Avondale: The Golden Door

Welcome To Avondale

Sorry that the photo has words on it, but the above picture is Sanna.

"Papa, watch me!" I cried as I ran and stumbled along the rocky shore of the beach. "I'm flying!"

A great booming laugh followed me, "Be careful, Princess!" Papa called. "Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

I looked over my shoulder to grin at the giant man following me, "I won't!" But I spoke too soon and tripped over a rock, falling down and scraping my hands and knees. I started to cry because it hurt, and I sat up, looking at my small hands, now scratched and bleeding slightly.

"Kendra, are you okay?" Papa ran over and crouched down in front of me. He was a towering giant with black hair and hazel eyes, his face covered with a short beard of black hair. "Oh, sweetie, you're bleeding." He rubbed my shoulders with his great big hands, "Do you want to go home?"

I sniffed and nodded.

"Oi! You there!" someone shouted and I looked over to see an angry lady coming toward me and Papa. "Get away from that child!"

Papa's face scrunched up like he was mad and he stood, "What business do you have here tellin' me to get away from my own daughter?"

I backed away, I didn't like it when Papa was angry. The lady didn't look angry anymore, her mouth was open a bit and she kept looking from me to Papa and back.

"That can't be your daughter," she said. "She looks nothing like you!"

"So?" Papa growled and I backed away some more. "That doesn't make her any less my little girl."

"I'm so sorry," the lady said.

"Aye, you should be." Then Papa turned back towards me and smiled, "C'mon Kendra, let's go home now."

I reached out to Papa but then a wave of water came and swept me away, taking me under the icy depths. It was so cold that I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe. My eyes searched the blackness in panic, and I saw a flash of gold in the water. I tried to move, tired to swim away, but it got closer and closer. I tried to scream for help but my voice was lost in bubbles. The gold reached me and started circling me in a tornado. My body was peeled away as it was turned to gold, and at that moment I just wished I had gotten to tell Papa goodbye.

I bolted upright from my dream, my eyes flying open and my lungs struggling for air. My head smacked into something hard and I yelped at the pain that blossomed over my forehead. I started rubbing at the spot and wondered what I had smacked into.

Ōh, Kallu, nānu ksamisi nānu! A voice cut through my mind. Nīvu ālrait?

My body went stiff and I looked up to see what I had hit, but I could only scream in terror at the monster before me.

It looked like a lion, but it wasn't a lion, it was pale blue with yellow cat eyes and long whiskers that I had only seen in pictures of chinese dragons. I scrambled back as the animal looked me over with intelligent eyes. I looked down to see its powerful paws covered with armored plates that shimmered like pearls. Behind him, a long, thick tail ended with a deep blue plume, the tail twitched and flicked back and forth as it studied me.

I was still screaming at the top of my lungs when I registered the two women on either side of the beast. One was tall and black with green snake eyes, the other, short and brown, with eyes like a bird. The beast had moved back from me and the women were now touching me and speaking gently in some alien language.

The brown haired woman turned and glared at the creature, who now looked like a kicked puppy, its ears flat against its head. "Sanna, avaru mujugaravannu ide!" She snapped. "Matte śipht!"