I awake to the urgent whispering of two women standing by a crackling fire. One of the women reminds me of a hippo. She is very plump with graying hair that flows down her back in undulating waves and a hunched back that speaks of years spent doing hard labor. She wears a fading lavender dress that goes down to her knees complimented with worn sandals.

The other woman, quite younger than the first is tall and so thin she looks as if she could be snapped in half at any moment. Her auburn hair is tied at the nape of her neck in a hurried bun. Her eyes dart around the room looking for danger in every crook and cranny.

She wears black leggings and a long-sleeved shirt that hasn't seen a good wash in quite awhile.  Across her back, she wears a  quiver of arrows studded with glinting pieces of metal. On her chest, she wears a sash decorated with enough daggers and knives for a small battalion. 

"She could be a Rebel.. ", The younger woman says with enough steel in her voice to make my blood turn to ice.

"Esmeralda, she is just a child no more, she could not be a spy for the Dark Lord of the Cosmos.", the older woman says plainly as if she is just explaining the weather to a passerby.

The younger woman jolts me out of my thoughts with an exasperated sigh, "Glenda, that's what they want to you to think, you'll never last the next time we travel between realms if you're so trusting, the most innocent looking creatures can be darker than the devil himself", shes brings her fist down as if to obliterate an imaginary surface beneath her with anger.

"Esmeralda, we both know that neither of us will be traveling between realms again ever since the Prophecy of the New Beginning."

"Glenda, I foresaw that Ooskan child of the prophecy is more powerful than we thought because of  the darkness and light inside of her. She will either destroy or save the universe."

My head was still spinning but I could not take it any longer, I abruptly sat up to make sure the women noticed my presence. Esmeralda abruptly spun around and I gasped.

Esmeralda had the face of a cold-blooded Dragon. I'm quite serious when I say that because her face was covered in red scales that were slowly peeling off of her skin.

I figured she had a fiery temper ( no pun intended) and I didn't want to know if she had the abilities of a dragon too. I quickly change my expression of horror to that of a starstruck teenage girl.

"Close your mouth you ignorant child, I do not breathe fire", Esmeralda said as she shook her head in disapproval. 

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding when Esmeralda gulped in a huge gulp of air and I stiffened on instinct. Esmeralda glanced at me cruelly then cackled evily.

" Stop scaring the poor girl Esmeralda, she may not even know",said Glenda with a concerned look on her face.

"What don't I know", I asked in what I hoped sounded confident and regal, but even in could detect the slight quiver in my voice.

"She's British she can't know", said Esmeralda glancing over at Glenda like they were sharing a inside joke.

"What's a British?", I asked. The smug smile was wiped right off Esmeralda's face.

"She is the Ooskan child bestowed with the blessing in the prophecy", Esmeralda said with a grim look on her face. Her eyes clouded over, her eyes now looked like they were covered in ash ( That pun was intended).

Inside, I was laughing at my horrible pun but on the outside I tried to to look grim.

"Told ya" Glenda said with a bit of her country accent sneaking through. They had said blessed not gifted I thought suddenly.

"Excuse me Miss, but I believe you mean gifted, not blessed",I said softly trying not to sound annoyed. These people were so lazy with words. Glenda slowly turned to face me .

"I'm sorry buttercup, but you're on Earth now. In the good Ol USA", Glenda said with a sad smile on her face.

" Oh no no no the Carrier of the. Assassin's Blade will hunt me down and kill me then my relatives and friends will be killed without mercy" I said in horror.

"Child, be calm you will not make the air stiff with worry in my home. Explain yourself wisely if you wish to stay in my home and live through the night.,Esmeralda said sternly.

"Come my dear , and have peppermint tea while you explain yourself to us,"

Glenda said in a motherly tone. The peppermint tea was almost as good as my mother's tea made of. She made before she passed. I took one more sip of my delicious peppermint tea then took a deep breath and began explaining.