Emily was holding me tight as the walls of the room started to collapse around us. Her guard grabbed us both by the shoulder and started to escort us out of the room, “Lady Elizabeth, you’re not injured are you?” the guard spoke out to her.

“No, I’m fine. I just need something from my room.” She responded as she pulled away from the guard's grip. She started to run down the hallway and slip through one of the doorways as the guard yelled out, “Come back, it’s dangerous! The mansion could collapse any second!” he let go of my shoulder and started to chase after Emily. “Open this door at once!” He yelled while banging on the door Emily was behind, “I’m telling you, we need to get out of here now!” I approached the guard from behind as he started to kick the door. “If you don’t open this door, I’ll have to break it down!” As the guard said this, the door gently swung open revealing Emily who was now holding a red book in her arms, “Calm down, I was only grabbing a book.” she said as she grabbed the guard's hand.

We continued our way down the staircase towards the front door. Maids, butlers and guards were rushing out of the front door eager for an escape from the collapsing mansion. The floor was covered in glass and crystals from the chandeliers that once hung from the ceiling. I quickly picked up Wilbur so he wouldn’t cut his paws on the glass shards that the floor was covered in. As we passed through the front door, we saw the entire city had been engulfed in flames. Smoke had filled the air making it hard to see the entirety of the city. “How could this happen?” Emily asked.

“A dragon attacked, we tried to stop it but it was too powerful. We must get you to safety please come with me to your carriage.” The guard responded.

“Is father okay?” She asked the guard.

“I’m not sure, but the other guards are on their way to him.” He replied.

“You have to take me to him.”

“There’s no time, we have to leave the city now or we’ll be burned with it.”

She looked at the guard with anger in her eyes, “You don’t have any authority over me. From now on, you are no longer my guard.” she turned in my direction and smiled, “You’ve been replaced by Jeremy.”

He looked at her in shock, “You can’t be serious. You don’t know what you’re doing my lady. You hardly even know him.”

She ignored the guard, grabbed me by the hand and started to make our way out of the estate. The guard yelled at us as we started to walk our way through the gates of the estate. “That was Adam, one of our head guards. He’s always been that way, always so protective of me.” She said while we walked down the roads of the burning city, “I hope you’ll be a better guard than he ever was.”

“Well, I’ll try my best. I’ve never been in a situation like this before.” I responded.

“You don’t have to worry too much, I can take care of myself. I’m stronger than I look.” She said with a smirk. We continued our way down the roads of the half destroyed city. The street that once bloomed with beautiful carriages, was now in disarray. The beautiful carriages that once bloomed the streets were now burned and overturned, some of which were still in flames. The faces of the locals were scorched and covered in soot. I could hear the sobbing of women and children that were huddling together under what used to be buildings. I turned towards Emily, I could see she was trying to hold back her tears from seeing the state that the city was in. She gripped my hand tighter as we walked, I could hear her praying under her breath. We approached a turn in the road; as we turned, Emily let go of my hand and ran towards a collapsed building. This building stood out from the rest, it was built from a beautiful white stone. As she approached the building she let out the tears that she was holding back.

“Father, please don’t let it be true.” I heard her cry.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“It’s my father’s forge. I don’t know if he made it.” She answered over her sobs. She continued to cry as she started to move the rubble from the floor of the building. I started to help her until Wilbur began to bark. I turned towards Wilbur to see what he was barking at. He was staring towards the sky, I looked where he was staring but saw nothing, “What is it?” I asked him.

“I can hear it.” he answered.

“Hear what?” I asked with a hint of fear.

As I said this, Emily noticed that I was speaking to Wilbur, “You’re a druid?” she asked in shock. At that moment we heard a screech from the sky that struck fear into my heart. The ground beneath us started to shake causing me to stumble. We turned towards the screech and saw a purple dragon that was diving towards us. It landed on the collapsed forge causing the earth below us to shake harder than ever. This caused Emily to fall to the ground. I quickly grabbed her and brought her to her feet as the dragon let out another deafening roar that rang throughout the city. Its mouth started to glow with a bright yellow glow, flames started to catch the dragon's saliva as if it were gasoline. Just before the dragon breathed its flames onto us, I heard the voice of the purple haired lady, “Hold on girl.” she commanded the dragon, “Leave those two, someone’s got to tell the story.”

“It’s the Demon Queen.” Emily said to me.

“She’s the one who appeared in my dreams.” I responded.

“Emily!” the Demon Queen exclaimed. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”

“Why are you doing this?” Emily asked with anger. “You have no reason to be in this city.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Actually, I do have a reason. My reason for being here is the one you’re standing with right now.” She answered.

Emily turned to me looking confused, “What do you want with Jeremy?”

“He owes me for what I have given him.” She responded with rage. When she responded, suddenly an arrow stabbed into the side of the Demon Queen causing a thick black liquid to flow from her. I turned in the direction of where the arrow was shot. Standing across from us was Adam who was getting ready to fire another arrow at the dragon, “Kill him!” the Demon Queen shouted at the dragon.

“You have to get out of here Lady Elizabeth!” He said while releasing another arrow that stuck into the neck of the dragon. The dragon turned towards Adam and started to charge its fiery breath. I could feel the heat of the fire as it shot from the dragon's mouth towards Adam. He quickly held his shield in front of his face. When the fire cleared he was still standing, his shield was glowing red hot causing him to drop it to the ground, “What are you waiting for? Run!” he shouted at us. Emily grabbed me by the hand once again, and started to run towards the city's front gates.

