Eve was overcome with a feeling of warmth across her face as she squinted her eyes shut tighter than they already were. Somehow, she managed to force her eyes open before she quickly shut them again as the brightness of the room overwhelmed her. Eve quickly sat up, rubbing her eyes and blinking a few times to try and let her eyes adjust to this new bright setting, it was very different from the dark void she was in only moments ago.
Eve looked up to see an array of broken columns and ancient ruins. Tall vines winded themselves around each column, holding some up mid-air. Eve felt her eyes widen in surprise as she looked around. The air was humid and in some places around the area, water drizzled down from the sky.
This is this other world? Eve thought as she quickly stood up and looked around. A warm breeze rushed past her, waving her hair in the wind. The air smelled like... salt? Was she near some kind of ocean?
Eve was quickly pulled from her thoughts as a deafening roar filled her mind. Eve instinctively covered her ears and ducked down slightly. The roar quieted for a moment and Eve looked up to see a large winged lizard flying through the sky. She felt her mouth drop as she stared in awe.
A dragon? Seriously?! I knew this world would be different, but a dragon? Eve stared excitedly at the creature, wondering if she was going crazy or not. Before she could continue staring, she met its gaze. The monster screeched and flew towards her. Eve didn't have time to run, not that there was anywhere to go, and there weren't any weapons around her. In a moment of panic, Eve ducked slightly, covering her ears and hiding her face in her knees, her only thought was a prayer that the dragon wouldn't see her.
Eve gasped as she felt a whoosh of air rush past her as the dragon passed right through her. Her hands reached to her chest and felt, wondering if there was a part of ear missing, but she remained intact, much to her disbelief. After taking a few deep breaths, Eve turned back to see the dragon sniffing around the area she was at. Though it wasn't sniffing near her, it was certainly a bit too close for comfort. Still, she couldn't help but admire the creature.
Its scales were shaded a light sky blue and its underside was painted a deep navy hue. Small golden horns perturbed from its forehead and blood red eyes scanned the ground beneath her. Eve's eyes remained stuck to the dragons coat and, without even realizing it, her hand reached out to touch its head. Her fingers moved towards the top of the dragon's head, but her hand fell through the dragon when she went to pet it.
Eve jumped back, startled. She looked down at her hand and saw parts of the ground beneath her through it. Shocked, and not quite sure what had just happened, Eve looked back up towards the dragon. Whatever was going on with her trying to pet it, the dragon didn't seem to notice and after one more quick sniff, it raised its wings, pushing off against the ground and taking off, leaving only a small cloud of dust in its wake.
Eve wondered why she couldn't touch the dragon with her or why it had passed right through her. She raised her hand to the wall behind her and went to go touch it, but when she tried, her hand passed right through the stone. Eve stood in shock for a moment, not quite sure what to do, before she remembered something Yunan had said earlier.
Eve remembered that Yunan had said she would be like a sort of ghost in this world, maybe that's why it phased right through her. Eve thought for a moment and realized that the dragon had been able to see her, just as anything else in this place until she wished that it couldn't. Maybe the way she could go back and forth with this was by simply wishing that she could or couldn't be seen.
Before Eve had anymore time to consider the possibilities of this ghost-like state, a booming roar rang out from above her as she felt herself fall into the shade. Eve looked up, slightly panicked to see a massive dragon soaring above her.
The dragon was huge, easily ten times the size of the others and was painted in the same variety of blue shades as the dragon she'd met earlier. However, size wasn't the only difference between this dragon and the one from before; the massive dragon had small sparks surrounding it, almost like tiny bolts of lightning. Eve couldn't see the dragon very well from how far away it was, but she knew that there was something more to this dragon than meets the eye. The smaller dragons around it were following it without question and flew in the same direction. Was it some sort of leader?
The dragon screeched again and flew towards another tall wall with some large caves in it. Eve leaned over and tried to see where it was going when suddenly, she felt the edge of the cliff beneath her foot crack. Before she had time to pull her foot away, she felt her ghostly body begin to fall forward. With a gasp, she felt herself begin to slip down the steep wall and into the deep valley below, when suddenly something grabbed her wrist.
Her feet dangled beneath her and towards the edge as Eve looked up to see a silhouette above her, holding onto her wrist and beginning to pull her up. Soon, another figure appeared above her and grabbed her other wrist, the two of them hoisting her up onto the ledge.
Eve felt the dirt against her palms as she finally got up to the ledge, sitting back and taking a deep breath. She dared to spare a glance to the valley below and instantly wished she hadn't, the sight of the deep valley and ragged rocks beneath were enough to make her never want to be near the ledge again. She slowly started scooting away from the edge when a voice snapped her out of it.
"What do you think you're doing here?" A male's voice asked, sounding almost slightly angry.
