Dragon Born: Book I of the Tendaaren Chronicles
Chapter 12: Darkness

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they are never weakness.“-- Brene Brown

What a weird dream, Aly thought as sleep slipped away from her. She slowly opened her eyes which revealed a scene that was almost as confusing as the dream itself. Her two companions were standing in the corner of the room. Their faces were hunched close together, and surreptitious whispers escaped their mouths. Their tone was anxious, and their eyes filled with fear.

She allowed the blissful well rested feeling hold her close for a little bit longer before she dove into the serious nature of whatever situation they were discussing. That was the best night of sleep she had had in a while. Alyenna sat up and stretched, extending her fingers and toes to their furthest possible point, and enjoyed the lavish feeling of the movement. She crossed her legs and waited patiently for the two men to realize she was awake.

During the several minutes, it took for them to break their very private conversation, she pondered how and when she had gotten into bed. She did not remember coming back last night all she remembered was—. Her thought was cut off by a gruff voice.

“Oi lassie yur awake!“Aagi announced to the room abruptly halting his conversation with Baellnar.

Baellnar looked at her thoughtfully for a minute then turned away and began packing their things. His back remained to her almost as if he was refusing to make eye contact.

“Indeed.” She stretched out the word eyeing them both with ardent suspicion.

When neither of them reacted to her non-verbal question, she shrugged and started to get out of bed. She froze when she took a gander at what she was wearing.

It was her clothes, but it was not what she was wearing yesterday. The concern that had been growing inside her caused by their whispered conversation suddenly spread through her body in wild alarm.

Images from her incredibly lucid ‘dream’ rapidly started playing in her mind. In a strangled tone she looked at her comrades and with pleading eyes and a rattled tone she asked her friends “what ... what happened last night?”

“Turns out lassie we’ve, um been teaching ya ta use da wrong type o’ weaponry.” He said impishly.

Baellnar ignored Aagi’s remark and changed the course of their conversation down a darker path. “Aly tell us about Paul.”

She stared from one companion to another for a very long time. Finally sighing in acceptance, she said”It wasn’t a dream then? ... He’s here isn’t he?”

“No Aly it was not a dream. We need to know who he is.” Baellnar spoke with unusual vehemence for his gentle voice.

Defensively Aly loudly replied. “Well, he’s an asshole what more is there?” Deeply uncomfortable with him bringing up such an insipid part of her life. Reminding her that the most nefarious man she ever had met, who she had happily accepted was in another world in another dimension could be right outside her door.

“Aly we need to know the whole story how do you know Paul.” His icy stare sent shivers through her body.

“He’s my Uncle.” Then remembering Paul’s words from the night before “well at least I thought he was my Uncle. Besides you told me you were watching me what more do you need to know.”

“We had limited access to viewing you and him. Your home with him was shielded, with the help of Scelestra’s magic, from our view. The only time we could see you was when you ventured outside. How long were you in his care?” Baellnar’s question pushed deep into a world she did not want to remember, and the nature of his tone unnerved her.

She was quiet for a while trying to remember. Finally she said almost in a whisper. “I,” Alyenna hesitated, “do not know,” She felt her face scrunch up with the effort of the thought. Her heart raced as her mind raced over her memories in rapid succession. Paul never kept a calendar, never gave her a phone, and after a while, she stopped asking for the date or even the year. Her concentration kept her eyes on the floorboards,

“Aly,” he soothed, “Please it is important.”

She continued to stare at the floor. “I forgot about even the concept of time. When I was trapped, the simple things no longer mattered. My life was about surviving until I could figure out how to escape.”

“Alyenna how long?” She felt the air in the room push her chin up from the floor.

She obliged and looked at Baellnar. Tears threatened to explode onto her cheeks, “I don’t know!”

Paul never kept a calendar, never let her go out, never really gave her a means of keeping track of time, and he did not celebrate birthdays. They did not have TV or cellphones. He claimed it was for ‘financial reasons.’

All of the days, the weeks, even the potential years with Paul blended together in one horrible blur of tyranny and abuse. Alyenna was overwhelmed by the concept of not even knowing her age, and having her tormentor follow her to this unknown land. Her resolve failed her, she pulled her knees tight to her chest and wept as she rocked back and forth.

Aagi jumped onto the bed next to her and rested an arm around Aly’s trembling shoulders. He glared up at Baellnar. “Enough, She can answer the rest when she’s ready.” Then his words disappeared in a slew of grumbling and spitting in dwarven. A language which Alyenna had limited understanding of, and given who she was learning it from all she understood was ‘obnoxious prick’ and something else that involved lewd acts with farm animals.

