Elemental Shadowed by Helen Scott
18
Tessa
The sensation of flowing water spread until it covered my face and my vision blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut as my lungs burned for air, the pressure in my chest seeming to build with every beat of my heart as I struggled not to breathe and drown myself.
After a tense moment, where the true, blood-curdling fear of not being able to breathe set in and reminded me that I had died earlier, the water cleared. I spluttered and coughed until I almost threw up, not that I had anything to throw up at that point.
My lungs burned and my throat was raw, but when I opened my eyes none of it mattered at all. I drew on one ragged breath after another as I looked around, willing myself not to freak out, but it had been a long fucking day.
I was somewhere new, somewhere I'd never seen before, and I had no idea how I'd traveled there. It wasn't like I'd moved, or even as though enough time had passed for me to make it out of the throne room.
Oh, no, there was magic at play here, pure and simple. All I could do was continue to breathe as I tried to get my bearings.
As I came back to my senses I remembered the stone I'd picked up from the throne and was honestly surprised to find it still in my hand. The blue and white looking even richer in their colors now.
The room in front of me was smaller than the throne room I'd been in the last time my eyes were open. Tall, stone walls surrounded the room with no visible entrance or exit. I wasn't sure where to go or what to do, except for curiosity that was burning inside me as I realized that the room wasn't just a room, but a pool of sorts as well.
In the center the floor dipped down, and water lapped at the edge where I was standing, occasionally tickling the edge of my toes. It was so clear though, that I hadn't realized it was there at first. I moved to take a step forward and realized that, somehow, I'd become clothed again.
It wasn't anything like what the queen dressed me in or even what I dressed myself in. It was much more modest that anything the queen would choose, and almost too modest for my personal tastes.
The dress was long and blue, and that was where the similarities to anything I'd ever worn before ended. The further I moved into the water, the more I realized that I was wrong about the color, but though it wasn't strictly blue I didn't have the words to describe it.
The color seemed to shift between light blue and deep purple, but not just transitioning from one to the other, somehow being all of them at once. A waistband that sat just above my hips came to a downward point on my belly with what was almost a belt going down the front of the skirt.
The top came up in a halter around my neck with the same pattern that was on the waistband decorated the edge. I dipped my head to look more closely at the material and saw my reflection in the water, except it wasn't my reflection staring back but that of another woman.
Before I could focus on any of her features the water seemed to shift around me, waves gently lapping at my waist as though in greeting. The center of the pool area began to bubble and foam.
I wasn't scared though. Instead, a wave of calm swept through me and I stayed where I was with the feeling that something monumental was happening.
A latch or lock or something released somewhere with a click, and I felt the floor shift as something began to rise from the bubbling area in the water. Whatever it was had to be important, that much was clear. I mean, why else would it be in a room with no windows or doors and hidden under water?
A pedestal with a weird egg looking stone rose from the water. At first, I thought it would be the stone that was depicted in the murals, but it was much too big. The murals showed something I would be able to hold in my hand, this was... different. It was almost the size of a baby or a small dog, except it was an egg-shaped rock, and was at about three times bigger than an ostrich egg, that much I was sure of.
I moved toward it; I couldn't help myself. The surface, or shell, was a beautiful iridescent blue color, almost like an opal, that reflected the water around it.
As I got closer the color seemed to deepen and turn into a blue-green that reminded me of a piece of rough, unpolished turquoise. The longer I watched it the more the egg, or stone, or whatever it was, seemed to change.
What had started off pale and darkened as I approached was now getting thick gold lines all over it like veins. In my fascination my hand reached out to touch it, to see if it was as smooth as it appeared.
Before my fingers connected, sharp, blue spikes seemed to shoot out of it in random directions reminding me of icicles for a brief moment before the whole thing shattered. I gasped and jerked my hand back, holding it close against my chest as I watched the thing fall apart.
It wasn't just the stone that fell apart, but the pillar as well. Everything seemed to crack and fall back into the water in big chunks making it splash up around where the pillar had been standing, until I saw it.
A baby dragon.
Before my eyes its small wings unfurled, and I realized that the blue spikes that had pierced out of the egg were, in fact, the bones of the dragon's wing and its claws. My hands shot out to catch it as the last piece of the pillar that it had been balancing on broke and fell.
I didn't know if it could breathe underwater or if that's just where some dragons laid their eggs. Hell, I hadn't even known dragons laid eggs until that very moment, or that their eggs could change color for that matter.
Fortunately, I caught it under its front legs, or would that be forearms, and its tail immediately wrapped around my wrist, so I didn't have to worry about whether or not it might drown. Its small head looked up at me.
Tiny horns sprouted from the top of its head along with two rows of spikes that came from each side of its neck with a thin layer of webbing between them, reminding me of a duck's foot or fish's fin. The spikes merged into one row that went down its back and along its tail. They weren't sharp by that point, more just bumps as its tail came to a point.
It shook in my hands and its wings flared out behind it, two stunning leathery extensions from its back. They weren't like bird wings, more a cross between bat and butterfly, but a gorgeous blue and purple color, similar to the dress I was wearing.
