Slowly I opened my eyes, and the ringing, that had seemed like it'd go on forever, had finally stopped. I felt that I was sitting against a rock, and the hard surface rubbed against my back. 

I noticed that my vision was blurred, and I panicked for a moment: did my glasses somehow fall off? 

What I did know, was that I was definitely no longer in the secret room of the house: Somewhere I thought I heard a waterfall, and I saw all kinds of green blurred spots. 

As I raised my arm to check where my glasses had landed, I felt a stabbing pain in the crook of my elbow, and something warm was down from my held up arm. 

My glasses were still on my nose. 

Strange.

Everything became focused when I took them off, as if my vision had miraculously cleared up.

Very Strange.

I inspected my arm, and a horrified expression formed on my face. Next to me laid a shard of glass, which presumably had been in my arm, and it was warm blood that was seeping down my arm onto my trousers. 

It was scorching hot, and I saw that I was in a clearing, like the one in front of the house, with only a few differences: the house was gone, a dirt road ran in its place, the broad-leaved forest had given way to some kind of prehistoric jungle, and on the other side of the field I could see the waterfall I heard right before I woke up. 

How did I end up here? Where did I even end up in the first place?

I noticed that my bag was still beside me as I got up with difficulty and covered the wound in my arm as best I could. Stunned, I stared at the menhir I was sitting against: it was the exact same one as the one that stood in front of the house! All the names were there, and the green flame lit up merrily. I looked down, and I was relieved to see the amulet still hanging around my neck. So relieved that I did not hear the excited whispering behind me. 

Twigs crackling as someone – something? - moved forward... 

Within seconds, I was pulled off the ground by giant claws and dangled above the open space that was rapidly getting smaller. 

"My backpack!", I shouted, and I looked up. Giant dark red wings with yellow membranes, topped off by white thorns appeared in my field of vision.

I felt my stomach flip as I shrieked as the beast turned its head towards me. It was a nightmarish sight: its yellow eyes glittered in the sunlight and its ivory spines seemed to have just been sharpened. 

I quickly looked for something to distract my attention from the dragon's piercing gaze when suddenly, a boy about my age leaned against the dragon's flank. I shuddered once more: he was holding on with only one hand to the saddle that was tied to the dragon's back, and his face was hidden by a painted deer skull: I could only see dark brown, curly hair sticking out from under it.

 He looked at me in amusement. 

"Staring is rude. Aren't you rather the odd bird out in this situation?"

Before I could answer, something I thought didn't exist appeared in the distance: a huge tree towering over everything in the distance. Not just any tree: it was the tree of the mural and the strange orb! My mouth fell open in surprise. again.

The strange dragon rider chuckled. 

"We're about to drop," he said, but to his steed rather than to me. 

He then climbed back into the saddle and the dragon took a staggering dive, and I felt myself turn pale, my stomach turning over once more as we moved at super-speed towards a grassy field. 

The boy called out something I didn't want to have to hear: "Iserth, loose!" 

The dragon followed his command without question.

 I think I threw up as I fell down. 

I felt myself being caught in a net. 

Is this what being dead feels like?

Having noticed that I was still very much alive, I finally dared to breathe again, and I saw that the construction was stretched between four trees. A little further on, the dragon, apparently named Iserth, landed on a strip of short mowed grass, which presumably served as a landing strip. I looked down and saw that a whole group of boys had gathered under the net, and the boy who had 'picked me up' at the stone came hobbling eagerly forward through the crowd. 

"Let her down, boys!"

I felt the safety net gently sink to the ground, and I immediately jumped off and looked for an escape route, but Mr. Curly seemed to have figured out exactly what I wanted to do. 

"You're not going anywhere! Follow me," he ordered, and without looking back he trotted in the direction of the tree. I had no choice but to follow him closely behind, as I didn't want to stay with the bunch of suspicious looking boys. 

The boy walked a few metres away before taking a peek at my injured elbow. 

"Let's go to the aid station first," he said. "What happened?" 

I grimaced. 

"Piece of glass in my arm." 

