The Elemental Chain Saga Book Two: Dragons Ascending

Chapter Seven: Sybil's Promise

Mathias felt himself floating. He knew what was coming but his heart still began to beat like a drum. And then it started.

The darkness pressed in around him. He wasn't there in substance but he could still feel the oozing cold slide over him, enveloping him in darkness. He shuddered as the darkness closed around him completely. And then the voices rose from the dark mist hauntingly; bellowing and wailing.

When the time comes we shall rise up once more and take the land
The land...

The voices all droned in agreement. Mathias' blood chilled. Rise again, he thought in terror. They rose before?

The land shall be ours
The One shall fall

That was new. The One shall fall, Mathias thought in terror. Who was the One? And then they broke out in pitched wails as they sung their horrid lament:

Death shall come and strike the land
The kingdom shall fall by it's own hand
A promise of hope will cast the dice
The blood of One will only suffice

And as their wails echoed on and the last line of their song was sung, a pair of glowing blue eyes stared at him, malice rolling from the narrow gaze. Mathias screamed, a pain like no other racking his body, hi blood boiling like lava, the pan swelling inside him. His screams rent the air. And even louder was a hollow laughter that echoed forth.

And then, just as Mathias felt like he could stand no more, the dream shifted and Mathias felt himself shift as well, leaving the darkness and the eyes behind.

A towering tree stood as lightning flashed behind it, forked flashes streaking across the sky. The wind was at gale force and the branches whipped in the wind, the wood creaking eerily. As Mathias watched, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and a beam of shadows exploded down from the heavens with it, bending the lightning around its column, the jagged bolt spiraling around the wrath of black.

And as the shadows pierced the clouds, the world around Mathias exploded into black nothingness.
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Mathias woke with a fright, his heart thundering like Lotus's hooves when she sprinted. He clutched his chest and felt his heartbeat slow after awhile.

Mathias clambered from his sleeping bag. He shivered from the cold, even though a fire burned in the center of the pavilion, the flames crackling pleasantly in the hearth. He walked over to where his sister's slumbering form lay.

"Sib," Mathias whispered as he rocked his sister.

Sybil's eyes flicked open, a look of annoyance spreading across her face as she noticed the person who had interrupted her sleep was none other than her kid brother. She stretched up into a sitting position "What in the world do you want, Mathias? And at this godforsaken hour at that!?"

"I had the dream again" he confessed, ignoring his sister's scorn.

Sybil sighed, her eyes softening "Alright, pull your sleeping bag over, then."

Mathias carried the sleeping bag over and laid it on the ground besides Sybil's before crawling into it, snuggling beside her. "It was one of the worst," Mathias said fearfully. "All of their voices sounded so close. And the darkness. It was all around me, all over me," he shivered as he relived the nightmare.

"I'm sorry, Mathias, but you know how it is. All males of royalty get the dreams until they're crowned. Dad did before he was made king and now you do. I don't know if it will ever end for you, because you're not the heir to the throne."

Mathias shook his head solemnly "But the nightmare is so horrid, so real! I can't live with this. What does it mean!?"

Sybil gave her brother a sympathetic look "Look, Matty, I don't know. No one does and I doubt a ten year old is going to figure it out." She hugged Mathias close before he could protest. Mathias blushed a little; Sybil wasn't usually one for much sentiment, except when it came to Lloyd, of course. She continued as she held him "I promise you you'll find a way to stop it. And I promise you, no matter how bad the dream is, reality will never be that bad. Alerdreamia won't let it happen."

And with that, Mathias found sound sleep besides his sister. But at the back of his mind a voice nagged on, what are you going to do to prevent their rise?
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