Without warning it launched itself from my hand, its tiny claws digging into my skin like little punctures as it took off. I wanted to hiss in pain, or cry out, but I was terrified that making a sound would ruin this beautiful moment. Instead, I held my breath and watched as it swooped around the room, testing out its wings for the first time.
Strong, powerful flaps took the small creature higher and higher as I watched. As though it seemed to get bored with going in that direction it turned and dove down dropping like a stone from the air above me and slipping into the water without making a single splash.
It was only as the dragon returned to the surface holding the stone that I'd picked up from the throne that I realized I'd dropped it when I reached out to catch the creature. When it raised the stone toward me, I held out my hand and the baby dragon dropped it in.
As the stone connected with the bloody puncture marks from where the dragon had taken off silver runes appeared in a band around the widest part. I had no idea what to make of it and hoped they would stay there so I could show the guys, providing I could figure out how to get back to them.
The dragon circled away from me in the water and for a moment I lost sight of the little thing. Its scales seemed to blend too easily with the floor, so it was only as it was shooting toward me like a rocket that I could differentiate it from its surroundings again. When it didn't slow down, I took a step back, then another.
The calm that I had noticed when I first entered the water found me again, soothing the panic that had been rising. With a last flap of its wings the baby dragon shot out of the water and aimed itself directly at my chest. The calming sensation was overwhelming as I watched it fly toward me at top speed.
I didn't even flinch as it impacted and seemed to sail through me. I wasn't immune from the impact though. When I would have flinched and tried to run, I stood and took the blow even as it knocked me into the water.
As I fell back, I felt the water accept me like the arms of a parent accepted a child. Even though I saw red cloud the water above me as I sank to the bottom, the panic still didn't set in. It was only as I fought not to exhale that the calm feeling that had been growing in intensity couldn't keep up with the feverish panic that was shooting through my chest.
Although I tried to fight it, eventually I gave up and released my breath, fully preparing myself to drown again at that moment. I was sick of almost drowning. A scream bubbled out of me as I exhaled.
When I thought I would be breathing in a lungful of water... I didn't. I felt the water fill my mouth, but instead of going into my lungs it seemed to go elsewhere. I still wasn't panicking anymore thanks to the weird calming water, and as I took another breath and waited for the drowning sensation to hit me again it still didn't. It was a second later when I realized that I was actually breathing underwater.
A huge grin spread over my face.
I was like the Little Mermaid or something, only without the mermaid bit. My hand came up to touch my neck, and I felt gills there, just like Finn had, as they fluttered against my fingertips. It should have grossed me out or freaked me out or something, but all I actually felt was excitement.
As I blinked my eyes, I began to realize that not only did I have gills but there was some kind of third eyelid that was covering my eyeball. It was a thin membrane that seemed to be protecting my eye from the water and also making it easier to see. I did a somersault and just twisted around in the water for a second relishing this new sensation.
When I stood up I was scared that I wouldn't be able to breathe, but a flexing feeling in my neck let me know that the gills had withdrawn. I confirmed with my hand and found nothing except smooth skin. The dragon was back as well, swimming around in the water. I didn't know if that made it a temporary thing or not.
Evidently while I'd been playing in the water, a doorway had decided to appear. If nothing else had happened that day, then that might have freaked me out, but honestly, at that point, it was the least impressive thing to have occurred, which made me want to giggle. I suddenly felt a little too close to losing my shit, and not in a cathartic way either, in the I can't handle all this weird shit anymore way.
I moved toward the doorway, which was more of an archway than anything else. When I was close enough to slip through, I looked over my shoulder and saw the baby dragon watching me. I was torn. Did it have a caretaker? Did it need one? If I just left would it be okay?
"Do you want to come with me?" I asked, unsure if it could even understand me.
The tiny creature, well, tiny for a dragon anyway, chirped like a cat and flew happily toward me. I braced for impact, but it never came. Instead, all I felt was the prick of its claws as it alighted on my shoulder. When I turned to look, it wasn't there.
My shoulder was empty, and yet my skin was changing. A big tattoo-looking mark was appearing on my skin, and there was a metal band around my upper arm that was copper in color with a blue stone in the middle, similar to the one I held in my hand. I tried to slide it off, but when I did so the tattoo disappeared with it, and a very annoyed baby dragon appeared in front of me.
"This links you to me?" I asked.
The dragon made a sound similar to a cat purring but deeper, followed by a small hissing yip type sound and flew toward me again. Without the band on my arm, he just sat on my shoulder and bit at my hair.
"Okay, okay!" I laughed and put the bangle back on my arm, clutching the stone with the runes on it tightly in my hand, before walking into the darkness ahead of me. I wasn't sure where it led, but I trusted that with the dragon by my side I would make it back to my guys, and if not then I'd deal with whatever else came my way.
I could breathe underwater. I had a dragon living within my skin. It felt like I could handle anything in that moment, but the only thing I wanted was a hug from Finn and Griff. I just hoped I could find them and they weren't stuck back in the throne room or something.
