Chapter 1- The Arrival

The Arrival

The razor red eyes burned in the night sky. It stood unblinking at the stranger. The memorza watched the two red stars closely. It squinted toward the anesa. Eventually it took the shape of a gleaming red dragon for all to see. A look of desperation flashed across the memorza’s face. For that is a bad sign. A sign of evil. Destruction.
"I must get on with my mission." The memorza mumbled to no one in particular.
A snake of smoke appeared and wrapped around the memorza and they both disappeared in a cover of smoke, the memorza within its grasp.

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"AHHHHHHH" I sprung off my pillow, gasping for breath. I looked around my room, reassuring myself that is was just a dream. It was way too scary, that dream.
I was comforted again but I still have this weird feeling. As if the dream was trying to tell me something.
In the midst of it all, I caught a glimpse of my alarm clock. 6:18.
Yikes! I’m going to be late!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

You know, I never really thought of myself as weird. I’m normal looking: layered black hair, medium height, tan skin. Nothing out of the ordinary actually happened to me either. Until that day.
School was boring, as usual. And I did get a week detention for being late. Ok, maybe it didn’t help when I pushed Bran in the trash can but he was asking for it! I mean, he was singing a stupid tardy song that he obviously made up. Plus, he didn’t shut up, and I did give him a warning. Actually what I said was, "Shut that mouth before I punch your teeth out!" Of course girls don’t punch, so I pushed him in the trash can instead. Oh well.
But I guess I was so mad because he actually hit on something that was personal and secret. See, on the back of my neck I have this really weird picture. It just shows some weird nature things and a bunch of words that I can not for my life understand. And I am not tattooed unlike what Bigmouth Bran said.
I was really in a hurry today because I promised by friend Becky I’d be at her house by 4:00 and I got held up in detention. So, I took a chance and turned into an alleyway; a shortcut to Becky’s.
What I saw there was unbelievable. In front of me was a snake, made of smoke.
CRASH!!! My messenger bag banged on the cement floor of the alleyway, with my mouth hanging open. Suddenly a blast of smoke left me blind. Moments later a hiss was heard, followed by a clearing of smoke.
In place of the smoke snake was a……….man? He looked enough like a human but several features were wrong. His skin was just several shades darker than red. His hair was literally on fire and his eyes were yellow. Not just the little circles where we have brown, blue and green color, the whole eye was yellow.
A look of surprise covered his face but in a mere second, it passed. He snapped out of his trance and came after me.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH" I was already a pretty fast runner but I shot out of there like a bullet. This just proves that how scared you are, could really affect your natural abilities. Now look, I’m not a coward or anything, but when a freaky human thing comes chasing after you, your human instincts tell you to run. And most of the time, you listen to it.
I was almost out of the alley when I felt something pull me back. I looked back and apparently the weird man was pretty far behind me. That piece of news didn’t help. I was still getting closer and closer to it.
"Ughhh. Let me go! Let me go you monster!!" I struggled against the invisible hands but it was no use. It was too strong. There was nothing I could do to escape. I kept getting closer. I haven’t even noticed that tears were streaking down my cheeks.
Soon, I could feel its hands on my shoulders; it’s breath on my neck. Cold and icy. It was going in for the kill, like a vampire. I didn’t even get to say good-bye. Tears were still pouring out of my salt stained eyes.
"Islium." The creature gasped. It loosened its grip on me. I took my chance and tore off running.
"Wait!" It called. So, it could speak English. I continued running. "Stop! Please!" He knows his manners.
"Wait! Please Daglee, Princess. Stop!" That made me brake.
"Whoooaaa. Back up. Princess?" He’s either messing with me or he belongs in a mental rehab.
He was on his knees now, right in front of me. This was getting weirder by the second.
"Yes. Princess. "He said in his thin raspy voice.
"Why do you keep calling me princess?" Ok, now I am certain that this guy is wacko.
"There is no time to explain now. We must leave. Quickly. Evil forces are against us. You are in grave danger." He stood up and grabbed my hand, not harshly, but not gently either.
"Ok, before I take even another step with you, I’m going to need to know some things. First of all, what are you? Second, why should I go anywhere with you after you tried to kill me? And third, where are we going, just saying if I agree to go with you."
"I am a memorza known as Kanekar. It means fierce fire. And for the second question……" Now he hung his head. "I am really sorry. I just could not let any of these, earthlings, know anything about us. But then, I saw the mark." He really sounded sorry. I almost forgave him. Almost.
"Ok……Now I’m even more confused but what about the third question? Where are we going?"
"You’ll see." Kanekar whispered. "We must leave now!" The smoke snake returned, but this time, I was in the ring of scales.