Chapter three

After they had eaten dinner, Bryony and Amara had put the little ones down for bed as Auntie Collette went straight to her room to sleep. Her days were always hard, so she needed the rest, but that meant Amara and Bryony had to take charge in things, which Bryony didn't mind. She loved that small family, they were like her own family.

Amara was currently laying in her bed with the lamp on, reading her favorite book. She was always up past midnight reading, and most nights Bryony couldn't sleep because of it. Like tonight. Bryony was laying in bed, folding her arms, and staring up at the glowing stars and planets on the ceiling above her bed. She had always loved the stars, she couldn't remember when she got the glowing ones but she knew she had them ever since she was a little girl.

Bryony rolled over and gave Amara a look, even though the girl didn't see her. "Amara, could you please turn the light off and just go to sleep?" Bryony looked at the clock next to her bed, "It's frickin 2 in the morning! How are you never tired in the mornings?"

Amara looked up from her book and over at Bryony as she sat up. "I don't know. Just let me finish this chapter, I'm almost done. Then I promise I will go to bed okay?"

Bryony groaned, flopping back down on her bed, arms above her head. "You always say that and then you don't."

"I will this time." She heard Amara say.

"You always say that too." Bryony mumbled as she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in her soft, warm, pillow.

There was only 3 rooms in the house. Auntie Collette had one, the twins and Greta shared one, and then Amara and Bryony shared the last one. Bryony knew they didn't have enough money to afford a bigger house with more rooms, and she didn't mind this one, but sometimes she had to go out and sleep on the very uncomfortable couch because Amara would stay up super late.

Bryony heard their door open and she sat up to see who was coming in. Amara was still reading her book, not noticing the small child slowly walk in the room. Bryony squinted to try to make out the person, but even with Amara's lamp on, the space next to the door was always dark.

"Bryony?" She heard Greta's quiet voice.

"Hey Greta, what's wrong?" Bryony asked. Amara still hadn't looked up from her book, she probably knew Bryony could handle whatever Greta wanted.

"Can I sleep with you? I'm scared." Greta said, and Bryony could barely make out her clutching her small teddy bear in her small skinny arms.

Bryony nodded even though Greta couldn't see. "Yeah, come here." She patted her bed and Greta immediately walked over and climbed in bed with her. Bryony lifted the blanket up for the little girl to crawl under, before laying down next to her. Greta cuddled up against her, leaning her head on Bryony's shoulder.

"Why are you scared?" Bryony asked her, moving her hair out of her face.

"Dere was a scary man." Greta said.

Bryony blinked three times really fast, confused and trying to figure out what Greta meant. She looked down at the little girl, ready to ask her what she meant, but her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly open, snoring quietly. Bryony never understood how little kids could fall asleep so fast, that would forever be a mystery to her.

She heard Amara squeal and she looked over at her to see her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, and staring at the pages of her book with shock. Bryony sighed. "What now?"

"Parker died!" Amara shrieked and Bryony laughed a little.

"Girl, you have read that book at least thirty times, and everytime you read that part you act like you've never read it before." Bryony said.

Amara finally looked up from her book, hand still covering her mouth and eyes still a little wide. "It still shocks me."

"How?" Bryony asked, shaking her head and giving Amara a look. "That makes no sense."

"Well he is my favorite character, and everytime I read it I'm so into the book that everytime I forget he freaking dies. It's so sad! He never got to apologize to Rosie for breaking her heart and he dies!" Amara said.

Bryony shook her head. "You're so weird."

Ignoring her comment, Amara turned back to her book and started reading it again.

* * *

Bryony layed in bed, staring at the wall across the room, listening to the sounds of Greta and Amara snoring. Amara had went to bed a little while ago, but Bryony still couldn't sleep. She found it weird and annoying, because she always slept like a rock when the light got turned off when Amara was done reading, but tonight she couldn't sleep. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep for a while but finally gave up because it wasn't working.

Greta was on her side, clutching her teddy bear in her arms as she slept. Her hair was covering part of her face since she always rolled around and moved in her sleep. Her mouth was slightly open, and she usually drooled in her sleep so Bryony wouldn't be surprised if she found drool on her pillow in the morning. She would have to wash it, but for now, she let Greta sleep. She didn't want to wake her up, it would be impossible to get her back to sleep once she woke.

