The pale rays danced and barely lit up the room. It went hand in hand with the stale, musty stench that filled her nostrils. The lack of moisture was unkind to her nose. “Oh, you are awake?” A strange young man stated the obvious. “No, kidding nit whit. Now I demand that you let me go!”

A man standing next to the strange boy was tall, tanned, and had bear ears. Thick locks of chocolate hair fell around his odd ears. The man had a buff build to match his tall stature as he was taller than the strange boy.

Her eyes adjusted better to the lighting and she noticed a man standing in the background that had blue scaled skin. He had pointed ears and draconic eyes. With two horns that are perched atop his head.

Lexy clenched her fists while her gaze hardened. Despite the distance the others in the room had, they could feel the anger roll off her.

Alcore met the furious storm gaze on him and he hesitated. She didn't need to say a word to voice her anger. The rage that crackled like lightning in a storm made it very clear. “I'm sorry when we met, I had to push you from getting hurt and that single touch has caused you to see outside the veil.

The veil is what you used to call home. We put a crest on your right arm so you can identify magic and not end up here again. - “ Lexy was about to retort back to Alcore. That his idea of gifting free tattoos was not appreciated.

But she was interrupted by pounding on an old garage door, the door was blown to bits and entered by armed military soldiers but those were not American soldiers.

The soldiers wore black and red material along with futuristic gas masks. The soldiers marched inside the building.

Some were scaly, others had animal features, while some were creatures of myth. One was a centaur and one was a spirit of fire yet somehow wearing clothes.

One of the soldiers stepped up “attention rebels you may surrender and may have mercy by the blood king or die where you stand”

Lexy looked at these people with hopeful eyes, “Help me! These psychopaths kidnaped me!”

One of the men looked at Lexy, haunting orange eyes gazed at her. At the top of their head was one whole fox ear and the other looked like someone cut the upper top off. The man smirked, “Take the girl and capture the rebels.” Lexy’s eyes widened when these soldiers began to fight the rebels.

She began to struggle with the ropes and tried to get her hands free. That was when she realized her waist was not tied to the chair. She leaned down to reach her hoodie pocket. Only to realize she couldn’t reach it.

If she wasn’t angry before, she is now. She looked at the chair she was sitting in and realized under the arm of the chair had no cover. It was a thin metal. Lexy quickly began using these edges to cut at the rope.

Right as she was making some headway. The large buff man turned into a bipedal brown bear nearly double in size, ran over to Lexy, and ripped the chair out of the ground. This left two large scrapes on Lexy’s arms. Lexy grit her teeth in pain.

The scaled man looked to Alcore “Alcore let’s make a break for it, we are outnumbered and we have a passenger.” his voice was low in tone yet was filled with panic.

Alcore nodded and pulled out a red potion and tossed it onto the ground in front of his enemies. The glass shattered and the potion left behind a burst of magic to attack the strange soldiers. “common Jackson we’ve got to go!” Jackson nodded and followed after Alcore.

The group ran with Lexy in tow with the bipedal bear who was strapped to his back like a backpack. They ran out of the storage unit and ran out to the maze of containers. Lexy began frantically working on the ropes. They got thinner and thinner. Till finally, her arms were free.

Quickly she grabbed her father’s knife from its pocket and used it to free her feet.

Alcore pulled another potion out of his satchel that, unlike the last, was gray and threw it on the ground as hard as he could. The smoke bomb went off and the group fled while Lexy leaped from the chair and went into the nearest exit.

The man with an ear and a half waved the smoke from his view. One of the other soldiers looked at him. Despite how his eyes were clouded and a milky white. He had rune’s engraved into his skin. He frowned, “Albis, what are we to tell Fenice? That child was.” He paused as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was about to say, “That child’s magic. Only General has had one that strong.”

Albis asked, “What Altir? That the rebels have a child from the veil and got away? Yes, that is what we are going to tell him.”

Altair furrowed his brow, “But what if the child’s magic?”

Albis only smiled, “ It will be fine Altair come on.”

Altair frowned, “If that is the way you want to play this. Fine but know whatever results from this will be on your hands.”

*****

The group ran into a deeper part of the abandoned storage area. The bear stopped, “Alcore.”

Alcore paused and the other man's tone sounded worried, “Yes Kuma?”

Kuma dropped the empty chair, “The kid is gone.”

Dread pooled in Alcore’s stomach this was not going to plan.

******

Lexy clutched desperately to her father’s knife. Its presence brought her comfort while her arms stung with pain. She closed her eyes. Oh, how she wished she could be home right now. With her books on history or even her favorite book. That was about a sheriff who could see ghosts and had a mini unicorn to help him find monsters.

The book was quite bloody, despite its initial description. She sighed and resumed walking with no idea how to get home.

