Second Chance [2]

When I opened my eyes, I was greeted by an unfamiliar sight. The air around me was thick with the smell of damp stone, old wood, and something faintly sweet, like decay.

The kind of sweetness that lingers in places long forgotten by time.

I lay still for a moment, my body was slow to respond. The weight of hunger still gnawed at me, not only in my stomach but in my bones, as if I had been hollowed out and left empty.

"Where… am I?"

The dim light of the room slowly came into focus. It was small, cramped, with walls of rough stone and a ceiling that felt too low.

A single, flickering lantern sat on a wooden table in the corner, casting trembling shadows that danced across the walls like ghosts.

The bed beneath me was lumpy. The blanket was scratchy and worn, but it was warm. Warmer than anything I had felt for a month I spent in this world.

A single window sat on the far side of the room, half-covered by tattered curtains. Through the slivers of space, I could see the faintest glow of daylight, though it looked like the sky here didn't know how to shine properly.

The memory of the alley, the stale bread, the creature…

Everything came rushing back in disjointed fragments. I had been caught. I had been beaten. The sharp, metallic taste of blood still lingered in my mouth, and when I shifted, my ribs ached.

…But I wasn't in the alley anymore.

I forced myself upright. I swallowed the groan that threatened to escape and swung my legs over the side of the bed, trying to gather my thoughts.

How long was I unconscious? Who brought me here?

Before I could settle into my confusion, the door creaked open.

A boy stepped in, his eyes wide with a kind of curiosity that made me uneasy. He couldn't have been more than ten. Though his frame was small, there was something about him.

Something off.

My gaze was drawn to the strange shimmer on his skin. Scales. Tiny, pale green scales clung to his neck and arms, catching the faint light from the window like the sheen of polished stones.

"You're awake!"

His voice was filled with an innocent excitement, as if we were old friends reunited. He took a few steps toward me.

"Selene said you might not wake up. I told her you would."

I didn't know how to respond. His words felt too distant to reach. I stared at him, unsure of what to make of this child with scales for skin.

But he didn't seem to mind my silence.

"I'm Samza."

He said, as if introducing himself would make everything make sense.

"Selene's my sister. She's the one who found you."

"Where… am I?" I tried to speak, but my voice cracked.

"Our house."

He answered simply, as if that explained everything. His eyes, so bright and eager, scanned my face.

"You were hurt bad. We couldn't just leave you out there."

"..."

I should've been grateful, I suppose. But gratitude was not something I had felt in a long time. Instead, I felt… detached. Like I was a spectator in my own life, watching everything unfold from a distance.

I shifted in the bed, trying to find something solid to cling to.

"Why?"

I asked. It was all I could manage. Why bring me here? Why help me?

Samza blinked at me, confused by the question.

"Because you needed it."

He said, as if the answer were obvious. He paused, then added with a grin.

"The others… they wouldn't have helped."

"Others?"

He nodded. "The ones without scales. The ones like you."

I didn't understand. The ones like me? Humans? But before I could ask, Samza moved closer, sitting at the edge of the bed with an eagerness that seemed at odds with the gloom of the room.

"You've never seen scales before, have you?"

I shook my head. He said it so casually, as though the absence of scales was just as common as their presence. I glanced down at my own hands, pale and bruised but unmistakably smooth. I looked back at Samza, noting how the light from the window reflected off his scaly skin.

Samza's eyes lit up, and he leaned in closer.

"What… are you?"

The question escaped before I could stop it. My head was still spinning, trying to piece together what was real and what wasn't. Then, his grin widened, as if he had been waiting for me to ask.

"We're part of the old blood. De Sauris."

"De…?"

I stared at him, searching his face for some hint of a joke. But he looked deadly serious.

"Their scales live in us. Not everyone, but some. The chosen ones. That's why we're different."

He reached up, brushing his fingers over the small patches of scales on his arm.

"Selene says we're descendants. That their power runs through our blood. Amazing, isn't it?!"

"..."

"Legends says they came from the sky! The sky opened, and they, De Sauris, descended to our world, their bodies like humans, but stronger! They were covered in scales, and with the power of the great beasts."

"Great beasts?"

He nodded eagerly. "Yeah! For humans… dinosaurs! You've heard of dinosaurs, right?!"

