Strange Lands and Terrible Monsters

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Before, this was a sacred place where the streams, the trees, the very breeze that swayed the forest carried the essence of the Old Gods. But the Old Gods are gone, and the dragons are everywhere. I see them, perched on top the gigantic trees around me, camouflaged under the dense canopy of leaves overhead. Their yellow, glinting eyes are like beacons lighting my path. Searching. Watching. Waiting. They hide in the cover of shadows as I make my way through the forest.

The colossal trees become smaller as I near the end of the woods. I break through the forest line into the east of the Valley, where a clearing stretches ahead, a small white cottage at its edge.

In front of me stands a man. The moon illuminates his silhouette, making him half light and half darkness. Inky black lines snake from the top of his arms to the tips of his fingers. They seem to swirl under the moon, absorbing the blackness from the night. When he turns to face me, molten, golden eyes meet mine, holding me in place.

“Who are you?” I whisper.

He takes a step toward me and grabs my hand. For a moment I am transfixed by those golden eyes, by the unending, undecipherable sadness I see in them. Then, the ground pulses and his face contorts, elongating. Tan skin turns to milky white, golden eyes turn to pitch-black orbs, and the hand holding mine is now scaly and talon-like. I thrash desperately, trying to escape the creature’s strong grip, but even as blood runs down my arms he holds on steadily. With his other hand, he places something wet and gooey in my hands. A red, beating heart, black veins pumping black blood that drips down my wrists and hands.

“You will take good care of it, won’t you?” He says as he smiles, the heart beating in my hands going ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. Before I spiral down into darkness, I see a crimson dragon behind the creature, watching me, all-knowing, and waiting for the moment to pounce.

-o-o-o-

I wake up gasping for breath, thrashing in my bedsheets. The clock on my bedside table reads 5:03 am and the light coming from my window is the soft, pink glow of sunrise. I slowly calm down as I realize I am not in that strange forest with the creature and the dragons. I am home. I am safe. It was just a nightmare, Lana, I tell myself, and nightmares can’t hurt you. I keep telling myself that, but I am not so sure anymore. This same nightmare has been plaguing me for weeks and it progressively feels more real. I’m afraid someday I won’t be able to tell dream from reality.

I stand up, throw a blanket around me, and open the window. As I have come to learn, there is no point in trying to go back to sleep. I sit down in the roof below, gazing up at the vanishing stars and the newborn light, trying not to think about what that dream—or any of the ones that came before it—might mean. Knowing it is probably in vain, I hope this nightmare is the last. And I wait.

-o-o-o-

Beep-beep-beep-beep.

The daily alarm I set for 7:00 am shakes me out of my trance. I have been working on the math study guide for the past hour and a half, trying to cram a year’s worth of knowledge before my final exam, but my mind kept drifting away from the equations and I only managed to solve a few problems. I slam the book shut in frustration and sigh. Graduation is only a few weeks away. Mar knows what to do, I’ll ask her later.

A knock on the door is followed by the door opening, revealing a mass of shiny black hair and a pair of brown eyes.

“Hey Lana, time to wake up!” Polly, my little sister, announces. She searches around for a moment, confused at finding my bed empty, then sees me at the desk. “Oh, you’re awake already. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, don’t worry about me, I’m just studying,” I say. She smiles, and my heart skips a beat. With her long hair and her large brown eyes, she reminds me so much of mom that it hurts sometimes. “You don’t have to do this. I’m getting up every day and doing much better. Don’t waste your time checking up on me.”

Polly nods and smiles again. “I don’t mind, I like making sure you’re okay.” Then she closes the door, leaving me alone. Even though I have an alarm set, Granny instructed Polly a while ago to check up on me in the mornings. After the accident there were days, weeks, when the alarm would go off and I would lay paralyzed in bed, unable to move, unable to face myself and what remained of my family. So, it became Polly’s duty to wake me up. On some days she would crawl into bed with me and hold me until I was ready to start my day. On other days she would get me moving with her bubbly chit-chat. One way or another, her empathy would give me the momentum I needed to get out of bed, even if all I wanted was to stay in the darkness, even if I didn’t deserve it.

I walk to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face, trying to block the sickening guilt and pain I have been feeling since the accident. Lifting my gaze to the mirror, I examine my reflection; messy, short blonde hair, wide gray-green eyes with purple bags underneath, and a skinny frame. My chest and my gut tighten as the guilt and hate settle, and I give up, welcoming them like old friends, knowing deep down that they are deserved. Swiftly, I gather my backpack and head downstairs.