Eve looked up to see a boy, around her age, with dark green hair and golden armor covered by a deep scarlet cape looking at her. A small gem hung from his ear and his eyes looked at her with an annoyed and skeptical gaze. She subconsciously slid back a little bit.
"Would you knock it off? She's s clearly scared!" Another voice said, as Eve looked to her left and saw a boy, roughly as old as her and the other boy, with purple hair tied back in a long pony-tail and patterned white robes. Eve noticed that both of the boys carried swords, to which she felt a little bit of fear rise in her. Two strange men in this odd place, both of them wielding swords, and they'd pulled her up onto a ledge after she'd nearly fallen off a cliff.
"How do you know she's not another dungeon monster, you idiot?!" The man with green hair yelled.
"Why would a dungeon monster nearly fall off a cliff in their own dungeon?!" The purple haired man bickered. Both of the boys began arguing and pushing each other, to which Eve found some amusement, but she was more worried about how the two of them had been able to see her. Maybe she'd instinctively wanted them to see her when she was falling so she wouldn't tumble down into the valley... Eve thought a moment as the pair continued their fighting.
"Hey."
The voice snapped Eve out of her train of thought as she looked up to see the green haired man looking down at her. He was standing now, and so was the other man, both of them looking at her questioningly. Eve stumbled and stood, taking a slight step back from them.
"I'll ask again, what are you doing here?" He asked, his eyes narrowing as he took a step towards her. Eve responded by taking another step back.
"I... I don't know..." Eve looked to the ground, slightly embarrassed.
"Then who are you?" He questioned.
"My name is Evelyn, but everyone just calls me Eve," She replied, still keeping her eyes to the ground and slowly beginning to take a few more steps backwards.
The green haired man took another step towards her and opened his mouth to say something, but the purple haired man put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"She's clearly confused and scared, so why are you trying to freak her out more?!" He whisper shouted.
"Why are you getting in my way?!" The green haired man whisper yelled back.
Eve stood silently as the two of the began bickering again, starting to push and shove each other. Eve watched quietly as the pair argued and pretended she couldn't hear anything they were saying as they began to hurl insults at each other. Finally, the purple haired man huffed and turned back to face her.
"I'm sorry about him, he's a bit of a prick," he spoke calmly, giving a slight side eye to the other man. "My name is Sinbad, it's nice to meet you."
Sinbad smiled warmly to which Eve smiled back.
"It's nice to meet you too," she replied.
"This here," Sinbad said, pointing behind him towards the green haired man. "Is Drakon."
Drakon quickly turned back, his eyes flaring with anger. "How dare you address me so casually!"
Sinbad ignored him and continued talking to Eve. "So how did you get here?"
"Well, I'm not really sure..." Eve started, trying to remember if something else had happened between the time she was in the void and when she woke up here. "I just sort of woke up here."
"See, if she woke up here, she's probably a dungeon monster," Drakon argued before Sinbad rolled his eyes.
Sinbad turned around, facing where the large dragon had gone. "We should follow it, it's probably one of the bosses we need to defeat to get out of here."
Eve was silent as the three of them began walking on the edge of the cliff, getting closer and closer to the cave where the dragon was.
................
The mouth of a large cave appeared before the group as they all stopped to look at it. The cave's opening was taller than any cave around it and inside was nothing but darkness.
"Well, let's go," Sinbad took the first step into the cave, followed by Drakon, and finally Eve. A rush of warm air brushed past the three of them as they moved into the cave.
Eve wasn't sure what Sinbad had meant when he said the dragon was one of the bosses, but frankly, she didn't understand most of what was happening so she decided not to question it. Her mind wandered to why the pair of them were calling this place a dungeon. Was it possible that there was more to this world than just this odd place full of dragons and old ruins?
A low grumble pulled her from her trance as she looked up into the large room they were in. Sinbad and Drakon quickly crouched, which Eve rushed to do as well before she tumbled slightly as the trio made their way into a trench that surrounded the main floor. Eve looked up to see the massive dragon in the center. If she thought the dragon was big before, this monster was bigger than her house. The small sparks of electricity that she thought she saw around it before were practically engulfing the creature by now, as well as many of the smaller dragons around it.
One of the smaller dragons made the mistake of flying in front of the large dragon's face, to which the dragon responded by eating the other one. Eve was a bit taken aback. This dragon was willing to eat one of its own for simply getting in its way?
Eve peaked around the dragon slightly, looking towards the other end of the room. A tall green door appeared behind it. Eve wondered if this was the door that would lead outside to the rest of this mysterious world, but her thoughts were cut short by Sinbad speaking up.
"You see that? It ate all of the one's that got in its way," he started, while Eve looked up at the dragon curiously. "You know, the dragon king reminds me a lot of the human king."
