Hey, I did it!
Parts of this chapter felt a bit rushed when typing them. Let me know about any glaring spelling or grammar errors.
-theheartlesssoul010
Eowynn found himself looking out of his bedroom window across the cloudy evening skyline, central London stretching out in front of him. The noise of rush hour traffic permeated the city as millions made their way home for the night. A light breeze whispered across his face, carrying the scent of petrol fumes mixed with Indian food cooking somewhere nearby. Gently, he closed his eyes…
…and snapped back to a room full of dragons.
He reeled back from the pool, panting for breath.
"What…what the fuck was that?" he stammered out. "I was back home, I was there, but I'm here?"
"Calm yourself" Terrador's authoritative voice filled the small chamber. "That was the Pool's effect on you. You showed us a vision, a glimpse of your memory." The Earth Guardian looked a tad surprised. "Not all dragons can do that, you know" he added.
"But, it felt so bloody real. I never even remembered that moment until now. How could this, this 'pool' do that?"
Cyril spoke up this time. "Magic, my boy! Every Pool of Visions is imbued with a special magic, allowing a potential user to show a memory or, if they are especially skilled, even a vision from the future!" the blue Guardian stated excitedly.
Eowynn frowned. "Wait, so you saw that too?"
"Yes, yes! The image of the user's thought appears in the pool for others to view. I must say, your home looks so incredibly strange!" A grin appeared on Cyril's face. "Wait until that old fool Volteer sees this. I pity you, young dragon, for I fear he will have many questions for you!"
Noticing the others grimace at the thought, Eowynn sighed. His head hurt. Somehow, these insane creatures thought that the best way for him to explain his situation to them was through the use of this magic bathtub. At this point he was utterly convinced that he was having some sort of ridiculous dream or hallucination. Ever since he woke up the crazy had been steadily ramping up, but this 'Pool' easily took the cake. Hallucinations inside a hallucination? His already fragile sanity struggled to cope with that one. Unfortunately, it seemed he was trapped 'here' for the time being. His only option, therefore, was to go along with things and find out where this all led.
Terrador looked at him in sympathy. "The experience will be jarring the first few times. It takes practice to be able to show a memory without reliving it yourself. Observe" The green dragon craned his massive head down towards the pool, closing his eyes. To Eowynn's shock, a clear image of what looked like a city rippled into view on the surface of the liquid. Great walls of stone encircled it and, looking closely, dozens of small specks could be seen flying above its rooftops. Eowynn could only assume those were more dragons.
"Holy shit"
Cyril shot him a disapproving glance, before Terrador spoke again. "This is the City of Warfang. The greatest building you can see there is the Dragon Temple-in which we now stand." The image faded. "That was a memory I have from before the war. The city looks quite different today." The Earth Guardian paused for a moment. "Now, try again, this time focusing not only on the memory but also the present, so you may describe it to us."
Eowynn let out a deep breath. Was this really the easiest way to do this? Trying to think of a useful memory to start with, he settled on trying to explain what exactly he was before…this.
"The people where I come from call ourselves Humans…"
Suddenly, he was in the midst of a great crowd of people, making his way into the tube station. It was the usual Saturday morning rush, hundreds swarming around him in an attempt to get from place to place. A larger man bumped into his left shoulder. "Watch where you're going…" he called out, before being swept along with the flow of people. Descending the escalator and making his way towards the turnstiles, he entered the station and made for his usual train. It screeched to a halt and passengers poured out, although the train didn't remain empty for long. Forcing his way in, Eowynn was managed to find a space to stand just before the doors closed and the vehicle sped on its way-
Jerked back to reality again, the transition being a little smoother this time, Eowynn steadied himself slightly. The others stared intently at the fading image.
"What strange looking creatures..." Cyril muttered. He frowned slightly.
Terrador, however, was intrigued. "It seems you were telling the truth about where you came from. Please, show us more-so we may understand."
Eowynn sighed. "I'll try-but, honestly, I don't think it will help you understand at all". With that said, he focused his mind again, bringing up more memories. Once again he tried and failed to stay grounded in 'reality', and slipped into the memory…
"…coming in that the Indian Army offensive has been halted by Pakistani forces just outside of the city of Lahore, captured by India last week. The UN has once again called for 'a peaceful solution to the conflict' amid fears that one or both sides may call upon their nuclear arsenal to break the stalemate. In other news, scientists in Denmark have…"
Eowynn let out a small 'hmph'. Typical, the media downplaying the bad news as much as possible. After all, the government thought, why should people here care what's happening halfway round the planet? He switched channels and came across footage of the latest NASA launch earlier that day; the final ISS-2 crew heading to space to prepare the station for de-orbiting later in the year. There was to be no replacement, not after NASA had its funding slashed yet again. A shame, Eowynn thought. He had wanted to be an astronaut when he was a kid.
