Sapphyra [Adult Superhero Progression]

I don’t remember falling asleep but I knew I was dreaming. 

For one, I was naked and cold. I never get cold.

Was I in the wilds? A forest of dark purple leaves swallowed my sight and surrounding me was orange mist, so thick I could punch it and get some recoil. Only about 5 steps from where I was standing was anything clear. Still, I walked on.

“This is ridiculous.” I mumbled. I was going in a circle—even when I walked towards a tree, the distance never closed. This usually meant one of two things: I’ve had one too many fresh bovines for dinner, or someone is messing with me.

I’m thinking it’s the latter.

“Yo! Whoever you are, you can stop with the bullshit!” I hissed as air rushed past my pebbled nipples. 

The mist cleared away, like a wind just sucked it away. Damn, I should have thought of that.

“You are still so very rude and crude. Glad to see nothing's changed, my daughter.” My skin crawled at the sound of her voice. The same voice I prayed to when I was younger, the one who abandoned me when I needed her the most.

Phereda, the goddess of dragons. More like the goddess of bullshit if you ask me.

She sat on a throne made out of a giant golden dragon's claw, naked as a jaybird, floor-length pink hair and brown skin just like mine. We’re not family, not directly anyway. Besides, she was much too slender to be related to me.

“I’m not that slender…but thank you for noticing.” She blushed.

“Ew. Did you just read my mind?”

“Of course I did. There are no secrets from me, my dear daughter—”

“Don’t you fucking call me that!” I yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at her. I could feel the rage bubbling up from my gut—just like with Wyatt's betrayal.

“Young lady, watch your mouth.” that sweet facade was cracking, I could see it in the way her smile didn’t meet her eyes.

“Fuck you. Why are you in my dreams anyway? Haven’t you done enough to hurt me?” 

Phereda’s eyes widened, hair raised up like a frightened cat.

“Hurt you?! All I ever did was protect you!”

“Like hell you did.” My voice dropped an octave. Just thinking about that day brings the pain rushing back in. “I prayed for you to set me free but you did nothing. If it wasn’t for Wyatt, I’d have been a fucking breeding factory for them.” 

She says nothing. Her arms cross and she frowns, the pity in her eyes makes my blood boil. If I still had my flames I’d light her ass on fire.

“You know flames don’t hurt me.” She spoke, low and soft. Shame? Guilt?

“Neither. What happened that day was beyond what I could do for you.” I scoffed at her, rolling my eyes.

“Sapphyra you can hate me all you want but aside from that one moment, I have done everything in my power to help you. In fact, that’s why I’m here.”

“Oh good. So you can snap your fingers and reset the world then? Give me back the hundred years I lost?” Silence.

“No.” Her jaw clicked. 

“Then what good are you?” I snapped back, throwing my hands in the air, exasperated. 

“Plenty good, you ungrateful brat. I gave you not one but two soulmates! Most dragons would be over the moon to have even one but here you are, whining about past events. Didn’t your beloved human save you?”

I am not playing these games with her.

“What do you want, Phereda?” I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose. Who knew talking with a goddess would be such a headache.

Her features softened, a quick sniffle to hide her hurt pride before she answers.

“I came here to free you from your cage…if you want it.”

“My cage? What are you talking about?” She sighed and extended her hand towards the mist. It swirled and danced, forming shapes. Three shapes, one of me in Sanctuary, one of Wyatt, and the last of a dragon.

I gulped. “What is this?”

“Just watch, my child. I need you to see what really happened to you.”

I didn’t want to. Haven’t I suffered enough?

“You have but this has to happen. Not to torture you, to give you another weapon in your arsenal.” 

Hot, sticky sweat rolled down my face. My gut twisted like a pretzel as I watched him. Wyatt walked in front of my unconscious body and opened my mouth. With a syringe in hand, he squirted something down my throat and coaxed me to swallow it.

His lips moved but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“What did he say?” My voice was tiny. I had to fight the tides of hurt just to speak.

“Does it matter? Look at what he’s done to you. What he’s still doing to you now!” Why was she so angry? It wasn’t her marriage on the outs. It wasn’t her city she had to rebuild.

“I already know what he did—”

The dragon. My dragon. Every drop I swallowed made a cage grow around her. It grew until there was no part of her free. Horns, tail, wings, all slowly shrank into the body of the Sapphyra before me. I already knew he did this…maybe not the gritty details but I knew. 

But it still hurts like hell to see it in real time.

“Do you want to be free of the cage? To take back your power?” She whispered, suddenly next to me. I exhaled slowly, almost ready to say yes. Then I thought of Corre and Silla, of all the buildings inside my void, ready to be rebuilt.

“No.”

“No? Why would you—”

I didn’t turn to face her. Figured I might lose my nerve if I did. “Wyatt did something truly evil to me—” my voice started breaking, “but he did it while trying to make a way for the future. A future he knew I’d make it to.”

“I don’t understand your reasoning. You are one of the most powerful dragons—the last pure one on earth and you hold yourself back? For love?!” I could see the vein in her forehead throb from the corner of my eyes.

“Not love. Hope.” I finally turned to her, holding back my emotions with a bitter smile. “He gave me a gift, a way to rebuild it all. I hate him and I love him for that but without this power…without the system he gave me? I’d have power but no hope, no real way to take care of everyone.”

Color me surprised, I think I left her speechless.

“You were supposed to be a queen.” She mumbled, shaking her head.

“I already am one.” Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “I’m rejecting your help, Phereda. Got a world to rebuild after all.”

“Okay.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair. She bit her lower lip as the world around us began to vanish. I must be waking up.

“You’re going to regret this.” Those were the last words I heard before bolting upright in bed. 

“Easy angel, easy…you had a nightmare.” I smiled at Guy's voice. But the hand placed on my shoulder was not Guys.  It was warm and familiar, soft like he’d never worked a day of hard labor in his life.

“Guy?”

“Yeah? What? I got something on my face?”

I shook my head and pointed a shaky finger at his body.

“You’re in Wyatt’s body!”

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