The first room they brought me to was a massive dining hall that looked as though it could hold at least a hundred people at one time. A man and a woman stood in the doorway, the woman looking like a humanoid version of a cat, tall, thin limbs and a long tail and ears, with orange and white fur and emerald green eyes. The man looked more human, but his eyes were completely black, as was his hair and his nails. I didn't want to seem rude, so I did my best not to stare, though I had looked enough to know that the man was just like the guards that had come with Ternia to pick me up.
Veren stayed close to my side, guiding me to a chair at the end of the one of the 3 long tables, where a large selection of foods had already been prepared. Of course, most of the food was meat, and some vegetables that I didn't recognize. Something like a potato, but it was bright blue and shimmering steam rising, and what looked like corn on the cob, only it was pink and it tasted extremely sweet.
The meal was weird, but tasted strangely delicious and was very satisfying. Though I felt unsettled by the fact that Veren just sat with me, not saying anything and not eating. I had to remind myself that it was well past dinner time here and he had probably already eaten, but that didn't mean that he had to stay with me like this.
Something tugged in my chest at the idea of him leaving, but I did my best to ignore it. Instead, I tried to reason out why my powers didn't work on him. If he were resistant to them because of his race, as a dragon, then I wouldn't have been able to read Ternia like I had been. Meaning that it wasn't his race the blocked me. It was truly frustrating. And my frustration actually seemed to amuse him.
When I had eaten my fill, before I could even say anything, he was already standing up and holding his hand out to me, clearly ready for me before even I was.
I tried not to scowl at him, knowing that he was trying to be nice, but I didn't like that he clearly knew something more about me than I did. It had to be something extremely important for him to act so different from how Ternia had described him.
I felt a shiver run through me as I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. Again, I shook my head to ignore it, not understanding what these strange reactions were all about.
He started walking, clearly slowing his pace to match mine, leading me back through the doors I had originally come through, showing me to the main hall again, with it's matching pair of giant stair cases leading to what looked more like a third story level, rather than a second story level.
He looked over at me, concern in his glowing red eyes, as he looked back at the stairs "Will you be alright on the stairs?"
At first I looked at him in confusion, then remembered what the doctor had said. I hadn't heard Ternia tell him anything before she wandered off, but it would make sense for her to fill him in on the details before leaving me in his care.
I forced a smile "I'm fine."
He hesitated for a moment, his expression shifting between acceptance and doubt, before nodding and slowly started up the stairs.
In all honesty, I hadn't ever felt such a strong exhaustion as I felt by the time we reached the top of the stairs. I put up as much of a strong front as I could, but my legs felt like they were on fire. And my hand was on fire for all different reasons, as his grip never released my own.
He smiled at me with a look of pride and I wondered if it was considerably rare for a non-dragon clan to handle these stairs with any level of ease. But he said nothing, just starting to walk again, keeping me at his side the entire time.
Finally, he broke the silence.
"The halls can be a little confusing at first. So I'll be sure to help you as much as I can until you get used to them." he said, as he took the first turn down a hall to the right.
Further down the way we approached a cross road type hall split, and we took another right, followed by six more of these splits and random turns. Honestly, this place was more like a maze than a mansion.
I could feel my chest getting tighter as my body was nearing its shut down point, but I couldn't let myself fall behind him. And when we finally stopped walking, I was just barely holding back my heavy breathing.
"This is your room. It's just across the hall from mine, so you can let me know if you need anything." he smiled, still looking proud for some reason, with his unnaturally handsome face.
Part of me actually wished he wasn't so good looking, so that I wouldn't think that he didn't belong anywhere outside of a TV show or magazine. Not that this world seemed to have such concepts.
Embarrassment crept up as I knew that I had to ask the all-important question "What about the restroom?"
"Each bedroom has it's own personal toiletries and bathing area. However, you should probably call for a maid when you bathe, so you can be sure that you will be safe."
My face flushed at the idea of having to call someone just to help me take a bath, but I needed to remind myself that the doctor had said that I'd had a concussion. Meaning, just like how my body wanted to shut down right now from the exhaustion, my brain may randomly decide that it needed to shut down if I took a bath.
"I'll take one when I wake up. I really need to sleep for now" I said, looking forward at the too-large, dark brown wooden door, that blended in with the deep red coloring of the walls and the wooden flooring.
"That's good. You must be quite tired..." He hesitated, then released my hand. "Remember that I'm just across the hall of if you need anything."
There was a sadness in his tone, that I both understood and didn't understand at the same time. I felt the underlying sadness within me, and it confused me.
He gestured to a door behind him, slowly easing away from me, as if he were moving through tar and having difficulty moving. I nodded to him, and did my best to give him a genuine smile, before grabbing the large, golden-colored door handle and squeezing the pressure switch, that I wasn't even sure how I knew was there, and the door opened slow and heavily.
Once inside the room, I had to force myself to close the door again, knowing that Veren was probably still in the hall, for whatever reason he had. And, immediately, I felt the tug within me that screamed at something being wrong. Something that I hadn't felt just a moment before.
I scanned over the room, wondering if whatever was wrong was actually in the room. The bed was huge, with enough space for a small family to sleep comfortably, and 4 large wooden posts in the same color as the door. The walls and bedding were a matching shade of deep red, but the floor, while wooden, had a massive white fur rug. The rug was at least twice the size of the bed, implying that whatever animal it came from had to be quite large.
A dark wooden wardrobe stood against the wall and I just had a feeling that it was already filled with clothes in just my size, not that I knew how anyone would know that information at this point in time.
Ignoring all sense of etiquette, I stepped over to the large rug and ran my hands over the bed posts, before jumping onto the bed and just collapsing into the intense comfort and fluffiness of it all.
I kicked off my shoes, and removed my socks by using my toes, because the rest of my body was too busy enjoying the soft bedding, and then squirmed my way under the thick blanket, feeling the material wrap around me, and finally forgetting the wrongness I had felt before.
My body eased into relaxation, the warmth replacing the strange coldness I felt in my chest, as my eyes closed, and my mind went to the land of dreams.