Chapter 2 - The true power

Sydney gets into the separate reality where he meets other people and learns how the world is being ruled

CHAPTER 2 - THE TRUE POWER

The big bang - this is how one can explain the feeling while entering the tube. White shine in my eyes completely blocked my vision but still I had control over my body. Two figures, the numbers were everywhere: zeros and ones. It is a binary code. Me in binary. Billions of trillions on figures contain the information about everything about me: my body, all the cells, DNA and all that could have influenced the movie and insertion in the virtual universe. The green numbers in the black space - what can be more depressing?  After a little while the world became completely snow-white. Nothingness. This is how the death looks like. However, in surprise, I was able to think clearly and still hear the voices of personnel in the lab. It boosted my courage and gave me for sure an exact proof that was still alive.

  For a first time I wanted to live, live longer. Life is a gift and one is responsible for it. “Suicide does not give you a present” Mr. Klebnitz told me on the bridge. And it was exactly right. Enjoy your life as it is right now. It could have possibly been worse.

  The shine gradually became less bright and I started to see some random objects that did not make any kind of sense to me. Those were perfect grey cubes with right angles. This was a first stage of generating the reality. Soon, a huge and painful flash of light hit my eyes.

  The blankness was everything, Everything was nothing. What do you feel when you sleep? Nothing, same here. You don’t understand that you exist and the dream becomes real to you. I got anxious. What if I am dead right now? Am I still alive? My heart increased again twice in size compared to the bridge event (which I like to call like that). And again smash, smash, smash of light.

“Wake up, son, we have to go. Today is a great day.”  Somebody said on the background, I could not see a thing. The white noise and the world were empty.

“What is happening, who are you?” I asked and opened my eyes, yawing at the same time. I saw a tall man in a red royal suit with a crown on his head. He was about to sit down on my bed but then he changed his mind, took a chair and sat beside me. He kindly smiled and said “Today is a great day, Ish. You were waiting for it all your entire life.”

My room was colored mostly in blue, with clay installments on the ceiling. The statues of some random people were standing beside the big fireplace that was probably burning all the night long. The pictures of landscapes and luxurious sofas were definitely enhancing the overall appearance of my room.

“I am sorry, who are you?” I moaned, I was unable to speak clearly because of my continuous shock, although, I could already see. “May you tell me your name?”

“Son, relax, I brought you some breakfast to eat” He grabbed a trolley and passed it to my bed. “Imagine, today, in front of all our citizens…”

“May you tell me your name!” I said loudly, “I cannot understand what are you talking about.” But he just kissed me in my cheek and left the room and I heard him saying something to the servant. I got up from my bed and I was dressed up unusually, well, everything was unusual. And, the most important: Real. The definition of reality may be tricky, for example, our own interior reality might be slightly different from other perspective. Let’s say a barman sees alcohol drinks as his way to earn money. This is his reality. A friend company, who comes into that club, wants to order 5 Martini, for the friends - alcohol is fun.

I put on my shirt and my golden boots. I did not know why I put them on, probably it was a sudden “want”. The clothes were so soft that I began to shiver, caused by joy. Have not put anything clean on for a while, I guess. I looked around again and everything staid at the same place “Am I dreaming?” I yelled.

“You’d better be!” The servant yelled back coming in the room “Your father is waiting for you, eat breakfast immediately and wash your hands!” She was definitely obese and her clothing almost stretched up to an Extra-extra-extra-large size. She had brown hair and a typical American face. I got confused but answered “Oh, Fine, I will eat it.”

“What is happening to you?” My servant dumbfounded “You listen to me?”

“Uh…” I moaned “Yes, why not?”

“Oh, Lord!” She screamed and started dancing on her fat legs “Ish listens to me! Thank you, Lord! You heard my preys!”

“Well,” I thought “At least, she is happy.” I had a seat in my red leather armchair and grabbed a plate with broccoli and spaghetti. My favorites! The servant was gone but I still heard her dancing, because from each step she has made, a shockwave pulsed out for the nearest 50 meters. I was eating so fast, my stomach asked for more food and I picked another plate with the soup. It was gone in a minute and the dessert was up to be thrown inside my belly. Then, I noticed my servant staring at me with a feeling that something wrong happens.