"No fuzzy bunnies." Amara said from across the room, making a smacking noice with her lips, and then going back to snoring. She always sleep talked, and sometimes Bryony heard her say really random and weird things, but it wasn't anything she wasn't used to.

Bryony finally sat up, exhaling loudly and dramatically as she turned to look at the window. It was open, allowing the cold air to come in, but Amara never liked the window shut because she claimed to be hot all the time. Bryony had five heavy blankets on her bed because she was always cold, but Greta was greedy and had all of them on her and under her so Bryony was kind of cold. If she tried to take one, Greta somehow always knew and wakes up, throwing a fit. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, slipping her slippers on and then standing up. Her bed creaked and she looked down at Greta as she made a noice, but she was still sleeping.

Amara was asleep, she wouldn't care if the window was shut. Bryony walked over to the window and was about to shut it when she noticed a shadow move across the room, and she froze, arms midair ready to close the window. She heard the floor creak under someones weight and her eyes widened slightly, afraid to turn around to see a monster or something.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes at herself. How could she be so stupid? Monsters didn't exist, that was silly. It was probably one of the twins coming in the room because they're scared too.

"What are you scared of now?" Bryony asked as she turned around. "Monsters?" She giggled at how ridiculous being scared of something that didn't exist was, but then froze. Nothing was there. She could've sworn someone was there, she saw their shadow. Bryony shook her head. She must have been imagining things.

Bryony turned to walk back to her bed, but stopped as she spotted one of her parents old books they always read her as a little girl. Should she? No, she didn't want to read some more lies, but she was really curious to as what they said. She hadn't read them since her parents were taken. Deciding to remember what her parents had told her, she walked over to the book laying open on her drawer. Someone must have been reading it if it was open. She picked it up, reading the pages it was open to.

"...was a beautiful world, filled with magic and wonder. Nobody really knew about it and no human ever set foot there, it was hidden, very hard to find. Until one day a beautiful young girl stepped foot there, nobody knew how she found it but everyone there was curious to how she did. They never met anyone like her, and they were very curious to find out what and who she was." Bryony stopped reading. It sounded like that crappy stuff that end with 'and they all lived happily ever after'. She rolled her eyes and flipped the book to the last page and read the last part.

"They got married and had a beautiful baby girl, and they lived happily ever after. The end!"

Bryony scoffed and rolled her eyes. Stupid fairy tales about princesses and witches and stuff that always ended in that stupid sappy happy endings. It was like reading a childrens book to a little kid. Bryony hated that stuff, she didn't understand why people would write that stuff and lie to innocent children about having happy endings. Not everybody had happy endings, in fact, most people didn't.

Bryony heard the creak of the wooden boards on the floor behind and she froze. She rolled her eyes, turning around to tell the twins to get back in bed, but her eyes widened as she saw who it was.

It wasn't the twins. It wasn't Greta or Amara. It was a complete strange young man, and Bryony's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, but before she could, the young man lunged forward, slapping a hand over her mouth to stop her.

"Shh don't wake the others up." He said but Bryony shook her head, her screams muffled by the young mans hand. Her eyes were wide in terror as she kicked and tried to get away, but his grip was strong.

Am I gonna die? Bryony thought. Is he gonna kidnap me? Murder me?? Oh gosh, this is it. This is the end of my life, I'm gonna die. I haven't even had my first kiss yet!

The young man shook his head, and Bryony could hear a quiet chuckle? "No I'm not going to kill you. You are safe."

Bryony froze and stopped struggling to get away. Wait, how could he read her thoughts? Who was he? What did he want? She tried to talk, but his hand was still over her mouth so it was muffled.

"If I remove my hand, do you promise not to scream?" The young man whispered.

Bryony nodded her head so he slowly removed his hand. As soon as his hand was off her mouth, she screamed, "Amara! Wake u-" the young mans hand was back on her mouth, shushing her as she screamed.

"What?" Amara said, her voice was quiet and tired as she sat up rubbing her eyes and yawning. She looked around the room but the young man had dragged Bryony over to the closet and hid behind the door. Bryony saw Amara look over at where Greta was sleeping and stared at her for a moment before falling back on her bed and falling asleep again. Bryony wanted to scream at her, she didn't even look for her. She went straight back to sleep.

