章節 2: One Sided Deals
Consciousness came slowly to Kaleb as he awoke to his nightmare. He opened his eyes to find himself staring up at the open blue sky, the sun shining overhead forcing him to squint. All he saw was blue sky and sand. As he rolled to his side he gave an involuntary groan as his agonized body protested such punishment. Taking stock of the newly discovered condition of his body, Kaleb found nasty scrapes from his left shoulder down to his wrist and more from a little above his knee down to his ankle. His nose was swollen, but he couldn't tell if it was broken, and to top it off, he had a horrid headache accentuated by the glaring sun.
Once Kaleb knew he was not in any immediate medical danger he took stock of his surroundings. He was currently sitting on a sand dune, thinking he had perhaps been launched onto the beach he looked around for the ocean. A full rotation revealed no water...or any other notable land marks of any kind. All Kaleb saw were sand dunes as far as the eye could see.
"Finally, you are awake"
Kaleb's eyes went wide as he spun around again, all the while feeling this deep and melodious voice resonating inside his mind.
Seeing nothing, he wondered 'Have I gone crazy', which would explain the strange things that seemed to be happening.
'You have not gone crazy' the voice in his mind replied.
'Then where is this place? And who are you? Why can I hear you in my head?' Kaleb began listing all the questions that he felt he needed answered in order to sort out his current situation. 'And what was that rift? Was it targeting me specifically or was it just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?' he continued to drone on.
'SILENCE!' the voice roared. 'Is your mind broken you pathetic mortal!?'
"Pathetic mortal?" Kaleb repeated. His face showing a surprised, yet amused expression. He had never heard someone speak such weird things so seriously.
The problem was that this was how Kaleb's mind worked, much to the frustration of his family and friends. He took in situational information and tried to find the best solution. The benefits were that he would almost never panic as his mind was too rational for that.
He also had a very high mental endurance as he would work on a problem until it was solved, sometimes almost obsessively. It was what had made Kaleb such an effective programmer. Oddly it was also this mind set that lead to a high amount of confidence that was considered unusual for someone like Kaleb. Kaleb had a solid grasp of his strengths and weaknesses and was very comfortable with who he was.
'Enough!' the voice continued 'This is what you need to know, for now. I am one of the few remaining Dragons. I was on the brink of death and used the last of my power to send my soul and consciousness to one of the remnants of my dragonborn. Which I can only assume is you.' the Dragon said with disdain.
'I'm afraid you've made a mistake, I'm not a dragonborn, just a human' Kaleb said calmly.
The voice sighed 'Unfortunately for the both of us, you are. One of your ancestors must have been a dragonborn. Which means that you have dragon blood in your veins, although it has been so diluted you are no better than an ordinary human.'
'And why would you want to be attached to a dragonborn in the first place?'
'I need a vessel to carry my soul to the Dragon Spring so I can be resurrected' the Dragon replied 'and only a dragonborn can be used as a vessel for my soul.'
'Why should I help you?' Kaleb asked.
He could almost feel the Dragon spirit smirk as he arrogantly boasted 'I can give you power, riches, even immortality, once I am restored. Though we will need to work on the power problem before then, as I doubt that you would survive the journey in your current state.'
'That sounds like quite the undertaking, and as you mentioned I'm just an ordinary human.' Kaleb said casually as he stood up and began to dust himself off, 'so why don't you pick a better qualified dragonborn and send me back to my world?'
'So you've already realized you're not on your planet anymore? You may be smarter than I thought.' The Dragon chuckled.
Kaleb had made the connection quite some time ago. The portal pulling him through to a desert, the dragon spirit residing in him and the fact that he was currently looking at two moons visible in broad daylight. All made for a pretty clear picture that Kaleb wasn't on his dragon free, one moon having planet anymore.
'Well, unfortunately it's too late,' the Dragon continued 'as I said, I used up the last of my power to find and connect with you. I can neither go to a new dragonborn nor open a portal for you to go back.'
'If you were able to open a portal there are others who can do it too, right?' Kaleb pondered.
'Aren't you overlooking the fact that we would still be connected in that scenario? Anyways, it doesn't matter, the only ones capable of such a feat are the gods. The human gods hate anything to do with dragons, they'll most likely kill you before you can even ask, and the dragons and other beast gods have no reason to expend such power for you.' The Dragon said amusement in his voice, 'If you're so obsessed with going back home then I'm your only hope, but...you'll have to restore me first.'
'So you're saying that the reward for restoring your life is simply to undo the damage that you've already done to mine?' Kaleb asked with disgust.
'Unless you have a better offer' The Dragon laughed with an evil chuckle.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票