Once at the kitchen, I sit at my spot next to Polly, who’s engrossed in a book. Across from me Ava, my cousin, scrolls through her phone while eating breakfast. “Lana! Have you seen the new guy at school? He’s so hot!” Ava shoves her phone in my face so that I can see his Instagram profile. Her gray-green eyes, the same color as mine, glint with excitement. Ava is seventeen, a year younger than me, and has lived with us ever since Uncle Raphael dropped her off at our house at age four and rejoined the military. I browse through this guy’s profile, trying to feign interest, and fail miserably. Before the accident I would’ve been the first one to bring the topic to the table, but now it only makes my head hurt. Ava takes her phone back, murmuring something that sounded like “not to worry” and “we’re graduating soon anyways.”

“Good morning, Lana, I’m glad you’re having breakfast with us today.” Granny greets me as she places a bowl of hot soup and a plate with toast in front of me, and I greet her back. The stone jewelry she wears around her wrists and neck jingles, highlighting her tall, skinny frame. Grandma Mathilda might look frail, and her long blonde hair might be streaked with gray, but she still has the same strength of a sergeant after years of serving in the military as a single mother.

“Okay girls, hurry up! I will not be late to my calculus class again.” Marissa, my older sister by two years, jogs down the stairs, her backpack and car keys in hand. She’s a college sophomore, majoring in Mathematics. Where Polly reminds me of mom, Mar reminds me of dad. Not only does she have his same black hair and brown eyes, it is her charisma, her easy-going nature, and her fierce intelligence that remind me of him the most.

“And good morning to you too, Mar.” I joke as I finish my soup. Mar rolls her eyes good-naturedly, giving my hand a squeeze in greeting as she eats the remainder of my toast. Ava and Polly head to the door. It always hits me; how out of place I look next to my sisters and cousin. Only Granny and I share the same blonde hair, skinny frame, and gray-green eyes. If it wasn’t for her, I would be convinced my parents got the wrong baby at the hospital.

“Off to school, girls! Don’t forget to come straight home afterwards, we start the Cleaning today.” Granny says. The Cleaning is one of my grandmother’s crazy rituals. None of us really believe her, but she claims to be a psychic. According to her, it runs in the family, coming from a bloodline of Priestesses who possessed great spiritual powers centuries ago. After retiring from the military, she opened her own shop, where she predicts the future, does some weird stuff with her giant crystal balls, and sells peculiar objects.

To keep her house pure and “purge it of the evil spirits,” we do the Cleaning every early Spring. To me, it is a glorified excuse to intensively clean the house over the weekend, but the old house needs it. The house was so ancient it was practically a national monument.

“Yeah, we know, we’ll be here.” Mar says, already heading for the door. I strap on my backpack, say goodbye to Granny, and follow my sisters out. Remembering last year’s Cleaning, I internally shudder. This weekend is definitely going to suck.

-o-o-o-

The school hallways are buzzing with activity. It is a Friday, and just a few weeks before graduation. I make it to Math and pull out the study guide I was working on earlier, intent on finishing it before the start of the class. But hearing everybody’s conversations about their plans for after graduation keeps distracting me. I had a dream, years ago, of studying music after high school. Always the star, the perfect girl, the center of attention. But that was back when I was Lana Hastings, the charming, popular girl who everybody liked. That Lana died with her parents on the night of the accident more than a year and a half ago. And now I am graduating, with no plans for the future beyond the next four weeks. Just the thought of it terrifies me. Stupid, the voice in my head laughs.

Class starts with the ring of the bell, breaking me out of my thoughts. The hours fly by as I take notes, shuffle to my classes, and eat lunch with Ava. Finally, I make it to last period, history class. We are currently reviewing the history of our country, Arlian. Mr. Henry announced that today we would cover the events that transpired after the Feudal Era.

Arlian had a very strange history… As Mr. Henry explained, the Feudal Era came to its end around the 14oos, when three formidable lords gained the lands surrounding their territories in the course of several bloody battles, and formed the three Houses: Kiryan in the West, Hollen in the North, and Suhn in the East. This period, when the land was divided in three, was called the Three-Way Period. About a century later, Kiryan became the most powerful under the rule of the Sun King and absorbed the other two Houses to form the Sun Kingdom.

This of course, isn’t the weird thing. The strangeness comes from the ancient folklore and legends of gods, demons, and spirits that permeate Arlian’s history. Creatures like these supposedly roamed the earth then, and worse were the things that they did with their supernatural powers. Tales of ethereal beings with castles in the sky, ageless beauty and strength, massacres of entire villages, among many others, are interwoven with the history that so fascinates me. They are only legends, I know, and yet I can’t help but be drawn to them. It calls to me, the magic and otherworldliness that surrounds these stories.

