Word From A World | Commence - Book 1

✧ Eight | A Tale of a New World ✧

The brief knowledge of the Altum tiers ended on the first page. I glanced over to Khaleesi where she nodded, indicating to flip the page. And, so I did. I skimmed over the first line of the page:

With that knowledge, the story of history begins.

The rest of the page was blank, so instinctively, I turned to Khaleesi to question. She gave no response but nodded with a cheeky grin. Before I was able to react in a very muddled way, the surrounding area began to alter in the way it was portrayed. The living room was no longer a living room and I had thought that Khaleesi and I were thrown into a sudden sandstorm. But it wasn't a sandstorm and was instead a drawn out strip of beige paper, the same color as the pages in the book.

Khaleesi and I were no longer sitting on the couch and instead stood on what I assumed was dirt ground. The pages around us began to disappear, revealing the rest of the environment. The whole scene was painted in beige tones, resembling the pages of the book. And the only figures in color were Khaleesi and I.

"We're inside the book," I muttered in shock.

Khaleesi, who stood directly next to me answered, "Yes we are."

"Are all the books here like this?"

"No," she responded. "Only this once. Hence why I said it was 'confusing and hectic'."

That's when it clicked. That only meant I was going to have a long ride within these pages, especially since we stood at the mouth of a cave. But that wasn't the only deranged detail about the setting because the cave was engraved on an immense mountain far above the clouds of what looked like a small village.

"Where are we?" I crept closer to the entrance of the cave, tempted to enter from the aura it emitted.

"Mount Sekaini. The largest mountain in the world, and home of the mightiest Altum Tier on the planet," Khaleesi clarified in one breath.

I hadn't realized that I was no longer standing side by side next to Khaleesi, and instead was right in front of the entrance of the cave. I felt myself freeze in my tracks as a shiver ached down my spine. It was as if a higher up authority was watching my every move, waiting for me to screw up. And I was right.

My head turned slightly to get a closer look at the erie cave. Golden spheres with black vertical slits fixated its gaze at me. The reptilian eyes began to glow as the rest of its body moved forward deliberately, revealing tear dropped shaped scales. The scales were the color of snow, tinted with beige like the rest of the setting within the book.

Large wings rested at its side and its ears perked up as if listening carefully. The dragon raised to all fours and opened its mouth, showing large teeth and a snake like tongue.

"So, you've come again," it spoke in a comforting yet fierce tone. I assumed it was a male from the way it had spoken. "Why have you come?"

"I don't know what you mean-" I began to answer, but then another voice from behind me began to talk.

"I have one more request, oh mighty one." A young boy dressed in winter clothing of fur and an axe on his back presented himself to the creature and bowed.

A sigh of relief left my lips as I realized that the dragon wasn't speaking to me. "It's playing a scene, isn't it?" I asked Khaleesi.

She walked up to me. "Mhmm. They won't be able to see us."

"What is it, boy?" The dragon asked with a heavily vexed tone.

The boy knelt on one knee, while his hand rested on the other. "I know from my last visit I spoke of the unfairness that us humans get from not being able to possess the power of enchantments. But knowing how you are the most mighty being on all of Cocoronous, I wondered if you knew a way in which we can."