The Four - Chapter One

Chapter One

'Choose wisely…' Saint Peter’s command echoed as the court faded.

Like fur, a swirling and intense wave of snowy white engulfed the Colosseum, which swept Sam’s feet away tempestuously, and the court faded from her view. 'What of my child?!' Sam cried as the gavel fell with a fateful bang.

Down, Sam fell. Down and down, as the never-ending blue sky transformed into the boundless, inky blackened universe, down she fell. Down and down. Then, with a snap, crash and whip, she fell into a tree in a large forest, landing beside roaring water.

'Bastard!' Sam raised her fist contemptuously at the sky above and aimed her anger at a branch with decisive precision. 'What of my child?!' 

Sam stood furiously and attempted to locate the sound of the roaring water, which sounded so much like home and the waterfall in the glen. A heaviness overcame her, and she almost toppled. She shook her head and outstretched her arms to dispel the dizziness.

Beat, beat, beat…

'Huh?' Sam shook her dizzy spell with might.

Beat, beat, beat… She moved her head from left to right in a frenzy, but no one was there. Sam narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but she was sure she was alone, and she noted that she was, well, stark naked.

Beat, beat, beat…'Who is there?!'

Sam cried out nervously and caught a glimpse of a shadow grazing across the leafy ground. 'Oh my!' Sam gasped and pirouetted on the spot to try and get a better look, but it proved fruitless, for when she moved, so did her back. 'It cannot be…' Sam faltered. Sam looked up at the sky again in worry, about to mutter another curse at Saint Peter above, and that is when it dawned. 'This is not…'

The sky shone a luminous shade of pink, and meteors could be seen by her naked eye shimmering violently, passing across the rosy haze above. 'This is not home,' Sam muttered anxiously.

Luckily for Sam, the arrow pointed at her back, at that precise moment, thundered a prominent crack against the wooden bow as it poised while she was frighteningly engrossed in the foreign sky above her. The crack caused Sam to turn wildly, and the bow quivered in the native’s hands in fright. Her assassin's frightened and hesitant pause was just enough time for Sam to protect her modesty as best she could, and then spin and make a daring dart towards the forest.  A screeching howl echoed throughout the trees and sounded strange to Sam, but she understood it all the same. 'Stop in the name of the King!' 

'Oh my god, oh my god,' Sam gasped as she ran. The branches whipped and furiously scratched, but she did not bleed. The forest floor felt like dew as she ran with all her might until she picked up so much pace that she, well, she…

'I’ve taken off!” Sam yelped as she bumpily rose until she flew above the trees, and her unsteady take-off whipped her turbulently from side to side. Cries in a foreign language rose below her, which were followed swiftly by pelting arrows that narrowly missed her and shuddered across the lining of the tops of the trees below her.

'Is it a dragon?' Sam heard a shriek from below. Unfortunately, this was Sam’s first time flying, and she could not help but feel exposed with no clothes on, so she could not control her balance. Her wings did not forcibly beat in time with her take-off as much as she tried. So, Sam did fall, rather ungracefully, once more, into the same forest she had already crashed into not so long before. 'God dammit,' Sam stood up and brushed the jagged leaves from her naked form and pulled a twig from her golden hair. 'What am I to do?!'

She did not have time to decide, as she was quickly surrounded by a dozen natives who all wore rich navy blue cloaks with golden dragon emblems emblazoned on their chests. Sam took in these strangers with their black hair clasped in tidy ponytails, with a pang of jealousy of their silk cloaks covering their bodies. Their noses were elongated and sharp, and their jaws jutted below their high cheeks, giving Sam the impression of nobility, very much so. 

'Do you admit surrender in the name of the King?!' One of the men sharpened his arrow and aimed at Sam threateningly. She could only presume he was the captain of the troops despite the cloaked similarity to all the others, as he, the leader, wore a large medal which hung proudly and dangled from his neck. Sam looked at them all warily, and slowly raised her hands, hesitantly uncovering her body. 

'Sure,' she shrugged, embarrassed. The troops cast each other uneasy looks, but fortunately for Sam, the captain recognised the universal sign of a white flag as she held her hands up in surrender. He nodded but did not command his troops to lower their weapons as he strode towards Sam and bound her hands with cutting rope, but still she did not bleed, which did not go unnoticed by the captain. 

'Now, now, what are you…?' His voice croaked and tutted like a hoarse bassoon, accompanied by a gentle whistling and a sharp intake of breath, but Sam understood him all the same. Finally, when her hands were clasped behind her back and firmly bound, the captain gave the command, and the soldiers lowered their arrows, but suspense still frazzled the air, and Sam felt her new wings rustle in objection. 

Beat, beat, beat…

'To the King!' The captain ordered, and Sam was led unwillingly by the captain with a firm grip around her neck, just in case she dared to take off again. As she was led through the thick green forest, only broken by small glimpses of the pink sky above, Sam listened to the troops as they whispered to each other and cast dangerous eyes at her.

'Do you think she is a dragon?'

'In human form?'

'The wings! Only dragons can fly?'

'The King will know.'

'She is listening, it’s like she knows what we are saying despite her foreign tongue.' 

'We will take her to the King, for only he can decide her fate,' the captain hushed his troops in command to stop speculating, for he was sure Sam could understand. Sam’s wings protested indignantly at her fate, although unknown, which caused more suspicious and curious glances in her direction. The forest stopped after a short passage in time, although Sam, unaware of any ticking time in this world, when the trees abruptly thinned. Her gaze was first met with a steely fortress, with high turrets heavily guarded by shining metal men, but notably more so, it was surrounded by four ominous and momentous golden beings. Sam squinted her eyes against the pinkened dawning sky, which danced across the golden beings, to get a better look as the reflection of the boundless meteorite sky blinded her. On her forced approach, she saw that these incredible gold beings were, in fact, structures of dragons.

And there, stood four.

Sam could only distantly liken the dragons to those of the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx in Cairo, but they stood sixty feet taller than even the Great Pyramids and were covered in gold rather than dust erosion. Sam had never felt so small and insignificant. She wondered if they were designed to deter opposition or another neighbouring kingdom because Sam was very wary, as she was dragged closer and closer to the four watching her. 

'Open the gates!' The captain ordered once they approached the gates to the fortified castle guarded by the four and the shining metal men on the turrets. High above them echoed the captain’s command that the King’s guard had returned, and the sturdy steel gates crackled and boomed in protest as they opened.

'Come, creature,' the captain pushed Sam towards the thundering gates in her hesitancy and reluctance. 'Let us see what the King makes of you,' as he pulled a blindfold over her eyes.