Legon Awakening: Book One in the Legon Series (10 page)

He thought about what he was thinking earlier and a
voice came unbidden into his head:
You don’t deserve that, you
bastard; you don’t deserve her in your life at all.

He began to walk to the stairs when Edis’s voice
called him back. “Come and sit down son.” Legon turned and sat.

“Your mother told me about today, and I just wanted
to say I’m sorry for not being honest with you and… if you want to
talk about it, we’re here.”

There you go giving aid and concern to someone you
should have left in the broken house, someone who doesn’t deserve
it.

“I know you are, and I know you just wanted me to be
happy and have a normal life. I’m fine, but I have a headache and I
need to go to bed.”

He stood and walked up the stairs straight to his
room. He could see that Sasha’s door was closed and he was
thankful. He didn’t care to talk to her right now; he was still
feeling guilty about his desire to leave the family to their own
devices and save his own neck.

He peeled off his clothes as he entered his room and
flopped onto his bed. He felt so tired and his head was pounding.
He laid his head on his pillow and felt himself begin to drift off
to sleep. He hadn’t even take the time to close his bedroom
door.

He wanted to sleep but he was cold and his bed felt
hard. He rolled over and opened his eyes. To his surprise he
realized he was on the ground, on the ground outside. He stood up
and looked around. The ground that he was on was just dirt and
rocks. He was in mist and couldn’t see more than a few feet in
front of him. This felt familiar but somehow unfamiliar at the same
time. He must be dreaming; this place had that feel about it. He
began to walk and realized that he had a dream like this not too
long ago. “
Odd. How come I couldn’t remember it before?”
he
thought.

The last time he was in a field when… “
there was a
dragon”
he thought. Legon went rigid. This may have been a
dream, but he still didn’t want to deal with a dragon.

He heard the sound of moving rocks, which didn’t help
his feeling of foreboding. He began to pick up his pace a bit,
looking for a place to hide until the mist cleared. He felt his
lungs burn and he moved faster. Before he knew it he was in the
field by the sea from the last dream.

But in this dream the air was thin. He knew that he
must be up high, perhaps on a mountain top, and that this mist was
probably a cloud. So was he by the sea or wasn’t he? It seemed like
he was in both places, high on a mountain and by the sea. Suddenly
from behind him there came a resounding
“thud.”
He moved
faster, feeling his legs begin to burn.
“Thud.”
This time it
was above his head. ”
Thud
.” Right in front of him. The sound
of claws sinking into earth and breaking rock filled the air. He
skidded to a halt as he saw a huge shadow rise in the mist ahead of
him.

The mist parted and he tried to scream, but his voice
wouldn’t respond. In front of him was a hulking black dragon with
scales the color of coal, seeming to absorb the light. Its giant
claws looked to be made of solid gold. Long flat plates crossed its
chest at the bottom of its long, snake-like neck. At the top of the
neck and more than forty feet off the ground was its head. It was
triangular with two golden horns that swept back, and when the
dragon breathed out, orange circlets appeared in the nostrils. Two
long teeth that looked like they were made of pearl jutted from the
top of the mouth.

A row of gold spikes ran down its back and tail. The
thing that scared Legon the most were the eyes. They were as large
as serving platters and were blood red. Everything on the dragon
seemed to leech the light from the world, but not the eyes. They
glowed with a cruel intensity, and they were looking at him.

Not only could he not scream, but he felt like his
feet were planted in the rocky ground. It was stupid not to run,
but he couldn’t. He was going to die and there was nothing he could
do to stop it. As this realization came, his fear subsided and was
replaced by remorse. He was sorry that he had wanted to leave his
family, sorry he couldn’t be there for Sasha and sorry he hadn’t
been a better brother and son.

The ground shook as a growl came from the black
dragon and a deep growling voice filled his head.
“You are
mine!”
Then the dragon opened it huge jaws. Legon didn’t even
have time to register the gaping mouth flying toward him.