It took several minutes, but she gathered her emotions up in a tidy bundle and put them back in the lockbox where they belonged. She gulped in her last wave of tears and looked at Baellnar with a wordless plea in her eyes for the Inquisition to stop for today. Frustrated he turned away from her and continued on his previous task of packing.

It was Aagi’s turn to ask for information. He was much gentler in his task of coaxing it out of her. He started with pleasant things like her parents. He inquired about her first memory of her family and how long she was with them. The questions filled Alyenna with pleasant memories. Then, he slowly worked on getting her to talk about Paul. Aly could not look at her friends as she told her story which included Paul’s confession about their murder.

She talked about how gentle and kind Paul was at first showering her with gifts and affection. How he would spend real quality time with her. He encouraged her to keep up with her favorite hobbies like reading, puzzles, and he would even go running with her.

Then slowly these precious times they spent together grew cold. Aly shakily relayed the rest of the story. ” He started with small insults first. Nothing major. He would poke at how my hair looked, or if I had put on a little weight, or correct my posture telling me I looked like a hunchback and that no man wants a hunchback.

He slowly stole my confidence from me piece by piece. Towards the end he had me convinced of his world. A world in which ‘No one will love you Aly.’ ‘No one will care for you as much as I do.’ ‘I am the only one who will understand you.’” Even the mental escape of a morning jog took a nasty turn. He would never let me run alone. Then instead of joining me and laughing with me as he raced he would follow me in a van taunting me, but it all happened so gradually I did not know to stop it, and when I did I was too weak to fight back until I finally snapped the day you ‘kidnapped me.’

It was years after he had stripped me of my friends, my family, and my confidence that he started to hit me. It was rare at first, but as time wore on the incidents, it became more and more frequent. She tore her eyes away from them, and the ‘gifts’ he purchased after became fewer and farther between. One time he even let his friends have a go at me as their punching bag. They were heavily intoxicated and knocked me around the room.”

As she told her story, she could see hatred rising in the hearts of both of her friends. At one point. Aagi’s eyes were fighting between showing absolute fury and compassion. He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly not saying a word. Baellnar slowly got up from his corner of the room. He walked closer to her leaning on a wall nearby listening intently. His sapphire eyes were glowing with anger. His fury caused the curtains in the room to whip and tear in the torrential wind. Small knick-knacks in the room that crashed to the ground. The wind continued to tear the room apart until the fire from the hearth was caught up in in its fury.

“Relax!” Aagi roared, and with his words, fire in the room was extinguished with a powerful gust of air.

Alyenna unable to stop the words of her story as they had taken on a life of her own continued. It was like a dam had broken, and she had no choice but to let the words flow no matter the destruction they caused. So she looked away from her friends and continued. She did her best to try to minimize the pain in her voice and reassure her friends. After all, that life was behind her now.

“It was just that one night though.” She said forcing a smile. “I do not remember what happened after they started hitting me and grabbing at my clothes. I blacked out from fear. I woke up the next day with only a couple bruises and the house was a wreck. There was broken glass, torn apart furniture. I think I even remember what could have been claw and scorch marks. Paul said it was just part of the fight.

It was after that night that Paul gave me a necklace he insisted I wear it. He announced I needed to show so how much I appreciated his ’love and care′. I was not even allowed to take it off to sleep. The pendant always felt like ice.” Baellnar cut her off abruptly.

“Aly, can you describe the pendant? Do not leave anything out.”

She looked at the ethereal elf with his hair whipping about in the wind of their closed off room. His sapphire eyes were still glowing the anger. He was terrifying to behold. He almost looked demonic. A vision that made her scramble for a description and stumbles over her words. “It was some sort of stone.” She paused and closed her eyes in an attempt to picture the pendant, “I think it was jade” She paused again, “no it was more of a smooth multitoned crystal? It was embedded in a beautiful silver casing that resembled a great tree. It’s roots wrapped around the stone in the center lovingly. There were also markings on the back and two elaborate runes. Paul said the runes meant ‘beautiful soul’ in Gaelic.

He claimed it was expensive and that I should appreciate how much he had spent on such a special gift, that I had to treasure it always. He never failed to remind me how much the pendant was whenever I got out of line. Paul told me many times about the fight that night. That he no longer had friends because he had to protect me. That they tried to take advantage of me and he fought to preserve my precious dignity." Saying this made her shiver with disgust as she remembered his overt fascination with her dignity last night, taking a deep breath she continued.“That he protected me from them and in his efforts to defend me he had torn the house apart.