“Ish, tell me the truth!!!” She yelled and suddenly calmed down. She freaked me out so I dropped a spoon on the floor. “What kind of grass did you smoke last night?” and she continued while approaching me “Look in my eyes!!!” she yelled again extremely loud “Do I look like a stable person?! I am Marina! And I, listen to me, I am the boss in this room!”. I got frightened, but the nice breakfast, that was already digesting, some kind of made me stay balanced in my emotions.

“Relax…” I started and tried to recall her name “…Merry! I am fine. And your breakfast is great. I just need to finish my dessert and I will be up for necessary stuff that we need to do.”

“I am… I am watching you.” She turned back and happily leaved my room. I continued eating my delicious blueberry dessert and Marina rapidly turned back to check me again, antagonistically pushing her eyeballs out on me. I waved my arm saying “I am fine, Marina. You may leave!” I put my right leg on the left one and sat like a boss. She left and I went into a state of extreme laughter. I laughed out loud so loud, so probably the custodians asked guards to check my room. I ran to the window, opened it and looked outside. The panorama that I saw was unforgettable. The mountains on the back, a huge medieval city made mostly out of wood, the industrial square, some gardens arranged in a specific manner that I did not understand by that time; basically - an enormously beautiful place to live in.

“Ish!” somebody said behind me. I turned around and I saw a boy, shorter than me, dressed in the same manner as I was. I looked at him and smiled. He was a very cute boy, blonde hair,  “Hey, brother, want to hunt today? I know what you will say, No!” He jumped on one place standing right in front of me. “Cause you have this thing to present to our honorable citizens. These undereducated creatures are more important than our communication!”

“Uh, brother, stop telling me about hunting and other stuff. I need answers! Explain me what is happening!” I demanded pulling his arm

“Yeah,” he continued “Of course, Lokkie is not important! Ish has a coronation today and he does not care about me and our decisions that we have made togeth- ”

“Coronation?!” I exclaimed promptly after I realized what he had said “What the hell is happening here? I do NOT understand any single thing that happens today!”

“I see,” he commenced “I think you are on drugs, but I will tell you. So, you are my brother.” He stopped to be sure that I realize what he had said before. “Your name is Ish, My name is Lokkie.” He stopped again, staring dazedly in my eyes and I nodded in response. “You, are older than me, I am 14.” He decided to stop again but I got shocked hearing all the stuff that he said. He backed up a little bit and continued “Are you really stupid or just pretending to be like that?”

“Lokkie, yes, I do have a problem.” I confessed in a pity manner. He showed his curiosity via his cute face and it meant for me to continue. “I think I have an amnesia, I remember only my name.”

“Ha-ha-ha!” He laughed “That was a good trick, and I almost thought that you are doing that for real!”

“No, wait, Lokkie!” I said “I really don’t remember anything.” He decided that I am a joker and left my room jumping from one foot to another. I thought that following him may give me some beneficial results; I even did not know how to escape the palace, although, there were no adequate reasons to do that. I heard Marina coming in the hall and approaching to my door, I quickly put on my crown, made some type of order on my bed and was standing still beside it. “Oh, If you did not finish your brea- AH!” She froze on one place and then Marina started looking around my room to spot something bad, that she could blame on me. He turned around and slowly stepped out back in the hallway whispering “I knew, Lord, you exist!”

I ran to her, and said “What are we up to today, Marina?” She silently looked at me and replied “Come on, boy, let’s show you something.” Marina escorted me to a hall, which was the most beautiful place, probably on the whole Earth. Some paintings decorated the walls and the floor was definitely made out of a very expensive turquoise stone. We went downstairs where I saw Lokkie and the man that woke me up that day.

“Ish” He started “Here you are. We have a lot of time until we start…”

“Start what?” I interrupted the man “And who are you?” I got a bit embarrassed because I recalled that the man called me son in my bedroom.

“Son,” he replied “Today, is a memorable day for our country. You, son of the king will become the next leader of Sandrouge. I am the forty ninth king, And I " Aevar Godrickson, am going to retire tonight, because you will rule this country.” I got amazed by all the things that I have heard and everybody looked serious, so it gave me confidence that it happens in real life.

“Your Majesty!” The guard covered in some red and funny armor ran into the hall, “I need you to decide what to do with the captives! Right now!”

“I have no time to do that” Aevar said “Let Ish do that, anyway today he becomes our new king.”

