Sanctuary: Safe Haven

Froja shouted so much that his throat started to hurt. After a few more minutes of falling, he noticed something strange.

'How high am I?' he wondered, turning to see the world below. The view was unlike anything he'd ever seen; trees looked twisted and strange, and a vast herd of creatures was fleeing from something enormous chasing them. Everything seemed weird and chaotic.

He looked down and saw massive ruins below, estimating that he had about 30 seconds before impact.

'Damn, dying twice in one day,' he thought, closing his eyes and bracing for the crash. He knew the chances of survival were zero after falling from such a height.

Just as his head was about to hit the ground, a yellow swirling portal suddenly appeared.

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"Great, now I'm in hell," Froja muttered after seeing nothing but darkness. It was the same darkness you see when you close your eyes.

He squeezed his hands, stretched a bit, and made a confused face.

"Something's burning." He could smell it all around him. Strangely enough, he could still talk, walk, and move his body.

The problem was that it was just too dark. Unsure of where to go, Froja decided to sit and wait it out, hoping his eyes would adjust to the dark.

Froja's sense of time was already messed up.The darkness around him seemed to distort his perception. He wondered if he was stuck in some sort of limbo, a place between life and death. As he sat there, he thought about his parents and his sister, the Sanctuary, and everything he had left behind. A deep sadness washed over him, mingling with his confusion and fear.

He wished he could go back, to have one more chance to make things right.

After what felt like 15 minutes, he stood up again, looking around. It was still pitch black in front of him.

When he looked back, he saw two massive golden eyes with red bloody vertical pupils. Froja was familiar with those types of eyes. They were the eyes of a predator.

Suddenly, light started to fill the area, more accurately, a flame began to chase away the darkness. Froja could now fully see the creature those eyes belonged to.

Right in front of him was a dragon's head, clear as day. Its red and blue scales and intimidating horns were not just for show. The moment Froja's brain registered what was in front of him, he blacked out again.

With a thud, Froja was back in Dreamland for the second time that day.

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Froja groggily woke up. He could feel bits of the ground stuck to his face. There was a bit of light now, so he could see a little. He brushed the dirt off his face with his hand and noticed something weird. His hand was too small. He looked at his body, and sure enough, everything was smaller.

He was 19 years old, but his body looked around seven years old.

"It's because the imp cursed you, reversing your body's growth back to the state of a child." Froja heard these words in his mind. He thought he was going crazy until he remembered the being he saw before passing out. He slowly turned around again and could now see the jaw of the mighty creature.

"I've already read your memories, a soul from a different realm. I was just about to kill you."

The creature's voice sounded ancient and somewhat forced in Froja's mind, as if it wasn't used to this form of speaking.

"Of course not; I'm directly speaking to your mind. The moment I utter an actual word, you will die. Just a simple exhale of mine, and you will die," the being continued in his head.

Wait. Can this creature read his thoughts?

"What do you think? Idiot," the creature then increased the flame, bringing more light to the area.

"You're a... a dr-ragon?" Froja stuttered, feeling a pressure holding him down. He couldn't look at the creature for long.

"Of course I am. I'm aware that in your world, dragons are nothing but fairy tales, but here, they are real."

Froja's head was in complete turmoil. What did this dragon mean by 'this world'? Also, he was talking to a dragon, not talking but at least conversing through his mind. Froja sat down, overwhelmed by all of this. His brain couldn't process everything, and he could only sit it out and digest it all before getting more information. The dragon seemed to understand, giving him time to adjust.

The dragon knew pushing forward might make Froja's brain short-circuit again, resulting in another trip to Dreamland.

When Froja felt enough time had passed, he slowly stood up. First, he observed his body. He really was back to the size he was at seven years old, and his shirt looked more like an oversized dress. He didn't know when or how the change occurred, and just thinking about it made his head hurt.

After assessing his body, he focused on the next thing: the massive dragon. Now that he looked more clearly, he saw the dragon was enormous. The word 'massive' might not even be enough to describe it. Froja estimated it was about 50 meters tall from its head alone. That's one hell of a gargantuan head. He looked at the dragon, and the dragon looked back.

They simply stared at each other. The first to break the silence was Froja.

"I was falling from the sky before I came here. Did you do something to bring me here?" He wanted to know. Just before arriving, he saw a weird yellow shimmering portal, but that was all he knew.

"It was a simple spell, but I doubt your tiny human mind can comprehend it. You shouldn't follow the laws of your world here; you would question every single thing," the dragon replied.

Froja nodded, taking deep breaths and summarizing what he knew.

He was in the body of a child, speaking to a gargantuan dragon. Now that he could see more clearly, he realized they were in a cave of some sort.

"A dungeon, to be precise," the dragon corrected.

"Sorry, but what's a dungeon?" A dungeon? The only dungeon he knew was where prisoners were kept to rot in castles in medieval times.

The dragon grinned, showing its sharp teeth, and then explained what a dungeon was in this world.