Well, I've been working on this for awhile. Please read and comment! It's really appreciated. Oh and this is a ROUGH draft.
Steal this and you will die.
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Gea is a whole different world.
The best way to visualize it is through that earthen fantasy- kingdoms and dragons, vain fairies and humans that wear chain mail and armor instead of skirts and suits. You know what fantasy I’m talking about. Gea is the place where magic is real. Books upon books of fiction and video games have been made of that type of universe. A few in particular pop up in my mind like The Once and Future King, Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft. Gea is remarkably similar to these works of fiction, so similar that I often wonder if their author dreamt of Gea, if that’s even possible. But, Gea, unlike those works, is not just a figment of a human’s imagination.
I could try to tell you everything about Gea, its history, people, technology, culture, etc, but, like Earth, realistically, that would be impossible. Yes, I know about Earth; I have visited it many times and had my own adventures there but that is an entirely different story. Gea, in a way, is Earth’s twin universe, Earth’s alternate universe, unreachable to any human being, separated by what some would call dimensions (though it is much more complicated than that). Very few who live on either world knows that the other exists, even fewer know of the countless other worlds that exist. These few I can count on one hand and none of them are human. One of those, you might have guessed, is me. This is just a small excerpt of my life on Gea. What am I exactly? No one really knows, but I have been called many things in my life-demon, spirit, goddess, dream walker, monster. Those are just a few. There is one name I like in particular, one that almost, just almost, gives me a sense of being-
Dragon Dancer.
Chapter 1
Flyer
~Dragon Dancer~
“Sigh,” I breathed. I stretched my arms out lazily as I lay on the tree branch, my leg swinging back and forth like a slow pendulum. Tick, tock, tick, tock…
My arm extended lethargically and almost immediately a small winged creature landed in my hand. It was jet black and fit perfectly in my petite hand; a rather spiky, scaly creature with large, silted eyes. A dragon of course.
“Dark,” I said to him, “I’m bored.” I almost whined the word. How immature of me.
Dark didn’t answer he just stared at me, his intelligent eyes gleaming. He had never answered in all the years I knew him. How many years had it been? A hundred? Two hundred? Probably more. He was one of the few things I cared about. Humans and animals alike tended to be short lived and it’s hard to really care about anything when you have an impassive attitude about everything. It helped that dragons could live for a relatively long time (by my standards) but even in Gea they are a rarity. I had seen very few and none of them really caught my attention. Dark…he’s different.
As quickly as he landed, Dark took off, a speed-blurred missile. I sighed again, letting my arm flop down. I didn’t go after him. He wasn’t my pet; he could do whatever he wished. Still, if only he could have entertained me.
In a way, I guess, I had only myself to blame. I was the one who decided to come back to Gea; Earth was starting to bore me. But unfortunately, coming here had its cost: fifty five years of not having magic. Fifty-five years was nothing for me but the absence of all of my magic was like a buzzing in the back of my brain, annoying me to no end. Practically handicapped, I decided to lay low, until I was back at full strength. So, here in the quiet, beautiful, and unexciting Dudlin Valley, I waited. Now fifty-five years and five days had passed and though I was slowly regaining magic, I was restless for something exciting. I estimated I had regained about 20% of my magic. But forty five days of waiting to be back at full strength, twiddling my thumbs just didn’t seem short enough.
Closing my eyes, I tried to overcome my impatience, listening to the sounds around me. Using my hearing, a great deal stronger than humans, I focused in on the noises around me. One of the advantages of Gea is that you can actually listen. It was nice not having to always hear the blaring sounds of engines and construction and the loud voices of millions upon millions of people packed in a small place. Even so, here it was never completely quiet. Billions of bugs teemed everywhere. One small ant was by my foot exploring it with its antenna. I could hear birds in the area too, thirty-five songs without a melody, thirty-five hearts fluttering. I was immersed in the movements and life when suddenly I felt a weight on my chest. “So you’ve come back” I said, my eyes still closed. I had heard Dark coming, “I sure hope you’ve brought something fun with you.” I had said the last line sarcastically but when I opened my eyes I saw Dark actually had something in his claws, a piece of paper.
“What have you got here?” I asked and he held it out to me. It was a flyer proclaiming in large, loud letters, “ANGELMARK CITY’S TOURNAMENT CXII” I read it unsurprised. Tournaments were held regularly in Gea. I didn’t know though that Angelmark’s was being held around this time of year. I read the date. It was tomorrow.
I sat up quickly, accidentally dislodging Dark who managed to save himself from hitting the floor by hastily flapping his wings. He gave an irritated screech before perching on my shoulder.
“You know what, that’s a good idea Dark,” I gave him a rare smile, “I’m done with caution. Let’s go bust some heads.”
I jumped from my roost on the tree, falling thirty feet before lightly landing on the bottom.
“But first,” I said, “I should probably change,” I fingered my simple white dress. My curly silver hair would have to hide too, seeing as how I looked like an eighteen year old girl.