The bell rings, signaling the end of the school day, and I pack my bag, ready to head home. I join Ava and Polly on the sidewalk, just as Mar pulls over the curb. She’s blasting music in her light blue, old school Volkswagen beetle, and I can feel the ground tremble with the vibrations coming off her car.

“Hey! Get in, Granny will have our heads if we’re late!” She screams, her voice just barely above the volume of the music. I get in the back with Polly, and Ava rides shotgun.

“Jeez Mar, bring it down. Some of us care about our hearing, you know.” Ava says. Mar gets closer to her, cupping her ear with her hand. “What!? I can’t hear you!” Ava slaps Mar’s arm playfully as she lowers the music volume.

“As if having a mobile EDM concert pick us up isn’t embarrassing enough,” I say sarcastically, “you announce to the whole school you’re here, we can feel you coming from kilometers away.”

“Well, if I’m gonna be picking you up like a mom from school, I might as well embarrass you like one too.” Mar laughs, and my heart skips a beat. Ever since mom died, Mar has tried so hard to make up for the weight of her absence; driving us to school, always making sure we’re okay, sacrificing her dreams of college overseas to be near us. And it is your fault.

“Lana, guess who I ran into today on campus? Luke!” I snap my head up at his name, meeting her eyes on the rearview mirror. “He asked me about you, he still seems super interested in you. Can I give him your new phone number so you guys can reconnect?”

“No.” I say, faster than I can process this conversation. Luke. My ex-boyfriend. I blush, remembering his deep blue eyes, how good it felt being with him. But I could not allow myself to see him, to feel something for him again after all this time, after what I had done. Selfish.

“Oh, come on, Lana! You two were perfect together! Why don’t you try giving it a shot again?” Mar says, and even though I can’t see her face, I can feel the hopeful glint in her eyes that I know all too well.

“No.”

“But please Lana, if he asks you out—“

“No.”

“But it could make you so happy.”

“No, you’re wrong,” I stop and say, “Just drop it, okay?”

My chest clenches as I see her shoulders sag from behind her seat. I have disappointed her enough as it is, for she tries so hard to piece the old Lana back together. But no matter how hard she tries, it will never happen, and I don’t know how to tell her that that those pieces just don’t fit together anymore.

I force a smile on my face as I squeeze her shoulders. “Look, I’ll be okay. And we should better hurry home, because I really don’t wanna suffer Granny’s wrath if we’re late.”

Once home, we barely have time to unload our backpacks and refreshen a little before Granny summons us to the living room. She starts barking orders as she distributes brooms and cleaning cloths.

“Ava you’ll take the upper rooms, Mar you will help me with the garage, it’s quite a mess. Polly, why don’t you start with the living room? Oh, and Lana dear, I need your help with the basement, it hasn’t been cleaned in a while.” Her command takes me by surprise, as it does my sisters. The basement is the only place in this huge house where we are not allowed to go. Granny has never really explained why, only mumbled about piles of boxes and asthma attacks when asked. I wonder what changed her mind, as she usually cleans it herself or doesn’t clean it at all.

“Isn’t that too much work for only Lana to do? I can help her out,” Mar says, concerned. Ava and Polly agree, but Granny looks at me and smiles faintly. There is something secretive about her gaze that I can’t quite make out. “No, no, I need you girls to help me with other things. I think Lana can handle the basement just fine on her own.”

“Sure, don’t worry about me,” I say, grabbing some cloths, sanitizer, and a broom before Granny has the chance to get second thoughts. I have always wanted to see what is down there and had even gotten caught sneaking down the stairs when I was younger. “But you’ll have to go look for me if I don’t come back, I might pass out from all the dust.” Everybody laughs, wishing me good luck. But not Granny. She stares at me silently with those secrets in her eyes and I feel the hair on my arms raise as I turn towards the basement alone.

-o-o-o-

I sneeze uncontrollably as I make my way down. The place is dark and smells of mold and old, forgotten things. I find the light switch on the wall and flick it on, revealing piles of boxes stacked on top of each other, filled to the brim, and odd objects laying around. Spider webs span the corners of the room, and I groan as I swipe my finger over one of the boxes, the tip coming away dark with dust. What was Granny thinking, sending me here alone? I square my shoulders as I survey the battlefield before me, trying not to feel discouraged. And I begin to work.

