PROLOGUE

The beautiful, athletic woman walked into the room before pausing and raising an eyebrow at all the expectant faces.

The faces of her family.

She wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips to the side. Her aqua eyes sparkled in the firelight, reflecting the reds and golds encased within. “What do we have here?”

One of the youngest faces, a girl of about five, walked over and took her hand. She tugged to pull the woman along toward a comfortable-looking chair near the fire. “You know, Grandmama!” she exclaimed as she gently pushed her with both hands into the seat.

The woman obligingly sat. “I do?”

An older teenage boy nodded. “You most certainly do.”

“Huh. I must have forgotten. That sort of thing happens when you reach my advanced age.” The woman tried, quite unsuccessfully, to keep a smile off her face.

“Not to you,” the teen boy dryly responded.

“So you say,” the woman retorted. “Humor me. What is it you expect from me?”

A little boy, maybe seven, looked up at her and shot her a glare…a very amusing one. “It is story time. You promised.”

“Oh! That is right!” the woman exclaimed. Then she wrinkled her brow. “What story?”

The little girl who had led her to the chair heaved a large sigh for someone so small. “The story, grandmama. The legend.”

“Yes.” A younger teen girl smiled. “The most important story there is. How we got here.”

The woman waved it off. “Really? Have you all not heard that one often enough? Even you little ones? How about we tell a different one?”

“No!” a few dozen voices chorused.

She heaved a long-suffering, fake sigh and relented. “Oh, very well.”

“Do you need your book, Grandma?” the younger boy asked.

The woman chuckled. “No, I do not believe so. Pretty sure I know it by heart.”

“You should.” The teen boy rolled his eyes.

“Oh, sit down. You want to hear it as much as the young ones!” The woman smirked.

The eye-roller blushed and sank onto the carpeted floor without another word.

“Well, let us see how a legend is made.”

CHAPTER ONE

Sofia’s Story

19th Jinn, 1502 AE

Sofia staggered backward as she quickly dropped her torch. She shrugged out of her pack and reached for the shield attached to her back beneath it. As soon as she removed the shield from the quick-release latch and settled it on her left arm, she drew her sword with her right hand and settled into a fighting stance.

The glowing blue orb was larger than her by quite a bit, with a black slit like a cat or reptile’s eye in the middle. It slowly swiveled and focused on her, granting her a startling revelation.

It was an eye. A huge, enormous, gigantic eye!

“Dragon,” Sofia softly breathed in shock.

She had no more time to contemplate her precarious situation as something slammed into her left side. She suddenly sailed through the air, barely keeping hold of her sword and shield as she crashed down before rolling over the stones in a raucous clatter of squealing metal.

She shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears, silently offered thanks to the unknown benefactor who gifted her with the armor and attempted to stand. She figured she was probably a goner anyway. How could you fight something with an eye bigger than you were? Yet she was determined not to be a quick meal without at least fighting back. “Maybe I can at least give it indigestion,” she muttered wryly.

As she stood, she saw the faint outline of what appeared to be the tip of a wing retreat from the spot where she had been struck. Softly glowing, pale blue lights brightened the walls, illuminating the room with their frosty hue and highlighting the enormous reptilian form that was slowly rising to its feet.

Upon seeing it wreathed in the softly glowing lights as it began to stand, Sofia almost rethought her position. Maybe I should just lie down and let it eat me. It’s huge!

No, huge doesn’t begin to do this creature justice. Massive. Colossal. The biggest thing I’ve ever seen aside from buildings. Or rather, castles.

It’s even bigger than the ishavolia trees back home.

Time seemed to slow for Sofia as she took a long look at the reptilian monster. Hazarding a guess, she would say it was at least four hundred feet long from its nostrils to the tip of its tail, if not more. She’d never read or heard about anything alive that even came close to rivaling it.

At least not that I believed the descriptions of.

And it was fast.

She realized that last part too late as the head swiveled slightly, and without any other movements to give away its intentions, it struck. The head shot forward like a striking serpent, jaws wide and full of teeth almost as big as her. Sofia reflexively crouched—cowered, really—behind her shield, wondering if anyone would ever figure out what happened to her as a whimper escaped her throat.

She fell forward as the creature’s lower jaw struck her. She tumbled over a tooth, shrank back against it, and watched in horror as the remaining razor-sharp teeth descended towards her.

Well, I know one thing for sure.

Your life really does flash before your eyes when you die.

Surprise, surprise, it has the extra joy of lingering on the last day or so that led me to this Abyssally-tainted place and its “I’m so big I shouldn’t even exist” guardian dragon.

And of course, fate seems to take extra joy in twisting the knife, or soon-to-be tooth, into the wound and giving me just enough time to question every decision that led me to this point.

I suppose I really shouldn’t expect it to be any other way.