Chapter Three: Dreams

“You have to tell her some time, you know. Why not sooner than later?”

Eladar was shocked. Joy was a falcon for Pete’s sake! Peregrine falcons aren’t supposed to talk. It was definitely unnatural.

“Well, don’t just sit there looking like a grounded fish, gasping for breath on the shore! Wake her up and tell her.”

At this, Eladar found his voice. “How in the world did you know about what I have to tell Mar…..? no, HOW are you talking to me at all?”

Joy sighed. Humans were all alike. They looked no farther than the obvious, not willing to go beyond. In all her life, she had only found two humans who could look farther with their minds open.

“That is something that I will keep to myself, thank you. Now, wake her up and tell her all about your quest. And don’t tell her I can talk. I would rather tell her that myself.”

Eladar shook his head in wonder, then decided to go along with Joy’s order. After all, he must just be having a dream. A very strange dream, but just something that he could wake up from in the morning. Yeah, that was it. He was having a dream.

While all of this was going on, Maria was having a dream of her own.

In her dream, the girl was walking along a misty path. At first, there were no sounds or smells at first. She just walked along.

Slowly, a bright light seemed to come from the west, clearing all of the mist away. For the first time, Maria saw where she was.

The path she was on led up the side of a mountain, the highest one she had ever seen. Below her was a valley. It had traces of beauty left, but most of it was dead and grey, apparently from a fire. She was oddly sad over this damage, considering that Maria had never been here before. Equally mysterious was the fact that the girl felt a pull, seeming to come from the top of the mountain. Even though she honestly wanted to wake up from this dream, Maria felt that there was something keeping her asleep. So, she kept going upwards.

In about thirty minutes- or maybe an hour, maybe just a few minutes, it was hard to tell in dreams-she reached the end of the path. The top of the mountain was not very far above her, and the valley was very, very far below her. That was also odd. Thirty minutes ago, Maria was about half-way up the mountain. Now, she was almost at the top. As fit as she was, Maria really doubted that she could have come up half of the mountain in only half an hour. Oh, well, just another dream thing, she thought.

Suddenly, a voice from the cave startled the girl.

“You don’t have to stand there. Come on in.”

The voice was deep, masculine. It was not a voice that the girl knew, yet to Maria, it seemed familiar. She trusted her magical sense, and walked slowly into the opening.

Once her eyes adjusted to the cave’s dim light, Maria saw that the cave extended farther back into the mountain. The size of it was a surprise, for the inside was much larger than the mouth of the cave suggested. None of this captured her attention, though, for emerging from a tunnel at the back of the main entrance, was a dragon.

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Girl and dragon stared at each other for several minutes. The scarlet dragon was male, tall, and rather muscular. Maria didn’t honestly know how she knew that he was male, but, just like coming into the cave in the first place, she just knew. She estimated that he was about twenty feet tall from the ends of his talons to the tips of his horns, and about forty from snout to tail. His wings were folded, but she could tell that they were as large as the rest of him. Despite his size, though, Maria was not afraid of him.

The dragon said, “There you are at last. My name is Amravati Kynspaker, but everyone just calls me Vati. I must say, I am so honored that you are here, in my home.”

Maria was so lost, but amid the dozens of thoughts swirling around in her brain, one stood out. “This isn’t a dream, is it, … Amravati?”

The dragon smiled, showing teeth that looked like they could snap the girl in half. “No, this is not a dream. You are here in your mind, yes, but you can still feel, unlike in the dreamworld. And please, call me Vati, it’s much easier than saying Amravati, don’t you agree?”

“Where are we, then, if not in the dreamworld?”

“We are in the Land of the Immortals, of course. Where else would we be?” He laughed. “For a minute there, you actually had me fooled. I really thought you didn’t know where we were.” Then he saw the look on Maria’s face. He stopped laughing and looked at her soberly. “You really didn’t know, did you?”

Well, no, I didn’t. Since I’ve never been here before, how could I know? For that matter, why am I here, and how did you know that I would be here?” Maria hadn’t meant to be so forceful and rude, but in her anger, she couldn’t help it. Now, she composed herself, then said in a quieter voice, “I’m sorry, it’s just that I am so confused, and I have no idea what’s going on, or where I am, or where my friends are, or who you are actually. Please, could you tell me what’s going on?”

The dragon, who up until this moment had been looking rather stricken, now looked relieved. “Of course. I didn’t know that you would know nothing about this world. I am sorry, as well. Firstly, you might want to sit down and make yourself comfortable, for the tale I am about to tell is a long one, for to give it justice, I must start from the very beginning.”

As Maria settled down into a patch of moss that was growing on the cave floor, Amravati began his tale.