I had. Back in the world I came from, dinosaurs were nothing more than fossils, with skeletons buried deep beneath the earth. They were telics of a time when creatures larger than anyone could imagine roamed the planet. But now, it seemed the line between myth and reality blurred beyond recognition.

"The De Sauris weren't exactly like the dinosaurs in the books! They were something more. They had the strength, the power, the instincts of the great beasts, but they were still human. Or, at least, they looked human. They were the rulers, the protectors of our world, guiding us with their wisdom and strength."

I frowned, the pieces of his story not quite fitting together.

"If they were so powerful, where are they now…?"

Samza's expression darkened. For the first time, I saw a shadow of fear cross his face. He glanced toward the door again, as if expecting someone to stop him from speaking. When no one came, he lowered his voice.

"They were driven away. Driven by… the humans."

"Humans? But you're—"

"We're different! We're their descendants. Those of us with scales—we carry their blood and their power. But we're not like the others. The ones without scales… they feared the De Sauris. They feared their strength. They feared their power. So they turned on them. There was a great war, and in the end, the humans… won."

"..."

"The De Sauris were driven away. Their bodies scattered and their power… faded."

He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers as if trying to summon some hidden strength.

"But not all of them. Some of their blood remains. In us. In those of us who carry the scales."

I didn't know what to say. The story he was telling sounded like something from a dream, a myth spun by frightened people trying to make sense of a world they couldn't control. And yet, here he was, sitting in front of me with his scales.

…The very evidence of what he spoke.

"Selene knows more. She can tell you the stories. I only know what she tells—"

The door creaked open again, and a woman entered the room.

She was taller than Samza. Her dark hair was tied back, revealing the scales that ran down the sides of her neck and across her collarbone, larger and more pronounced than Samza's. They glistened in the lantern light.

"Selene."

Samza said, his voice brightened at the sight of her. She glanced at him, then turned her gaze to me.

"You're awake."

Her eyes were cold, like she was assessing whether I was a threat or a burden.

"Good. You need to leave soon."

I blinked, unsure how to respond. Leave? I had just woken up. My body was still sore, my mind still trying to process everything that had happened. And yet, here she was, telling me to go.

I tried to sit up straighter, despite the pain in my ribs.

"Thank you. I'll leave," I said, forcing the words out. "As soon as I can."

Samza looked between us. "But Selene, he's—"

"He doesn't belong here. He's not one of us. He's an outsider."

Outsider.

The word stung, though I couldn't explain why. Maybe because, even though this world was unfamiliar, it felt as if I had been rejected before I could even try to understand it. Or maybe… because I'm not originally from this world.

Samza, however, didn't seem to share his sister's views. He clenched his fists, his small frame trembling with frustration.

"But I want to learn from him! He doesn't have scales, but maybe he can teach us something."

"No."

Selene's tone was final.

"He's not like us. He's dangerous."

The word dangerous lingered in the air. I couldn't tell if she meant it or if it was just fear speaking through her. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what I represented. But either way, I knew that I wasn't welcome here.

Samza didn't back down. "Maybe he—"

"You don't know what you're asking for, Samza. We've survived this long by being careful, not by inviting trouble into our home."

"...You agreed to take him home."

"It's because you were persistent."

Samza clenched his fists at his sides, defiance flaring in his eyes.

"He's different, Sister. He's like us. I can feel it."

"You think he's like us?"

I opened my mouth to interrupt, but no words came. What was I? The question echoed in my mind, but no answer formed. I was human once. That much I knew. But now? In this world of scales, of legends, of beings called De Sauris…

"What was I supposed to be?"

Selene seemed to read my silence as confirmation of her doubts.

"I'll tell you this much. He's not one of us. He never will be. And one day, that difference could cost us everything."

"But he—"

Before Samza could continue, a sudden, sharp tremor shook the house. It was faint at first, like a distant rumble, but it quickly grew, the floorboards creaking beneath us.

My heart leapt into my throat as the ground shuddered, sending a jolt of fear through my already weakened body.

Selene's eyes widened. She rushed to the window, her gaze darting outside. Samza stood frozen with a pale expression.

"What… what's happening?"

I asked, my voice barely audible over the noise.

Selene turned to me with an expression hard as stone.

"I knew bringing you here was a bad mistake"

Samza cut in. "Sister, what's—"

"They've found us."