A door had opened in the dark corner of my room and I immediately recognized the air inside the abyss and the typical light.
As if I had always been part of this universe, I entered it.
The wall closing behind me. As Sylvia, I was petrified but I recognized this part.
It was my domain, my zone of darkness, my abyss.
But I had left there my regrets, my nightmares and also my terrible punishment that Tiamat had given me with my 2 sisters. The third being the wife of the sinister Othar. How could I have lived like this for centuries. Yes, drugs in my blood and suffering.
Now it was unbearable, a burn from a past I wanted to forget. But now I was Sylvia, with the memories of Poisse, finally I was myself again. Poisse/Sylvia.
Strangely, the mana remained important and, instinctively, I was heading towards the ancient parts, the ruins and the caves of the abyssal maze. I knew that time was frozen here if I wanted it or, on the contrary, I could make it go away.
I passed through rooms and like a kaleidoscope, I saw the rooms of the house, those of the school and even the rooms of my friends. Such was the power of darkness.
But the octahedron was not turning. Frozen, no longer beating time. It was like a dead and lifeless monolith. A tombstone frozen for eternity.
I shouted, "Octahedron! That's me! ....
It's Poisse. Octahedron????"
No answer...
I'm "Sylvia, I'm human... Help!!!!"
No response...
Something was wrong.
I was trying to get closer to the heart but the distances seemed to be increasing [https://img.wattpad.com/f35b67ac313f8637d8117cb4aab6ff85592dd60f/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4a5838785a4254386870466130513d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635386666646638636537623930373636393438313830323138372e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
I was trying to get closer to the heart but the distances seemed to be increasing.
Then I decided to come back the next day.
I pushed with my hands and the wall opened in my room, on the other side, and as time had frozen, the first opening had not yet closed.
As I could not meet myself, this was impossible,
I went out while my self of a moment ago had just returned. I had just enough time to see the wall close up and then close up behind me.
I fell asleep thinking about what I saw and I had a thousand questions.
I was still dreaming of Viseron and his words "I killed Tiamat except for the white head that was sent to the Destroyed World, the end of the world! "
Tiamat no longer existed in this dimension. And I risked attracting another, his enemy, the Infernal Tiamat, the most powerful of all, that of Avernus, the one of the world that pulverized ours! She and her legions of Chaos... Gloups.
The place was vacant here. And since I was perhaps the last dragon in the world, there was a high risk that I would become a hydra. Anything but that!
No...no... I'm Sylvia, I'm 16 years old and what's happening to me is crazy! I'm getting crazy! I'm hammered!
Confused, I had to convince myself that it was only my own disillusions. Dragons don't exist!
I was dreaming and, unconsciously, I was still in the labyrinth.
Was I dreaming, or was I awake?
I wanted to go back to my room but the maze was stronger than me [https://img.wattpad.com/c26152ab21212eaccad29df33b18e703982cde43/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f35346d5f793977394641753938413d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635386666666537616535346537663837323330373135343635392e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
I wanted to go back to my room but the maze was stronger than me.
I was lost and didn't recognize the place.
I climbed up some stairs and started to run looking for an exit.
I didn't recognize this part.
Maybe it was a part of me that was running away in my subconscious?
I ran, screamed for help and ended up slipping.
I held myself at the edge and, below me, a bottomless abyss [https://img.wattpad.com/ef58f01e81396f94ed64750939ae95cc131068df/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f69714f49384c6b755f77486863673d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635393030306136383031323164383331363530323132383836382e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
I held myself at the edge and, below me, a bottomless abyss.
" Mercy, mercy, I don't want to die!"
The edges were smooth and sharp and there was no one above to help me.
I felt like I was letting go and I was going to die.
Then it was the fall.
An endless fall. Made of columns, terraces, stairs in all directions, wells and emptiness and I went through many floors and I closed my eyes, fainted with terror and then it was dark, silence and heat.
I was sleeping, lying in a dark cave. Only my breathing echoed back to me.
I had a strange, familiar feeling, as if what had been taken from me had been returned to me.
I was hot, very hot but I felt good, whole, I was me. Neither Sylvia nor Poisse, but I was.
I felt something nice that I missed, like an amputated limb that had been returned to me. My back too. My neck.
