Page 14 of Stolen By Dragons

The room fell silent as the reality of the situation began to sink in. Those who had been arguing moments before now looked shaken, the fight draining out of them as they faced the undeniable evidence before them.

Elowen stepped forward again, her voice gentle but firm. "I know this is difficult to accept. It goes against everything you've believed about your world. But the blood you carry, the heritage within you, is more powerful than you realize. It is the key to defeating the Void."

She paused, her gaze moving from person to person, making eye contact with as many as she could. "You are capable of morethan you know. With training, with guidance, you can awaken abilities you never dreamed possible. And together, we can face this threat."

Aria sank back into her seat beside me, her body trembling slightly. I reached out and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze as my wolf rumbled quietly. She looked at me, her brown eyes wide with a mix of fear and unease.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered, as much to reassure myself as her. “We’re in this together.”

She nodded, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Together," she echoed.

As I looked around at the now subdued crowd, I could see the fear in their eyes, but also the beginnings of acceptance. We were afraid, yes, but we were also the only hope for two worlds. And somehow, that made the impossible task before us seem just a little more achievable. It had to be.

I glanced at Aria, seeing the conflict in her eyes. The thought of being thrust into a war against an unimaginable evil, with our return home hanging in the balance – it was almost too much to bear. Yet beneath the fear and shock, I could see a spark of something else. Resolve, perhaps?

"We're the only ones who can do this," Aria whispered, more to herself than anyone else. "We have to fight if we ever want to go home."

Her words, soft as they were, stirred something within me. A sense of purpose, of duty, began to overshadow the fear and uncertainty. I looked around at our little group – Zephyr's face set in grim determination, Lydia's eyes shining with unshed tears but her jaw clenched, and Aria, small, human, and terrified.

None of us had asked for this, and yet here we were, thrown into something we couldn’t have ever imagined.

I took a deep breath, feeling the wolf inside me rise to the challenge. "Then we fight," I said, my voice low but firm. "Together. And we'll find a way back home."

As murmurs of agreement spread through the hall, I realized that this moment marked the true beginning of our journey. We were no longer just displaced beings in a strange realm. We were the last line of defense against an incomprehensible evil, the guardians of two worlds, and our only ticket back home.

The road ahead would be difficult, perhaps even impossible. But as I sat there, surrounded by my newfound companions, I felt a flicker of hope. Whatever came next, we would face it as one, with the promise of returning home driving us forward.

6

OSSIAN

The hunger clawed at my insides, a ravenous beast demanding to be fed. It had been mere hours since the dragon had snatched me from the streets of New York, just as I was about to begin my nightly hunt. Now, in this strange realm of Dracaria, my carefully scheduled feeding time had come and gone, leaving me with an aching, gnawing emptiness.

I paced the length of my chosen quarters, my footsteps silent on the polished stone floor. This place was unlike anything I'd experienced in my long centuries of existence. The air itself seemed to hum with magic, a sensation that both intrigued and unsettled me.

Pausing at the window, I gazed out at the alien landscape bathed in the light of unfamiliar stars. The events of the past day swirled in my mind - the dragon's appearance, the journey through the portal, the revelations in the dining hall. It all seemed too fantastical to be real, despite the evidence of my own senses.

A fresh wave of hunger washed over me, and I grimaced. I needed to feed, and soon. But how? The Dracarians had been maddeningly vague about providing for our "unique dietary needs," as they so delicately put it during my venture to the dining hall before our dinner revelation.

The attendant's face had twisted in poorly concealed disgust. "We're still working on the best way to accommodate your kind," he had said, his tone making it clear exactly what he thought of "my kind." "We'll let you and the other vampires know as soon as we have an option for you. From our understanding, you can survive without feeding for a while."

I had nodded, unsurprised by the disdain and the lack of urgency. It was nothing new. Vampires had always been viewed with a mixture of fear and revulsion, even among other supernatural beings. Still, the familiar sting of rejection was there, compounded by the gnawing hunger that they clearly didn't understand or care about.

As I contemplated my options, my mind drifted back to the scene I'd witnessed in the communal room earlier. The human girl, Aria, as I'd heard someone call her, had been deep in conversation with a werewolf and fae. I had investigated some of the books in the communal area, unimpressed to find none of them were a language I knew, but my vampiric hearing had caught snippets of their discussion.

Their voices had been low, tinged with worry as they discussed the Void and the implications of Elowen's revelations. The werewolf had been muttering about the impossibility of returning home, while the fae had been none too please to be tossed into a war he didn’t want any part in.

I was right there with him, despising this whole situation.

Aria had looked overwhelmed, her face pale in the flickering light of the room. "It's just... it's a lot to take in," she had murmured, her voice trembling slightly. "This Void, the idea thatwe can't go home... it's crazy. Yesterday, I was worried about seeing all my clients, and now we're told the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance? It doesn't feel real."

She had paused, picking at one of her nails anxiously. "And the others... did you see how quiet Lydia was when she left after dinner? She's clearly upset about her family. I can't imagine what she's going through. All of us, really. We're just... regular people. How are we supposed to save the world?"

The raw emotion in her voice had been understandable, a mix of fear and disbelief.

How quickly our lives had been upended, thrust into a reality that defied everything we’d known.

I couldn't help but agree with her assessment. This whole situation was insane, even by the standards of someone who'd lived through multiple "end of the world" scenarios.

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