The world inverted. The sun disappeared and the sky went black. The air turned thick and suffocating. Pain spread up Tristan’s arms and through his chest, he gasped for breath but inhaled water instead.

Tristan was drowning. He tried to claw his way up to the surface of the water but something was holding him down.

A faint light glimmered in the distance. Tristan imagined the light was the light at the end of the tunnel that people spoke of.

He wondered if he was meant to go towards the light or if the light would come to him.

What followed felt like a dream. A halo of ocean green hair swirled around him and tiny golden lights flickered all around what he thought had to be a mermaid. The light reflected off steel and Tristan realized the green haired girl was holding a knife. He held up his hands to defend himself but the girl ignored him. She struck at something repeatedly and Tristan heard a gurgling screech. Bubbles rose up from below him. Whatever was holding his leg let go. He kicked furiously and the green haired girl wrapped her arms around him and together they lifted up to the surface.

They breached the surface. Tristan gasped for air and coughed violently. Strong hands lifted him out of the water and into a boat and laid him down on a smoothly polished floor.

All around him was water in every direction. The bridge had vanished and the gray polluted haze of London was replaced with blue skies.

A small group of men and women wearing toad-like goggles and dressed in strange wetsuits gathered around him. They spoke to each other in quick high pitched words that sounded like bird whistles. The group parted and a slender figure with green hair and feminine curves that even a wetsuit couldn't disguise walked towards Tristan.

The girl pulled off her goggles and curly green hair fell over her shoulders. The girl pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and hunched down beside Tristan. She looked at him as if she was inspecting a large salmon they’d just caught in their nets.

Her eyes narrowed as she took in Tristan’s white hair and torn bathrobes.

Even though Tristan had just survived what should have been certain death he couldn't help but stare at the girl. She was easily the most attractive person he’d ever seen. She had yellow eyes, a small button nose and a scattering of cute freckles perfectly placed on her cheeks giving her a deceptively innocent look.

“This has to be a dream,” Tristan whispered.

The girl's eyes widened. “You speak the Aressean tongue?” she asked.

“That what?” he asked.

“With white hair and those clothes I thought you were,” she looked up at the sky and shook her head.

“Are you a sage?” she asked.

“No.”

Her brows wrinkled in a frown. “A magi then?”

“Who are you people?” Tristan asked.

He tried to stand up but the girl placed her foot on his chest and held him down.

“Why won't you answer my damn questions?” he asked.

He raised a hand to push her leg off of his chest but as his hand touched the girl's leg she jumped back with the reflexes of a cat.

She made a sign to ward off evil. She glared at Tristan’s arm with open fear.

Tristan looked down at his arm expecting to see blood or maybe a bone sticking out of the skin but instead he saw a band of electric blue symbols twisted around his arm. One symbol seemed duller than the rest. He felt that he had once known what the symbols mean but as he stared at them a feeling of dread came over him.

He stood to his feet on shaky legs and steadied himself as his head spun.

“What’s happening?" he shouted. “Have you drugged me?”

The sailors drew back and Tristan saw knives in their hands. The boat rocked and he stumbled and fell onto his knees.

“Take it easy,” said the girl as she waved the knife at him in what he hoped was meant to be a soothing gesture.

Tristan’s breaths were heavy in his chest and his skin felt cold and clammy like he was having a panic attack.

“This is only a dream,” he told himself.

He took a deep breath.

“I'm going to wake up any moment now.”

The whole thing didn't make sense. He had fallen off of a bridge and had no injuries, that was crazy. He was going to wake up any moment, he thought. He'd be lying in bed with his headset on and Gus would be screaming at the TV.

The wind stirred, slowly at first and then it began to grow in strength.

“We need to get out of here!” the green haired girl shouted.

The captain, an elderly man with a mustache and dressed in baggy clothing whistled and two sailors began raising the anchor.

The sails unfurled and rays of sunlight streamed into them like they were absorbing the light. The boat lurched and then as if by magic it began to rise up out of the water.

“Can you stop this storm?” the captain asked the green haired girl.

She shook her head. “There is something foul in the air,” she said. “I can't do anything about it, we will need to ride out the storm.”

The girl's eyes widened as she stared at Tristan. He looked down and saw the symbols on his arm glowing brightly. He met the girls startled gaze for a moment and then he wrapped his bathrobes around his arm.

The sky grew dark. The boat stopped moving. It felt like the world took a deep breath.

A deafening sound of shattering glass filled the air.

Sailors fell to their knees clutching their bleeding ears.

“Malice,” shouted a sailor.

Tristan felt the vibrations of sailors hurrying past him but he could hear nothing except the voice of the dragon in the back of his head.

“Free at last,” it hissed. “Are you the one who imprisoned me?” The voice penetrated Tristan’s brain and a shiver ran down his spine as his thoughts and memories were being invaded.

Memories flooded every corner of his mind.

“Malcolm, please don't leave us,” his mother pleaded with his father.

“The boy’s worthless,” Gus said. “His father was a loser and he's a loser too.”

Tristan covered his ears, but the voices continued.

“Who knows what he gets up to locked away in his room all day?" The voices buzzed like millions of flies inside his skull.

“You are not the hero,” hissed the dragon.

Smokey wings materialized out of the darkness and spread across the sky. The dragon shook free from its invisible bonds and roared.

The boat lurched violently and a wave rose up beside them. The blue light of the moon shone on the water as it rose higher and higher reaching up towards the dark sky.

The water towered above them for a moment and hung there suspended on nothing making the boat look like a drowned fly floating in a bathtub.

The green haired girl looked at Tristan, her yellow eyes mirroring the pure terror that he felt. Before he could say a word the wave came crashing down.