Not anymore, though. No point in chasing impossible dreams.
He heard an alarm go off from the street below. Moving to the window, he could make out a lone figure running out of the corner shop nearby. Suddenly, he found himself nearly deafened by the roar of a jet engine as a police drone flew directly past the window, activating its sirens. Another drone soared in from the opposite direction, cutting off the would-be-robber before he could run any further. The machines trained their spotlights on the criminal as Eowynn's mother came to the window beside him. "For god's sake, what now?" she wondered out loud.
"YOU ARE UNDER ARREST. PLEASE DO NOT RESIST" the robotic voice intoned. A police car rounded the corner as the man dropped his stolen cash and knelt in the street, arms raised. Eowynn watched as the officers who got out of the car restrained the man and threw him in the back seat. The drones deactivated their sirens, and flew off to resume their patrols.
Eowynn grinned. That had been the most interesting thing to happen all week.
"Good riddance" his mother said. "The less of his like on the streets, the better, that's what I say. Come on, your dinner's almost ready."
He spared one last look before tearing his gaze away…
Eowynn became vaguely aware that he reliving the vision again. Feeling the presence of the dragons in the room again, he attempted to keep the vision going while speaking to them. "That was just last night…the night before-"
-He was sprinting as fast as possible, the crashing of water not far behind. Screams reached his ears from all directions as he turned his head back, seeing the immense wave approaching. Looking forward again, he saw a point of light become an immensely powerful flash, and just as the wave reached him he ran into the light-
Eowynn recoiled, falling to the cool stone floor. "Gah!" he sputtered out, gasping forcefully. The two guardians looked on, confounded. As he attempted to pick himself off the floor, however, he noticed the other dragon, Cynder, had a hint of recognition in her eyes.
"That flash," she spoke. "That's what I saw, before you appeared. I'm sure of it."
"Oh god… this is real isn't it…oh fuck…" Something had clicked in his mind. Through no rational thought process that he could discern, there it was. Acceptance. A subconscious admission that yes, this was actually happening. The logical part of Eowynn's mind tried to fight it, but he felt an increasing, unsettling feeling of reality descend upon him.
Terrador finally spoke up. "Whilst I won't claim to understand most of what you showed us, it is clear that this event, magical or otherwise, has brought you from your world to ours-and perhaps saved you from an untimely death in the process. It seems you were lucky" he finished.
That was too much for Eowynn to handle. "Lucky? LUCKY?" He scanned about the room, a crazed glare in his eyes. "I'd be better off dead! Look at me! Look how fucked up I am! In this stupid, ugly body! I'm practically a monster!"
Cyril especially did not take kindly to that. "You will not insult our kind as you have! I warn you not to forget, you are speaking to not one but two of the Dragon Guardians, as well as high-ranking members of the Warfang Council!"
"None of that means anything to me!" Eowynn said exasperatedly. "You just don't get it, do you? How can I just-just roll over and accept all of this? As far as anyone I ever knew is concerned, I AM dead! I still don't know where I am, how I got here, why I look like this and how I'll ever get home!" On that note, he whirled around and, turning his back on the three dragons, burst open the doors and strode out into the corridor again. He felt great, heavy footsteps on his heel and increased his pace.
Terrador's voice rang out, a tone of annoyance finally making its way known. "Stop! Where exactly do you think you are going? You cannot simply walk away from us!"
Eowynn's new heart hammered violently in his chest. His mind raced as he felt his body tense. Still he walked away. Hearing the shouts of protest and orders for him to stop, he felt something building in his chest. All sorts of emotions raged through him; confusion, shock and fear mixed with stress, anger and rage. His every instinct screamed at him to run, run from this absolute insanity. Eowynn felt like he was having a panic attack-except so intense it almost felt like a heart attack.
One final shout came from Terrador. "Stop, or I will have to make you stop!"
That did it.
Now they were threatening him.
Deep down, a new and unknown instinct made itself known. A feeling began to build within him, starting small and insignificant but growing, growing exponentially until it coursed through his very being, yet still getting stronger until he could no longer contain it-
Eowynn whipped his body around to let loose a roar at the green beast behind him. But sound was not all that came out.