And I woke up as if from a deep sleep.
I stretched out my arms but they were long and my neck was at a strange angle.
My tail was touching my muzzle...
AHHH???? AHHH?
And I looked at myself. I was a dragon!
I wanted to pinch myself but I was really a dragon.
I quickly get back to my habits, like getting back on a bike and here I am [https://img.wattpad.com/3f3bc74ff333343690e1b6258a1aa70d3dc66dd1/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6730644a655a4c3758525f7861413d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635393030323762376265313665333235383736393532363530302e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
I quickly get back to my habits, like getting back on a bike and here I am.
Poisse in all its splendor!
I roar and the sound scraped my neck, coming out of my chest like an explosion of frustration but also of the pleasure of being alive.
At my feet were my torn clothes, proof that it was all real.
Then I wondered where I was? in the labyrinth?,
No, I was in a cave.
When I fell, I had to find an exit and my fall was only one meter on the physical level. I hadn't hurt myself like that.
Then I realized.
Shit! School!
Then I thought as a dragoness: "My Egg! Victoria!"
Then I knew the egg could withstand the test of time and could only hatch when it was incubated and cradled by its mother's mana. At this point, it was no longer urgent.
I had to find a balance now to live and survive and also to be able to raise it, to have my family accept it and everything. But the people here are too afraid of fantasy and could be a danger to my little one. Also, I had to do something to help Marc, and find my family again .
When I was Poisse, before, it was simple, Othar made the decisions and it was easy. With Marc and Tiamat, too. But now, I'm on my own and I'm lost!
My only catch was my life as Sylvia... I had to protect my life as a young girl.
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I quickly found the way out of the cave and a monstrous hunger took me and, fortunately, it was night.
Suddenly, I spread my wings and threw myself into the void, towards the black sea, with only the moon for illumination.
Suddenly, I spread my wings and threw myself into the void, towards the black sea, with only the moon for illumination [https://img.wattpad.com/3316cbb8a281b6ebb26a7f2d78ff61b663fd5672/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6b746a5653326c746551334c57513d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635393030343736386261663436373435323038373234383039362e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
My waist was monstrous and I could lift and carry a bus if I wanted to.
Quickly, I spotted the sharks and predators that hunted at night and I dove down, my empty stomach screaming misery.
The white shark quickly turned into sushi when I swallowed it and it went through my long neck before ending up in my stomach!
Full of food, I decided to go home... And I landed in the garden.
But there was a problem!... Me!
I was now a 25 meters long dragon, hidden in the jungle behind the house.
I hadn't thought about it. In fact, I was stupid... as a dragon... I would have to get myself together, at last on my hands!
There was a crackling of branches and that turned on the light in Brahma's room.
She stuck her head out to look left and right but seeing nothing, the light went out and I didn't move.
I was trying the transformation spell that Mark and Ori had taught me, but without really succeeding. I was not motivated at the time. Being human didn't interest me at all.
But now it is a matter of life and death!
"Please let it work"
I imagined myself to be Sylvia again and a strange feeling, as if the bones became slime and I found myself naked in the garden. My belly was distended. I was about to burst!
I had forgotten that I had swallowed a whole shark... Luckily, the magic was working in that sense too. It was dangerous to eat a copious meal before changing back.
But my nails were black and my bottom teeth were black too.
Finally, I was myself and I could live at least like that.
I was exhausted and only had 2 hours left before I woke up. It was going to be a disaster at school!
SHOUT!
I took my alarm clock and set it for 7 hours, pulled out my mattress and entered the maze again and fell asleep for 7 hours of recuperative sleep.
Then I went outside and it was still 4 o'clock in the morning. I had slept and recovered in my domain! Nice for the exams and the material I didn't know. I knew a lot of things but for graduate school it would be a different set of sleeves.
The next morning, I waited at the dock for the cab boat and I greeted my fellow girls and boys as they went down the river, finally, the canal to school.
At the gate, we had to arrive on time and the latecomers were systematically put in detention and were only allowed to go to class the next day, on time.
While I was at school, Surish was watering the flowers and saw huge tracks in the soft soil. It was as if a giant varan had come and hovered around the house.
But a varan can never grow that monstrous.
