Chapter Eleven

It was already dark in the underground meadow, when Eyos and Alex walked out of the cave. The meadow seemed to mimic the night and day cycle in real time and adjusted the light accordingly. Cold night air flooded the meadow, out of the corner of his eye Eyos saw Alex shiver. "Come on," he put his arms around her shoulders and found her a small patch of grass for her and her dragon, "You'll sleep here." He took of his jacket and put it around her shoulders where his arms had been.

She smiled, "Thanks, how cool is it we have dragons?" She whispered leaning in as if someone else would hear them.

"I don't know yet, too soon to tell how much of a problem they will be yet." Eyos said. Alex laughed and elbowed him.

"Oh lighten up!" She said, Eyos laughed back, his serious persona totally shattered. They stopped laughing slowly and they stared at each other for a few seconds, she smiled and he looked down.

"So, uh, I'll see you tomorrow alright? Sleep well, and if you need anything, yell for me." He hid his face and started to walk away, "Night!" He waved without turning around, because he didn't want her to see his red face. Rill sat on his shoulder and nuzzled against his neck.

He found a nice shady hill, laid down on the soft green grass and stared at the stars, the pinpricks in the sky. Rill slowly climbed on Eyos' chest and curled up. Eyos put his arms around Rill, his scales felt soft, and they had peach fuzz on them. Eyos closed his eyes softly.

Eyos woke up, Rill was gone. In fact, everything was gone. Everything around him was white. He got up and ran quickly one way, then turned and kept running. He ran until he was tired, there was no escape. He looked around, nothing could be done to escape, there was no end. Just when that thought ran though his mind he felt a rumble and behind him, as he turned, he saw a flood of color and shapes and people. Eyos ran to it and it enveloped him.

When he opened his eyes there was a girl staring at him wide-eyed. Eyos stood up strait, "Sorry!" Eyos turned to the door and saw a man there with his hood up. He was dressed almost exactly as Eyos only with a black cloak. Eyos looked over at the girl again, she was still wide-eyed looking between Eyos and the stranger. "Uh... Sir? Thats my look. Kinda how I've been dressing since... well forever."

The stranger walked up to Eyos, "I've had this look longer than you have by at least... What is it? A year?"

"Have we met?" Eyos asked.

"Met?" The stranger pulled down his hood. Eyos stepped back, shocked. It was like looking in a mirror because standing before him, was an older version of himself. "Hey, listen, right now we are running and there isn't much time for talking, I'll try though, but we need to keep you from dying."

"Dying?" Eyos said, "I think I'll be fine because you made it, so I'll be fine."

Older Eyos stared at him, "Whisper!" He whispered harshly, "and no, that's not necessarily true. You can die now and-" Something moved outside, Older Eyos forced the younger into a squat. "Shh!" The thing passed. "Ok so you can die now and I won't exist. This future," He waved his hands around, "won't exist."

"Eyos?" Said the girl, both of them turned.

"What?" They both said. They then looked at each other.

"Ok, how about this I'm Eyos 1 and your Eyos 2? 1 and 2 for short." Young Eyos said.

"No way! I've lived longer! Sonority rules!" Older Eyos pushed the younger one. They laughed.

"OK THEN ONE!" The girl yelled, older Eyos looked first. "It's here." Everyone turned and looked at the extremely tall knight who had to bend down just not to hit his head on the ceiling.

"What is that?" Younger Eyos asked, looking over to the older one. He was gone, young's collar was pulled hard out the window, a hand over his mouth. Young Eyos looked around at the huge city in wonder, it was huge! Massive buildings rose over them Older Eyos was looking around panic in his eyes.

"No. Not here, not yet, I'm not done!" Older Eyos yelled into the air, he put a finger to his temple, then looked around cautiously.

"What are you talking about?" Younger Eyos wondering what the huge knight was really.

Older Eyos grabbed the younger' shoulders, "When you wake up, go to the edges of the meadow and look for a small hole, you'll find something that will save your life many, many times. But this is the time that it won't. It'll be ok."

Younger Eyos stared, scared, into the older' eyes, "Ok, what will hap-" The giant knight jumped off the building above them and belly-flopped on the older Eyos, he tried to protect himself but he was crushed, a pool of liquid started to widen, but everything was starting to lose color, the girl yelled but it felt distant. Everything faded to white as she ran over to older Eyos.

Eyos woke up in the grass bolting upright, sending Rill flying. "Sorry buddy." Rill crawled back on his lap, Eyos petted the peach fuzz scales. At the edge of the meadow. The thought vibrated though his mind. Eyos got up and Rill climbed on his shoulder, Eyos ran though the hills until he found the edge of the meadow, the meadow's top was like a dome. Eyos ran across the wall, his hands running across the surface as he ran around. Suddenly his hands had felt a hole that his eyes hadn't seen. Eyos stopped and looked at where his hands had felt a hole, it looked like just wall but he cautiously reached into the hole. He slowly moved his arm forward and found a lever, he pulled it hard and it felt like something was being pressed onto his arm and being strapped around, then a cold metal blade was pressed flat against his veins. Eyos pulled his arm out and saw a gauntlet made of leather around his wrist. He turned his wrist over and looked at the blade, he knew it would extend out but he didn't know how to make it do it. He yawned, stretching his arms up and putting his hands parallel to the ground, he heard the sound of metal and looked at his wrist, the blade had come out, He brought his wrist down and repeated his hand movement, the blade came out again. Rill chirped with excitement along with Eyos' own excitement. He ran back to Alex who was still asleep, he quietly sat down and watched her breathe slowly, and calmly. She was nice, he thought, and cute... that thought surprised him. He hadn't really thought about her like that, she was a friend but the thought still spread though his thoughts like a virus. He liked her... The sunlight distracted him from his thoughts. Apparently it distracted Alex from her sleep because she woke up. She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning." Eyos said smiling.

She looked over partly shocked at his appearance. "Good morning... how long have you been there?"

"Not long... sorry."

"Don't be," turned away from him and got up, then threw him his jacket. Eyos caught it and put it on quickly. "You're a friend, it's not creepy or anything." Eyos looked down, hurt, but he wouldn't want to show it. "We should probably get back." She said cheerily.

"Ok!" He said back just as cheery. They ran to the entrance of the meadow to find something that would definitely end well.