On the last day I spent in that prison, while he was sleeping off a bottle of bourbon, I threw it the dishwasher disposal and turned it on destroying it. The sound woke him up. That was why he had been angry with me, and that was when I had finally had enough.” her story ended with a poignant silence. She stared wistfully out the window. Avoiding all eye contact with her friends.

Baellnar’s glowing eyes softened to their more appealing glistening sapphire. His soothing velvet voice sunk into her soul. “How long have you been able to shapeshift Aly?”

Shocked and incredibly confused by his question she looked up at him and just stared. He eyebrow raised she waited for an explanation.

“Last night Aly I thought I was running to your rescue. It was the wind who whispered to me.” His eyes softened at the thought, “When the wind whispered what was going on I panicked afraid we would lose you. When I got to the river, I arrived just in time to see you transform into an enormous tiger. One much larger than usually resides anywhere in Tendaara or even your world. Your eyes were glowing in multiple colors, and the snarl you let out was not that of a normal tiger.” He said trying to be as gentle as possible using with his magnetic voice to keep her calm as he relayed this information. He asked again. “how long have you been able to shapeshift?”

Alyenna stuttered an unintelligible response. There was a memory of another time, but she was not sure if it was a memory or a dream. “Since last night.” She declared with false confidence slipping back into humor as her natural defense, “pretty good for a first timer!” She winced at the expression on Baellnar’s face.

Aagi chuckled and slapped her hard on the back. “AH! dat’s muh girl!” He turned to Baellnar and pointedly said. “Oi think were dun ’ere.”

Baellnar’s gaze softened and looked at Aly for a long moment. He sighed and said, “Well we better be off, or else a dead man may catch up to us.”

“Wait,” Aly said a little louder than she meant to ” I did not kill him last night, did I?”

Baellnar turned from her and grabbed their bags. Once he hoisted the bag over his shoulder, he started for the door. “No, you did not. But if Aagi or I ever see him again, he will be.”

“What are you doing here?!” An angry female voice shook the castle. A beautiful woman who was the embodiment of a goddess of the night stared angrily at Paul, “and without my prize!” You better have a great explanation for this.

Paul cowered in the corner of the throne room and considered that running from a rampaging tiger might have been the less problematic of his options this evening.

“My darling my sweetest love, my angel of darkness, my mistress of the night, my . . .” He crooned anxiously.

“Desist your lies!” She cut him off angrily mid-sentence fire forming in her hand. “Explain why you are somewhere that she is not.”

“She . . . shifted.” He said softly afraid for the first time in history for his life. Paul had never seen the queen he loved so infuriated.

Scelestra’s pupils slit like a snake then purred at Paul coaxing him to come closer to her with a pointy scarlet manicured finger. Fearfully obeying He crawled over to her and clung to lavish black velvet gown.

“Tell me why she shifted Paul I thought we took care of this problem with her.” She purred in a way very similar to an angry lioness waiting in tall grass to pounce on her prey.

“We did but.” He paused, with a shudderm under the power of her vehement glare.

“But what Paul?” She demanded, her voice caused small pieces of rock to tremble to the floor.

“Well,” He paused his hands shook as he stuffed them in his pockets, “she,′ he stuttered through the sentence urged to continue only by the fire that brewed in Scelestra’s palm, “destroyed it.”

“She did what?” The house shook as she spoke.

His answer was a meek, “yes.”

Scelestra bent down to him using her dagger-like nails to point his face directly at her and cooed “how exactly did she ‘destroy it’ Paul?”

Clutching her gown in his sweaty palms, he told her about garbage disposal incident, and she threw him to the ground and started pacing.

“Do you know what you have done? That was an enchanted necklace. Do you know what it took to make that necklace! I had to get 1,000 innocent souls for that spell. Not only that do you know what it took to get that to the Earthen realm! That necklace was the one form of control we had over her. It tracked her and held her powers at bay. It made her mortal!

You let that heinous little brat shove it down the garbage disposal!” with eyes alight with swirling red fire she threw her hand up in the air without even looking at Paul. His body launched across the enormous throne room and slammed into a stone pillar. His head slammed hard into the pillar and made a small crunching noise. He fell limp to the ground below. Blood pooled out beneath his body and in her rage, she threw him again to the other side of the room to the feet of a silent guard. Without a word, the guard dragged Paul’s nearly lifeless body out of the room.

Scelestra then busied herself going through spell books and gathering supplies. “This will take weeks to create. . .” She said to no one in particular. Then Looking into a basin by her throne filled with a thick red liquid that held an image of the trio riding away from town. “That little bitch is going to pay.”