Pain erupted in his head as once again he snapped up,
hitting the ceiling by his bed, but this time the pain was welcome.
Welcome because only the living felt pain, not people who had just
been eaten by a dragon. He still hadn’t opened his eyes he didn’t
want to, just on the chance that it hadn’t been a dream. He felt
cold clammy hands on his neck and face.

“You’re ok, Legon. It was just a dream, you’re ok.”
The voice was Sasha’s.

He opened his eyes to see her in her nightgown,
looking terrified. He must have been talking in his sleep or making
some other noise. His heart was racing and he was covered in icy
cold sweat. He started to shiver uncontrollably. Sasha sat behind
him and wrapped her arm tight around him, the same way he would do
to her when she was having an episode. Her hands began to warm as
her fear subsided. The warmth was most welcome. He didn’t feel
worthy of the love and comfort, but he took it anyway. Warmth began
to make its way through him as his ragged breath slowed and heart
calmed.

His voice was slower to respond and he began to
stammer, “I’m… I’m his… he’s going to get me… I, I . . .”

“It’s ok, it’s ok, it was just a dream, you’re fine.
No one is going to get you.” Her voice was calm and reassuring as
she stroked his hair. He leaned back against her and forced his
body to relax.

“I was on a mountain and…”

“Not tonight. You can tell me in the morning. Now
relax.”

After a bit his heart resumed its normal rhythm and
he felt himself start to drift. He was so tired. He felt Sasha run
her fingers through his hair one last time and he fell asleep.

* * * * *

Sasha did not fall asleep. She sat gently stroking
his hair, wide awake and her mind so full it almost hurt. She was
scared. Legon had been having some horrible dream and she knew it
wasn’t the first. She heard him talking in his sleep last night or
the night before— she couldn’t remember. Tonight when she heard him
she had gotten up to go to his room. She knew that it was not
uncommon for people to talk in their sleep, but it was what he was
saying and doing that sent fear coursing through her.

When she entered the room he was whimpering almost
like a little child who was hurt, but soon he was thrashing in his
bed, his arms flying around and his legs pumping like he was
running. He was covered in sweat and the look on his face was one
of panic. As if this wasn’t enough, he had all of a sudden stopped
moving and just lay trembling in bed. Up to this point she’d
planned on waking him up so he could relax and go to sleep, but it
seemed to be over. She began to turn when Legon sat up in bed and
looked right at her.

“You are mine.”

He then lay back down.

The hoarse voice was not his, and she thought that it
wasn’t aimed at her, but rather at him. As soon as his head hit the
pillow he jolted back up fully awake and terrified.

She wanted to know more but he needed to sleep. She
could find out more later. Something inside her whispered that this
had to do with his tattoo, but she didn’t know how.

Her parents had explained to Sasha how Legon had
actually been found early in the evening while Legon was still out
walking. She was horrified to hear what had taken place, and her
fears only seemed to get worse when he walked in, covered in dirt
with vomit on his chin. No one had said anything, but they all were
worried. He had also found her diary, which she assumed he had
found at their picnic site. She had a hunch that he read part of
it, but she wasn’t sure how much or what. She didn’t mind if he saw
the entries on her normal days, but on the days she had an episode
…. She didn’t plan on asking him about it because she believed that
he had read it only to figure out whose it was.

Her mind came back to his former parents and more
important his tattoo. It couldn’t be covered up forever, and she
knew that at some point in time someone would see it and know that
there was something off. The tattoo had always elicited comments
and questions before, but no one suspected that it had been put
there by magic. But now, if anyone saw the purple crest they would
know instantly. When her father told her how he found Legon, he had
shuddered when he said they found a body. He refused to talk about
it more. She really didn’t care to think of what he had found
there.