With a great thump, a rolling wave of blue energy cascaded from his jaws, crashing into the unprepared Earth Guardian and sending him stumbling back onto the flagstones. Stunned, Terrador scrambled to his feet and assumed a combat stance; anticipating another attack. Cyril, witnessing this, fell into place beside his fellow Guardian. Cynder could only watch from behind them, not yet wanting to intervene.
It came as a surprise to all of them when, instead of attacking, Eowynn swayed for a brief moment before hitting the floor, out cold.
A long silence filled the corridor. Cyril was the first to speak.
"Terrador…what manner of power was that?"
The Earth Guardian could only shake his head in response. "I do not know, old friend. It seems we only have more questions now…"
The roar of the water was deafening now, and the breeze of displaced air whipped his hair around wildly. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest, but slowing even for a second would mean certain death. He couldn't die yet! Salvation was so close, he was only metres away!
Then the water hit his back foot-
-then the light flared and engulfed him-
-then the great ochre beast reared back to strike him-
Eowynn's eyes sprang open as he tried to sit up quickly, only for him to fail spectacularly and fall face first back into the mattress. "Ugh…what?" he exclaimed, realising that this was not, in fact, his bedroom. "Of course. Of course it was fucking real." He muttered his disgruntlement to no one in particular.
Glancing around, the first thing he noticed -aside from his body still being utterly horrifying- was that he wasn't back in the 'hospital' from earlier. Instead, he was in a relatively small and circular room; it seemed this was a kind of bedroom after all. The bed he occupied was larger than the one he had previously awoken in, but seemingly set into the floor with a wooden edging surrounding the mattress, keeping it in place. A few pillows were strewn about the floor, apparently thrown off the bed by him during his sleep.
Eowynn shakily assumed a seating position; with his back legs folded underneath his body and his forelegs perpendicular to the floor. This afforded him a better look at the room he was situated in.
The walls were fairly bare. Aside from the bed, the only furnishings consisted of a couple of shelves and what looked like a desk or table. Two wooden doors were positioned perpendicular to each other, with one directly opposite the bed and the other to Eowynn's right. Behind the bed was a decently-sized window, with a light fabric curtain draped in front of it.
"Well, no point in just sitting here." Wherever 'here' was, anyway.
Concentrating, Eowynn managed to stand, and stumbled his way over to the far door. However, he encountered a problem. The locking mechanism, and his own lack of hands. He ineffectively pawed at the door for a minute, to no avail.
"How the fuck are these things supposed to open-wait…what?"
He noticed something new about his 'paw'. Where he previously thought each of the four digits were practically immovable and useless, that was not in fact the case. It appeared each could be flexed individually, with the first digit on each paw acting almost like an opposable thumb. After a few practice wiggles, he managed to grip the door latch and clumsily flip it open. A minor success, but one nonetheless.
Pushing open the door, he found himself in what looked like another of the Temple's corridors, this one lined with similar doors to his. The hallway arced out in either direction, and Eowynn imagined if he set out in one direction he would eventually find himself back where he started. So where was he going to go? His head was still swimming after everything that had happened, and he felt that strange feeling start to come back, the one he felt before he…well, he didn't actually know what happened, but he didn't want it happening again.
Taking a deep breath, he resolved to just not think about it. It made things a lot easier for him.
"I need some fresh air…"
He began walking to the left, hoping to come across a set of stairs or a doorway to lead him outside. God knows what he might find outside, but he absolutely needed to clear his head before making any further decisions. So, he walked.
After walking for a few minutes, he felt a minor chill in the air, coming from some sort of balcony only a few metres down the seemingly infinite corridor. That seemed as good a spot as any for a quiet think. Upon striding out to the balcony, he discovered it was already night-time. But that wasn't what got his attention
"Oh, no. Fuck that. Fuck everything about that"
Two giant moons hung in the sky, one larger than the other but both much bigger than 'his' moon. They were completely unnatural in appearance to Eowynn. There was something insanely incorrect about their presence above him that made him feel almost nauseous. He barely even noticed the city sprawling below, so shocking was their appearance there. It seemed this really was another world entirely.
Eventually, of course, Eowynn's eyes were drawn to the rest of the immense city. He must have been almost a hundred metres above the lowest streets to be able to see so much of it. Dimly lit only by torches and braziers, the stone buildings spread out like nothing he'd ever seen. Some of the architecture was bizarre; a street of two story stone buildings with a massive, fifty-foot spire at the end, bridges over bridges over open squares, structures that looked like they couldn't even support themselves yet somehow did. It was madness, yet amazing to look at. He would have kept looking too, had he not been abruptly interrupted.
"Can't sleep?"
Eowynn practically jumped out of his new skin. "Gah!" Turning around, he found the black dragon from earlier was the one who had spoken.
