He was back inside his mind again. This time he was standing in front of a shadow in a pure white place, he looked around him until his eyes fell on the smirking shadow standing confidently with his hands in his pockets.
"What?" He asked the shadow in annoyance.
"No dreaming for you today, tsk tsk tsk, poor you." The shadow shook his head in a mocking manner, making him annoyed .
"Do I look like I care?" He replied to the shadow.
"Actually, you do. You wouldn't have been looking for her since the day you turned what?..." the shadow put an index finger on his shin as if thinking.
"Shut the fuck up!" He got so mad that he was close to attacking the shadow, but the shadow dodged casually, moving to the other side.
"You~ missed~" with a wicked laugh he said.
And before he woke up, he saw the shadow grow wings, a tail hiding behind him and horns...the smirk not leaving his face.
Darkon woke up startled. He was breathing heavily, heart beating vigorously as he sat up, both his hands on his face. he tried to regulate his breathing, but to no avail. He closed his eyes and chuckled.
"Okay, okay. Calm down." He put his hands down in the air as if calming someone. Suddenly his smiling face transformed into an angry scowl.
"I won't let you out today." He said to no one in the room,
But himself....
__________________________________________
Just as she thought Argentina couldn't sleep this night, she had many things running through her mind. She glances at Merla who was sleeping next to her then to the ceiling, to look at her again in hesitation.
"Merla, are you awake?" Argentina asked timidly.
"Yes, you can't sleep, too?" Merla replied with quietness. Most of the time Merla was the happy one of the kids, so Argentina seeing her change after the illusion practice felt very peculiar.
"You...why are you so silent these days?" Argentina asked trying to open up a conversation to the question in her mind. After a minute of silence, she could feel Merla shift beside her with a sigh, she brought a candle and lit it up. Before sitting up looking in front of her as of she is shocked or taken back.
"You are asking because of how silent I was in aun- I mean, master Saraya's lessons, right?" She asked still absent mindedly.
"No, not only that. Even before, in Sir Darkon's class." Merla looked at Argentina as she sat up next to her.
"Oh, the illusion, right?" Merla was breaking into cold sweat.
But Argentina surprised her, "no, even before that. When he was talking to us, you never wondered why was his eyes glowing?" Argentina was not a stupid person, and she wouldn't just hide a fact, or not say what should not be said. She was annoyed, every time she tried to ask Darkon or any of the guardian's about the changed personality and glowing eyes she saw three times until now since she met Darkon, they would dodge her question. This time she will not allow someone that knew something dodge her again.
"You have a keen eye, don't you?" Merla looked older than her thirteen year old self at this moment, fear did wonders to people. She chuckled and touched her forehead her eyes held in disbelief and fear.
"Promise me you won't be surprised?" Merla glanced at Argentina to see resolve inside her eyes. Merla sighed, "I don't think you will be, with those eyes of yours." Merla shook her head then slapped her face three times.
"Okay, I will say it." She had a determined looking face as she moved her hands as if encouraging herself.
"Darkon, or Sir Darkon as you say is -I think- a dragon." After a moment of silence, Argentina blinked before calmly looking in front of her.
"I see." She simply said.
Merla was taken back as she looked at the not-so-surprised Argentina, " I remember that I said not to be surprised, but that is a very calm reaction, like I know the name gave it away, but...a bit of a surprise maybe?" As Merla kept rambling away her thoughts, Argentina had different things going on in her mind. Not listening to what was Merla saying, Argentina asked, "how did you know?"
"It's a long story..." Merla paused before answering her eyes roamed the room trying to avoid remembering the subject in question.
"I am listening." Argentina had sparkling eyes as she moved eagerly sitting in front of Merla directly, her eyes calm and collected, but curious as if she found a new toy.
Merla sighed before beginning, " it was one time two years ago I think?...one time they were preventing people from going inside the main castle garden, I saw the prince hurt and a huge ruckus going on..."
Merla was humming when she moved up and down in a happy gait showing on candies, when she moved to look at some guards running, some shouting for the king while others were moving away from someone. Merla was a mischievous curious child, so she stood in place to see what was unfolding in the palace, was it a scandal. She was very excited to see what was going on.
That was until her aunt stood in front of her with a frantic face, " Merla, go back to your chamber! right now!" That was the first time Merla saw her aunt so angry and worried she put her hands on Merla's arms and turned her away from the 'scene' but Merla already took a glance as she saw an unfeeling face dragging a bloody body towards the king's main chamber. Her eyes widened before recognizing that unfeeling man.
He was her buddy, the funny mischievous person who always played with her, Darkon. He had a stone like face as he walked not caring about anyone around him as he dragged a guard's body on the ground. The body was a bloody mess, his body dragged like a lowly animal before it was thrown non-chantly inside the king's chamber followed by Darkon before the door closed behind him.
"That doesn't explain how you knew that he was a dragon." Argentina tilted her head in confusion. Merla narrowed her eyes at Argentina before tsking annoyed.
"Oy! First of all I told you it was a long story, second of all, are you not surprised that I told you I saw a person that is supposed to train us drag a body around like it was nothing?"
"That's beside the point, what's more surprising a guard used to killing dragging a body, or you telling me that a dangerous creature who is supposedly to be our enemy is our trainer?" Argentina countered back, her face not indicating how she felt.
"Point taken." Merla nodded in understanding.
"Okay, let me continue."
Merla sat there in her room with the all the noise happening right outside her chamber, she covered both of her ears getting teary. She couldn't handle the voices and the screams that weirdly enough she thought she might sneak from her window, she wanted her chamber to be close to the ground so that she could play outside anytime from the comfort of her room.