The more Sasha thought about it, the more certain she
was that they were looking for Legon and that his mother was hiding
in the woods to keep her son safe and out of notice. No matter what
the past had been, Legon was in trouble now. He would not be able
to go anywhere near a large city and it was probably not a good
idea for him to be in the empire at all. He would probably be fine
in most small towns; people there seemed to keep to themselves more
and there were less government officials. He could always go to the
resistance and find sanctuary with them. The resistance was to the
south, and if he started that way he would find either them or the
Elves in a few months.

But Sasha knew that Legon would not be willing to go
that far from Salmont, if for no other reason than for her sake.
She knew that he was planning on going to Salkay because he could
still help their family with taxes.

She felt his head turn a bit. She looked down at her
sleeping brother. She was going to miss him a lot. Tears started to
form in her eyes. It was hard for her to think of Legon in trouble,
and it was worse because she couldn’t do anything about it. She
hoped vainly to herself that perhaps he wasn’t in that much trouble
after all, that he had been living in Salmont for seventeen years
and nothing had happened thus far. Still, there was a sense of
foreboding in her. She felt that something bad was coming, and
coming fast. As she thought this a slight breeze from the open
window played on the back of her neck as if to enforce the point.
The life she had always known was over, and she wasn’t sure what
lay ahead. Sasha felt her eyelids getting heavy and felt her mind
become fuzzy. She tried to fight the feeling. She had to stay up.
She needed to figure this out.

No matter what she tried, sleep was coming for her
and there was nothing to do about it. Her head tilted to the side,
resting on the top of Legon’s head, and she fell asleep.

Truths Revealed

“
Perspective is one of the strongest
dictators of self. How we perceive ourselves is paramount; though
this is considered a trite argument to make, it is nevertheless
true. Does that mean that we cannot combat our current state, or in
some way lessen or increase our standing in the world by merely
changing our perspective of ourselves? Perhaps.”

-The Wondering Way (Author Unknown)

Legon awoke leaning against a sleeping Sasha, her
head against his. He could feel her breath against the top of his
head. “
I hope she didn’t drool in her sleep”,
he thought. As
he started to move his head she woke, and they both sat up. He
tilted his head to the side and heard the satisfying sound of his
neck pop.

He turned to look at Sasha. “That was a bad one last
night. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream like that.”

“I figured as much. You were thrashing in your bed
and making all sorts of noise when I came in. What was the dream
about?”

He relayed what he remembered of the dream to her.
She listened and spoke when he got to the part about the dragon
speaking to him. “I remember that you sat up and looked right
through me and said ‘You are mine’ in this growling voice.”

“I did? That was the worst part, and then right after
that it ate me, or at least I think it did. I woke up.”

He left out what he was feeling right before the
dragon spoke. It ran through his head and he felt a twinge of
shame. Sasha had stayed with him all night with only the wall for a
pillow, and just a few hours ago he had been thinking about leaving
her to save his own neck.

She paused “We were talking last night about what
your tattoo may mean.”

Of course they were. It wasn’t a new topic of
conversation, but changing colors would have added a new
wrinkle.

“And?”

“Well I guess Arkin told our parents a few years back
that Elves only marked their own. So he thinks you’re part
Elf.”

He tensed. “And why didn’t mom tell me this
yesterday?”

She looked at him. “Well, we don’t know for sure, and
do you think you could have handled it? Was it worth adding more
stress to your day over a theory from the town carpenter?”

If he was being honest, the answer was no. He
couldn’t have handled it. But how was Arkin an expert on this?

“Do you agree with Arkin?”

She shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. Think about it:
what do we know about Elves? They are like Iumenta.”

“Yeah, but I don’t see how that connects.”

“You are stronger and faster than anyone your size,
Legon. You seem to have an edge at everything. Maybe that has to do
with your parents.”

He was about to protest, then thought about walking
home in the dark last night. “Maybe you’re right. It just doesn’t
seem real to me, you know?”

She laughed. “No, I don’t know, but it’s something to
consider. Don’t be mad. We didn’t say anything horrible about you
last night. It’s just a theory, and one I don’t think our parents
think is possible.”