But a varan can never grow that monstrous [https://img.wattpad.com/5eee39aa8df569e9e87912f17035e097635fc2a8/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f763938773036615a73686b4c70773d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635393030373636336638373639383633333730383033313230362e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
He took pictures and a measuring tape.
"Taller than a komodo! And yet there are none in this region..."
It is bigger than the biggest ever recorded and it lives on the island of Komodo, in Indonesia [https://img.wattpad.com/da8230f777a0d1778acc70c044d1646aab6aadbf/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f78757870675a30636d7873496c773d3d2d313030383930323932372e3136353930303831336230326330663135303836323536343830322e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
It is bigger than the biggest ever recorded and it lives on the island of Komodo, in Indonesia .
I looked at the tracks on the ground and saw a trail and other footprints... and ... a piece of Sylvia's pajamas.
A deep anguish went up to his chest.
The beast ... 25 meters???? impossible! It's a children's joke...
The classes went well and those who had gotten good points were allowed to take their tablet.
Phew, the courses were not so retrograde.
At the lunch break, I was going to put my things in my locker when Dany, Rudy and Philippe saw me.
"You don't have any friends? Don't you want to look? "asked Dany.
Then a classmate accompanied the boys.
"Hello, my name is Jasmine." And she held out her hand to me the European way. And that made me happy.
"If you want, I have some friends to introduce you to. It would be a shame if you only had those three jokers."
I relaxed a little bit and, frankly, I was a teenager. I had a family and a life to hold on to. And friends.
I knew the others were gone, alive but in a fairy tale and no matter how far I flew, flying with all my strength and even with a rocket, it was impossible without a portal.
I had to grieve and accept that I had a loving family, a new chance that was offered to me, especially since I had never even known my mother and she must certainly have been a bloodthirsty monster like I was before. Besides, it is difficult for a person who has only ever known violence to be able to give something other than violence.
I also knew by instinct that Victoria was safe with Marc's cousins. It was better that this case was so, while I found my bearings and could provide her with an environment conducive to her life, while she could live like a human being.
But my secrets were also very heavy to carry. I had to contact Bishop too, but the distances were great and I had to be wary of Viseron. Who knows if he had access to the darkness. He was a lightning dragon, but his blessing of Tiamat had been taken away from him, and I would be surprised if he had access to it. Probably not. At least I hope not.
We had lunch together and I rang mom to tell her that I would be home later, I wanted to go out for a bit with my new classmates.
Jasmine: "This is Sylvia, the new girl as you know, Sylvia, this is Myriam and Misha."
Both Indo-European girls were born here but each of them had an immigrant parent of French origin. They spoke in old colonial French and a mixture of English and Hindi.
But, since my nightmares and a few days before my transformation, I understood perfectly what they were saying. A draconian trait certainly.
We then took out our bentos and sandwich boxes and we ate together, making fun of the gym teacher with his completely old-fashioned Adidas training.
The boys had a funny look on their faces when they saw that I was eating a whole salami that could have fed 4 people.
"We can see you're from Lyon and you love the rosette."
I started laughing. "It's mom's name."
"So you're the daughter of the sausage," they laugh?
I was red and embarrassed but we all laughed.
Rudy: "That's the first time I've ever seen a girl eat so much and stay so thin!"
Thank you for the compliment, I said blushing.
Jasmine: "Stop bothering her. It's not nice."
Me: "Hey, they're right, you don't know what I'm capable of swallowing."
We all laughed in our hearts.
Dany: "After school, we're going to go for a walk in the city. You're coming with us, I hope...? We have a lot of cool stuff to show you.
So we went to see ice cream stores and cool stores and we could sneak beers and go to a zoo bar. A bar with lots of exotic animals
They explained to me the dangers of the fauna, the insects to beware of and the scorpions.
The black ones, the scariest were the nicest and the little white ones were very aggressive and would even run after people if they were disturbed.
Eventually, this amused me more than anything else and I completely forgot that I was a dragon. I became Sylvia again.
But when we wanted to go to the temples, I felt like barriers trying to keep the dragon out, like an invisible spider's web.
Without realizing it, evening had fallen and I phoned my mother to apologize, that I had not seen the time go by. She scolded me and told me that I was going to see all the colors if I missed the last bus.
Which I did.
The friends laughed but they laughed less when we went to the boat bus stop.
