A Long Way Home: Chapter 3

Suzan finds out that the world is stranger than she thought. After a mysterious warrior comes to her rescue, she is pulled into a dangerous circumstance that will change both of their lives forever.

Chapter 3

I looked at Izabela without really seeing her. What was it supposed to mean? All THIS �" I glanced at the serpentine creature �" couldn't be real. I had no idea what was going on, but it just couldn't be real! I admit that I like fantasy books, but to think that I would end up standing in front of a real dragon? This had never even crossed my mind! No, no, no; I had to be crazy.

But wait a minute… If this is real, then they're here illegally! That's why they are hiding in this secluded place! Maybe I should call the police? Yeah, right, and what would I say? "Sir, I wandered into a suspicious area following a girl, who saved my life a few months ago jumping onto a 5th floor of a building in a sado-maso costume, and who then, pretending not to know me, carried a bag full of suspicious substances. I lost her and was just about to go back when a heard an explosion. When I stepped into the house from which a smoke came out I saw a dragon. A sick dragon. It was his sneeze that caused the explosion. I think that he's being kept there illegally." Maybe I should rather go to the psychiatric hospital on my own and save myself the humiliation of being taken out of the police station in a straightjacket.

The dragon sneezed again pulling me out of my thoughts. I didn't know what I would do about him yet, what I know was that I had to get out of there and quick.

"Erm… So… I will… I will just leave now; I don't want to be a bother…" I turned around and ran for the door.

BAM! Something huge and covered in scales and black spikes cut my way out. The dragon's tail. Okay, don't panic. He's weak and ill. He won't hurt you. I lifted my leg to step over the appendage and get outside. My attempt was just as pathetic as the thought that the dragon was too weak to hurt me. The tail lifted from the floor, wrapped around my arms and turned me to face the creature. He was growling menacingly, louder and louder. His jaws slowly opened. I had no idea what he intended to do, but was sure it would not be a friendly hug.

When the roar got so loud it was hurting my ears, the reptile let me go. The rumble turned into weak coughing. He breathed in and coughed so hard he spit out a generous amount of white-hot liquid. At the last moment I managed to jump away and the stream of lava put the door on fire. My eyes bugged out.

Izabela, who was up to this point standing by the door on the other side of the room, put aside the tray, grabbed a pail of water and put out the fire as if it was what she did every day. At the same time I was struggled to get rid of some greenish dragon snot that had spilled out of a tissue during the creature's attempt to stop me. When the fire hazard passed, Izabela walked back to the tray, grabbed something she had previously called seos and approached her pet.

"Many times I asked you to not upset, Lightningale! The medicine will not work. Sinulla on oltava terve! I will talk to her; you take your meds, oma komea kavaljeeri." She was using strange words, talking with an accent unknown to me, and clearly had some problems with my language. It was becoming more and more suspicious.

The dragon, apparently flattered, strode to the tray and started to rummage about, pushing the meds away to reach the tissues. Izabela, seeing as there would be nothing left of the medications if he kept that up, blocked his way so he had to look at her.

"Now," she muttered. The dragon huffed in irritation but opened his mouth. Then the girl poured all kinds of pills in, while adding some purple liquid on top. Lightningale gulped loudly and sent me a grave glance before sauntering off towards his heap of tissues.

"He will sleep some hours now." Izabela gestured to the adjoining room and we moved there.

"I-" I huffed in disbelief at what I had just witnessed. "How come you are here? And what's wrong with him?" I motioned with my head to the next room.

She didn't answer at once. She was just sitting there, looking at the gray world just behind the window, her expression grave.

"We come from outside world. Lightningale is my friend." She was talking slowly, carefully dozing words to me. "We are together always. In our world, we travelled much. One day we fell into hole... in space. I do know not how. I would can take us home if I know. We cannot go back. We stuck, maybe forever. It is not easy. We must live in seclusion and Gale caught some human illness now. I do not know how to help him. It is hard to find dragon medicine here. I'm afraid he do not have much time." She was so solemn and sad telling me this that I started to believe.

"If it's so hard to find medicines then where do you get them from?"

"We are not only 'others' in this world. I finded a someone from our world here. He knows how make medicine. Every week I get more, like today. Then I have to leave Lightningale. I do not like to leave him."

A sound of shuffling interrupted our conversation. A greenish head slipped into the room looking at me with huge eyes. Apparently, Gale wanted to join us. He wasn't growling at me anymore. He gave Izabela a significant look (he appeared to be much more intelligent than I originally thought), scuttled closer and laid down between us with his head turned my way.

"You think we can trust her, Kimpale?"

The dragon emitted something between a snort and a murmur. Was he… laughing? For a moment he was looking at me intently with those big yellow eyes, before he pushed his nose into the hand of mine that was dangling limply beside his head. I think that was supposed to mean 'yes'. The girl laughed quietly. I realized then that Lightningale was a truly fascinating creature.

In spite of his attitude, Izabela still seemed wary of me; I could feel it. She wasn't telling me everything. She must have been afraid that it would be easier for me to harm them if I knew more. As if I could do anything to them. As if I even wanted to do anything.

"I think I should go now. It's getting late and the neighborhood is quite dangerous." I grabbed my bag and stood up.

Izabela shot up from her seat looking at me terrified and the dragon instantly changed his bias. Snarling loudly, he reached the door in a second, blocking my way. I knew what was wrong.

"Calm down. I won't tell anyone. You're safe. At least as far as I'm concerned." Izabela pierced me with her gaze before smiling slightly and fell limply on the chair. The reptile, clearly calmed by her behavior, dropped his wings and went back to the red room, coughing slightly, his tail dragging behind him.

"Can I visit you sometimes?"

"You want to come to so dangerous neighborhood?" Seeing my disappointed face she added mysteriously, "Do not worry, I think we will meet sooner than you think." I had no idea what was that supposed to mean so I just nodded and moved towards the exit. I stopped mid-step as a thought came to my mind.

"If you needed help or something…" I fished out a piece of paper and scribbled my phone number on it, laying it then on a nearby table.

"O.K."

We said no more. I left, Gale's puff escorting me to the door.

Author's Note

English is not my native language, so if you spot any mistakes, please, let me know.

Izabela's language is a quasi-Finnish. I mean, Google-Translated-Finnish. XD I'm sure it's full of mistakes so let's just say it's a totally diferent language based on our Finnish.

For those, who want to know what Izabela is saying, there will be a glossary in each chapter's artist's comments. Of course it would say what we meant for her to say, not necessarily what it really means in Finnish.

This chapter's glossary:

seos - mixture, amalgam

Sinulla on oltava terve! - You must be healthy!

oma komea kavaljeeri - my handsome companion

Kimpale - handsome (noun)