"I'm surprised you didn't hear me coming. Claws on stone aren't exactly quiet."
What was her name again? Sinner? Cinders? He couldn't recall. So he said the only thing he could think of at the moment.
"There's two moons."
That definitely caught her off guard. Eowynn realised he probably sounded like a bit of a lunatic.
"…all right... Your point being?"
"But that's impossible!"
"Apparently not. You're looking at them."
He didn't have an answer to that, so he asked the next thing that came to mind instead.
"What are you doing out here?"
The black dragon raised her eyebrows (eye-ridges? Eowynn didn't know the proper terminology). "Me? I always come out here when I can't sleep. What are you doing out here? You probably shouldn't wander around by yourself, you know."
Eowynn turned back to the city view. "I needed some air." Honestly, he wished that she'd just go away. He didn't want to deal with any of them right now. Unfortunately, it appeared she wasn't going anywhere soon. In his peripheral vision he saw her approach the balcony edge.
"So you don't have two moons in…wherever you're from?"
A little surprised by the question, he replied without moving his gaze. "No, just one. And it's not that big either. Well, that or it's further away…"
She looked confused. "Further…away? I don't-"
"Forget it." Realising these creatures likely had little concept of astronomy he decided to drop the subject. Silence fell again, all the more deafening now that he wasn't alone. Seeing no point in sticking around, Eowynn turned to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?"
He wished she'd just piss off.
"Do you even know the way back?"
"Who says I'm going back?"
"Well, I wouldn't leave the Temple if I were you. I don't think you'd last a day in the city."
Eowynn spun angrily to face her. "And I should care what you think because?"
The black dragon rolled her eyes, in an incredibly humanlike gesture. "Because, you'd likely get yourself killed, and then I'd get in trouble with the Guardians for letting you leave." Her expression softened slightly. "Look, I get it. You're confused, and-"
"Do you 'get it'? Really?" Eowynn glared at her presumption. "You have no idea."
"Maybe not. But-", she hesitated, "I've…experienced something similar. Trust me, you're better off staying here for now. The Guardians will probably want to talk to you again tomorrow. Where's the harm in sticking around?"
Eowynn sighed. He stared at the shadows as they flickered in the torchlight, taking some time to calm himself. After a long moment, he replied. "Okay, you're right." He looked back at her and grinned slightly. "Sorry for being a dick. You did save my life once already, apparently." He turned to head back to his room. "I suppose I'll see you around then…uh…"
"Cynder." She seemed somewhat amused by his forgetfulness.
"Yeah, that's it. Sorry, I'm pretty bad with names. Especially wei-" he stopped himself "-unusual names." He paused for a moment, then nodded once before departing back down the corridor. That had been awkward to say the least.
Eowynn easily found his room by virtue of the large open door he had left. After some fumbling, he managed to shut and lock it behind him. Feeling ready for a long sleep, he clumsily threw his new body onto the mattress. God only knew what tomorrow would bring, but Eowynn was determined to make it through. He was determined to find a way home.
Cynder stared down the hallway after the newcomer for a minute, before she began the trek to her own bedroom. She was still unsure what to think of him. His constant state of awe made him seem like a child who was seeing the outside world for the first time, yet he quickly refuted that image with his quick temper and casual use of profanity. That one wouldn't have gone down too well with the Guardians. Still, she had to admit, it was quite liberating talking to someone who clearly had no preconceived opinions on her. That wouldn't last, she knew. It wouldn't take this 'Eowynn' long to find out the truth about her past. But until then, he seemed like an interesting distraction. Plus, there were definitely some strange questions regarding where he came from, and how he arrived. No doubt Volteer was already on the case.
She wondered what Spyro would think if he met him.
Oh no. There he was again, invading her thoughts. Her mind couldn't keep him out for long. Cynder wished she could go back to the start of the day, do it all again. Surely, she could have said something different, done something to change his mind… No, it wouldn't have mattered. Spyro was clear on how he felt, no matter how much it hurt Cynder to admit. That was one thing he was always good at, being honest. He would rather tell her now than pretend he felt otherwise, only to end up with both of them unhappy.
She shut the door behind her, and stood for a moment in the still air of her room. Spyro had always been too kind to her. More than she had ever deserved.
But that just isn't enough for you, is it?
No, it wasn't, she admitted. Her own self-doubt made her feel especially guilty at her own feelings. How she had misread all the signs, assuming Spyro had felt that way about her.
Cynder lay down on the bed, sinking her head into the folds of the pillows.
But you still can't let him go.
Chapter ends.
