Chapter two

I regained consciousness and it took me a few minutes to remember what happened.

I felt the earth under my hands and assumed I was still in the well, so I opened my eyes to let them accustom to the darkness of the place.

But instead of a dark place, rays of light were pouring into the bottom, creating a somewhat illuminate place.

I tested each of my limbs and checked my body for any injuries, but apart from a bump on my head, I was whole.

I got up but my legs were asleep so I supported my body onto the wall until they stopped shaking.

I looked up and understood why the place was so light, there was no roof above me.

'What the…' I though, trying to think of a rational explication.

After a whole minute finding nothing, I looked up to find something to climb with.

I used the stones making the first layer of the well then the ivies hanging down from the top to get out.

I sat against the wood to regain my breath while looking around.

Perhaps I was still out cold because all I was seeing was trees, bushes and more trees.

Still very confused, I began shuffling around, trying to see if there was someone or any trace of civilization near.

"Hello!" I yelled, hands around my mouth "Is someone's here?"

My voice echoed away and nobody answered, so I decided to walk in a bee-line so that I could find my way back later.

I walked for about ten minutes and I was pondering if I could go further when I caught something golden, standing out against the green of the forest.

The curiosity getting the better of me, I neared the golden thing to find something I never though I would see.

A dragon.

Its scales were golden, glinting softly under the autumn sun. It had a beautiful aqua blue mane running down its long neck, two earthy brown little twisted horns sprouting out of its skulls just behind its scaly ears, glinting silver spines covering its back and tail and blood red eyes fixed on me.

I tensed but nonetheless noted the long deep gash, blood oozing out like a waterfall.

I gasped and instinctively made a step forward, but the dragon let out an intimidating rumble, eyes' pupils slitting like a cat.

I stopped and slowly put my hands forward.

"Let me help you." I said softly "Your wound is deep."

I could nearly hear a fly buzz around and was wondering if the dragon was gonna eat me when it simply put its head down, closing its eyes.

I stayed were I was, wondering if it was a yes or a no. I took a step forward and checked: no reaction. I did the same process until I was beside it and neared a hand to touch its belly.

Seeing that my head not rolling on the ground as an okay sign, I began inspecting the wound.

What I found despaired me. The wound was too deep and needed stitches, but I couldn't do that, not even press the two sides together with a bandage (the beast was too big).

Not liking doing nothing, I decided that I could at least try to wash the wound. The only problem was to find water.

I listened around and though hearing running water not far away. I walked eagerly to it, finding a little stream.

I noted somewhere in my mind that it was awfully far away from my senses' reach to ponder on later and busied myself by tearing down the bottom of my top.

After at least five whole minutes fighting with the stubborn piece of clothes which wouldn't simply separate, I dipped it into the water before running back to the dragon.

Fortunately my top was long so I didn't suffer from the cold advancing evening while I cleaned the wound with application.

With that done I began closing the wound with my bare hand, pressing on it.

I didn't know if that would help, but I was willing to try.

"You cannot help me." Said a feminine voice, resonating in the little covered clearing.

I looked around but found nobody.

"Is somebody here?" I asked.

"In front of you." The voice simply said.

I looked in front of me to just see the belly of the dragon. Then a sneaky suspicion made its way to my mind and I slowly turned to the dragon which was looking intensely at me.

"Dragons can speak?" I asked, half wishing that it wouldn't answer.

"Even a hatchling can enter a human mind." Snorted the voice "It's not difficult."

I felt a little insulted but concentrated on the fact that the dragon was speaking to me in my mind (if I guessed correctly that is. For all I knew I could have become simply crazy).

"You are speaking to me?" I asked the dragon with evident disbelief in my voice.

"Perhaps I was wrong when I chose to let you live." It replied "You seemed a bit smarter than your kind."

"Are you done insulting me?" I retorted, letting my irritation getting the better of me "Just in case you didn't notice I'm trying to help you."

