Chapter 1 The Dragon Awakens

Calista POV

I was going to die for a bag of shop herbs. Literally.

"I hate this cursed forest," I muttered, staggering with exhaustion before collapsing onto the damp grass. "Why do I have to be the one who comes all the way out here for the shop's supplies?"

I closed my eyes wearily and whispered to myself in a faint voice, "I'll just doze off for five minutes... no more. Then I'll finish up and head back before sunset."

Five minutes. That's all I asked of the universe.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, falling asleep here," a strange voice whispered suddenly behind me.

I spun around in alarm to find a tiny fairy hovering right in front of me. I let out a breath of forced relief, hand pressed to my chest. "You really scared me, little one."

"Mmmmm," she said, her delicate wings fluttering as she drifted closer with an odd slowness, "I think you should be scared. The sun's already set, and you're still asleep."

A sudden chill ran down my spine. "What do you mean by that?"

She didn't wait for an answer. She hovered directly before my eyes and let out a magical shriek that echoed through my skull, and sharp pain tore through me.

I jolted upright in a panic, looking wildly around me. "I was dreaming... it was just a—"

The words caught in my throat.

Darkness pressed in from every direction.

I leapt to my feet like a madwoman. "Damn it — damn it! Night's already fallen! What am I going to do?! I need to get out of here, now!"

Curse your own stupidity, Calista. Who actually falls asleep inside an enchanted forest?

I took off running with no sense of direction, my feet tangling in the roots that jutted from the ground, branches suddenly turning into rough hands trying to snatch me back.

This forest wakes at night. They say it's home to every creature of darkness. And they say that if one of them catches you, you won't survive more than five minutes.

I stopped short, gasping violently, trying to fix on any right direction through the pitch-black gloom. "I can't even see in front of me... how am I supposed to get out now?!"

The black began to thin slightly, replaced by a pale blue glow rising from luminous mushrooms multiplying at a strange speed around my feet.

I froze for a heartbeat.

"Okay... this is definitely not a good sign."

I didn't wait to confirm my suspicion. I gathered every last scrap of strength left in me and ran. Moments later, a growl reached me from somewhere close, and I quickened my pace, silently praying I was headed the right way.

The sounds multiplied behind me at a terrifying speed. Savage snarls. Rapid footsteps nearly nipping at my heels.

It wasn't one beast. It was an entire pack of creatures of darkness.

"Fine — maybe I really am from the Falcros bloodline," I panted as I ran, "but I'm only one of them by name, damn it, since I don't even have a single spark of magic to defend myself with!"

"Don't look back, Calista... don't look back..." I kept repeating the phrase like a fragile charm, trying to ignore the sound of my own ragged breathing.

I tripped over a massive tree root and slammed hard into the ground. I cried out in pain as sharp stones dug into my knee and palm.

I looked back in terror.

Their glowing eyes were closing in.

I crawled forward on my bloodied knees, and at that exact moment, I caught sight of a large black opening in a rock wall ahead of me.

"Okay... maybe... maybe I can survive if I get in there."

I lunged inside, pressed myself into the deepest, darkest corner, and flattened my back against the cold stone while clamping a trembling hand over my mouth to muffle my breath.

But I knew the bitter truth: even if I held my breath completely, the Falcros blood running through my veins would still give off its scent, even in the thickest darkness.

I listened to the beasts' footsteps circling the cave entrance, snarling with open fury, before their sounds gradually began to retreat... then vanished completely.

I sighed with overwhelming relief, leaning back against a massive boulder. "I survived... by some miracle."

I wiped the blood from my hand across the surface of the rock. "This is the last time I ever set foot in this forest. I swear it."

I sat there trying to calm my racing breath. "I'm lucky I found this cave..."

And then — suddenly — I felt a strange warmth radiating from the rock I was leaning against.

I straightened to look at it, and froze in shock: the drops of my blood smeared across the stone weren't trickling downward the way they should.

They were being absorbed. Into the cracks. As if the stone itself were drinking them, greedily.

The ground shook beneath me without warning, in a series of rippling tremors. I sprang to my feet in terror as a dry, thunderous cracking sound erupted, shaking the entire cave.

"This... this is not a good sign at all."

I turned toward the cave entrance. "I need to get out of here, right now!"

But I froze in place as golden veins lit up, glowing within the rocks surrounding me, until the light flooded the entire space.

The words caught in my throat. My legs refused to move at all.

Layers of stone and falling ash peeled away with dreadful slowness, and from the darkness emerged a massive scaled head...

Two enormous eyes snapped open, blazing with furious white and violet fire.

I swallowed hard, with great difficulty. "Okay... this is definitely not the Cave of the Sleeping Dragon Statue that's been asleep for a thousand years."

I let out a foolish laugh, staring at what was unfolding before me, utterly unable to process it.

There are so many stages of panic a person can pass through. For me, the greatest terror I'd ever known in my life was standing in front of my peers, unable to cast even the smallest spell, unable to work any kind of magic at all.

But now? Now my entire body had frozen with a terror I'd never known before.

This wasn't an ordinary creature. This didn't resemble anything I had ever seen or even heard of in my whole life.

Somewhere between fear and total disbelief — that's the only way I can describe what overtook me in that moment. I couldn't think of a single thing to do: run with everything I had, or stand in silence and wait for whatever fate awaited me?

"Dragons are just myths... they're not real... I must be imagining this," I whispered to myself, my voice shaking.

His sharp eyes blazed with a terrifying blend of white and fiery violet. His body was black, threaded through with a crimson sheen, covered in thick scales like an impenetrable suit of armor. He stood on four massive legs, tail coiled around himself, his wings folded over his back like two enormous swords.

"The forest must be trying to drive me out of my mind... this isn't real, Calista... don't fall for it..."

My heart nearly stopped as everything went suddenly, eerily still. Then the dragon let out a sound like a tortured wail that tore through my ears and nearly broke me into tears.

I screamed with everything my voice had left. "It's real... it's really real!"

He looked straight at me and said, with terrifying innocence, "I don't think I'll like the way you taste."

His scorching breath washed over me, and I cried out in disgust despite my terror, "Oh my god... your breath actually reeks!"

He snarled suddenly, spreading his massive wings in a single motion — and I found myself running. Running without a single thought for what came next.

I was now retracing my steps back, in complete terror, toward the very place I had fled from moments before. Screaming, cursing the wretched luck that had made me enter that damned cave in the first place.

This creature pursued me without mercy, shattering trees with his wings with terrifying ease, before letting out that dreadful wail again — a wail that shook the forest to its roots.

I screamed with whatever voice I had left, "Why can't a single creature in this forest be friendly?!"

I didn't notice where I placed my foot until I felt emptiness swallow me from below.

"No... no... no!!"

My body tumbled down the slope without stopping, until I slammed hard into the trunk of a massive tree.

Something enormous struck the ground directly in front of me. I lifted my head in pure terror.

The claws of his massive legs dug into the earth a single step away from me, as his head lowered slowly, dreadfully, toward mine.

His violet eyes met mine...

And then...