Rosette yelled on the phone: "What the hell did you do? Where are you going to spend the night?" [https://img.wattpad.com/9f0955fe8910e5f344927c14639ba5aa1366b3c6/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f4e624964733361314841615262413d3d2d313030383930323932372e313635393030626364323061373035333331383236353333333935362e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]
Rosette yelled on the phone: "What the hell did you do? Where are you going to spend the night?"
"I'm sorry, Mommy... but we're going to study together at Dany's place who lives here!"
She grumbled. Listen, we have to meet tomorrow, but it's NO WAY you're coming home for the night. We have found traces of a huge predator lurking near the house and as long as we don't know for sure that there is no danger. You stay accompanied. I forbid you to fish alone, okay? I also want to talk to Dany's parents. And I prefer that you sleep at a friend's house. You don't imagine that if this gets out, what people will say about you and us!"
I think I drove Mommy crazy. But I loved her very much. In a way, I was happy to have a mom who loved me.
The tracks must have been me.... the poor people, if they knew. Just thinking about it, I had tears. How can I put people who really love me through that?
I was afraid that one day they would discover the reality, that I was really a monster.
Mom certainly rang Dany's mom and she welcomed us warmly.
She looked at me and looked at her son. "You're bringing another girl home...!"
It was as if he had done it on purpose so that I would miss my boat.
But when we came back home, I had to help Dany to unfold a sofa bed and I had to sleep in the living room. No way I would stay near a teenage boy, especially since I was new and French, people think I'm a boy's girl.
Here, we had a pre-2000 mentality...well, a little.... The caste system had influenced life here a bit.
Jasmine had her mother's permission to stay with me and we settled down. But soon I was fascinated by the fantastic books and especially the window displays with characters from Chtulu, Warhammer and other role-playing games and a vast collection of conspiracy books.
I was less interested in clothing stuff, probably due to my Herculean strength which allowed me to master everything the guys did.
Dany: "Do you like action figures?"
Me: "I love them! "
Dany had a smile and looked at Rudy and Philippe who had accompanied us.
but were going to leave again at their place, just a stone's throw from here.
"It is what all these books?"
Dany : "We are part of a club that likes fantasy, magic and ruins. We have proof that beings like dragons existed but everyone denies it and everything related to them is systematically destroyed, erased or lost, as if someone wanted to hide their existence.
All of a sudden I was very interested.
Dany: "Yes, but here in India it's difficult to have evidence, but it doesn't disappear."
Dany's mom: "Stop bothering her with your bullshit..."
Jasmine smiles at me: "They are nice but also hard working. They're looking for stuff that doesn't exist or doesn't exist anymore" then she turned around and raised her voice: "Can't you see you're bothering her? She listens to you to please you and you don't stop!"
I smiled at Dany and winked at her. Jasmine was nice and I also had to respect her by being one with her.
To make peace "Ok, I'll go with you one day to hunt monsters" while I laughed and smiled at Jasmine who thought I didn't care about them.
We reviewed our lessons after a simple weekday meal and then I sat down with Jasmine in the sofa bed. The boys were overexcited and then Philippe went home.
I was beginning to enjoy my life here but I was afraid of the next afternoon.
We went to the Lycée normally, after having thanked Dany's mother and apologized by phone to Rosette, my mother.
With my class, all of a sudden, we were closer and I had taken a huge step to integrate.
Then, in the afternoon, as soon as I got home, my mom was waiting for me on the pontoon.
She asked me if everything had gone well and I apologized again.
"My darling, you are growing up and it is normal to have friends at your age. I'm not angry with you anymore, but be careful. Come, Shaikh has something to show you."
We went into the garden and he showed me the footprints. (My paws, poor people, if they knew!), having completely forgotten about my outing last night.
Shaikh: "In a way, the fact that she stayed may have saved her life... Imagine that she is facing such a lizard? If they eat oxen, then the little one wouldn't have had a chance?
Shaikh: "If it's a joke, it's a success! But if it's true then it's not nice!"
Me: "No! No... I didn't make a joke... I never make jokes."
Rosette: "Shaikh, why are you asking Sylvia that? It's not like her..."
It hurt me to lie... how I envied Marc's mom. But I'm sure Rosette would understand.