The woman was a complete stranger, and she was very young, maybe in her teens. She glanced at the male warden lying on the ground and sped up. I guessed that she wasn’t planning to help us. Another vehicle drove by. I saw a man behind the wheel, staring at us and shaking his head.
I wanted to disappear from this strange world, find the way home, back to Draconia. Maybe this was just a dream and I hadn’t woken up yet. Even the air in this world smelled different. It was almost smoky and tasted salty like something had been burning for a very long time. There were terrace houses opposite and behind me, each one similar, but some had different doors and windows.
“Hey… warden girl. Help me out. I’m in pain. Someone stabbed me,” the same annoying voice repeated.
I took a deep breath and told myself that I couldn’t let my anxiety get to me now. The warden needed my help. He was bleeding badly, and he looked pale.
“We have to get you off the street first,” I muttered, and he nodded. Once I pulled him a bit closer to the curb, the knot inside my stomach began to unfold. He smiled at me and I thought the dimples in his cheeks were cute and I noticed he had very white teeth. He was dressed in a leather jacket, trousers and heavy black boots. I couldn’t tell if he was from a higher class or not, because in this world, all my senses were working backwards. And the tingling around my whole body wasn’t helping either.
I didn’t think that moving him was such a good idea after all, because a second later, he screamed, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He was out cold, so I leaned over to check his pulse. It was faint—he was still alive. A pool of blood was beginning to form around him, and it made me a little sick. Panic erupted, seizing the air in my lungs. This warden was in very bad shape and I had no idea how to help him. There wasn’t anyone else around, no more pedestrians, and even if there were, I doubted any of them would help based on the looks we had been getting. I glanced around in desperation, seeing lights shining from inside some of the houses.
Touching the unconscious warden, I began slapping him gently on the cheek and thinking about any kind of useful spell that might help him. The truth was that I had no idea what I was doing. The magic that I had sensed earlier was gone. Blood pounded in my ears. I didn’t want to think about the worst thing that could happen, but my overwhelming anxiety was slowly paralysing me. This warden was going to die here if I didn’t find a way to help him soon.
Several more vehicles in strange shapes and sizes drove past us. Time was running out. Hundreds of questions were rushing through my head when I heard a noise. Maybe the God of the Lower World, Qesborth, finally heard my prayers, because seemingly out of nowhere, a gentle voice spoke to me.
“Come on, dear. Let’s take this boy inside. I saw everything, and I think he needs medical attention. We cannot call an ambulance; they would send us to a mental institution.”
I looked down, and saw an older lady. She was smiling at me, touching my hand. She was talking in the same strange dialect as the man in the car. She was in a robe and slippers. The door to one of the houses behind me was wide open. The smell of roast beef wafted into the air. There were more oddly shaped vehicles on the road, and a man walked past us, picking up his pace. It baffled me that no one else was willing to help.
Ambulance? Mental institution? I had no idea what the old woman was talking about, but I was too scared to ask any questions. The older lady looked like someone that my dead friend, Dara, would have trusted, so I was willing to follow my gut.
Seconds later, the strange warden stirred back to a conscious state and smiled like he had taken magical opium.
“Hey, beautiful, you’re the woman for me. Will you date me? I think we would make a cute couple,” he said, and I rolled my eyes. I didn’t expect this old lady to carry him, so I hooked my arms beneath his shoulders and helped him to stand.
“Come on, we have to get out of here in case the Dark Ones followed us,” I hissed in his ear. “Lady, please, take my sack. There is something really important inside.”
She nodded and struggled to lift the egg for a bit. I didn’t know how, but he managed to walk with me supporting him. The bastard was heavy, but he smelled heavenly. His scent was musky, manly, like ground spices and a crackling fire—his breath was close to my skin, touching me.
I wondered what the heck was wrong with me. This was definitely not the time to start feeling aroused.
“This way, my children, this way,” the older lady said. I didn’t know how, but several minutes later we managed to make it inside her house.
She shut the door behind her and told me to head over to the first room on the right. It was a bedroom with a well-made bed and a small bedside table.
“You’re such a hottie. Will you go out with me?” the injured warden asked when I gently placed him on the bed.
He smiled widely and then passed out a moment later. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, noticing blood soaking through his shirt.
“I think we should remove his clothes. He’s bleeding,” I said to the older lady. She placed the sack on the floor and nodded. She wasn’t a warden; she had no magic inside of her. I could instantly sense the emptiness in my core when I was standing so close to her and it’s wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just wasn’t used to being around someone that didn’t radiate with any kind of magical energy. It was a rather bizarre sensation, and kind of scary.
She made me curious and I wondered why she decided to help us.
“Good call, dear. Take off his clothes and I will bring some warm water and bandages,” she told me, vanishing into the narrow corridor.
Deep down, I wanted to believe that the warden was going to survive, but in any case, I knew that I had to fight for him. He might know the way back to Draconia—the only person who understood what was going on here. I wouldn’t want to stay in this world for longer than I had to. I truly wanted to return and let others know about the lies that the Dark Ones were spreading.
