FINALLY A LONGER CHAPTER FOR YOU ALL TO ENJOY!...Although it will probably give you the feels at the end (Don't hurt me!) but it's the good type of feels!

Chapter 10:

Aldara hadn't managed to find the time to visit her new friend, she'd wondered whether she should go and apologise for not being there. It'd be the right thing to do…

She knocked once on the door, causing it to creak open. It hadn't been shut properly.

"H-Hello? Is anyone here? Rose? Are you home?"

Aldara slowly took a step into the dark cottage and looked around. The place was a mess. There was broken objects on the floor, furniture knocked over and what looked like lengths of thick rope abandoned on the floor.

"What happened here…"

It looked like there'd been some sort of a struggle and the cottage was now deserted. Had Rose been kidnapped?

Aldara stepped back out of the cottage and didn't even have a chance to look around before she heard what sounded like the galloping of a horse getting louder and louder.

She turned and had to dive out of the way to avoid being hit by a man on a white horse, galloping towards King Stefan's castle.

Swirling clouds had appeared over the castle and lightning had started to strike the ground around it, something dark had started to appear around the castle, blocking it from view. Whatever the dark thing was it appeared to be growing.

"What is going on?"

Aldara had to know what was happening. She starting running down the dirt path that lead towards the town that surrounded the castle. As she got closer the dark object came into focus and she discovered that it was a huge black thorn bush.

Aldara heard a sizzling sound and stopped, looking up to see bright gold and purple light zoom past over her head towards the castle.

Ignoring the voice in her head that was telling her to turn and run, Aldara tried to find a way through the thorns.

She managed to find a slightly easier route, it looked like someone had already hacked away at the plant with something.

She could hear a voice, it was very familiar, but she couldn't see the owner of it through the thorns. She tried desperately to get through, she had to see the person that was speaking, she was sure that she knew that voice.

Aldara fell flat on her face, still half hidden by the thorns. She looked up to see a wall of flames. They slowly cleared to reveal a huge black and purple dragon.

"Oh…" Aldara paled. Maybe she'd made a serious mistake in coming through these thorns. "Please say dragons don't eat people…"

Aldara noticed that the man that has almost hit her with his horse earlier was standing opposite the dragon holding a sword. Was he mad?! That thing would crush him!

Aldara watched as the dragon took a snap at the man, who jumped back before swiping at its face with his sword.

The dragon breathed a jet of flames that missed their target and hit the thorns around Aldara. Panicking, she rushed out of the thorns and hid behind a chunk of stone only to dive out from behind it when the dragon's tail almost hit her as it turned.

Aldara looked around to see where the dragon's head was just in time to see it get punched in the face. It hissed and pulled its face back out of the thorns, stepping backwards.

Aldara screamed and dived out of the way so she wasn't stepped on, dragging herself a few extra feet away before standing up.

The dragon had turned its attention from its target, looking for the source of the scream. It spotted Aldara and its golden eyes went wide.

Before the dragon could be struck again it surrounded itself in green flames again until Aldara, or the man fighting it, couldn't see the creature at all.

Aldara found herself squinting slightly at the brightness of the flames. She was still ready to run if the dragon tried to attack her but, as the flames began to shrink below the size of the dragon, she quickly realised she wouldn't need to run.

The flames began to gradually extinguish themselves. There was now a person standing there instead of the dragon. As the flames completely died Aldara found that it was a woman.

She was quite tall and thin. She looked very pale but seemed to have a green tint to her skin

'She's like me…' thought Aldara

The woman wore black and purple robes with a raised collar that reached the ground and on her head was a strange looking headdress that made her look like she had horns instead of hair and ears.

The woman was looking at Aldara with a strange expression on her face, one that Aldara had never seen before.

She seemed familiar somehow…Aldara felt as if she knew this woman from somewhere…she felt like it was important…

"I…" Aldara gulped slightly, taking a few small steps towards the woman that she had previously believed to be a dragon "I think I know you…" She said

The woman looked slightly sad at this…but why?

"Do I know you?"

She nodded, still staring at Aldara as if she were shocked to see her.

Aldara looked at the woman, trying to put a name to her face.

She thought harder than she'd ever needed to about anything, trying to recall memories from further back in her life than she knew.

Different voices sounded in her head, lots of them. Most she recognised from the orphanage as either her friends or staff there. But then there were other voices, they sounded cruel and all she heard them say was 'shut up' over and over again.

But then she could hear another voice, this voice was singing. 'I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam. And I know it's true, yet visions are seldom all they seem…'

Aldara had started to very quietly hum the melody of the song.

She remembered the muffled sound of someone's voice as she was climbing through the thorns, it could only have been this woman's voice. It sounded exactly like the voice that she remembered singing to her

"The way you did once…upon…a…dream…" Aldara slowly looked up at the woman "You sang to me when I was little…right?"

She nodded "I did…"

That expression…it said a lot of things…relief…shock…joy…

guilt…sadness and…love?

Aldara looked into those golden eyes, she'd seen them before. They'd held the same emotions then as they did now…

Aldara blinked, more voices speaking in her head

'I wanna hear the dragon one again!'

'Aldara I told you that one last night…are you sure you don't want a different-?'

'Muuuuuuuummyyyyy! I wanna hear the dragon one!'

Aldara heard laughter, not cruel laughter. It sounded warmer, kinder…the two voices were familiar, one was her own and the other was…

"Mum?"