Dawn- An Age Of Darkness

I walked towards the kids. I was pissed and stuff was about to happen. But something else happened before I could reach.

"Get away from here you mongrels!" A girl, younger than me, came rushing at the boy's side and the fat brats all scattered. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Looks like my help wasn't needed.

I turned around and came back to my companions. 

"That was something," Dick said.

"Tell me about it." I rolled my eyes.

I looked at the boy with my peripherals. The boy and the girl both were staring at me. I didn't do anything so I didn't really pay much attention.

"Anyway, let's look for an inn." Lianne moved on ahead.

"Yeah." 

We followed her. 

"So you don't like bullies?" Dick tried to get near me. For the last couple of days, the guy had been rather persistent. 

When the hell do I get to take this thing off?

"You're telling me you do?" I raised a brow.

"Not really. But I never got bullied in my life. Well, it's more like no one had the guts to bully me. Whenever someone tried to, I protested so hard that they bled tears." He gave me a smirk.

"Bled tears? You mean, you punched them straight?"

"Wow, you really understand me!" He made a surprised face. It was definitely intentional.

I didn't reply. The guy really was something. Actually, he reminded me a bit of my old self. And that was enough to piss me off without notice.

Lianne asked some people on the street and we found an inn before long. It was expensive for a shabby place such as this but we didn't have much choice. Dick and Servesta took a double room while I and Lianne took singles. 

***

I unpacked some of the things and rested on the bed. My wounds were looking better. I'd be fully healed in a week or so. This is comfy… something about the people's expression still bothered me though. And by the looks of things, this village was pretty new. Something was amiss. But, I fell asleep before long anyway. 

***

What is this? Am I flying?

I was in the sky. It was night and there were clouds. I couldn't see my body but I could see distant lights. 

Unlike the last few times, this time I felt like I had a body but it also felt like it wasn't mine. Besides, this time I was literally flying through the clouds.

Why can't I move? 

I couldn't move my body but the view moved on its own. This body probably wasn't mine.

Apart from the wind, there was some sound of breaths. 

Is this breath mine?

I could even smell. But it was different. I could feel a lot of the things I could never feel before. I could hear the flaps of wings too.

I have wings?

Finally, the clouds cleared and I could see something down below. 

How high am I? 

It felt like a dream but too real to be one. The ground had lights and small houses. 

Are those peoples? Wait I know that place. I know that kid…. What's going on? 

***

"Daarc! Daarc!"

I abruptly woke up and found myself surrounded by my companions. My head throbbed and I couldn't even sit down. I groaned and stared at them for an explanation. 

I didn't lock the door?

"We are under attack. Let's blitz." Dick had sweats all over his face. 

"Wha-" I couldn't understand what they were saying.

"A dragon is coming," Lianne said. 

Servesta's eyes were closed and he looked tensed as well. "More like it's already here." 

And just a second later there was a massive sound as though something just exploded. I looked at the window and everything was too bright. 

Oh no!

There was another source of light in the room. My bag glowed in azure light. Dick's ring glowed as well.

"You know what that means." Dick smiled and glared.

"Another one of those monsters, huh?" It wasn't a question. I didn't know why or how I came to that conclusion but at this point, anything seemed possible.

And that feeling, that dream I just had now, this was the only conclusion I could come up with.

I took a deep breath and picked up my sword. 

If I can avoid using the mystic blade then maybe things won't end up like last time. And besides, I don't have Sisrael's fragment in me anymore.

And then there was the thing of me being severely weak. I had to avoid a direct confrontation at all costs.

It was most possibly a grand monster. I didn't know what a grand monster might be doing in a village like this but something about the dream I just had made me nervous. 

What if the dream I just saw…?

"We need to leave, now!" Dick was very serious, there was no doubt about it.

Lianne helped me with my things and we got out of the inn. Biteria hid inside my hair. It was different than being just on the shoulder. It tickled. 

How the hell did Brenda live through this?

The whole village was on fire and a massive roar broke the silence. There was something in the sky, something big, very big. It was a massive reptilian creature. I didn't know if it had any color or not but it looked pretty black. 

That thing's a dragon?

It looked more like a giant snake with wings than an actual dragon but maybe that was how they were supposed to look like?

"What do you think we should do?" Lianne looked at me. What did she expect?

"Runaway, of course! You want to fight that thing?" Dick answered on my behalf. If our op protagonist thought we should run, then it was evident that we ran.

Runaway? Do we even have the luxury to do that?

"AHHH!!!" A scream brought me back to reality. Something or someone was screaming in the distance. I squinted my eyes and it was the same brat I saw three times today. "How dare you! First, you take my father! Now my mother! Even my sister! How dare you!"

He was right next to a woman: the same one we met earlier. There was blood everywhere. The kid couldn't have been older than ten but he had a longbow. The bow was probably taller than him. He sat it down and pointed it up.

It won't reach. 

But if it did, that would have been more problematic. "Hey kid stop that!" I ran. I had to stop him before he got the dragon's attention. If he did then he was as good as dead. 

The dragon however wasn't sitting around doing nothing. It was flying in circles and lighting everything on fire. It was more like he was floating than flying. The wings barely flapped.

The boy shot three arrows before I could reach him. The first two missed but the third one infiltrated the corner of the dragon's eyes and bounced right back out.

Oh boy.