Excerpt from Kelise's Beginning (Pt. 2) by Kelsey

When I awoke, the dragon was gone. I sat up and looked around. Someone had brought me into the hallway, out of the cold. Several torches were lit. I thought I was alone until someone cleared their throat. 

I spied a tall, willowy woman leaning against the entrance to the balcony. She was about twenty; she had a mane of blond curls that looked as if she hadn’t had a chance to brush them when she was called from bed. The woman wore a emerald green bathrobe over a long, white nightgown. She was watching me with shrewd brown eyes. 

I carefully got to my feet; I was still shaky. “Who are you?” I asked. 

“My name is Agnis Miginney, but most call me Aggie.” the woman said. “How do you do?” 

“Um, okay, I guess.” 

Her English is a little to formal for it to be her normal language. I thought. 

Aggie started down the hall and beckoned for me to follow. “Follow me please.” 

“I’m not following a stranger in a weird place like this!” I said. “Where am I? What the heck am I doing here? Is this a dream?”

“You are in the Dragon Kingdom. As to why you are here, that is not my place to tell you.” 

“The Dragon Kingdom? Seriously?? That is definitely a stupid dream name.” 

“You aren’t dreaming, K; this is real.” 

“Of course you’d say–wait, what did you just call me?” 

“He told us that your father called you K; I assumed that was your name. 

“Wait, Kay as in K–A–Y, or K as in the letter K?” 

“I do not know; I’ve never seen it spelled out.” 

“My name is Kelise; only my family ever calls me K. How do you know my nickname? Even for a dream, it’s out of the ordinary.”

“Come with me, please.” Aggie said, beckoning me once again. 

“No! I’m not following you anywhere!” I turned and ran.

I raced down similar hallways of stone. I opened doors, searching for a staircase of some kind, but I found only bedrooms and closets. I was delighted to discover a narrow, winding staircase behind a door I thought would conceal a closet. I came to a hall with soaring ceilings at the bottom of the stair. Long tables stood along walls with towering stain-glass windows. I banged through the double-doors at the end, coming into an enormous hall, almost empty of furniture. 

I saw a huge set of double doors, one of which was slightly ajar. I looked around me, but it didn’t seem as if I’d been followed. I slipped past the door; I was outside! I ran through a stone courtyard, out to a gravel path that led across sprawling grounds. The moonlight shone like daylight, illuminating a high metal gate.

I shook the gates, but they refused to open. I ran to the walls, but I didn’t have the upper body strength to pull myself up the eight feet to the top. I ran back to the gates and shook them again. 

A man looked up at me from the doorway of a house. 

“Help!” I said. “Help me!” 

The man’s brow crinkled. “Tahw era uoy gniyas, egnarts lrig?” he called. 

“What?” I whispered numbly. “What language is that? No one speaks another language in a dream, especially one I don’t know.”

I kind of lost it. I sunk to my knees and started crying. This wasn’t a dream; I was in a strange land far from home. I wanted nothing more than to be curled up in my bed at home.

Someone gently touched my shoulder; I was hardly surprised to see Aggie standing there. 

“What do you want with me? I’m just an ordinary girl from Illinois; I’m not anyone special.” 

“You are special, Kelise; it’s just not my place to tell you how.”

“I just want to go home.” I said. 

“I can tell you that all we want is to talk to you. If you’ll just listen to us, I promise you’ll be home by dawn.” 

“I don’t really seem to have a choice.”

Aggie helped me to my feet. The man I had called out to came over to us and asked Aggie a question in that strange language; Aggie responded in kind. The man left, seeming satisfied with whatever she had told him. Aggie led me back up to the castle.