Chapter 1: Dreaming

THE FIRST TERM of another year of school was much like any other. Courtney and Eloise were the same as ever. Living their strange lives of being horrible about people who didn’t match up with their standards of ‘cool’. Start with me for example. I was never really considered ‘cool’ in Courtney and Eloise’s eyes, or really in anyone else’s eyes. I knew this because I often overheard them talking obviously about me…1

“Oh my gosh! Look at Lycia! What a loser!” Courtney said, giggling to Eloise. 2

“I know right! I mean what the hell is she even doing here! Isn’t she like a nerd?” Eloise answered. 3

“And wasn’t it Kate with the new gross hair? You know, Kate Aconite?” 4

I listened to the ‘popular’ people drag on and on about how poor innocent ‘unpopular’ students had last year’s hair or something dumb like that. Courtney (the girl whose hair every girl ‘apparently’ envied) had smooth blonde wavy hair and blue eyes. She was, basically, your average Barbie doll.5

Mrs Granit, was dragging on and on about how to do some kind of Maths, I wasn’t really listening. Math’s class is such a bore that I usually draw things that I dream about in my math’s book or think about the strange dreams I had been having lately. Last night I dreamt about a strange egg and three beautiful people, too beautiful to be human…6

In the dark room with no windows, possibly a cellar, was a desk. A normal desk, no fancy wood works like you usually see in fancy offices, just a desk in the middle of a dark room. On the desk there was an egg, a beautiful blue egg with black indented swirls all over it. They looked like someone had carved them a long time ago. People surrounded the egg, murmuring to each other.7

“Can’t we just kill it? You do know that if it hatches it could slaughter everyone in this room let alone in the world. How is that fair? I mean all of the humans don’t even know about Dragons or our kind anyway so they wouldn’t even know what is coming for them.” The dazzling blonde boy said. He had beautiful pale skin with liquid gold eyes. His hair was a dark dirty blonde. He seemed annoyed or like he was waiting for something to happen. 8

“No. We need it Lycan; all of the books say it will be important in the future. Trust me it has a huge part to play in what is to come.” The dark- haired boy said. He had gently combed back coal black hair. It looked like he had not had a shower in days as he had dirt marks covering every inch of his body that could be seen under the long jeans and faded plain grey shirt. 9

The boy I recognized as Lycan said, “I wonder who will be chosen. Only the Dragon will know...”.10

11

“Lycia! Lycia? Lycia class has finished. Can you hear me? Are you sick? Lycia, I need to pack up and lock the door! LYCIA LYMAN!” 12

“Huh, what? Oh sorry, uh Mrs Granit…I must have been asleep…I’m just so tired.”13

“No, no Lycia your head was tilted upright staring out of the window. I suspect you were daydreaming. But never mind you will be late to your next class! Hurry, shoo. And do pay attention to next math’s class; we have a test soon! Don’t turn out like those rat bags Courtney and Eloise.”14

Slightly startled with what she said about Courtney and Eloise, finally someone who agreed with me rather than just seeing them both as perfect angels. 15

“S...sorry, Mrs Granit…” I said as I hurried out of the math’s room and back to my locker where I discovered that I had a free lesson. Study catch-up, great. I had always been good at most things and I always finished my homework the first night that it was given out. I had always been good at that, it was odd.16

Knoll and Grace, my only friends, nearly always had trouble with homework but somehow always managed to get a B or something. 17

Study catch-up dragged as did the rest of the day. At the end of the day while I was at my locker, I ran into Knoll. He wanted to come over to my place for a study catch-up lesson…which basically meant that he needed help. I supposed that I had to accept one of his study catch-up proposals once in a while. 18

“Uh I guess you can come over today. What work do you want to do? Study for the exams which are soon?” I closed my locker and grabbed my bag. 19

“No, I will study for that later, but how about we do Maths.” Was Knoll’s reply.20

“What part of the Maths?”21

“Uh the Math part.” I sighed but Knoll didn’t seem to notice, thankfully. 22

“Okay.” I smiled and tried not to think about what he would say at my house this time. You see, Knoll at my house was not a good idea. We could not go to his house to study because his parents were nearly always fighting and he hated me seeing them fight, also his house was a bomb because nobody ever bothered to clean it, so he usually ended up coming to my house. It’s not that I have anything against Knoll but he kind of fancy’s me and it gets really annoying. I don’t know what he sees in me. I am just a normal girl. I have long light brown hair and really dark blue eyes. I am not pretty or popular, just a normal kid. 23

SORRY GUYS I HAVEN'T WRITTEN THE PART WHERE KNOLL GOES TO LYCIA'S HOUSE YET. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS BIT BUT I HAVEN'T HAD A CHANCE YET. I WILL SOON! SORRY!24

Again that night I dreamt about the egg. I had no idea what it meant. The blonde haired boy, Lycan (the only one I really noticed) kept speaking of the Upled Mountain. I started to wonder if I was going crazy. I mean I kept thinking about these stupid dreams that I kept having. Or maybe just maybe they are not stupid, maybe they are trying to tell me something….. no no no no they are stupid. They are just dreams Lycia, only dreams, and I drifted off into a peaceful sleep…25