I removed his leather jacket first, aware that he was losing a hell of a lot of blood. He was warm, almost feverish. I felt his magic zooming beneath my fingers when I checked his pulse. I bit my lip and then prayed to our God to spare him. I just didn’t want to be alone in this strange world. He moaned loudly when I turned him on his front, but didn’t open his eyes. My thoughts were still racing, and I was itching to grab the band on my wrist. I needed to flick it fast to push away the mounting fear, the suffocation that I was beginning to experience. I had no idea where I was, or if other wardens and Dark Ones were still after me. The dragon egg was next to the bed.
I grabbed a knife on the bedside table and decided to cut off his shirt, tossing the damp material to the side. I had to find a way to stop the bleeding. There was a large open wound around his ribcage. I ignored how perfectly ripped his stomach was and tried not to notice the muscles of his chest. It was all irrelevant, but when I began to remove his leather pants, my chest vibrated.
“We need to clean the wound first and stitch him up,” the old lady said, suddenly entering the room. “You look exhausted, child. Why don’t you get some sleep? I will take care of him. I used to work as a nurse.”
She placed a bowl of warm water on the bedside table. I stared at her for a second, wanting to ask her who she was and what kind of world I ended up in, but thought better of it. None of this was relevant at the moment. She could help him, and I needed to let her work.
“I want to do what I can,” I mumbled, and she nodded, handing me a wet towel. Later on, I learned that her name was Alyson, Aly for short, and she knew exactly what she needed to do. I kept watching her with fascination, amazed at her medical skills.
A week before Dara’s death, I took care of her. She was in bad shape, but I cooked for her, cleaned her shitty apartment and forced her to take fluids and eat nutritious food. Now those memories were flashing in front of my eyes, turning my stomach upside down. Maybe if she’d had Aly, she wouldn’t have died. Who knew?
“I saw you landing
on the asphalt, but you couldn’t have fallen from the sky; otherwise you would have been dead by now,” Aly said, after she was done with his stitches. “Some kind of magical portal opened up and that’s where you came from. The handsome stranger fell through the portal straight after you. It wasn’t a pretty picture.”
I assumed that she was pretty old, but her hands weren’t even shaking while she was using the needle. I smoothed his hair, hoping that he didn’t feel anything.
I didn’t know how to respond. It was better if I kept my mouth shut for now. The woman was a complete stranger and I didn’t know if I could trust her. Moments later, when I was nearly falling asleep by his bed, she touched me.
“Come on, let’s go. He’s sleeping now, and you need a nightcap, dear,” she said, smiling at me. “You can tell me everything that happened to you tomorrow.”
I followed her to another room. Her house didn’t seem very big. There was a living room and small kitchen. Everything was cluttered, and it just seemed dated, like the old lady hadn’t changed any of the furniture in the house in at least a decade, maybe even two. In Draconia, wealthy wardens had money to buy antiques, and I suspected that the stuff in her house would be worth a fortune in my world. She nudged me, holding a glass filled with clear liquid.
It smelled strong, and I wasn’t sure if drinking it was such a good idea, but at the same time, I wanted to forget about the events of the day. The darkness was zooming inside of me like invisible demons, latching onto my emotions, and I wanted to ease the tight feeling in my chest.
“Cheers. I think we both deserve it. We have seen way too much blood for one evening,” Aly said, lifting the glass and then drinking the whole thing. I watched her, a little lost, but then followed her example. It was some kind of alcohol that burned my throat and made me instantly warm. Soon the tension around my shoulders began to fade. Then straight after, everything suddenly felt better. She poured me another glass, then another. Sometime later, I was drifting away, seeing Dara standing next to me and shaking her head.
I felt rough when I woke up the next day and slowly opened my eyes. Sunlight was streaming into the room and it hurt my eyes. I didn’t recognise my surroundings. The room smelled of fresh detergent and mint. It was different, pleasant, but not something that I was used to.
I was lying down on an old leather sofa in front of the fireplace, covered with a soft blanket. My head was pounding as I tried to remember what had happened to me last night.
I stretched my arms over my head, looking around. I felt like I was stuck in another era; there were a lot of small figurines scattered around and various papers on the corner table. I placed my fingers on the side of my head and started massaging it, hoping to get rid of the agonising pain, when someone walked into the room, startling me.
“Good morning, dear. I thought that I would bring you some breakfast,” Aly said, appearing in the doorway with a tray.
She smiled and placed it on the table in front of me. Then everything suddenly came back. I was being chased by the Dark Ones on the streets of Draconia. I remembered the dragon egg and the crack in the wall.
“The egg, where is my egg?” I asked, jumping to my feet, not seeing my sack anywhere.
“The large gold thing? Don’t worry, sweetie pie. It’s in the room with that poor fellow. Come on, sit down and drink your tea. You need a little time out for a while,” she urged me, placing her hand on my arm and then pushing me down.
3
Welcome to London.
I was still pretty much zoned out, lost and confused, but at the same time, Aly’s touch pushed away the tension. I instantly sensed that I had nothing to be afraid of. The woman in front of me seemed sweet and helpful—almost like the mother figure I never had.