"This is why I connected my mind with you in the first place." Said exasperatedly the dragon "You cannot help me."

"Why?" I asked

"The wound is to deep." Explained the dragon "And I'm using all my remaining powers to create a shell around my baby so that I can expulse it out of my body."

"Dragons don't lay eggs?" I asked my curiosity too present to be ignored.

"Not really." Answered the dragon "But we don't have much time, I have a favour to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Could you raise my child?"

I blinked, looked at her in disbelief, blinked again and blurted out the first rational thought that came to me.

"What?"

The dragon sighed exasperatedly and explained:

"I'm going to die and my child will be left alone in the wilderness. You seem strong and capable so I'm asking you to take care of her."

I noted that apparently the baby was going to be a female and said:

"Can't you contact someone in your family to take care of her instead of me?"

She sighed and replied:

"Dragons aren't tender creatures. No one in the family will take care of her, they will favour their own first."

"I don't know how to take care of a dragon child." I argued

"I will merge my soul with yours." Replied the dragon "So when my body dies, you will know what to do with the egg."

I was totally speechless now, but the dragon didn't let me think ahead and put her mussel on my forehead.

Frankly I felt nothing, only a warmth inside me and a blinding light that forced my eyes to close.

When I opened them again, the dragon was no longer here, there was only an egg.

It was beautiful, full of colours. The main colours were gold, brown and green with pecks of red.

I touched it. It was warm and I was almost sure I felt something move within.

'What to do now?' I though, my hand still on the egg.

'You'll have to discover and master your powers.'

I froze and looked around. Was there another dragon?

'Of course not silly little one, I'm in your head.'

This piece of information was particularly difficult to absorb.

"What are you doing in my head?" I said with a carefully measured voice.

'I already told you. I'm here to help you raise the hatchling.'

I decided to ignore the major part of me who just wanted to freak out and asked:

"It might be a bit stupid, but how did you end up in my head?"

'You know you can speak to me mentally. Like that people might not think right away that you're crazy. And second, I'm not the dragon you met. I'm just a part of her, mixed with your subconscious. When she merged her soul with yours, her powers also mixed with your personality. You're now also a dragon demoness.'

I was going to speak aloud when I remembered what the voice told me.

'How is it that I'm a demoness when I'm human? And is that mean that I'm evil? From what I heard demons are.'

I felt the voice's irritation.

'Only the humans dubbed demons evil because they're different from them. And humans fear differences. And your transformation was a success because you were not really human; you were and still are a witch.'

"A…witch?" I asked, my mind blanker and blanker from the shock.

'Contrary to humans beliefs, witches aren't evil either. What we call witches are humans who are more sensible to elements around us. Like mikos, but with different powers.'

'I…still don't understand."

The voice sighed in irritation and explained further.

'There are five elements coexisting in our world. Chi, Ka, Fu, Sui and Ku. Earth, fire, wind, water and void. The witch is sensible to these elements and with enough power can control them."

I took my time to ingest those informations and asked a question.

'Void?"

'The void element is also called Sky or Heaven. It represents things beyond, made of pure energy, spirits. It's associated with creativity, thinking, communicating, power, spontaneity and inventiveness. In one word it's raw power.'

I nodded slowly, my mind full of questions but already too much information. I sat in the nest made of roots at the base of a tree before remembering the egg.

'The egg needs heat to survive. You have to build a fire. Normally a dragon's body's heat is sufficient but even if you're now partly a dragon demoness, your own body's heat hasn't raised enough.'

I sighed and got up again, roaming around to gather dry wood.

Fortunately I remembered my uncle teaching me how to build a fire and after a few tries I had a nice big fire happily cackling in front of me. I put the egg as near as I could before curling beside it, quickly falling asleep.

Petitefeeme: I hope you liked those two first chapters! I think I'll post one more chapter each week, probably Friday or during the weekend.

Until next week!