Sentry of the Arcane: Engulfed

Chapter Twenty-Three: Sophie

The girl sighs when she finds herself in the darkness yet again. It's so familiar that it's boring. What did she even do to be stuck in an area surrounded in black, which nothing in sight for at least a few hundred feet.

Sighing, she decides to the only thing she's known to do here- walking.

This time, only a few seconds pass before something happens. Something falls on her head rather painfully, making her yelp and jump back. Rubbing the area where a stinging pain grows, the girl looks down to see something glisten slightly.

It's teal. The girl frowns- it seems like everything that has some sort of color is only teal. What's that supposed to mean?

Shaking her head, she leans closer to inspect the object. Her teal eyes widen considerably when she sees that it's a teal scale. Not caring about the small voices of protest ringing in her head, the girl picks up the scale, wondering just how it's managing to glisten brightly despite the evident darkness.

Of course, another teal scale falls down from above, knocking the scale in the girl's hand out. Taken aback, she also drops that second scale. Her face still expressing her shock, the girl kneels down to gingerly hold the teal scales, as if they'd explode on her at any given moment. Good thing they didn't.

Suddenly, more and more teal scales fall down upon her, as if it was raining teal. An unknown breeze blows through the girl's hair, making her truly feel like she's outside in the rain. Slightly hesitantly, she looks up to see that the scales don't hurt her. She smiles and holds her arms up, letting the teal run around her.

The wind blows slightly stronger than before, making the teal scales flow through her hair before disappearing the darkness surrounding her completely. Feeling suddenly at peace, she closes her eyes and smiles when the girl finds herself being lifted up into the air.

The wind suddenly whips her blonde hair around furiously, causing her to open her eyes. Suddenly, she's not in the darkness.

She's in the clouds.

Of course, the girl doesn't see anything other than the clouds. Smiling more, she reaches out and lets the clouds fall through her fingers. She feels nothing except a stinging cold, but that's better than feeling nothing in the darkness.

Closing her eyes, the girl savors the wind relentlessly beating against her for a moment before opening her eyes again. She looks at her hands and notices that the smooth surface underneath her palms are the same scales that fell on her before.

"Dragon," she says randomly before she can stop herself. When she actually says it out loud, the girl realizes that it sounds weird... But in her mind, it sounds correct. Like it was the solution to begin with. "Dragon," the teal-eyed girl repeats. She frowns. She's alone, but she feels like she's convincing someone else.

"Dragon. Dragon. Dragon."

Dragon, Dragon.

Dragon.

...

When I awaken, it doesn't take me long to realize that the sun hasn't risen yet. Frowning when I fail to fall asleep again, I stifle a yawn and sit up, stretching so I don't feel as stiff as I do now. After a few minutes of sitting in bed, I finally decide to get out of bed and get dressed for the day. I grab some black pants and a red tunic before entering the bathroom.

As I wash my hair, I find that my mind wanders back to my dream. I had been flying on something- that "something", I did not know. It was teal, had scales... and had claws. Like, like...

Like a dragon.

That's stupid, I scold myself. A mythical creature? You're going insane. I shake my head, bringing myself back to reality just in time to acknowledge the waterfall of warm water crashing onto my head and face. Spitting out some water, I run a hand through my wet hair and think to myself, That's just a dream. A weird dream... Yet it looks so familiar- does it have to do with something?

Not waiting to answer my own question, I finish taking my shower and don't pay an ounce of attention to my dream. Once I open the shower door, all the steam that was pent up with me rushes out, almost instantly fogging up the mirrors and the area around me. I grab the nearest towel and dry myself off before wrapping it around my body.

Once I step out, I feel shivers crawling up my spine from how cold the bathroom is without the warm water pouring over me. Exhaling shakily, I use another towel to dry my hair to the best of my ability while holding another towel around me.

It's weird... I find myself thinking as I stop drying my hair. The dream seemed so vivid- like it was reality... The wind in my hair, the smooth feeling of the scales. Suddenly, realization hits me like a truck and I drop the towel in my hand. I then grab my clothes and change into them, my thoughts going into overdrive.

It can't be... I think to myself as I burst out of the bathroom, leaving the two towels behind on the ground. I stop in the middle of my room, trying to remember where I put them exactly. When I remember, I snap my fingers as if I just had a lightbulb of an idea.

Turning to my desk, I pull open the top-most drawer. My face falls as I drag a finger down the smooth metal of the prostrator that Fitz had given to me before he left. I shake my head to clear my thoughts when I notice the three scales from the corner of my eye.

I take one of them out and use my thumb to trace the outline. It was small, yet not that small. Almost like Fitz's injuries, I think to myself. My eyes widen, and I drop the scale back into the drawer by sheer coincidence.

"That's where my dream came from," I whisper to myself. "Fitz's memories..."

Suddenly, someone's knocking on my door, causing me to jump back. Trying to rein in my thoughts, I slam the drawer closed and rush to the front door. When I practically swing my bedroom door open, saying that I was surprised when I saw no one is an understatement. Furrowing my eyebrows, I hesitantly close the door.

When the knocking still echoes in my room, I shriek, jumping at the noise. Shaking my head, I try to listen to the sound, to to find that it's coming from the connecting door. Wondering what happened, I open the door to see Fitz run a hand through his hair as he paces around in his room.

Walking up to him, I place a hand on his shoulder and ask, "Fitz? What's wrong?"

"I-" Fitz pauses, sighing. "Just... remember Leila Leroy?"

I nod. "What about her?" I ask, shuddering at her reaction to her daughter's photo.

"She's..." Fitz stops himself mid-sentence. Suddenly, he holds a paper in front of me. "Read it..."

"What are you-" I finally look at the paper and realize that it's a "Missing Person" poster.

For Leila Leroy.