I wanted to run to the room where the injured warden was to make sure that the egg was still there when suddenly, my fingers started sparkling.
I stared at my hand, mesmerised, sensing the magic rushing through my system like a waterfall. This wasn’t something that I was used to. I wasn’t supposed to have any kind of magic, and being in this world kind of freaked me out.
I was an ordinary warden, living in the city of Draconia that was located within the country of the Lower World, trying to survive by stealing from others. The city had always been considered the centre of the whole universe—the place where everyone wanted to be, the place with the most magic. I moved around a lot and after doing some research on certain areas, I decided to stay away from where I was born, where all the other wardens from the lower class lived. Our area was often called the cemetery. I knew that rich wardens lived on the other side of the city, so it was a deal breaker for me.
From a very early age, I was taught to believe that there wasn’t any magic inside of me. And the tiny energy that I did have would never get me a job. Only the most powerful and wealthy wardens could find sustainable employment in the underground Dimond City where magic was created. Everyone was stuck in their roles, a vicious cycle without any way out, and for a very long time, I believed that this system was fair.
Me and my now-dead friend, Dara, grew up on the streets after we both ran away from the orphanage in the city; it was overseen by the Dark Ones.
I always had a basic understanding of our world. The wardens were spread over lower, middle and upper classes. There were some in between, but over the past decade, our situation and living standards decreased. Diseases, starvation, and lack of magic were killing us by the masses. The Dark Ones promised to help, but it was nothing more than empty words—they had done nothing to change our situation. Many believed that they were just allowing us to die.
We couldn’t travel to other parts of the Lower World without a special license. Apparently, the conditions there were worse than in Draconia, and that was why so many wardens were arriving in the city day after day. People didn’t talk about the world behind the city. No one ever believed in tales of the magical portals that could take us to a non-magical world.
“Hon, are you all right? I was asking how you take your tea,” Aly said, nudging me with her long, wrinkled finger. I smiled at her and took a long deep breath. My life in Draconia didn’t matter because I was here now.
My heart was still racing, but it was a new day. The Dark Ones and wardens who chased me last night had no idea what happened to me. I needed to be glad that no one could look for me here.
“Eee… black, I guess,” I replied, telling myself that I had to stay calm, but lately that didn’t come easy. I’d started having panic attacks—days where I couldn’t function and there was no one that I could turn to for help.
Aly handed me a warm cup of tea and when I glanced at the front it read:
“Coffee makes me poop.”
She laughed and said, “Oh, that was a present from my nephew. He’s a joker, you know.”
I took a deep breath, reaching the point where I couldn’t pretend that drinking tea and eating toast was a perfectly normal thing to do. On top of that, my anxiety loomed over me and I was itching to flick my band.
“Please tell me—where am I? I can’t stay here. I have to get back to Draconia and warn the others of what’s going on. The Da—”
“Honey, just calm down and take a deep breath,” Aly interrupted me, frowning. “I should be the one losing it right now, not you. Last night, I saw the two of you fall from some kind of magical portal that opened in the sky.” Then she took a sip of her tea. She didn’t seem angry and I thought she made a fair point. She gave me shelter last night when she simply could have pretended that we didn’t need any help at all. “What’s your name, dear? I didn’t have a chance to ask you last night and then you passed out.”
“Francesca, but everyone calls me Fran,” I answered, and forced myself to drink the tea. My stomach was in knots, and I didn’t feel hungry, although I couldn’t remember the last time I had anything to eat.
“That’s a lovely name. I want to tell you that you’re in London, in the Croydon area, but I guess that
doesn’t tell you much considering this world is new to you,” she explained, and I continued to stare at her like she had just told me that I landed on the moon.
London—for Qesborth—none of this sounded real. I swallowed hard, finally remembering one of the wardens I used to know once told me that a non-magical world that was equivalent to ours truly existed. He called it a parallel universe, one that the Dark Ones had been hiding from us for a very long time. He said that people there spoke English too, but their dialect was a bit different than ours. Thankfully, I could understand them. Of course, at the time, I thought that he was crazy.
“London, right,” I muttered, not knowing what else I was supposed to ask her. All of a sudden, my mind seemed blank.
She kept drinking her tea and the silence between us stretched for a little while. I noticed the clock on the wall. It was old, and it looked valuable.
“I’m seventy-five years of age, dear, and I have witnessed a lot, but last night simply blew my mind. And now your fingers are sparkling. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but who, or rather, what are you? I mean, your eyes are incredible, like the eyes of that injured boy. I have never seen anything like it. You definitely aren’t human, right?”
That was a good question and I had been asking myself this most of my life. I was no one important in Draconia. Just a girl who was fighting to survive.
A few weeks ago, I lost my best friend. She was infected with Dragon Fever and died. It was a deadly disease that had been spreading amongst the wardens for a while. I had no idea how Dara had caught it or where she had been exposed. She was always so strong, but the disease caused so much devastation to her body and mind that she became a shell of the person I once knew. When I lost the only thing that could save her life, I knew I had failed her—it crushed me, and now I could barely function without her.
Hatched (Draconia World Book 1) Page 2