She held my hand tightly as we walked through what could only be described as an old-world style village. But unlike the old-world stuff of earth, this world had large metal posts that held glowing crystals, giving light to the dirt roads that wouldn't normally be visible in the night time.
The sky looked more or less the same as earth, but I had also never been one to pay attention to things like constellations. The moon was just a sliver wide, and I didn't know how the cycle of the moon worked here. I didn't even understand how it was already night outside, when I was sure that I had arrived here in the early afternoon.
It was warm outside, but not as hot as an earth summer.
"I may not know what it is you are keeping so secret, but I understand that meeting one such as myself can be rather intimidating. I just hope that you can grow to trust me." the woman smiled down at me.
I felt a growing longing to just tell her everything, but fear held my tongue.
I didn't know what to say, so I simply nodded, which seemed to be satisfactory enough for her.
I went back to looking around as best as I could. I could hear the flapping of large wings somewhere in the distance, the obvious glowing of eyes as other beings walked past us. I felt a little ridiculous, me being an average looking human, well, not human, girl, next to this tall, gorgeous dragon woman. And it certainly didn't help me relax with her 2 puppets walking so closely behind us.
"I have a son close to your age. It would be smart for you to stay close to him, since it can give you two a chance to get to know each other and you will definitely be safe with him."
What she wasn't saying was painfully clear. She clearly wanted some sort of romance to blossom between her son and myself. But, even on earth, unions for increasing familial power were well-known. However, this world apparently hadn't caught up with the modern times of getting rid of such old traditions. But I wouldn't argue. It wasn't as if she had ordered me to date him or anything, so I still had my rights in the matter.
"What's he like?" I asked, mostly just to play along with her and keep her happy.
She seemed happy about my interest "Oh, he's such a sweet boy. The most powerful dragon born in centuries. He's so brave, but he can border a little on arrogant. He may seem hard to approach at first, but once he warms up to you, he'll do anything to keep you happy."
I doubted he'd really be so eager to please someone like me, but I wouldn't dash that hope for her.
I almost wished that I had been the type who had enjoyed reading when I was younger. Maybe then I would know more about the etiquette of other worlds. If I at least understood the way that the creatures of this world worked, maybe I wouldn't feel so lost. In school, I would hear girls talking about books they read or movies that they watched with all sorts of supernatural creatures. They knew so much about those things, but, since I never actually fit in with normal humans, I had never had such confidence to talk to any of them. And books about other paranormal creatures when I already was one, just wasn't tempting.
I let my mind wander on everything that I'd been through and on everything that was going on around me. My family had to have descended from this world somehow. Maybe, without a purpose of having the rogue demon creatures to defeat, they realized that other worlds might still be in danger. That would explain why they would leave. What that doesn't explain, however, is why only my family held onto our powers. Surely, if an entire lineage had left this world for earth, then there would be more than just my own family. Yet, I had never heard anything of any other families. And my family would often travel just to fight the opening portals, so, wouldn't we have met one of the other families if they existed.
Another theory was that only a few of them went to earth, while the rest of the clan split up among multiple worlds, all fighting against these demon threats.
A loud howl echoed through the area, clearly close by, but it didn't scare me like it would have a few hours before hand. No matter how I looked at it, I was calm. I didn't even feel the edge of anxiety I had been feeling ever since I woke up. For a moment, I wondered if it was that I was just too drained to feel anything, but that didn't seem right.
I barely even noticed it when the woman stopped walking. Her strong grip pulled me back to the present, and I finally saw where we were.
We stood outside of a man-made stone wall, with a massive iron gate that opened with just her raising her hand to it. We began walking again, and this time I payed better attention to my surroundings.
At first all I saw was trees in darkness, but after about 20 minutes I began to see various light posts spread along a far too wide drive path. It made me wonder if they had carriages pulled by large beasts here, since they clearly didn't use normal electricity. Shortly after the lights started appearing, I saw what could only be described as a mansion. The building was large enough to hold at least 100 people, and my previous inferiority complex began to rear its ugly head. The dragon clan was known for their power, so it was only natural that they would have a place that shows their value, but all I had going for me here was what others told me that I had. A lineage that I hadn't even known existed before today.
"Welcome home, my dear Raelynn" the woman leaned close, somehow reassuring me.
I looked up at her, wondering exactly how she knew my name, then remembered that she had reviewed the records with doctor Eliot. Jealous of the fact that she already knew more about me than I knew about her, I gave her a deeper look. The glow behind her eyes made me nervous, but I still wanted to at least know something about this woman.
And, when the knowledge hit me, I was left shocked.
