Blood and Claws

garden ~~chapter four~~

I woke up in a soft bed. The blanket was black but had small white, teal, hot pink, and purple stars printed a crossed it. I looked up and black bars white sheets twisted through them and on the end fell down to form bows around bars that held the top canopy.

I slowly lifted myself up my head pounding with pain. The walls a soft teal and a huge window with a seat had black curtains splattered purple. A long chest next to the bed substituted for a nightstand and an identical bed sat a crossed it.

Violet, Clarisse, and Chris sat on the edge of the bed I was sitting in all looking at me. I cringed as a sharp pain flew by my shoulder. I reached my hand up to it felling a bandage. I squeezed my eyes shut as the realization hit me. The car crash, the chains, the men, the girl, and flying. They all happened.

I reopened my eyes to see three pairs of worried eyes. “Hey…” Clarisse then says.

“Morning.” I say slowly.

“It’s actually almost night. You slept all day.” Violet says.

“Do you feel alright?” Chris asks slowly.

I leaned gently against the headboard. “Everything hurts…”Chris gets up walking to the nightstand grabbing a small white container opening it. He pops out a strange purple gel pill and a bottle of water.

“This will help…” 

Using my left hand since my right shoulder hurt like heck, I held up the pill looking at it closely and it had the code, “PAI4.” Written a crossed it.“What is it?”

“Pain pill, it’s made at the school. It should work 10 times better as your mortal pills and actually help with the healing.” Clarisse explains.

“Okay…” I say slowly and took the pill. I hand Chris the bottle and he sets it on the chest. They all continue looking at me. “What happened?”

Violet clears her throat. “Like what cause you to pass out… or everything else.” I hesitate.

“Both.”

She nods and the three of them look at each other. “You passed out because you got a small concussion from the car crash and you lost a lot of blood.” She says and looks at Chris. He sighs.

“Remember how I said the four schools? Water, earth, fire and air. Clarisse and I are born under the air element which means we control the element air around us. We can push it, gather, manipulate it, and well… fly.” Violet then interrupts him. “I am control fire. I can create heat, fire itself, move it, and remove it.” To show what she can do she flicks her fingers and a small flame dances over her thumb. 

My eyes widen and she giggles. “Centuries ago humans umm… I guess you say mated with a dragon don’t ask us how because no one knows. Our kind is extended from those people to human-dragon hybrids. We all possess one element, except every three hundred years, a person is born under all the elements and an extremely rare one… spirit. That person is you, Alexandria. That is why the Earth school is after you.”

“That can’t be true… I never seen those men till yesterday. I think I would know if I had wings growing from my back…” Chris sighs and Violet just gives me a half smile. “You don’t have the powers from birth. We didn’t even know if you were the one and we even suspected others. You had all the signs though, the delayed reveal of your powers, your birthday, your heritage, gender, and attitude.”

“Heritage… like family?” I ask and even Violet’s smile fades.

“Yes… you’re the daughter of the headmaster here and you have a brother… your mother died at birth though.” Clarisse says very slowly and quietly. I stay there shocked. I remembered when Clarisse asked me, if it bothered me that I didn’t know my parents. I could feel a lump grow in my throat as words escaped from my head.

I then swung my feet slowly to the side of my bed and held my head in my hands. “I need fresh air… I need to think about this.” I basically whisper and I slowly stood. The pain in my shoulder sunk to a numb slightly sore feeling and my head felt heave almost tired, other than that I already felt fine.

“I know a place where we can go…” Chris says slowly and I nod.

He gently intertwines his fingers with mine and leads me out the door with Clarisse and Violet whispering to themselves. I watch my feet as he guides me through the halls. “Are you okay?” I shake my head no, honestly not knowing. I have these abilities I have no clue about, a family I have no clue about, and a totally different world I have no freaking clue about.

“How do you feel?”

“Painful” I say moving my arm up to the point pain made it impossible to move it more. He sighs.

“I’m sorry…” He says slowly and we enter a stair case walking down, the stairs a dark wood that seems to go through the building.

“Why?”

“I shouldn’t have let them get you.”

“You say that as if it was your responsibility.”

“It is.” He stops at the end of the stair case.

“What?”

“It is my responsibility.” I look up at him his bleached blonde hair drifting above his crystal eyes. “As your guardian… it’s my job to protect you.” He says slowly.

“Guardian?” He took a deep breath pushing the blonde strands away so he could look at me clearer.

"I have the strongest power and the most skill at the school. Because of it I was declared to be the guardian of the spirit user.”

“Oh…” He nods.

He started walking again and I followed. “Why does the Earth school want a spirit user?” Chris hesitates. He doesn’t respond till minutes later.

"The spirit user is a representation of power. They don’t want peace amongst schools, with the war going on they are in power. If you would be on their side no one would be able to challenge them. If you decide not to join them they will kill you most likely, so your powers will recreate and they can try again in three hundred years.”

“Oh….”

“I am not going let them hurt you any more than they have.” He says reassuringly. I nod slowly and we walk into an open metal door, almost like a vault. It was like an indoor garden no, it was an indoor garden.

I stepped onto a silver stone path and my most troubling thoughts got locked away. Tall and beautiful trees intertwined over the path as arches. The air even smelled fresh air and even felt the comforting breeze with warmth of fall air. Healthy green grass grew around the stones and bushes with red berries grew around the trees.

Before we turned down the path the sound of trickling water drew my attention to a small water fall leading to a stream wrapping around the carefully arranged stone. Frogs sat in the deepest parts of the stream, with glistening lily pads growing from the bottom with white flowers. It was so pretty almost seemed surreal.

We continued walking through the garden and I looked around in amazement. Even though, I know for a fact I never been in a place like this before, I felt a deep case of déjà-vu. “This place is beautiful…” I whisper and Chris smiles.

“Alex…” A soft male voice says uncertainly behind me. I let go of Chris’s hand and turn around. He was maybe only in his very early twenties and his brown hair neatly curled softly on top of his head. He wasn’t buff or broad, just an average adult. He pushed his glasses up looking at me.

“Taylor… what are you doing here?” Chris asks and he sighs. “I came to talk with my sister…”

(( hey!! haha I have a tendency to leave cliff hangers in between chapters. There might be mistakes i will fix later because i didnt foucus much on editing tonight. I needed to publish this chapter though it was too overdue. feel free to comment! Also thanks My awesome amazing friend for the idea of the dragon human hybrids and the schools. Also you may be wondring what a spirit user is? you will just have to wait and see. Have a good weeked people!