“Okay,” and I followed the guard, I looked back and I saw everybody staring at me and Lokkie whispered “What does Okay mean?” All others were confused too and Marina pushed Lokkie demanding him to go back to his room.

The way to the prison took us a while and I tried to spot anything I could. Everything looked realistic and it did not seem to be inside a computer. I was connected to my own mind who made me and others inside. The trip into the dark ended soon and we entered the prison, which was located down below the castle, obviously the darkest place in it. Not all kinds of prisoners were there, only royal captives who are waiting for the execution: assassins, bullies, serial killers and rebels. We went into a separate location inside it and I saw a cage with a lot of creatures inside.

“Here we go.” The guard told me “What you want to do with them.”

“Who are they?” I asked “What is that?”

“Dragon rebels, they attacked the city hall last week.”

“Why?” I responded heading to the cage

“Who knows, I don’t speak draconic. Ask them. You know it.” The guard stepped out of the room but still was watching me. I turned back to him and demanded to him to leave me alone. He promptly walked away.

“Tyrant!” one dragon whispered

“What did you say?” I came closer to the cell

“Come here and we will tear your body into small pieces!” The same voice appeared again.

I did not know what to answer, so I said “Okay, what happened there?”

“You are a tyrant.” The small blue dragon came out of the darkness, he was about four feet long with three horns on his head and the forth was probably torn off. “You, humans, just care about yourselves and do not respect us!”

“Wait, you, you, you…” I stood on one place saying each word stammeringly, “you can talk?”

“Of course I can. The more appropriate question would be: Can I really speak Draconic?”

“Stop! You mean I speak Draconic language right now?”

“Yes you do.” The same dragon replied

“Ooh…” I got into a very confusing situation “What is your name?” I asked with a smile

“Renny, your majesty. And I am ready to die because of your will. If you want to torture me for any longer, I will better kill myself right now.” He showed me his back with some red bleeding wounds.

“Oh, my!” I exclaimed seeing the dirty and deep scars “Who did that to you?”

“You, your majesty, and your name is Ish Aevarson. The tyrant will rule the country, what a sad time is coming to our generation. Execute us all right now! My brothers” he pointed at the different dragons in the back “wish the same. So it is your choice.”

“But what did you do so you got here? Yes, you attacked the city hall. But why?”

“What happened to you? You don’t understand what is happening here?” Renny came closer to me “The laws, the laws that you make. Why do you want us to suffer? We are the same living beings as you are. But now, my life and the lives of 14 more dragons are in your hands. Do what you want to do.”

“I am not going to kill you. You are dragons, I mean, how can anybody harm you?”

“You did.”

“I understand. But I did NOT harm you! You dragons are everything I lived for…”

“You people know how to lie!!! You did, you did it! Two days ago you hit me with a sword 3 times in a row!!!” He shouted and rushed to me so his face was a couple of inches away from mine “If I had a desire to kill you, I would do it right now! I would have made a fire shot into your dirty and corrupted king face so you would burn and die in pain!”

“But you did not do that.” I stood up “Renny, I want to tell you one thing. Nobody knows that, only I do.”

“What!?” He roared

“I am not as I was before, and I will make everything to help dragons get the power that they need. But for now, all of you are free. It is my time to go.” I exited the cell and headed to my way out. The guards were asking me about what happened down there but I told them to let those dragons free and do not harm them anymore.

I returned back to the castle and spotted dragons flying nearby and landing on the stadium type place. It looked like an arena, closely shaped to Coliseum with a lot of space for about ten thousand people. Entering the castle one girl, that was very beautiful, dressed in the red skirt and with a nice handmade crown. Her brown eyes and her smile broke the barrier into my dragon heart; however any girl was beautiful in my perspective. She took my hand and said “Hey, Ish!”

“Hi, there! Who are you?” I responded with a laughing smile

“Who am I? You decided to play for a while? Miley wants you to have a good time today. You wanted that all the time, right?”

“Oh, I think I really do not remember you.” I continued walking down the hall

“Please, Ish, I really do not understand what happened to you, but I am sorry.” She said to me

“Fine, let’s go. I expect to have something today. Coronation or…” Marina ran to me and pulled my hand, telling me to follow her. “I don’t know what you did there, but you lost a lot of time!”

“Marina, wait!” I said “What is happening here? May anybody explain me that?”

