Chapter 5 In The Dragon Tribe

HEINA

My eyes fluttered open, a groan rumbling from my dry, parched throat.

I rose myself to a sitting position to take in my environment. Everywhere was blurry. I couldn't see clearly. I wasn't wearing my glasses, I remembered, automatically reaching for a bedside drawer that wasn't there.

Panic set in. I was fifty percent blind, I couldn't do without my glasses. I felt around the bed I was on. Strangely, it didn't feel like mine.

The throbbing came on, slow and painful. Both sides of my temples.

"Hello." I cried - more like croaked - out, fear evident. "Who's there? Where am I?"

The pounding in my head was making it hard for me to remember anything beyond this minute. But after no response came and what seemed like a long time but was possibly few seconds, I remembered.

My birthday party. Bullies. Swimming pool. New students with piercing stares. Chaos. Dragons. Blood.

"No." I whimpered, seeing in my mind's eye how my parents had bled to death and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

The confusion that had set in. The pain. Crying for them to wake up.

Tears blurred my vision further, increasing blindness to eighty percent.

Despite my understandable meltdown, my ears picked up footsteps. When you were half blind, your other senses would help cover up for it.

Someone threw something at me, it landed on my lap. I felt for it and immediately grabbed it when I realized what it was.

I slipped it through my ears, on my face. My vision became clear.

It was them. Those boys from school. T-the o-ones that h-had turned into some fantastical d-dragon.

"Get up." One ordered.

I was temporarily torn between obeying them and staying put to mourn my parents.

"Didn't you hear him?" The cold, commanding voice jolted me up from the bed.

I stood before them, still clad in my birthday designer dress that was still wet and heavy. My head lowered in fear.

I shivered, not just from the cold amassed still dressed in a wet gown but also from fear and sorrow. My parents, I'd never see them again.

I struggled not to break down before them.

"You're cold." It was uttered in an emotionally detached tone. One of them had spoken.

"Raise your head." The second curtly ordered.

I lifted my head, strands of my auburn tresses straying from the beautiful French bun mom had made for me earlier today.

I blinked back tears, meeting their hard gazes.

"The maid will be here with some clothes for you. Change your dress and come downstairs." It wasn't a request. It was an order.

One I didn't dare challenge.

They left. Few minutes later, a maid walked in on me crying silently. "Here are your clothes, My Lady."

She dropped a heap of clothes on the chair nearby and began arranging them neatly in a wardrobe.

Wiping my eyes, I studied my surroundings, taking note of the modern merged with the medieval setting of the room.

This was probably where the boys' lived. They had flown me here. I was still finding it difficult to believe that dragons weren't mythical. They were real and I'd been flown in one. Had been raised by one.

Mom hadn't changed into some scaly creature with scarily big wings but she'd also possessed some kind of freak-ish powers.

"Their Royal Highnesses do not like to be kept waiting." The maid with beautiful black curls and small eyes strangely the shade of lavender reminded in a polite tone.

Quickly, she helped me change out of my dress and into another one. Surprisingly, it was my size. I wondered how they were able to get clothes my size on such short notice.

"Did you say Their Royal Highnesses?" I turned so she could help me zip up.

Due to my plus sized body, my arm couldn't reach the zipper.

"Yes. They are the rulers of our tribe."

"Tribe?" I quirked a brow, wondering if this was some highschool drama I was unconsciously a part of.

Tribes weren't a modern thing. Only in movies.

"Dragon tribe. Also known as Black Flame." She explained so calmly as though she'd been expecting those questions from me. "I'm your assigned hand maiden."

"What?" Hand maiden? Those still existed? In this twenty first century? I'd watched lots of old, historical movies and heard words like that but they were no longer in use.

"Go, My Lady. I'll tell you what you want to know later. Like I said, they do not like to be kept waiting."

"I do not know where they are. I'm not familiar with the environment."

"Come with me, My Lady."

My Lady? What was I? The Duchess of...of Jertrix?

Silently following, I let her show me the way. Nerves kicked in once I heard voices talking.

"There, My Lady. Take that corner, you'll see them." She gestured to a corner and left.

Taking a deep breath, I propelled my legs forward, they were suddenly as heavy as lead.

I saw them now. But it wasn't just two of them, there was another man. The boys sensed my presence before they even raised their heads. And when they did, the man followed their direction. His own gaze landing on me and roved my frame.

His mouth stretched in a kind yet strange smile. "Step forward, my child."

He would be same age with dad...or two to three years older. He talked strangely too.

Two pairs of blue eyes of different gem shade were intense on me as I slowly and uncomfortably made my way into the spacious living room.

"Hi." I greeted the man, a bit cautious and quite abashed.

"Nice to meet you, Heina." He extended his hand in a handshake.

He had eyes like snake - somewhat a mix of red and gray with visible slits in both orbs, they scared me and so did his unbelievably long silver white hair gathered in a ponytail - there was something mysterious and dangerous about those long strands.

Still, it would be assumed rude not to accept his handshake. Cautiously, I accepted his hand. As soon as contact was made, I felt a sharp tingle on the nape of my neck, his hair glowed and the dark slits in his eyes widened.

I let out a scared gasp and was ready to snatch my hand but he held firm.

Suddenly, it was his turn to gasp. Fear. Shock. Disbelief. I couldn't tell, but he released my hand like it was some poisonous object.

He turned away from me, towards the boys. "We are doomed. She will bring an end to us all."