Her name was Ternia. Queen of the dragon clan, at the age of 93. how someone as beautiful and young looking as her was that old, it could only be magic.
"I know it's rather large, but I'm sure you will adjust to it quickly." she smiled down at me.
I looked back at the mansion, doing my best to ignore the fact that her age bothered me to such an extent.
"Oh, and there's an amazing lake for swimming in, if you are interested in that. Many of the younger dragons like to laze around by the lake, so I'm sure you can make some friends there." she went on, starting to walk again.
I followed her, but I wasn't entirely following her words. After the mention of 'many younger dragons' I began to feel insecure. Would they really be so easy to accept me. Sure, my supposed lineage was close to theirs, but I wasn't my lineage, I was me. I was a girl from earth who couldn't even fight back against her older sister. Even though I had been taught to always destroy the dark creatures, I just hadn't had the strength to fight her.
My mind had already raced a dozen laps by the type we reached the top of the stairs of the mansion. The doors were large enough to fit a semi-truck through, and they stood wide open.
3 women in maids uniforms, all clearly of different races, stood in the doorway, bowing, with a young man standing between them and ourselves.
I couldn't lie, the guy in front of me was absolutely drool-worthy. He wore a skin-tight, gray, button up shirt and black dress pants. His hair was long and black and his large eyes were glowing molten red, and, while the lighting wasn't perfect, I could clearly seen tanned skin with a red glow beneath the surface.
"Mother. Welcome home" he said, his voice smooth and cool.
It took all of my will not to shiver at the sound of it. If this was really Ternia's son, then it would take some serious resolve not to straight up fall into his lap like a little puppy.
Ternia released my hand and ran over to him, making his height and her own all the more obvious. He had to be at least 6'8", and his mother was taller than him.
"Oh, my sweet boy, coming to greet me so late at night? Were you truly that excited?" she asked, sounding like a little girl doting on her favorite doll.
He smiled coolly and said "I was mostly curious."
He turned his smile to me, then seemed to freeze. Of course, me being me, my first thought was that I had somehow done something wrong, despite only just arriving here. I just did all I could to remind myself that Ternia had said that he had a tendency to be hard to approach. Regaining his composure, he started walking towards me, stopping just inches away from me.
My first instinct was to pull back and put some distance between us, but he clearly wasn't interested in that. His arms were immediately wrapped around me, pulling me hard against obvious muscles.
His body was so warm, I couldn't help but think of what it would be like, on a cold winter night, to just cuddle with him. I mentally slapped myself for allowing such an image to appear in my mind.
"I've waited so long to meet you" he whispered in my ear, successfully drawing out the shiver I had fought against earlier.
"Now, now, Veren, don't tease her too much. She still needs to recovering. The poor dear has been through quite an ordeal." I could hear Ternia warn him, while sounding absolutely playful.
"What ordeal?" He asked, his body suddenly tense as he looked over his shoulder at his mom.
I looked up, seeing just how much of a height difference we had between us when he was at his full height. I only just barely reached his shoulders.
"She was attacked by a demon infected. But don't worry, we will have our people stay near the forest edge to protect her and the village." she answered as if it were completely normal.
He looked down at me, his face hard with anger and concern, then he hugged me even tighter against him. It felt hard to breathe, but something told me that he actually needed this. For whatever reason, hugging me seemed to make him happy. Strange for me to admit, I was also feeling a small glimmer of happiness. And that made no sense at all.
He pulled back, but kept his hands on my arms, his face now in a full smile. I was wondering now just what part of him had seemed so hard to approach. He seemed to be extremely friendly, although on a rather pushy level.
"I'm Veren, and you are?" he asked, his eyes digging so deeply into my own that it felt like he was seeing right through me.
"I-I'm Raelynn. Raelynn Evans." I managed to get out, barely able to reach a normal volume.
Veren clearly was the type that liked close contact, the type of person that I had never been comfortable with, and yet, something about him seemed so different. And then I realized it. No matter how much I looked at him, I couldn't see anything about him. My 'God's Eye' did nothing. No details about who he was, not life stories, no nothing.
I brought my hands up and rubbed my eyes, wondering if that would somehow make things different, but there was still no change.
He gave a knowing smile, that shown just a hint of the arrogance that Ternia had mentioned before. He knew about my ability, or at least to some extent knew that my eyes had some power, and he knew that whatever that power was, didn't work on him. Fear began to cool my blood, but he pulled me back into another hug.
He then whispered in my ear again "do some research while you're here, and you will understand soon why they aren't working on me."
I felt frozen in place, my body burning and my heart racing.
"Come on you two, we should get Raelynn some food and a nice comfy bed." Ternia said, breaking whatever trance Veren had just started to create.