Unfortunately, in order to actually get into the tournament I’d have to disguise myself. Unlike Earth where sexist beliefs were starting to decline, Gea believed women were only useful at home. This was a world where brawn was more valuable than brains, it was logical that women are considered weak and below men. From a human perspective, I would be female, but unlike a human female, I was stronger than a male human being could ever be. Much stronger. But I didn’t let that bother me; pretending to be a boy wouldn’t be hard and going incognito was pretty fun.
I went over to my brown leather bag, reached inside of it and brought out a hoodie, a pair of pants, boots, and gloves. Dark flew to a low branch and politely looked away as I changed. “What do you think?” I said to him when I finished. “Do I look like a boy to you?” Dark turned and looked me up and down, he shrugged blankly.
“Humph, you’re no help.” I walked over to the pond only a hundred yards away. Using a tad of magic I made the water more reflective. I studied my image, checking for anything that would give me away. My hoodie was a little too modern so I made a few adjustments to make it look more Gea-an. Then I made the bottom half of the hoodie baggier to conceal any hint of a chest. To keep my long hair from showing I tied it back with a hair band. The pants were fine; they were covered with pockets that I filled with an assortment of weapons and useful items. My gloves hid my thin, girl-like hands. My boots did the same for my feet and made me a bit taller. I was virtually covered in fabric; my hoodie hid my hair and shadowed almost all of my face.
“It’ll do,” I said after thoroughly inspecting my reflection then let my magic fade in the pond. Dark flew to my shoulder and tapped me on my neck.
“Hmm?” I turned my head and he tapped his neck meaningfully. “My voice? I was getting to that.” For a second I debated in my mind if I should run over and get the Darth Vader mask out of my bag but I decided against it. Sounding like Darth Vader would not be funny to Dark and the joke itself was rather cheesy. Instead, I concentrated my magic to my throat, layering it with my voice as I said, “How about now?” The voice that came out was boyish. Dark didn’t nod or give any sign that my voice was wrong or right so I knew it was okay.
I picked up my bag and slung it on my shoulder and for a second it sounded like countless objects were jostled. I didn’t need to look around for anything; all I had was in my back pack. Dark, knowing I was ready, jumped off of the branch he was sitting on.
In the seconds it took for Dark to hit the ground it seemed that time sped for him and his body grew as if years passed by. His twiggy limbs elongated and rippled with muscles. The tiny spikes along his spine became like spears and his wings looked more like powerful black sails than black velvety fabric. By the time he hit the ground he was over thirty feet long. No, dragons don’t normally do that but Dark was that way when I found him. He could change his size at will from two inches to over two hundred feet but like most powerful magic it had a side effect. However much time he was smaller or bigger than his original form (when he could fit in my hand) was the time he had to stay when he changed back.
Grabbing one of Darks spines I hoisted myself up onto his back and sat right in front of his wings joint (also called his withers). Dark looked up at me with blue eyes the size of oranges, I nodded, indicating I was ready and he faced forward.
He unfurled his wings, opening them as wide as he could to stretch the muscles. Then, without wasting any time, Dark lifted himself in the air with a powerful, yet swift flap. Within seconds we were hundreds of feet up in the air. Within minutes we were cruising through the wind currents, thousands of feet up.
Many people have wondered what flying is like. It’s like riding an airplane except with the top down like in a car. You wonder how your weight could be lifted up into the air like you were weightless; you try to comprehend the power needed but just find yourself dumfounded. Then it’s like a rollercoaster, the ups and downs making your stomach feel nervous and awkward. Unlike a rollercoaster there is not a rail that sets your course, there’s just the animal that you have to trust implicitly. And it’s cold.
I rubbed my arms to warm myself up in the frigid high-speed wind. I would grow accustomed to the cold after awhile. The trip to Angelmark would take half a day, not too bad. Shielding my eyes, I looked up at the sun. Judging by the distance, I calculated that we had about four more hours of daylight. That was good, I didn’t want to make a show of us landing in the middle of the city; with the night as cover it would be easy for us to arrive unnoticed. And darkness wouldn’t slow us since Dark’s sharp night vision would guide us. Finding the city wouldn’t be hard anyway because of the thousands of torches would be like a beacon.
Soon I could see the city, its stone roads and the mosaic of wooden and stone houses and buildings, and the smell of baking bread and smoking meat. Technologically, it was behind, no cars, no electricity. For some reason, that didn’t steer me away from it. There were no schools really either, only a few training facilities. Monsters were real; the ability to survive was more valuable than knowing what the quadratic formula was. The people in Gea are a great deal sturdier than the ones in Earth. While Earthlings are steadily getting weaker physically, Geians are steadily getting stronger, in that way they are more advanced.
My eyes started to droop, the cold made me sleepy. Positioning myself so I wouldn’t impale myself on one of Darks spines, I lay down in a slightly more comfortable position. I knew Dark wouldn’t let me fall so it was okay to fall asleep. Closing my eyes I concentrated on the rhythmic beating of Darks wings and heart. I fell into a half-asleep state where the Northern Lights danced on the darkening sky.