As we passed through the front gates, we felt the heat of the dragon’s breath as she shot off another ball of fire towards Adam again. We ran down the path for what felt like hours, I could feel my knees beginning to become weak. I stopped and looked back towards the city. We were about two miles away from it, I turned to Emily, she held her hand over her heart while she was trying to catch her breath. Wilbur was panting from all the running. Emily looked up to me seeing I was out of breath as well, “We should probably rest before we go any further.” she said while catching her breath between every word. She started to walk off of the path towards a forest and began collecting sticks and branches that had fallen from trees, “I could use a little help.”

“Yes, of course.” I responded quickly. I started to collect wood with her, Wilbur also helped by picking up twigs with his jaws and setting them into a pile. Once we gathered enough wood, Emily started to set up a bonfire. When she set all the sticks up into a pyramid, she held her hands out, and suddenly a flame appeared in her hands. She gently set the flame onto the wood causing it to ignite and burn, “Can you teach me that?” I asked in a joking manner.

“Yes, I can. It will take some practice, but I can teach you.” She answered while trying to cover her sorrow. She sat next to me and laid her face in her hands.

I could hear her trying to hold back her sobs as we sat around the fire, “To answer your question, he’s a Basset Hound.”

She turned to me in confusion, “What?”

“You asked what kind of dog Wilbur was earlier, he’s a Basset Hound. I never got to answer.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. I’ve never seen a Basset Hound before, I love his ears.” she said as she started stroking his long ears. Wilbur liked the attention, so he climbed in her lap and started to lick the tears from her face. This made her smile and laugh as she continued to pet him. I reached over and started to pet Wilbur as well, he soon curled up in Emily’s lap and started snoring. “So, you’re a druid?” She asked with hesitation.

“That’s news to me.” I responded, “I didn’t know I was anything, I thought I was just… normal.”

“Well, you can talk to animals I see. Did you grow up in the forest?”

I thought for a moment before answering, “I did grow up in the country, a while away from my town.”

“That makes sense, seeing how you’re connected to nature. Where are you from, I’ve never seen you around my city.”

“I’m from Tennessee. I’m sure you haven’t heard of it before.”

“How do you know I have not heard of it?” She asked

“Well, I think I’m from a different world than you. When I read the words on the sword, I got transported to this world.”

Her eyes widened as I said this, “Words? On my father’s sword? May I see?”

I slid the sword from its sheath and handed it to the girl. I pointed towards the bottom of the blade where the words were engraved. She took a gander and looked surprised when she read these words, “That’s strange, this isn’t my father’s writings. The Demon Queen must’ve enchanted it as well.”

The moment she said these words, excitement started to build up in her voice, “Wait, if this sword is still enchanted, then my father must be alive.” she said with joy, “Tomorrow, we must go to my mother, she’ll know what to do.”

“Where does your mother live?” I asked.

“She lives in Belleville, it’s only a few miles away from here. I’m sure we can make it there by sunset tomorrow.” She answered. I saw hope in her eyes, she was happier than I have ever seen her before. “Well, I think we should get some rest, we have a long journey tomorrow.” She pushed Wilbur off of her lap and sat him in between us. She laid another branch on the fire and laid on the green grass next to me. I took my armor off and laid down to get some shut eye.

I felt the warmth of the fire radiating on my feet, the smell of this fire was much nicer than the smell of the city when it was burning. This fire reminded me of all the times my mom and I had a bonfire in our backyard; it was comforting. The moon was full and shining down on us, it was almost as bright as day. I heard the owls hooting and the frogs croaking. In the distance I heard a river flowing, all of these noises comforted me, reminding me of home and how much I missed it. After a few minutes of listening to the sounds of the forest, Emily started to wrap her arms around me and shiver, “You must be cold.” I said with a smile. She didn’t respond so I assumed she must have fallen asleep sooner than me.

A few more minutes passed and the world abruptly went silent around me, I felt the familiar feeling of the void. I expected the Demon Queen to start talking to me, but she never did. I opened my eyes and I saw I was back in the burning streets of the city. I saw Emily and I run down the streets past all of the locals. I was viewing myself from another person's perspective. When Emily and I passed the locals started to stare at me, “Why did you leave us to die?” one of the women asked. Soon, all of the locals started to ask the same question. They all surrounded me with torches and pitchforks continuing to yell the same question over and over at me, “Why did you leave us to die!” They all started to chant. I couldn't move or speak, all I could do was watch as they came closer and closer with their shouts. I closed my eyes again, when I reopened them, I saw the face of Emily, she was holding me close as we both floated in a golden void, “Don’t worry, you’re with me now.”

As she said these words, I woke up in a panic. I arose to the bright warm sun shining on my face and the smell of cooking fish. I looked towards the fire pit and saw Emily was frying three fish as Wilbur was watching her cook. She looked towards me and smiled, “You’re finally awake, it took you long enough.” she said with a chuckle, “Eat up, we have a long way to walk.” She said as she offered me a cooked fish.

I took it from her and started to eat, “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure.” She replied while giving the other fish to Wilbur. He gulped the fish down faster than ever. After we finished our meals, I started to put my armor back on. After we got ready for the trip, we started our long journey towards Belleville.