"You shut your mouth commoner!" Drakon yelled quietly while Sinbad simply shrugged.
"If we're gonna get to that door, we're going to have to take down that thing first," Sinbad started, analyzing the room. "This is a battleground of life and death, don't think for a moment we're not being tested."
Life and death? Eve chuckled to herself silently. Too bad I'm a ghost... she thought with a quiet laugh.
"What's so funny?" Sinbad asked.
"Nothing," Eve replied, covering half of her face and looking away quickly. If Sinbad had any other questions, he didn't ask, leading all of them to look back to the dragon.
"A test, huh...?" Drakon muttered before standing up.
"What is it?" Eve asked.
"Your names are Sinbad and Eve, correct?" He started, leaving Eve and Sinbad to look at him confusedly. "You two shall act as my decoy. You will run out and draw its attention while I slip past and pass through the door. It seems that this is a test of our dedication to the mission."
Eve stood up while Sinbad remained crouched. Drakon looked at her with an almost annoyed expression coating his features.
"Why don't you go then? If you're so dedicated?" Eve asked, almost taunting him.
"Think of it as one last act for your country! I'll even ask for you to be given medals if you die!" Drakon exclaimed, making Sinbad's brows furrow in frustration.
"Well, too bad for you, I have nothing to do with this country and I don't owe this place anything for trying to send dragons to constantly attack me." Eve scowled at Drakon.
"Well, I know you live in this country," Drakon sneered and pointed at Sinbad. "Why don't you do a noble deed and distract the dragon while I slip by?"
"Is that really all you think about," Sinbad spoke through clenched teeth. "How many more people have to die before you get it?!"
"... Don't flinch or flee, sacrifice your life for your country... that is our honor as Partavian soldiers," Drakon spoke calmly. "Dying for our country is our greatest honor."
Eve narrowed her eyes skeptically at his words. Just how brainwashed is this guy? Dying for your country? What the hell kind of propaganda do they have here?! Eve mentally questioned.
Both of the men remained silent as Drakon walked out the side and picked up a curved shield, before beginning to walk further into the trenches. Sinbad looked up to the wall where geysers erupted from all directions and thought silently.
Eve watched from afar as Drakon made his way through the muddy trench, shielding himself from random geysers every few seconds. One of the smaller dragons began to fly quickly in his direction, releasing a deafening screech as if flew closer. Just before it reached him, Drakon swung his sword, leaving a tall gash through the dragon's middle. Eve spared a glance towards the king dragon, almost expecting it to react to the smaller dragon's cry and go to attack Drakon, but the dragon didn't seem to notice, or if it did, it didn't care.
"Sinbad, how are we going to get past that thi-" Eve began before turning to look where sinbad had been just a moment earlier and seeing nothing but an empty area with a few rocks and debris lying around. "...Sinbad?"
Eve quickly turned back and scanned the area for him, but saw nothing. Another quick glance towards where Drakon was showed her that he was still making his way through the trench.
With a quiet huff of annoyance, Eve stood fully up and grabbed hold of the ledge to where the floor raised and the king dragon sat. She carefully pushed herself up onto the ledge, not paying any mind to the smaller dragons that cried and began charging towards her once they saw her. Sinbad looked down from a tall beam in the room to where the dragons were screeching out from and saw Eve walking out onto the platform the king dragon sat on calmly.
Sinbad was about to jump down and go save her as one of the smaller dragons swooped down to her, only for it to fly back up a few seconds later, empty-handed. Sinbad's eyes widened as he searched the floor area for where she might've gone only to discover that she'd vanished.
Eve calmly walked across the platform without being spotted by anyone, simply by wishing that she wouldn't be seen. Maybe being a ghost wasn't so bad after all, it did have it's perks, Eve noted to herself.
Eve hummed softly to herself as she walked, making her way to the door so casually, she felt like she was walking home from school again. Just as she thought that, she pushed the thought away, not wanting to take herself back to those painful memories of coming home to an empty house. The whole thing just reminded her of her fight with Zoe and then... the accident.
Eve had made it to the door now and stood silently against one of the columns on either side, lost in thought. Her eyes widened when she remembered something she hadn't even known she'd heard. It was something the doctor had said to her mother when she was listening through the portal. She was talking with Yunan at the time and hadn't been paying much attention to the portal, but she guessed she must've subconsciously overheard it.
Her blood ran cold and shivers ran down her spine as she felt her whole body shudder at the thought of the memory.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do for her, another surgery to help would be too risky... we barely brought her back last time."
Eve remained frozen in place for a moment, thinking to herself quietly. A wave of horror and fear washed over her as the realization fully hit her. The doctors had managed to bring her back, true, but for in those few moment's after the accident...
Evelyn Cherwood had died.