“NO!” Lycan roared “No! Mel get away from it. NOW! You’ll get hurt!” Without thought Lycan threw himself at the strange creature, knocking the girl he had identified as Mel out of the way. I could not see what Mel looked like, where she was standing was dark. I finally recognized this creature as a Dragon, a beautiful white Dragon with dark blue eyes, rather like mine. It was adorable; as soon as I had seen it I had become strangely attached to it. But the others in the dark room were not as convinced as I was. The white Dragon seemed to be attacking them, well him anyway. Lycan screamed as the Dragon slashed at him.26

“This is impossible, Venin, you can’t have you wouldn’t. Why?” Lycan said in utter pain. He screamed again this time like he was in more pain. Mel shouted at Venim as Lycan got bashed by this incredibly cute little Dragon. The Dragon could only have been days old, but still huge... half the size of my bedroom... Mel turned out of the darkness to face Venim whose hair was coal black and eyes were a cold grey colour. She screamed at Venim. 27

“Why did you do it? To Lycan? Your best friend? You betrayed him and me! Was it Renna? Did she make you do it? You know that she never loved y.......”28

“Enough Mel!” Venim interrupted “Mel your mother gave you to me to look after and I am doing what’s best for you. As for Renna you know she would not send a baby Dragon to us, let alone hatch it. She would send something much more powerful. Besides, she cannot hatch it; she is not the chosen one.” 29

“But this is powerful enough! Can’t you see it’s killing Lycan?...Lycan!!” She had obviously realised that Lycan was still in the room and still dying. She ran to get something long and silver. I realised that Mel was holding a long silver knife.30

“No Mel. Don’t, it will die. It doesn’t deserve to die; can’t you see that this is proof that Dragons actually exist?” Venim said, responding to the knife.31

“Well its killing Lycan isn’t it? I love Lycan! I have to do something don’t I? Venim I am sorry, I just can’t bear to see Lycan dying in front of me.” Forgive me were Mel’s last words before she plunged the knife into the adorable white Dragon. I was worried just for a second there. Mel seemed nice and brave, I didn’t want her to get hurt. All my fears for Mel were gone as a heard a huge squeal as the Dragon fell to the ground. As soon as it hit the ground the white Dragon had vanished. I must have blinked as the beautiful creature had slipped away into the night. I looked for Venim but he was also gone. Strange, how did Venim and a huge Dragon just disappear?

I woke to the sound of rain pouring outside. It was an oddly comforting sound, peaceful but some what lonely, like me. I was sick of the dreams that I kept having, but also kind of addicted to them. What did Lycan mean about Dragons? And how did a Dragon and a human man just disappear, or perhaps not so human? I had no idea what they meant. I remembered the slaying of the beautiful white Dragon in the dream I had had last night and I shuddered. 32

I dressed for the day and decided to go downstairs and eat breakfast. Mum had beaten me to the food, now I would have to eat the crusts of the bread. How odd I could have sworn that it was early, Mum never got up till like 10 or something. Then I glanced at the clock as I went to the toaster with the crusts of bread in my left hand. Wow! It was 10.30am already! I usually got up at 7am. Strange it must have been that dream I had dreamt, about the mysterious egg and the gorgeous Lycan… DING! Oh my toast was done, and burnt.33

“Crap,” I said as I slid the toast out of the toaster with a knife. I knew that you weren’t supposed to put knives in toasters but who really cared? It wasn’t like I would let it touch the metal. 34

“Everything okay, Lycia?” my mothers voice interrupted my thought. She had made nice golden toast for her breakfast. Pfth oh well I guess I can never get it right. 35

“Um yeah sure I just burnt my toast again that’s all.” 36

“Again? Oh Ly what do you find so hard about cooking toast. You’re sixteen for crying out loud!” I hated it when she called me Ly. It sounded so young and sweet ugh. 37

“I know mum. I’m not likely to forget my age.” I said angrily.38

“Yes but you are likely to forget that shopping I wanted you to do. You forgot didn’t you?” 39

“Uh yeah I guess I did sorry mum.” I was angry. It was Saturday can’t I do something else other than shopping for food? Mum hadn’t asked me to do it yet but…40

“Well can you do it today?” Yep she’d just asked me. Of course she would make me do it today. “You don’t have Knoll or Grace coming around do you? Because we are really low on…” she continued. 41

“I KNOW MUM! I can see into the fridge and cupboards! I am most certainly not blind and no I don’t have Knoll and Grace coming around I’ll go and do the shopping now. Bye mum!” I hated it when she nagged me. It wasn’t really nagging, well it was but in a subtle approach. It drove me mad!42

I walked down to the bus stop to wait for the next bus to the supermarket complex. I arrived at the supermarket and that’s when I saw them, two beautiful figures that could stand out a mile away, too beautiful to be human….