Bryony was trying to scream as she struggled to get away from the young man, but he just held her still. "Stop struggling, I'm not going to hurt you. I was sent to warn you about something. Now, I'm going to let go of you okay?"

Bryony stopped struggling to get away and the young man let go of her. She immediately ran over to Amara. "Amara wake up! There is a man and he is going to murder me! Wake up, I'm going to die!" Bryony tried shaking her but her hand went right through her. She screamed and backed away, staring at her hands.

"They can't hear you or feel you." The young man said. "Since you wouldn't cooperate I had to turn us invisible for a little while."

Bryony turned to look at him as he stepped away from the closet, arms folded, and he was watching her with a small frown.

"What do you mean invisible?" Bryony asked him. "You can't be invisible, that's not real. I can see you."

The young man held his hand out towards her, and Bryony took a step back, nearly tripping over her own feet and falling over as she stared at the bright orange flame moving in his palm. The young man took a step forward, but Bryony shook her head, stepping back again. "Get away from me." She turned to Amara again. "Amara wake up, I need your help! He's going to kill me!"

The young man rolled his eyes and walked over to Bryony, but she hit his chest, trying to shove him away from her. "Get away from me. Don't come near me. Keep you and your stupid magic tricks to yourself."

She tried to push the young man away from her, but his chest was stiff and very hard, and he wouldn't budge no matter how hard she pushed him. She pushed as hard as she could, clenching her jaw shut and squeezing her eyes shut as she did. The young man took a step back, only making Bryony fall forward onto the floor with a yelp of surprise. She folded her arms and looked up, giving the young man the hardest glare she could, but he only smirked.

"You look like a cute pouting child." He said, but that only made her scowl even more and he laughed. "Are you ready for me to tell you why I am here now, or are you going to fail to get me to leave again?"

Bryony made a humph noice as she stood up, still folding her arms and scowling at the young man.

"Okay." He said, taking that as a yes. "My name's Elon." He held a hand out for Bryony to shake, but she didn't touch it. He smiled. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

After a little while, Bryony gave up and reached out to grab his hand. His hand was warm as she shook it, and then he pulled his hand away to search for something in his pocket. Bryony watched him for a moment and that's when she noticed he was actually kind of cute. From what she could see in the dark, he only looked a few years older than her with short dirty blonde hair styled to make him look like one of those bad boys who rode on motorcycles at her school. He was even wearing a black leather jacket. Maybe he was one of those bad boys, but he didn't seem like one, and if he was, why was he even in there? Bryony wondered how he even got inside, but then she remembered the window was open. He could have climbed in through the window. Elon looked up after pulling something out of his pocket and Bryony noticed his eyes were a golden color and they were beautiful. He must have been wearing contacts because nobody had gold eyes.

Elon held a paper out towards Bryony, and she stared at it skeptically. "You'll need this."

She cautiously took it, flipping it over to open it, but Elon grabbed her hand stopping her. "Not now, read it when you most need it."

"What's not supposed to mean?" Bryony asked. "And who the heck are you? What are you doing here? And why are you giving me random letters?"

Elon bowed his head. "My father, the king, sent me to get you. He said you're the one who can find the last dragon born and bring peace back to our world. He said your parents were the guardians in our world and took care of everything, but when the dragon knight took them, our land fell into darkness. He killed all the dragons and only one survived and he is trying to search for it to get rid of it. The dragons bring peace towards our world, helping keep everything under control, without them and without you, our world will forever fall. My father said our guardians had a daughter that they were raising to be the next guardian."

Bryony just stared at Elon, and after a moment started to laugh. He looked up at her with a very confused look that made him look even cuter. "What's so funny?"

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." Bryony laughed, but Elon didn't find it funny at all. He seriously looked super confused which only made her laugh even more. "Dragons? Kings? I mean come on, tell that to a kid and they'll believe you. That stuff doesn't exist, it's stupid lies to make children go crazy."

Elon shook his head. "It's not stupid and they aren't lies. Your parents read you stories didn't they? They told you everything about the magic in the world and you believed them."

Bryony suddenly stopped laughing, remembering that he mentioned her parents. "How do you know my parents?"