The boy nodded and stared silently ahead as we walked straight towards a well-camouflaged hut: the roof was covered in moss and other tiny weeds, and it was obvious that the structure itself had been put in place by the group of boys. 

"Who are you, anyway?", the boy asked before opening the door. "You look strange!" 

"Hear who's talking...", I thought, and only seconds later I understood why he said that: I was wearing bleached jeans, a Nirvana T-shirt and a red jacket. Looking around, I could draw one conclusion: these people had never seen bleached jeans before. 

When I led my gaze back to the boy, he was still looking at me questioningly. 

"I could ask you the same thing! Why did you bring me here? What is this place?" 

I pretty much knew the answer to the latter: this was Eastborne, no question about it. The Dragon Rider hushed me and pushed me into a chair before disappearing into the hut, and he returned a little later with cotton wool and a roll of bandages. I took off my torn jacket and examined the wound: not too deep, and no pieces of glass were still stuck in it. 

I looked suspiciously at the boy who was about to grab my arm, but since he looked back with the same suspicion, I reluctantly let him do his job. While he was at it, he started talking again: "My name is Kindle. My dragon's name is Iserth, but maybe you knew that already. And this, this is our village, Eastborne." 

I looked around again. You couldn't really call it a village: it was more of a very complex constructed camp. I just discovered that the tree was a kind of giant castle; around the tree fortress, a few houses were built against the trunk, and there were also some army tents and huts like this one. 

In the trees at the edge of the clearing, some hammocks were hanging under a tarpaulin that served as a roof, and I also spotted a storagerkeeper, a fire pit, and some cages that were underground with braided bamboo sticks as cell doors. 

It was like I felt the gears grind in my head as I pondered.

Kindle... that was one of the names scratched on the Menhir! I was excited by the discoveries I was making and as I didn't answer, and just sat smiling a little stupidly, Kindle looked at me with a squint. He had finished bandaging my arm, and I quickly pulled it back onto my lap asKindle stroked his hair behind his ears, which were pointy. 

Pointy???

Now that I investigated everything even more, I saw that all the boys had that outward characteristic. 

I sensed Kindle's piercing eyes looking at me. 

"Is there a problem?", I said sneeringly. 

He forced his eyes to slits. 

"You're a human being." 

"Yes...it seems that is not quite the norm here..."

I saw Kindles gaze harden. He stood up and started pacing back and forth, cursing. 

Another boy came running towards him, deer mask in hand. 

"Kindle, what's going on?" 

His ponytail moved up and down as he came jogging on, and his accent sounded British, which was odd, since we were in a different world. Or at least, that's what I assumed.

"She's a human, not some guild member. What if she's a portalhunter? Aros is going to kill me when he sees this, Rellian.... I literally led her straight to our guild!!!"

The boy, apparently named Rellian, looked at me ponderingly. 

"She is indeed a human...but without an amulet, she wouldn't have gotten in." 

He came up to me and inspected me, his nose only a few inches from mine, and my face turned bright red in discomfort. Suddenly, he grasped at my throat and I yelled. 

Before I knew it, he had grabbed the amulet around my neck, his blue eyes staring straight into mine.  

"How did you get this? Where did you get this??" he asked urgently, not letting go of the necklace. 

"I found it in a forest..." I stammered fearfully, and his grip eased a little. 

"She looks way too scared to be one of them. Portalhunters also aren't quite at the point where they can steal Draxite. Not yet." 

Kindle didn't seem to be convinced. 

I was most of all very puzzled. Draxite? Portalhunter? Guild?

"Summon the guild. Aros has to judge this, that's his job.", Kindle finally said to Rellian, who nodded and ran towards the tree. 

Then, Kindle turned back to me and pulled me up, still with a suspicious look. "Don't make any wrong moves, you won't endear yourself," he muttered,and  pushed me towards the tree.

The sound of a horn echoed from a platform above the huge gate of the even more gigantic tree. The boys looked up as they heard the sound and came running,  all entering the tree through the gigantic front gate. I was surprised to see a whole group of dragons fly to the top of the tree and enter too. 

As I swallowed my fear, Kindle said:

"Welcome to the Dragon Hall."