She was still running upstairs holding my arm “Come on, you naughty boy, I will have a lot of troubles if you will be late for this ceremony.” In a while we ran into a big room with a lot of clothing on the floor, guards standing in a row making a line showing me to enter the balcony. My father Aevar and brother Lokkie were standing at the door too; Marina pushed me intending to make me go to them. “Son,” Aevar started “It is your time now. Be what you want to be, but remember, your life is always a priority.” Lokkie handed me a pile of handwritten documents and opened the door for me.

The balcony was hardly bigger than any type of a terrace of a normal American house. I came closer to the edge and the wind blow almost threw me off it. Then I looked down and I saw hundreds of different dragons, sitting in the rows and chatting to one another. As they saw me, the silence again appeared to exist and it was my time to speak. I looked back and saw Aevar cheering me up so I turned back to the dragons and started speaking.

“Good afternoon, every dragon. My name is Ish Aevarson and I am 16 years old. Today is a great day for me, us, dragons, and all the humanity. Speaking of the stuff that I am going to talk about today, do not blame any editors, because this is all my improvisation skills coming into life.” I turned back again and my father put his palm on his face but his smile told me that my performance was still acceptable. “The papers, that I have on my hands right now, are probably important. I did not read them as well, so it will be a surprise for me too.” I laughed and the dragons seemed to be a little bit exited. “Speaking of me,” I continued “I was always wanted to see you, dragons, in my real life. You, are more than a being! I have always suffered being a human. In my reality I was always lonely, always abandoned.  And, please, understand me, the only thing I want to tell you is Thank you! Thank you for existing in my life. Oh, dragons, all my life I was researching on you.” - My sincere smile again appeared - “I was hopelessly trying to find evidence that you exist but... Now I see you alive. Isn’t it great?” - The dragons started whispering something to one another - “You are more amazing than you think. You have wings, you can fly and breathe fire from your mouth!”

“Enough of that, Ish!” Father said loudly behind me “Tell them about the new law!”

“Fine.” I continued “Please, give me a second to read through these pages…”

“We do not have time for that!” Lokkie added “Read as it is.” He whispered

“So let get started. Page one…” I stopped to analyze the first paragraph “I will just read it. Oh, here it is!” I exclaimed, finding the beginning of the new law “Dragons are going to work for humans and do the general industrial labor in the Glasgow factory. All dragons, no matter of age, lose all their powers and rights and are going to be considered an undeveloped nation and a race in general. WHAT?” I shouted out loud looking though entire pile of papyrus. The dragons seemed to be slightly shocked and started chatting to one another again as it was before.

I saw a big white dragon flying towards me and he landed on another balcony, which was located on the right side of mine “My name is Klaberus,” He started speaking with his bass voice “I will speak for the dragons.” He was very big comparing to other dragons and had an exceptional ability to show respect and confront at the same time. “My nation does not agree on your new legislation.” Although, royal people did not understand draconic, they could see the facial expressions of Klaberus, so my father decided to interrupt our talk.

 Aevar went out from the castle on my balcony and said addressing his speech to the crowd “Dragons! You live on our land, use our resources and our space. What do you give us? Nothing? I am sorry, but all these decades while you were eating our food, our people drowned in poverty, corruption and prostitution! Help us improve our situation and furthermore, you will be able to stay on our land for as long as you want!”

I turned to my father saying “No, dad! We cannot do that!”

“It is too late to say that. You already signed it” I looked down at the papers again and spotted the space where the signatures need to be put. There was my signature, it said Ish Aevarson. The blank space was for Klaberus.

“Indeed,” Klaberus admitted after a short pause “We have nothing left. I will sign it.”

The crowd got mad and I felt uncomfortable. Who signed that contract? Was it me? But why would I do that? The dragons below us started jumping and flying away in despair but one big red dragon stood still and was preparing to shoot. Father saw that and shouted to us that we need to leave. I told him that his throat is for close fire, he would not be able to make a long distance shot and hit the balcony. The same red dragon flew to us and extremely loudly roared “Klaberus! You are a traitor!!!”

Klaberus turned to him but it was late to do something. The red dragon was already cutting his throat, then bit him and Klaberus fell down the cliff. He passed out right away, I am glad that he did not feel too much pain. All of us do not want to feel pain, and that is true, pain suppresses us, it is a natural verification that something is wrong. But do we want to know that something is wrong? This question is presently widely debated.

