"New Beginning" by Jennifer L. Post

            The girl stood solemnly in the middle of a quiet clearing. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the trees, casting dappled shadows on the carpet-like grass. A blanket, bag of food, and small bundle of clothes lay scattered at her feet. In one hand she held small leather-bound book, its cover so worn that the title was no longer discernable, and in the other she gripped a sword; long and light with silver ivy leaves entwined about the handle. Her clothes where ragged and dirty, covered in bloodstains and scorch marks, and her small lean body was covered in bruises and cuts. Determined green eyes stared up at the sky from a tear stained face and straggly red-gold bangs as the girl raised her sword.

            “In the name of the Great Magician, who has this day brought me alive through hell, I vow to forsake the evil, bloody path of my ancestors and to find the way of light!” Her voice rang through the peaceful woodlands, startling a couple of birds into flight. “And I hereby declare myself Kylana Drago, World Explorer in Training!”

            She stood silent for a moment, lowering her sword, then she smiled. Today was the first day of the rest of her new life; it was time to start exploring! But first she had to get her stuff all packed up. Laying her sword down for a moment, she bent to gather up her few belongings, struggling with them for a moment before finally managing to get all of it, more of less into one pack. Then she slung the pack over her shoulder and picked up her sword.

            “Alright, Now if you could point me in the direction of the way of light Great Magician…” Kylana closed her eyes, held out her sword, and spun around. When she opened them she was facing the thickest part of the forest. “North it is then!”

            A few hours later, she was beginning to doubt her method of choosing directions. The way north was not an easy one, thick brush and sharp bushes abounded and paths were nonexistent. Needless to say, she was quite exhausted by the time the sun started going down; though it was almost completely dark by the time she found a good place to camp. Not even bothering to light a fire, Kylana flopped down under the low hanging branches of a pine tree and quickly fell asleep; trusting the Great Magician to watch over her slumber.

            Apparently He was still with her. Nothing had troubled her little camp, except maybe a couple of curious squirrels, and she awoke late in the afternoon feeling hungry and thirsty; as well as alive and ready for anything. After eating some almost stale bread from her pack, she poked her head out between the branches to take a look at her surroundings. It wasn’t all that much, just a small thicket of scraggily pine trees with tall grass and wildflowers growing in clumps all around. From somewhere off to the left she heard the sound of running water, so she stuffed everything back into her pack, grabbed her sword, and went off to find where it was coming from.

            In next to no time, she found herself at the mouth of a large cave; a small stream running out of it was the source of the sound she had heard. Kylana knelt down and took a long drink from the stream, it was nice and cold. Then she stood up, wiping the water drops off her chin with her hand, took a good long look at the cave, and plunged into it; she was an explorer in training after all.

            The coolness of the dark cave was a welcomed relief from the hot afternoon sun, and the floor was mostly soft sand with very few rocks to stub your toes on in the dark. It seemed a clean sort of cave, no bats, and no stalactites hanging around. As she followed the stream deeper and deeper in, passing through several caverns with multiple tunnels leading out of them, Kylana began to notice a kind of whitish glow coming from the walls. The glow got stronger as she went, until she was able to see very well. She tried to find the source of the light, scrutinizing the walls for several minutes, and finally decided that it must be some kind of mineral in the rock.

            Soon after, she discovered the source of the stream, a big underground lake inside of a humungous cavern. The white glow went all up the walls and became bright specks on the ceiling, making it look like a night full of glorious stars. Crystals of all sorts, uncut amethysts, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, grew right out of the cavern walls, glimmering prettily in the dusky light. Around the edges of the lake, eight pillars made of rose quartz stood like the points of the compass; their naturally elegant curves  appearing to hold up the ceiling, though Kylana knew there was no way they possibly could.

            She was so amazed that she just stood around at the edge of the lake for several minutes with her mouth hanging open, turning slowly around and around to take in everything. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life!

            “Amazing work you’ve done here Great Magician.” She said quietly, feeling just a little awed. The words echoed off the walls all the way up to the roof. “Great Magician….great…magician….cian…cian...an” Kylana covered her mouth, she hadn’t expected that to happen. Suddenly, in the silence following the echoes, she heard a hissing whisper coming from the far side of the cave.