As I start taking things out of boxes to clean, I begin to understand why Granny sent me here instead of any of my sisters. The contents in this basement alone could fill up a museum: an atlas from the eighteen hundreds, a porcelain doll, old photo albums, letters, white lady’s gloves. My excitement builds as I move on from one object to the next. What were these things doing here? Who had they belonged to, once upon a time?

After a few hours of doing more gawking than cleaning, I decide it is time for a break. As I stand, my leg buckles, weak after so many hours of being in the same position. Out of balance, I grab onto the box next to me for support and it topples over, falling in an explosion of dust. I cough desperately, swatting at the air to clear the dust before me. When the dust finally settles, I find that an object has spilled out of the box. I feel drawn to it, and time seems to stop as I reach for it, mesmerized.

The object is some sort of shiny black rock with an uneven shape. Under closer inspection, I notice that half of it is taller than the other half, and rock tendrils are adhered to the bigger stone. I gasp when the stone moves and pulses. A feeling of wrongness spreads through my chest, as the thing I had labeled a rock pulses again. This thing is… alive?

A tingling in my palms and scalp is all the warning I get before the rock in my palm emits a blinding flash of white light. The house shakes, and now before me stands a door in the wall that had not been there seconds before. In a heartbeat, the door opens and pulls me in, closing behind me. The last thing I see is a never-ending wall of darkness.

Time seems to stop as I fall. I try to scream, but no sound comes out of my mouth. My stomach rolls with that emptiness that comes under the rapid influence of gravity. Darkness fills my vision until one by one, flashes of colors start appearing, enveloping my body. A square of light appears below me, and my body fades away before going right through it.

Walls materialize around me, the space at my feet solidifies, and I stumble as my feet come in contact with the floor. Light pours from the only window to my right and through cracks in the ceiling. Vines and ivy climb up the walls. I have magically appeared in what seems to be a white cottage that is losing its battle against nature. My legs weaken and I sink to my knees, breaths coming in terrified gasps, hands trembling. I can feel my heart beating so fast, I’m convinced it’ll come out of my chest at any moment.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, trying to avoid the impending panic attack. You’re okay, Lana, you’re not hurt. Just calm down. After a few deep breaths I feel better and I open my eyes, taking a closer look at my surroundings. I find a door to my left, and with trembling legs I stand up and push it open, bracing myself.

The door opens into a clearing filled with wildflowers. In the distance I can see the peaks of the tall mountains that hug the valley, and before me looms a forest that seems to stretch on forever. The trees move with the breeze, inviting me forward, and the air itself feels electric; a living energy that seems to feed everything it encounters. I marvel at this fascinating landscape, trying to comprehend where I am and how I got here. There is something about this place…it feels so alien, yet so familiar. I look at the white cottage one more time and instantly I know it: the huge trees, the forest path, the dragons, the man with the golden eyes. That horrible white creature. This was the forest I had been seeing in my dreams for weeks. And this time, I knew I wasn’t dreaming.

I stare at the forest, paralyzed. I don’t want to stay here in the open, where the white creature might find me, but the thought of going in the ominous forest alone terrifies me.

“Just start walking. It’s okay, just move.” I tell myself, convinced that vocalizing my thoughts will spur me into action. And just as I am about to take my first step, the ground shakes, and I stumble. It shakes again with more force and I fall to my knees. My hands and legs sting from the impact. As I try to pull myself up despite the constant shaking, I feel a horrible chill go down my spine, as if someone is caressing my bones.

Something is wrong.

Something is coming.

That dreadful feeling intensifies as the ground shakes harder. The white creature with the voidless black eyes consumes my thoughts. Help me Little Gods, I send a quick prayer as I gather the courage to look behind me. And when I do, I immediately regret it. I see a wingless dragon coming at me fast!

Snapping out of my fear-induced trance, I shoot up to my feet and sprint into the forest. I run as fast as I can, knowing that a misplaced foot, a reduction in speed, will cost me my life.

“Givesss et to me girl.” Chills run down my body as a voice enters my mind and speaks. “Givesss me the Korr”. It is a ghastly, hoarse voice, both feminine and masculine, and I feel like a snake is hissing into my ear, trying to slither its way inside my head. I don’t understand what it wants. What is a Korr?

“Givesss me the Korr, girrl. I promissse to eeeat you queeckly”. As I run, I notice the trees becoming wider and taller, towering up into the sky. Any hopes I had of outrunning the dragon wither as I feel it coming closer.

My foot catches in a hole and I fall face first. The black stone falls out of my grasp and rolls several centimeters away. There is no time to stand up and keep running, so I turn back to face the dragon, and bite back a scream.