Elon folded his arms. "My father knew them. I only ever met them a couple times, they told us all about you. The dragon knight took them and stopped them from protecting our world. Now, he can take control of our world and torture those poor creatures and kill them off. We need your help Bryony, daughter of Amos and Paola. You need to find them and bring them back to bring back the magic and peaceful feeling of our world. Right now it's falling apart and innocent creatures are dying. Sickness is spreading and killing all innocent creatures and the last dragon born is nowhere in sight. We have searched but couldn't ever find him. We need your help."

Bryony's eyes widened after hearing her parents name. He really did know her parents, but how? Nothing he said made sense and wasn't true. He was lying, but not about her parents. What kind of drug business were her parents into? They really were crazy. She didn't know anything about them except the few memories she held tightly onto, but turned out they were crazy drug addicts. Know wonder they told her crazy stories about magic and such, they were insane and needed to be put in a asylum or something.

Bryony pointed an accusing finger at Elon. "What drugs are you on? Were my parents selling drugs? You look too young to be doing drugs, they're bad for you."

Elon shook his head, running his hands in his blonde hair, making it messy as he sighed. "Bryony look, I know you must think this is all crazy, but it's true. I even showed you a little magic, what more do you want? What do I have to do to convince you to come and help?"

Bryony took a deep breath and then slowly let it out. "You have to do nothing, because you are going to leave. Thank you for inviting yourself over and scaring the crap out of me. I really appreciate that." She tried shoving him towards the window but he wouldn't move. "Oh come on, why won't you just leave? You are not supposed to sneak into someone's house, especially a strangers. I could call the police and they can arrest you."

Elon folded his arms. "But you can't because you can't touch anything right now."

Bryony scowled at him, remembering that somehow he pulled a dumb magic trick on her to make it so she couldn't touch anything. Nobody could hear her either except Elon. "Just turn me back to normal and be on your way." She said.

Elon shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. If I turn you back and put everything back to normal, you will listen to what I have to say and come help us. Deal?"

"No." Bryony exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "I am not going somewhere with a stranger. Especially a stranger dealing with drugs. You're crazy, you're family is probably crazy, and everyone is crazy. Get out and leave me alone."

Elon sighed. "Fine, but this is your choice and if our world falls completely, all hope gone, it will be your fault. Your parents wouldn't forgive you for failing our world. Your world. They were teaching you to help protect it, and now you want it to he destroyed? They would be disappointed in you."

"First, this world is everybody's, nobody is in charge of anything except the president. Second, my parents don't want me, they left me to fend for myself so why would they care about anything I did? Third, they wouldn't ever forgive me of anything because they don't even know what I have done in my life. They don't know what is happening in my life right now and they never will because they're gone. And who cares if they're disappointed in me up in heaven of the things I have done, it's my life and I make my own choices." Bryony said.

"They didn't leave you." Elon said. "They were taken. Nobody knew what was coming until it was too late. We need your help Bryony, Aven needs your help. Your parents need your help."

"Okay um, I don't even know what an Aven is. Is it some kind of drug?" Bryony asked.

Elon scowled at her. He actually scowled, and folded his arms. "Aven is not a thing. He is a person, well sort of, and he is the last of his kind. Nobody has seen him since he was a baby, but my father thinks you can find him and help him bring back the peace and light to our world. You need him to help you find your parents. He has a horrible connection between the dragon knight that he can use as an advantage to find him and get your parents back."

Bryony snorted. "You really are dumb. Ha ha ha, whoever this Aden is, he is not the last person. You and I aren't some kind of goat, we are humans too. In fact, if you weren't blind by drugs you would see that the whole world is full of people." Bryony started laughing a little. "You are the dumbest person ever, I'm sorry, but you need to leave."

"First, "Elon said and took a step forward, "It's AVen, not ADen. Second, I'm not dumb Bryony. You're the dumb one who lost all connection with magic. You shut it out, pretending its drugs that are making people crazy and believe in this stuff, when really, deep down you know its true. You know your parents weren't crazy, you know magic is real. You once believed when you were a little girl, but after your parents got taken from you, you shut that part of yourself out, afraid you'll turn out just like them. Disappear, with nobody knowing where you went."

Bryony just stood there, staring at the floor as she heard Elon walk over to the window. She looked up when she heard him climb out, and he gave her a nod. "The time will come when you find yourself again. I wish you the best and I hope you make the best choice." With that, he was gone, and Bryony ran to the window looking down, but she didn't see him. He was already gone.