"Handle them?" I half growled half chuckled, "You can barely think about standing in front of them without shaking in your boots."
"I'll handle them," Ethan snapped.
I drew my head back into my room. Slamming the door as I did. I shapeshifted back to my human form before taking a form similar to Ethan but with slightly older features. I pulled my clothes on, and realized that Ethan's frame was a bit larger than my own. I walked back into the common area, and moved like the arrogant pricks back in my home town.
All the blood drained out of his face as he looked at me with terror in his eyes. I almost flinched at the sheer amount of terror in his mind, but that would have been breaking character. I shrunk back down to my normal human form.
"You can't even stand up to a cheap imitation," I snapped, "And you think you can handle them."
Ethan looked down as the blood slowly came back into his face. I frowned at him.
"The terror you felt just now," I snorted, "You wouldn't have even been able to move if you were in front of your brother just now."
Ethan couldn't even talk to me now. He was disappointed in himself. I'd never seen him like this, and I'd probably gone to far. I didn't like hurting him like this, but it was what he needed.
"Ethan," I turned my chair so I could sit at his eye level, "I know you want to handle all of this on your own, but your not ready to face them yet, and you can't get over what happened to you until you talk about this with someone. It doesn't have to be me, but you can't get over something like this without thinking it all over properly." I softened my tone, "Pain doesn't go away until its acknowledged, and dealt with accordingly."
"It's not that easy," Ethan mumbled.
"Nothing worth doing is easy," I frowned, "That's how life has always been."
I went back in my room, and closed the door before switching to my dragon form. It was hard to move in my room like this, but I'd managed to pull off a fairly comfortable position. I wasn't exactly built for tip toeing around. Ethan didn't need a gentle hand. He'd never been given a gentle push his entire life.
I didn't think he knew how to react to a gentle touch so I had to push him forward forcefully. Roughing him up was pretty much the only way to get him to recover from the mental trauma. Keep pushing him forward until he's past this block. That's the way I planned to continue doing things. I wasn't the gentle finesse kind of dragon.
I couldn't afford for Ethan to freeze, and get taken out by his own family. He needed to get past this. I fell asleep thinking about Ethan's mental problems. I awoke in a big grassy field. I looked around this space wondering exactly how I'd gotten here, but it was empty. Nothing, but grass as far as the eye could see.
"This can't be real," I stretched my wings, and sniffed the grass, "Must be some sort of dream."
"A dream?" a distant voice echoed back to me, "This was once reality."
"Who are you?" I called out to the echo.
"Does it matter?" the voice echoed back, "Would you know me if you saw me?"
"What do you want?" I looked around this empty field again.
"I want her to return," the voice echoed back, "But I'm not going to get what I want. She is gone, and she will never be coming back."
"Who is she?" I tried to figure out where the voice was coming from, but it felt as if it were coming from everywhere at once.
"What a waste," the voice snapped to sharp clarity, becoming distinctly feminine, and began fading back to an echo the longer she spoke, "I thought connecting to you might show me where she went. I could sense her blood in you, but you are not her, and you never knew her. I'd say it was a waste of energy, but you gave me the energy in the first place. What a waste... weak... how could she leave me with such a task? I... to stay... her."
The voice faded to silence once again.
"Wait," I yelled as my tail thrashed back, and fourth violently, "Who the hell are you?"
"Get out," the voice snapped at me.
I was hit by intense winds strong enough to rip me off the ground as I was flung into the spreading darkness behind me. I tried to fight the gale force winds, but I barely knew how to use my wings so I was just wasting my time flapping wildly as the darkness closed in. I was slammed back into my body in my room. My head snapped up, and my horns put holes in the roof. I was breathing heavily, and I felt hot.
Warning mental strain from forcibly severed connection.
"System what do you mean by forcibly severed connection?" I was too stressed to keep this in my head.
An unknown entity created a mental subspace in order to communicate with user.
"Unknown entity?" I slowed, and calmed my breathing.
Yes. System was unable to identify this entity.
"Can you give me an idea of what it was?" I didn't like the way this entity could just throw my mind around like that.
No. Entity created the subspace specifically to keep itself from being identified.
"Could I connect to it the way it connected to me?" I was glad my heart had settled down.
No. User lacks power necessary to seek out the entity.
"That's just great," I opened my door only to come face to face with Ethan, "What's wrong?"
I could feel Savannah coming close quickly.
"I got cut off from you," Ethan was clearly very concerned.