Chapter Two The Sons of Tiamat part one

         At first, the cloud of darkness over his sight made him think that he was dead, but when he forced his eyes to open he knew that he was alive.

         Bright sunlight pored through the open window of the hospital room making his eyes squint. Instantly, the pungent smell of flowers attacked his nose and made him sit up on his bed. A myriad of lilies, carnations, and roses decorated the room in an assortment of colors. All of the flowers seemed to be set in variety of awkwardly shaped pottery.

         On both sides of the bed, a great number of computer screens stared down at him; displaying strange information that he could not comprehend. He looked down towards his arm to see that a thin tube ran from the white patch on his skin to a clear pouch of liquid above his head.

         He looked down at his hands and chest to see that the horrible burns were gone, as if they had never been there. He ran his hands through his hair and felt that it had also returned
.
         Then the memories assaulted him with swift remorseless vengeance; every feeling, pain, and sensation rippled up his skin. He could almost feel the awful hot electricity burning his insides and working its way out. The violent memory gave way to the morbid knowledge behind it. Vitra had killed him and Fafnir used his blood to bring him back from death.

         Suddenly, the door to the room swung open to reveal a young woman carrying a large pot of sunflowers. The flowers obstructed the view of her face but he knew that by the smell of her; she was human. She walked into the room humming a light melody and placed the pot of sunflowers on the only bare spot of the table by the window. When the young woman finally turned around their eyes locked on each other.

         For the first human that he had ever remembered seeing before; she was rather plain looking. She wore a basic white T-shirt with a pair of worn and faded blue jeans and white sneakers on. The chestnut brown hair that descended to the base of her neck, matched the color of the numerous freckles that dotted her face. Her wide brown eyes accented the surprised expression painted along the canvas that was her face.

         Her strong sense of fear was instantly apparent to him; the emotion left a bitter taste on the back of his tongue that reminded him of sour fruit. While he gazed at her, the emotion of fear changed into a shy curiosity that strangely made him feel the first his semblance of hunger.

         “Hi.” The young women said to him in a high melodic voice. She fiddled with the bottom of her shirt as if she was unsure of what to do with it.

         “Hello.” He replied with a smile to help comfort her unease.

         “You’ve been asleep for awhile now. They told me to leave you alone but I said that if I bring you fresh flowers every day that you will wake up faster. That’s what my mother did for me when I was sick. I hope you don’t mind.” The young girl said as he felt her feelings of curiosity grow by the second.

         “I like them! They smell really nice and they have so much color. There was no color in the place I used to be.” The mere thought of the horrible white room made his skin tremble.

         “My name is Sara. What’s your name? Everybody around here is so secretive that they wouldn’t tell me anything about you. They can’t fool me though; I know that you’re really important. My brother doesn’t just let anybody stay here.” Sara said; her words falling into a whisper towards the end. She also seemed to have recovered from her shyness as she approached the side railing of the bed.

         “My name is Tiamat. What is this place? Where are we?” Tiamat said, with a great effort to hold back the avalanche of questions that wanted to explode from his mouth.

         “That’s a strange name but there are a lot of guys with funny sounding names around this place.  This is my brother’s mansion; we’re in the outskirts of New York.” Sara replied with a giggle as she looked at Tiamat with a silly smile on her face. “What’s with that hair? How old are you? It’s not everyday you see little boys with grey hair!” Sara words caused Tiamat to run his hand though his hair with a look of confusion on his face.

         “My hair is grey? It wasn’t like that before. It used to be black when I was staying with my daughters. Hey, do you know were my son, Fafnir is?” Tiamat said with a frown and two handfuls of grey hair.

         Sara gave Tiamat a strange look before she answered him. “Fafnir is your son? You look like you are only twelve or thirteen years old! How can you even have children at your age? Fafnir looks like he is old enough to be you dad!” Sara questioned and Tiamat could sense that she thought he was lying to her.

         “It’s true, I cannot lie!” Tiamat spat out faster then he was meaning too. His face then frowned as he tried to search his memories. Unlike the jumble of blurry images they were before; his memories seemed just out of arm’s reach. As if the answers were on the very tip of his tongue but he could not will himself to speak of them. ”I know that I am much older then I look. I don’t understand why I am this young but I know that I have children! I have five daughters but I can’t remember if I had any more sons other than Fafnir.” Tiamat said with a distant gaze in his eyes that Sara smirked at.

         “Well it must have been one hell of a woman you slept to make that crazy son of yours! I wonder how his mother dealt with him when he was a toddler! Sara exploded with a tremendous laugh but to Tiamat her words stuck his mind like a hot poker stabbing a block of ice. For an instant the most profound terror that he had ever felt before swelled up inside of him. His skin grew cold and his breathing intensified. Massive waves of shivers quaked through his body. He could hear the machines and computers around him blaring with warning sounds but they seemed distant to ears. Sara’s words and her look of concern also seemed far away. His heart felt as if it threatened to pound its way out of his chest. Then in the back of his mind he heard her voice; a terrible voice filled with seduction and possessiveness.

         “Tiamat…where are you, my love? I am so lonely. Why are you hiding from me?” The voice purred in the back of his mind. “Don’t worry, I will find you sooner or later. Then we can play.” Tiamat could feel the foreign presence invading his mind; then with a desperate thought he threw his mind back into the white box. He could feel the foreign presence vanish, replaced with the loud cries of Sara in his ear.

         “Hey kid, are you all right! Jesus, I thought you were having a heart attack or stroke or something! I didn’t mean to get you so upset. It looked like you totally spaced out for a minute.” Sara said as she placed her hand on Tiamat’s sweaty forehead.

         “I am fine now. It was just a really bad memory, I guess.” Despite his reassuring words, it did not feel like a memory. “I really need to talk to Fafnir. Do you think you can take me him, Sara?”