She went out and started walking until a long time passed, and she could not hear a lot of ruckus or noises going on, so she thought that she could just maybe return back, but to her astonishment she felt a shadow falling behind her, she didn't give it any thought, thinking it was a maid or a butler, but slowly and precisely she could see something resembling a snake moving next to the man's leg.
Although Merla thought it was a butler, but she couldn't turn and warn him that there was a snake behind his legs, somehow her body sensed an immense danger and she freezed, her body not listening to her mind to turn.
After mere seconds, Merla could see two wings sprouting from the shadow that she quickly turned falling down on her back as she gazed terrifyingly at the man- if he was a man at all- in front of her, he was familiar but totally different. He tilted his head at her, his nose twitching as if trying to catch a scent in the air.
Her gaze moved to his hand, as she saw a plumb of red moving thing in his hand. Something was moving, more like pulsing in his hand.
Merla was too scared to utter a word, or even move. Her eyes fixated at the creature again to notice why he looked so familiar, her eyes widened even more, suddenly she found her voice. As she was going to scream. The creature suddenly stood right in front of her putting a very long nailed finger on his long canined mouth as if ordering her to be quiet.
Merla feared for her life, so she didn't even utter one breath, she could feel her legs shaking, her heart racing as she breathed raggedly. Her eyes fixated on a blue eyes so familiar, but held a glowing glint making it even more blue, and even more terrifying.
The creature smiled at her as if approving her obedience.
After a minute of the two staring at each other, Merla not uttering a breath, she could hear someone screaming, "find him!" Before the creature smiled at her. He waved at her as if she was his friend, spreading his wings and the last thing she saw was a faint mumble, "don't... fear..." before she passed out.
"Thats how I knew he was a dragon, at the beginning I was so disoriented as I woke up from my sleep, my aunt looking teary eyed and my mother scolding my father inside my room."
"I didn't tell my aunt what I saw at that time, because I thought my eyes were playing tricks, and I didn't want to leave the place, because mother was very serious as she decided to take me back. Nightmare followed and weirdly enough no one was talking about seeing someone fly, which would have been pretty obvious." Merla chuckled remembering.
"Two years ago? You were eleven at that time?" Argentina asked.
"Yes."
"You weren't afraid of Darkon?" She was calm when she asked, her eyes held some sympathy at what Merla has been through.
"Of course I was, at the beginning I never approached him, and weirdly enough, he didn't too. But suddenly, he barged into my room and treated me so nicely and happily as usual. At the beginning I cried and didn't want to interact with him, but he would just smile sadly at me and walk away, eventually I was convinced that it was only a dream, and I treated him normally again...but," Merla paused.
"What?"
"He had some impulses where his eyes changed colors, or more like glowed, and that would freak me out, a lot. So, I always avoided him when his eyes were glowing." Merla paused again before sighing.
"After the illusion, I was sceptical again, and when my aunt explained that there was full shift, half shift or these things, I knew that at that day I wasn't seeing things." Merla held Argentina's eye.
"What I saw was true." She said with finality.
Argentina and Merla sat there silently trying to get a hold of the information she knew, "do they know?" Argentina asked.
"I don't know, all I know is that I am afraid to say anything, maybe they don't know, and he is hiding it from them, maybe they know and they are hiding him from us." Merla couldn't continue for a minute, "and in either cases it wouldn't be good."
"First case, I might get killed by Darkon, if I said anything. Second case, is that we are aligning with the enemy we are supposed to fight." She fell down on the bed putting her arm on her eyes. She didn't want to think about all that.
"Then why did you tell me all of this?" Argentina was still sitting in front of her. The night falling from outside the window, the candle light illuminating Argentina's face.
Merla smiled, "you are a curious person, Argentina. And you didn't seem that scared when you saw his eyes, I knew you were, but you were more curious than afraid. I can trust that you could keep a secret, right?" Merla's hand was shaking profoundly, Argentina could remember the first time they met, Merla was talking and treating Darkon normally as ever, imagine how surprised she was to know that a person she liked and knew enough was something dangerous or scary to her, or might even as she said kill her.
Merla sat up again and tried to steady her hand, "honestly I am scared, From an important guard to creatures and mind playing, illusion and a hidden world?" She chuckled, but the chuckle was anything but humourous, "to now this, one of the reasons I told you about all this, is that I couldn't keep all this inside, are you okay?" Merla's eyes looked worried for Argentina, she didn't want to say anything, but she felt like a pressure cooker waiting for someone to pick it on, waiting for someone to ask. And Argentina did ask, so she poured all if it out to her, blame it on her age that trusted quickly, blame it on the stress, but she ended up putting not only her in danger, but Argentina knew too, that makes her on the same danger. If not more, at least Merla has her family. And she was a third princess, to the second prince of the sand kingdom, but Argentina? She had no one to protect her.
Argentina looked at the worried look Merla gave her, and she remembered that people always looked at her with resentment for far more simplistic reasons, and here a girl that went through a lot, keeping things in her heart was worried she made Argentina scared of the fact of getting into all this.
Argentina smiled warmly before jumping on Merla hugging her tightly, Merla was so taken back that she couldn't react, but close enough she warped her arms around Argentina, and from that simple gesture she teared up.
"I am okay, we will be okay, don't worry. Now, you are not alone in this, whatever happens we will be together, okay?" Argentina talked with a steady tone. Merla only nodded and hugged Argentina even more tightly.
Somehow when you keep a huge burden on your back, sharing it for a moment with one person can make you feel better, and sharing it with the right person makes you feel satisfied that even if you fell down, someone would be behind your back, knowing what you went through.
That night Argentina and Merla became more than just colleagues, they were friends that could keep each other's secret, and keep each other's back.