            “Help me! Pleasssse, can you help me?” The resulting echoes were rather creepy, but she heard a note of desperation in the plea; and so she hesitated only a moment before running around the lake edge to the far side. Rounding a pillar, she came abruptly upon a scene that caused a sudden intake of breath and made her eyes go wide.

            Before her lay a relatively young, and very sick male dragon. He was incredibly big, almost fifteen feet long and about eight feet tall; or at least that’s how tall Kylana figured he would be if he could stand up. As it was, the poor dragon was being held down by a huge net-like thing that was staked deep into the rock at several points; restraining him so that he could barely move and couldn’t even reach the edge of the lake to drink. He looked really pale and his many faceted blue eyes were dilated and kind of hazy.

            “Can you help?” he hissed weakly.

            “I can try.” Kylana replied, making her way carefully around the net. She examined the stakes holding it down and found they worked by a small catch which allowed them to be released from the rock. She quickly walked around the dragon, releasing stakes as she went. Finally he was able to slide forward and out from under the net. The freed dragon scrambled a little stiffly towards the lake and took a long, long drink.

            “Ah, thanks so much. They had me trapped under there for nearly a week!” he said finally, in less of a whisper than before and with no hissing. He turned to look at her, his eyes were no longer dilated, though still kind of hazy. “And don’t worry, I would never eat a follower of the Great Magician. Name’s Bremen by the way.” Kylana exhaled with relief and smiled; she had been wondering about that, especially when he said he’d been trapped for a week.

            “Kylana, and that’s very comforting to hear I can assure you Bremen. But who are they?”

            “Knights, two of them; snuck up on me while I was asleep and threw that sstupid net over me, the dirty scumbags!” he scowled, no doubt contemplating what he would have done with the two cowards had he been awake.

            “What the heck!?” came an sudden shocked voice from their left. “Oi, Ros, come and take a gander at this!” The girl and the dragon turned and saw a man wearing a rusty helmet and carrying a big sword standing in a cave entrance nearby. There was a clanking sound as his buddy, Ros, came up next to him. He was wearing leg armor and a rusty breastplate.

            “Well I’ll be blow’d Vog! It’s a girl, pretty one too I’d bet, iff’n she was clean.” He said. Vog nodded. Bremen, who had carefully turned around as the second man came up, put his head down by Kylana’s head.

            “Ere now girlie, what’d you go settin’ that nasty dragon free fer? Don’t ya know that dragons eat pretty lit’le things like you all the time?” Ros said loudly, causing multiple echoes.

            “Give me a bit of time okay?” Bremen whispered as quietly as he could, the knights didn’t seem to have heard him. Kylana nodded, glancing gamely at the two “scumbags” in their miss-matched rusty armor. She had an idea. With a fierce smile on her face she jumped into a fighting stance that she’d seen her father use, brandishing her sword boldly even though she didn’t really know how to use it.

            “Alright, which of you scum do I get to carve up first!?” She called, raising an eyebrow at them and secretly hoping her bluff would work.

            “Whoa now!” Vog said, eyes going wide. “Er, no need to be gettin’ all violent an’ such. We’ll make you a deal, a third of the money from the dragon.” As he spoke, Ros edged closer to Kylana. She swung her sword at him, rather clumsily.

            “Ha! She’s jes’ bluffin’ Vog. She don’t know how to use that big ol’ sword!” The rusty knight sneered. Suddenly there was a hiss and a huge column of steam poured down on the two knights, heating their armor up nicely. They began hopping around and shouting in pain, as Kylana back quickly away.

            “Quick Kylana! Climb up on my back!” Bremen cried, bending down a little so she could reach. She scrambled up as quick as she could and sat between to of the dragon’s neck ridges. Bremen took off past the still hopping duo and headed into the cave entrance behind them. Kylana kept her head low, looking back only once when she heard to loud splashes.

            Before long the two had emerged out into another forest clearing, it had only been three or four hours since Kylana had first entered the cave and the sun was just beginning to dip lower on the horizon.

            “Handy little back door.” Bremen said to himself. “Well, anywhere specific you’d like me to drop you off?” Kylana thought for a moment.

            “Hmm, I’m actually a World Explorer in Training, so anywhere would probably be good.” Bremen grinned, showing all his teeth.

            “World explorer eh? I always that would be an interesting occupation. Mind if I come along?” Kylana smiled.

            “Not at all!”