sometimes put it, but I was back to normal, which meant I had to pay attention.
"Sorry," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. Glancing to one side, I saw Aelita giving me a very worried look. I tried to smile, but that's kind of hard with a tired face.
After class, Aelita and I met up with Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, William, Yumi, and Sissi.
"You actually fell asleep?" Odd laughed. "Wow, I didn't know you fell asleep in class!"
"Not even funny, Odd," I snapped. "I couldn't get proper sleep last night!"
"Of course not," Sissi commented, pretending she was still the mean girl we'd known for the whole time we were fighting Xana, "not with you screaming at four in the morning."
"You screamed?" Jeremy asked, looking concerned.
"It was a nightmare, Jeremy. I'm not used to having nightmares. Remember? My dreams predicted the future, not doom."
Okay, okay, I was a little short-tempered. I don't like being made an example of.
"Well," Ulrich asked, "what did you dream about?"
I sighed. "It was all of us. We…" I stopped. Even as tired as I was, I suddenly realized something: my dream last night had held true with my old future-predicting dreams. You know – dragons as people? But I wasn't trying to slaughter my friends, so it couldn't have been true. Could it?
William
I didn't like the silence Karen met that question with. "We what? Karen, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, really. I…oh, never mind. We were flying. And then…"
Aelita spoke up. "Ka-REN! Don't keep us in suspense! What happened?"
I was a little surprised that she hadn't asked how we were all flying. Then I realized that I shouldn't be: why wouldn't Karen dream about us as dragons again?
"I…my scales went from white to black. My eyes turned red. And…"
Suddenly, I'd had it with her constant stops. And apparently, so had Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy. "WELL?!?"
What she said next was so quiet that I almost didn't hear her. "I killed everyone I was flying with."
That brought true silence.
I had to ask. "Are you sure it wasn't something from the movie?"
"Eragon wouldn't do something like that to me. It was a lot like the future-predicting dreams I used to have. Only…this one is more like one that's predicting the far future instead of the next day."
Yumi came up with a pretty good solution. "Listen, how about you wait and see if that dream comes up again, and then we'll see what to do about it."
Aelita suddenly laughed.
"What?" I asked. "I missed the joke." Sissi looked just as blank.
"I'm sorry. It's just that Jeremy said almost exactly the same thing when we were talking about bringing Karen into the know about Lyoko, only we were talking about her acting like she had a headache after return trips."
Karen smiled, but I could tell she was still worried. "Hey." She looked at me. "Everything will be fine. Don't worry."
Karen
Thanks, Will, but that's easier said than done.
Anyway, I survived the rest of the day without falling asleep again. Then I was able to get to bed.
The white dragon was flying with her friends again. They were doing all sorts of acrobatic stunts in the air. Then, slowly, black slid over the white dragon's scales, her eyes went red, and she thrashed out at the largest bronze dragon, her claws tearing out his throat –
I sat bolt upright again. This time I know I didn't scream, but still!
I was going to kill William first? But-but William was my…my boyfriend! How could that happen to him?
Come to think of it…why were my scales turning black in the first place? And what was it with my eyes?
I pulled out a piece of paper from my notebook and turned on my small flashlight. I decided to try to draw a picture of one of my dragon's eyes without waking up Aelita. I sketched as carefully as I could, determining that I wouldn't look at it as a whole until I had finished drawing the whole eye. It didn't take long before I was done, and I shone my light at the whole paper.
And that was when I got chills. For inside that eye was the Eye of Xana!
Author's Note:
And, sorry for the abruptness, but I was a little strapped on ideas.