The gigantic dragon looms over me, arched back in its rear legs and ready to strike. Its scales are deadly and opaque, and its sharp claws glint black. I can see my terrified reflection in its glowing, pupil-less red eyes. I think of my parents, hoping to see them on the other side.

The dragon lunges forward, and in that moment I can see everything with acute precision. I can see the brightness of the sun’s rays shining through the forest canopy. I can see the dragon’s bulging muscles as it prepares to make the kill. I can feel the buzzing energy of the forest, the electric air that feeds all the life around me. And in that moment, I decide that I do not want to die. Even after the accident, after everything that has happened; even if I had wished for death before, I do not want to die. For some unknown reason I have been thrown into this terrible place, and I refuse to be eaten by a giant lizard.

I’ve had enough.

Guided by instinct, I call the forest’s energy to me. I feel as it pools at my feet, then shoots up my legs, into my arms and fingertips. It fills me with an adrenaline, a euphoria I have never felt before as I will the energy out into the dragon. A torrent of golden light explodes out of my fingertips with my battle cry, hitting the dragon in the chest. Immediately, the dragon disintegrates with a gurgling, ear-splitting scream.

The world returns to normal as the slow-motion feeling vanishes, and I suddenly feel dizzy and tired. Completely drained, I fall to the ground. I can hear shouts and the gallop of horses from somewhere nearby, but I don’t care, all I want to do is sleep. The last thing I do before losing consciousness is reach for the black stone and hold it securely against my chest.

-o-o-o-

A silent sob escaped my lips as I looked at my parents from the backseat of the car. It was deadly quiet, making the guilt and shame weigh all the heavier in my chest. I expected a horrible, out of proportion scolding, but not this icy quiet. I wanted to say something, but every time I tried, I choked on my own words. How could I be so selfish?

My parents had accompanied Mar that night to an important interview and dinner for a college opportunity overseas and tasked me with babysitting Polly. Once Polly was asleep, I sneaked out to go to Luke’s house party. It ended disastrously, with cops arriving at the scene. Luke and I had little time to run, but he managed to escape and left me to be captured by the policemen. My parents had to leave Mar behind at the interview to release me from custody.

“I’m sorry dad, I really mean it. I-I don’t know what I was thinking, I shouldn’t have left Polly alone and gone to that party.” My vision blurred as tears ran down my cheeks. “Gods, I’m such a horrible person, I’m so-sorry. What I did is unforgivable.”

My dad sighed as he turned around to look directly into my eyes. His face was somber and serious, but his eyes shone with kindness.

“What you did was irresponsible and wrong, and once we get home there will be serious repercussions. But what matters most is that nobody got hurt, and you’re safe.” His eyes softened, and he smiled tenderly. “People make mistakes all the time, and this is no exception. But that doesn’t mean we won’t forgive you, or that we will cease to love you. The lesson here is that you learn from your mistakes.”

Learn from them, a voice whispered in my head, learn from your mistakes, Lana.

“I love you too,” I said with a smile, relieved. My dad smiled back. Seconds later mom screamed as a blinding flash of light approached us fast and she tried in vain to swerve it.

The truck hit the front of our car, the wheel smashed into my mother with the force of the collision.

Murderer.

I screamed and screamed as my father was crushed between the roof and the passenger’s door. A strange golden light embraced me, impeding the roof from crushing me too as momentum and gravity rolled the car around.

Worthless.

I screamed, held tightly by the seatbelt to my seat, suffocating me. Thousands of little glass pieces showered me but didn’t touch me.

Selfish.

I screamed until my vision went black.

My nightmare, this memory that haunts my sleeping and waking hours, then morphs into something different, visions that brand themselves in my mind like hot pieces of iron.

Golden eyes that haunt me in a hooded gaze.

Three stones held by a figure with talon-like hands.

An iron throne with a red-headed man, beckoning me to come closer, fire surrounding him.

The images flood my senses and the darkness around me rises steadily. Soon, I am slowly drowning in that life-sucking darkness that envelops my body.

A bright red moon eclipsing the sky.

The white creature that smiles and says, “You will take good care of it, won’t you?”

A crimson dragon watching from the shadows.

A black heart beating steadily, ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump.

And the horrible, shattering sound as it breaks apart.

The darkness inches closer until it covers my mouth, my nose, my eyes. I cannot breathe. The darkness swallows me whole. Learn from them, a voice whispers in my head, learn from your mistakes Lana. Only this time, it sounds like a threat.