That red dragon was called Stallion; a two-horned red flaming dragon, breathing fire from his mouth, polished teeth, bloody lips and his red hypnotic eyes " the signs of a professional killer. Do not make him be angry on you; your thin body will crack in half and shatter if it gets inside his mouth.

“Now I am the leader, and I am not going to be a slave of a white creature who cares only about itself!” All the dragons flew up and started bombarding the castle. “Go, dragons, go! Revenge for all the things that they did to you!” Stallion roared. Then he ate my guards and I ran inside the castle trying to find cover. The glass was breaking, the ceiling and the floor were dancing under our feet and we ran and ran for our lives.

Some angry dragons started a fire on the upper floors, so we ran down in the main hall. Everything was broken and set on fire downstairs. We jumped through the fire and continued our journey. The smell of burning wood made me cry and the tears were coming out very fast. The heat was significantly disabling us from running and soon we discovered that we are in the trap; me, Lokkie, Aevar and Miley. We hugged together and Miley discovered that I had a piece of metal in my arm, which I actually did not feel. I fell down holding my bleeding limb and Miley took a bandage from her pocket.

“Don’t move.” She said “I will try to heal it. You will feel better in a moment.”

I was totally in love in her. My truthful and uncontrollable smile took control over my face. She put her hand on my shoulder and another on my neck.

“Miley!” I cried “I don’t want to die!” I said with tears coming from my eyes.

“You are a man! You are a king! You will live as long as you want. You are the warrior.” She shouted in my face, trying to cheer me up and

“Miley, I need to finish my mission.”

“Forget about it, your life is more important than the coronation, we need to find a shelter!”

“I need to do it right now! -I was hopelessly trying to stand up but Miley was pushing me down not letting even to raise my chest. The stack of papers was already on fire and the laws with my signature burned down in a couple of seconds..

“I don’t want to lose you, Ish!” She whispered and when she said that our lips touched one another and that feel increased my love rate to enormously high potential. Yeah I know, I like to write simple stuff in a complicated way. I was definitely in love. “Not today” She added “You will not die today!” She said while giving me a softest and hottest bear hug that made me feel even better. But what could be better than a lip kiss with a beautiful girl when you are only 16?

“Swear! Swear I will not die today!” -I hugged her in response

“I swear, Ish. I swear.” She whispered again in my ear

At that moment I understood the most important concept of the MIND. It generates the past too.

  By history of that world that the tube generated, I was a warrior from birth, the first child of Aevar Godrickson, the leader of the vast Wingstone. Lokkie was 2 years younger than me but was a contrasting person from all of the people. By the moment of my action I have already killed 7 dragons on my executions that I loved to have. Father loved me because I was the only hope to deal with all the drakes. I was his future. The most surprising thing that I did not expect: Miley was in love with me. I was a truly an ideal partner with her. We were Warriors, same age, same preferences and the same weapons; such a perfect combination.

Perhaps that was my ideal world.

Author's Note

Tell me, please, how do you feel about the concept, the idea, and the flow of the novel. Thanks a lot.
~Peter

Reviews

[Draven_Writes]

I thought that it was a really good chapter. I can't wait to read the next one.

[dw817]

⊰ℛℛ⊱
Allow me to comment and say this is well-written and excellent first-person perspective.

“May you tell me your name!” This seems almost pompous and pretentious, sorry - I would just change it to simply, "What's your name ?" or even more to match the mood of his bewilderment, "Who the hell are you ?"

"Then he ate my guards and I ran inside the castle trying to find cover."
Nossir, everything was professional and concise up to this point and blam, it just went generic. If the guards are gonna get eaten, it needs to be described, readers want this. I have a scene where one fellow is eaten by a horrible nightmarish monster as they are passing through a dimensional gate and it goes through all the permutations of terror involved including others trying to rescue him, not one scene of shock or trauma is left out, and it is truly and absolutely horrible what happens to him.

Death is something to be avoided in writing, no-one wants to die. It is not to be taken lightly or off-handedly in simple cast off words. Anyone can write a sentence about death, but it takes a writer to go through the terrors involved in that death, to place the reader right there with the victim.

This story also seems to follow the line of, "Kyo Kara Maoh," with the same kind of alternative universe theme. Before I go much further I guess I have to ask, is this ultimately working towards a harem genre ?