Teia and the dragon 1

 Teia and the Dragon 

(A unedited work)

Teia and the Dragon

Fifty-two years before the world changed. In this “Time Before” technology reigned over much of the world. Communication and knowledge were easy that many forgot how to survive without it. One day all technology ceased to function. Electricity no longer followed the rules man understood. Knowledge was no longer accessible for most. Governments fell and civilization collapsed. No one knew what had caused the change. least, no one admitted to knowing.

Chaos reigned for years, small groups who were better prepared than others survived. The world turned into producers and builders and into takers. The producers and builders tried to build a new society. The takers took from anyone and everyone. The builders and producers who could defend themselves survived and the takes eventually ran out of people to take from. At least that is our hope.

One group had an advantage, hidden away from society a retreat had been built, a castle unlike any other. Those who lived there right after the change believed it was built as if someone knew what was to come. Though they tried no one was able to ask the man who ordered it built if this was so. This group lead by the Stevens family renamed the refuge, New Hope. They reached out to all who were willing and began to build a better world.

However, not everyone wants a better world. For some, if they can not rule it they would rather see it destroyed.

Chapter 1

“I’ve never seen a storm this bad” 

Teia took her eyes away from the window and looked over at her new friend, Treasa. “Did you see a lot of bad storms in your old village?” Teia was curious. Treasa and her hit it off the first time they meet a couple of months back when Treasa’s entire village of dwarves moved to the outskirts of New Hope Castle’s governing area.

Teia tried not to smile when she thought of the dwarves. They really were not dwarves out of the old stories her dad had read to her when she was a child, but humans who had been altered by something in the air and soil. The average dwarf was shorter than her four-foot five height and Treasa was not an exception. Treasa was taller than Kevin who sat on the floor by the edge of the window staring back into the room. Teia tried to ignore him with his arms crossed, face tense and bottom lip sticking so far out Teia thought she could sit a pencil on it and it would stay.

The light in the room intensified than dropped back to the normal soft glow that lasted well after dark in the castle.  Not a second later the boom of thunder filled the room.

“I think I felt that.” Treasa quivered out now looking at Teia, then she whispered back, “we nev’r had a window to look out of during storms but I don’t think so.”

The lights of the room began to pulsate again. This Teia knew was because each time lightening flashed and rolled outside the collectors on the roof sent the light into the castle. Many people found the light show fun. The flashing and flicker balls of lightning bounced across the sky like a balloon or flew like they were thrown by some giant hand.  The flashes created by the lightning caused everyone to move in a room to appear as if they were moving in a series of short movements.

“and we nev’r had anything like this.” Treasa smiled, waving her hand as the lights pulsed in response to the near continual flashes of lightning. Teia when what she meant only those in the castle as far as anyone knew had this type of conductive lighting.

Teia who had spent the first eight years of her life in a cottage outside of the castle as was the custom and remembered her first storm in the castle. The light which seemed to glow from places on the wall and ceiling being transformed into pulses of bright light in the storm. The sight filled her with wonder but sent her mother to bed dizzy and nauseous.

“It would be more fun outside” Grumbled Kevin who did not even lookup.

Teia did not argue with him. They had had this discussion on their way up here. Treasa and her told him that it would not be safe outside with this much lightning. Besides both of the girls knew their parents would be furious if they had tried going outside in a storm like this. Kevin as always came along anyway but grumbled and pouted. Teia wished he would go hand out with someone else, but she knew they were the only children his age in the castle.

Teia looked back out the large window. It was a marvel from the Time Before. Rain, Snow, Ice, and hail could beat on it and nothing would ever come through. She remembered her grandfather had said they were nearly indestructible.

“A machine gun couldn’t even put a chip in it.” She remembered him saying. She knew what a gun was. Her dad had a rifle back in the cottage to hurt with. She had read about machine guns in books but could not imagine why anyone would want to shoot at a window with a rifle let along this gun from the Time Before.

“Look at those clouds,” Treasa said eyes wide.

Teia quit thinking about the glass and looked beyond are the clouds which could be seen in the lightening’s near continual flashes. The clouds churned like a pot of soup getting ready to boil over. There was also a movement in her feet as the castle itself was being swayed by the wind. Teia thought it must be a trick because she had never felt anything like it before.

“So, this is where you all are hiding. I told your moms I would find you here.”

Teia and Treasa turned around to find a man of above-average height and with the muscles of a soldier standing there in the leathers of a palace guard. Most who left the guard put away the leather and returned to the mixture of homespun and clothing left over from the Time Before. Teia smile at her dad who was not like the average man. Adam Stevens though being elevated to the ruling council and no longer a member of the palace guard still worked closely with them so refused to set aside the leather clothes and armor which made them recognizable.

Kevin stood up and before Teia could say anything announced, “I told them they shouldn’t be here.”

“YES!” Treasa growled pushing Kevin who also stood taller than her but only by a couple of inches. “You told us that we need to go outside.”

Adam Stevens ignored the exchange and looked straight at his daughter through the pulsating light and said in a voice that did not invite the argument, “Your mother would like you to come downstairs.”

He then looked over at the other two and said, “Your presence is requested as well.” Teia and her friends looked at each other and knew this wasn’t a request.”

Adam’s eyes looked straight at Treasa and added in his normal voice, “your mom has a bad feeling about this storm.”

 Teia noticed Treasa’s eye grow wide and her mouth first drop and then move closed her face taking on the look of a teacher getting ready to give bad news. She could see Treasa was about to say something when the wind which was could be heard through the walls of the castle took on a deeper, rumbling sound. Teia had never heard anything like it before.  

She looked at her dad who just before had a smile on his face now transformed. He, she reasoned, knew what the sound meant. Before she had time to think any more about it her dad turned to the side and began waving them toward the stairs. The words “RUN! NOW!” burst from his mouth but were being drowned out by the increasing noise.

They ran. Kevin always the fastest way off in a dash and gone before Treasa and Teia were halfway across the twenty-foot circular room. Teia held back just a second to allow Treasa to head down first and as she followed; she felt her dad’s hand pressing on her back.

They were nearly three-quarters of the way down the stairs when the noise changed. The sound didn’t just fill the air, but she could now feel it in her feet. She looked back at her dad and yelled, “The castle is shaking!”

“MOVE!”

The sound changed again and with it the floor quaked. The pressure of Adam’s hand on Teia’s back changed as the sound of the noise changed. Instead of pressing her forward, it pulled her back. Teia found herself being pulled into her dad’s chest. His head and shoulders surrounding her head. She could only see his chest and his arms which pulled her tighter. The lights dimmed and then she could sense them falling. She thought she heard her dad yell a prayer but was not sure as she felt his weight land on top of her and then she remembered nothing.