She let out hot breaths of air while she walked through the desert. The hot sun beating down on her with its rays. Sweat dripped off her skin as though it was a waterfall.

She looked ahead and her eyes must have been deceiving her. It looked like there was an oasis with palm trees and water! However, a skeptical part of her supplied that tropical trees don't live in northern states. But screw it water is water. Quickly Lexy began to rush to the inviting water as fast as she could.

She reached the water and touched its smooth scales. Wait, scales? She rubbed her eyes and touched the water again. But it wasn't water. The scales shifted and Lexy swiftly pulled out her father's knife.

She took a few steps back while she watched in horror as the creature uncoiled itself. The palm trees blinked at her and this thing shrieked while it rose from the sand. Could giant lizards cower? If not this one had surely mastered the allusion “Please! Please don't kill me!”

Lexy paused everything she looked at this, this wait this thing looked like a hydra from one of the books she read. Only if you took a hydra and dressed its head like a palm tree. Lexy tilted her head to the side, “Are you a hydra?”

The creature stopped it's cowering and looked at her, “Uh yes. But please don't eat me!”

Lexy raised a brow, “No, I'm not going to eat you. I'm just thirsty.”

The creature blinked and tilted its heads, “Water?”

Lexy nodded, “Yes, do you know where a water source is that isn't a camouflage creature?”

The hydra paused as if someone told it something life-changing, “Wait you really aren't going to eat me?”

Lexy sighed, “No, I'm really not.”

The hydra let out a sigh, “Oh my gosh really!”

Lexy nodded, “Really, but uh do you know where some water is?”

The creature nodded, “yes, I do! But I don't know if you could hold your breath for long enough to reach it. But I know another way in. I'd gladly help you sense you know. You're not going to eat me!”

Lexy scrunched her nose, “Ok but I have no idea how I'd keep up with you.”

The hydra turned its body towards a distant rock formation in the distance, “Get on.”

Lexy nodded and did her best to climb onto the large lizard. The moment the Hydra began to move she tightened her grip as it moved like a sidewinding snake. Almost leaping from one spot to the next.

It was when she heard familiar snarling that her eyes widened and she turned around. Only to see more of those lizard dogs that had attacked her before in the forest. She looked back to the hydra, “Should we be worried about them?”

The hydra took in a deep breath as they were halfway to the large rock formation. “There drakes, yet another thing that likes to eat me.”

Lexy looked at the pack of eight drakes still honing in on the two. She looked back to the hydra, “Could you take them?”

The hydra almost paused, “What do you mean take them? Do you mean to fight them? Absolutely not! I'm just a hydra. Ok, I'd be fine at one. Two pushing it but Eight! I'm dead! We're both dead!”

Lexy frowned, “Can't you just use your teeth?”

The hydra leaped over another dune, “No, I can't because I don't have teeth! I eat sand, do you know anything about hydras?”

Lexy shook her head, “No not much. That has been made clear to me.” She looked ahead to see they have almost reached the huge rocks, “I think we can take them if we work together. I've killed one before. Their week on their underbelly.”

The hydra paused, “if I die I'm blaming you.”

Lexy rolled her eyes, “Duly noted, alright stop here.”

Lexy let the hydra stop and hopped off it while she pulled out her father's knife. Once close enough the drakes circled the two. Snarling as if they were a pack of wolves.

Quickly one of the drakes leaped for the hydra. The hydra used its large tail to flick the drake away. While another drake went for Lexy. The girl began to run towards it and slid onto her back while she raised her father's knife right into the belly of the beast.

Black blood spilled from the beast and coated her face. The drake stilled after a few shrieks left its maw. Lexy crawled out from the dead body and looked at the remaining seven drakes. When another went to leap for her only to be whipped in the face by the hydra.

The drake let out a whine while blood trickled down from its face. It teetered from one side to another then collapsed onto the sand. This left six drakes. The creatures hardened their gaze on the two for a short moment before fleeing.

Lexy wiped some of the blood off her face. The hydra looked at her, “That was AMAZING! We lived! Ok now to water.”

The hydra gestured to a cave, “you can fit in there but I can’t. Here in case, you need me again.”

The hydra broke off one of its scales and dropped it in front of Lexy, “Break it for when you need me.”

Lexy smiled, maybe this scary place wasn't so bad after all. She turned to the cave and went into it to see crystal clear water flowing through a few pools. The girl sighed with relief and walked down to the water. She took a few sips and Lexy let her mind race while she sat there listening to the water.

She just wanted to go back to the mansion. At least she seemed wanted there. How nice the bed felt under her soft touch. How pretty the hedges were to the gargoyle statues.

Lexy focused on where she could even hear the birds sing their sweet tunes around the mansion. She the wind. Wait what?

The girl snapped her eyes open to see she was standing in front of the mansion. She took in a sharp breath, “No way. What the hell is going on!”