Chapter 23
Visions
image [https://i.imgur.com/EEv0xdn_d.png?maxwidth=520&shape=thumb&fidelity=high]
She was expecting to hear a voice, but it felt more like waking from a dream. Sophie gasped, winced and jostled! When she looked around, she realized she was no longer in the temple. Instead, she was hovering high up above it. From here, she was shown a glimpse into the future.
First, she saw the Dragon King’s army. It had grown even larger. They marched into every village along the coast, burned them down and loaded all the survivors onto slave ships. Sophie watched helplessly as her mother, Motumbo and Narissa were dragged away in chains. Never had she felt so heartbroken before! Her precious village square, which was once so lively and beautiful, was now a desolate wasteland.
Next, in the blink of an eye, she was transported to another place. This time, to a battlefield! The Dragon King’s army had travelled over the sea. One by one, they raided and plundered the kingdoms of the world.
It was always the same strategy. First, he’d send his dragon to scorch everything. Then, he’d send his soldiers. Sometimes, the Dragon King didn’t even have to attack. He’d just pay the other kings for their crowns. Or, he would pay their armies to switch sides. It wasn’t long until there were no kingdoms left at all. They all belonged to him. The Dragon King sat on the throne of the whole world!
But then Sophie began to wonder. Something just didn’t seem right. Why was God showing her this? She wasn’t a queen. She wasn’t a soldier. What did this have to do with her question? And that’s when she was given the third part of her vision.
Suddenly, the Dragon King and his armies vanished. She was transported back in time to her island, before the invasion. Now she realized that God hadn’t really been showing her the future. He’d been showing her a possible future—what would happen if she didn’t do the thing He wanted. What then did He want her to do? She looked around curiously for the clues . . . until she noticed where she was standing.
“OoOoh . . .” she thought, holding her belly. Suddenly, she wasn’t feeling so well again. She was right at the entrance of the Dragon King’s mountain fortress! The black gates started creaking open. A lantern with a sparkly white flame appeared in her hand.
“OoOoh . . . I have a bad feeling about this.” She took a deep breath and gulped. Slowly, she tip-toed inside.
The corridors of the fortress were dark and eerie. Worse, they were full of traps, trip wires and armed guards. But our heroine saw the traps. She slipped past every trip wire. Calmly and patiently, she waited until exactly the right moments when the guards’ backs would be turned. As quiet as a mouse, she scurried by. Even when she came to the courtyard, which was full of soldiers, she walked right across without being noticed and up the stairs.
Last was the door to the throne room. There were two guards this time. Next to them, was a wall of keys. Choosing the wrong one would set off an alarm. How could she possibly get by? But our heroine solved this puzzle too. She distracted the guards, found the key and quietly snuck in.
image [https://i.imgur.com/3JrIZ5V_d.jpeg?maxwidth=520&shape=thumb&fidelity=high]
“So that’s what my powers are for,” she realized. “I’m supposed to use them to get inside. But once I’m in, what do I do?” She took another deep breath and kept going.
The Dragon King’s throne room reminded her of the temple—only, everything was backwards. Instead of sunlight, beautiful things and comfortable places to pray, it was black, gloomy and full of torture devices. Instead of a golden book upon an altar, there was a giant golden chair next to a most unholy-looking dinner table. The only light coming in was from a small hole in the middle of the ceiling. Sophie walked directly into the beam and planted her feet there, firmly. She looked up at the Dragon King, who suddenly took notice of her.
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He was the scariest man she had ever seen. His armor was thick, spikey and dyed red with blood. His helmet flared out with two bull horns coming out the sides. It was too dark to see his eyes, but she could feel them glaring hatefully on her. Then, he stood up and slowly started walking down the stairs. Sophie felt like running away, but she didn’t. Instead, she tightened her grip around the lantern and stood her ground. Little did she know, it was about to get even scarier. From the shadows, three more villains emerged.
The first of the three was a troll named Choada. He looked like a giant toad, walking on hind legs. His mouth was enormous, with hundreds of razer-sharp teeth. He had a long tongue inside that could snap out, quickly wrap around his enemies, and pull them in. Choada was in charge of the Dragon King’s slaves. As he followed him down the stairs, he drew a whip and scowled at Sophie like he was going to lash her with it. Again, Sophie felt like running. But she still didn’t move.
Next came Kanga Kang—a mutant kangaroo with attitude! He was in charge of weighing and selling all the drugs the slaves produced. He wore black sunglasses, a long gold chain and two bright red boxing gloves with barbed wire wrapped around them. The way he kept smiling down at Sophie as he walked, pounding his fists together, made her heart race even faster.
Zeetan was the last of the three. By all appearances, he seemed like an ordinary gorilla. But if you looked carefully, you could see something was very, very wrong. His eyes were crossed. His tongue was hanging from his mouth, along with heaps of drool. That meant a Klandeathuan Brainworm had gotten into its head. Sophie had read about them once. They entered through the nose or ear and lodged themselves behind their victim’s eyes. From there, they could control someone like a puppet. Zeetan was the Dragon King’s head interrogator and torturer. He carried a mallet and sickle. Did he want to hurt Sophie? Or did he want to slither into her brain next? She didn’t know which would be worse!
Our heroine stood quivering and shivering, clinging to the lantern the same way she had the rope swing that afternoon. What was she supposed to do now? Give them the lantern? They didn’t seem interested. Fight them? Sophie had never been in a fight before. She wasn’t prepared for that. They closed in on her. The Dragon King drew his big sword! He raised it above his head, ready to strike! Sophie panicked. Was this it? Was this the end? She closed her eyes and braced herself for her doom!
Just then, the most surprising thing of all happened. The four villains suddenly froze and turned their attention to something else. A horn sounded in the distance! She heard footsteps hurrying behind her! She wasn’t alone after all! Someone was coming to help! But who? Before it occurred to her to turn and look, he was already there, fearlessly at her side. It was a boy! And he had a sword of his own! Drawing it, he got between the villains and Sophie. They all took a step back, feeling just as surprised as she was.
image [https://i.imgur.com/DouZpoR.jpeg]
“Who was this boy?” our heroine wondered. It was too dark to see his face under his hood. She felt like she knew him from somewhere.
Then everything clouded over. Sophie started feeling sleepy and dizzy. The next thing she knew, she was back in her church again, kneeling before the alter. It took her a moment to realize what had just happened. But when she did, she spun around and called out to her priest.
“Jean-Pierre! Jean-Pierre! Guess what! You’ll never believe what—”
However, the priest was gone. She looked down the staircase. The front doors were open. Everyone was coming in. Jean-Pierre was busy greeting them.
“Oh . . .”
Then Sophie noticed the music playing. She twirled around once more and saw her father sitting at the organ. He smiled and waved. She waved back awkwardly. It made her wonder how long she must have been out for.
“Hey!” cried Narissa. She came from behind Sophie, spooking her.
“Eek!”
“What are you doing!?”
“Hmm?”
Sophie was still a little dreamy.
“Here! Put this on!” Narissa was holding a pretty, pink cloak. “It’s your turn to be the Light Bearer today, remember!?”
“It is?”
Narissa put it on her without even answering.
“You must have forgotten!”
She took her hand and hauled her down the stairs.
“But . . . Narissa . . . I need to tell you something. Something happened! I need to tell you! I—”
“Hush!” answered her friend, covering her mouth. “Whatever it is, you can tell me later. It’s going to start any moment.”
“MmMmMm!”
“Now, move it! Let’s go!”