Master Maker

Chapter 11 - The Dark Wood

I got to Dark wood before the others did, I had gotten on my dragon to get here. The others had paid a stable man for horses. I would be lying if I had said that I wasn’t thinking out the payment that I now owed the old man, and not to mention his warning. My mind went to Matt, was he, who I had to watch out for. It was my ex’s best friend. That had me thinking more, how long had he been playing. I heard the sound of hooves, I looked up to see Lucis. He dismounted and came up to me.

“how badly I would like to kiss you right now,” he said I smirked at him. “also we need to find out if your Dragon can take more than 1, I do not like this horseback s**t”

“where are the others?” I asked looking behind him

“about 2 minutes away” I raised a brow but I didn’t ask, I turned to face the dark wood. It was the exact opposite of the forest. Its name fits perfectly. The treetops were dens and allowed no light to filter in through them, the amount of light that somehow made it through were just small beams of light.

“any tricks to this place?” I asked

“don’t get caught” I looked around the woods as the others came running up to us.

“it’s dark in there, we need to stick together,” Justin said looking into the darkness.

“well no use in waiting, let’s go,” I said picking and making my way down a path. The other following, Lucis walked up to my side and then took the lead.

“so what do we know about dragon eggs,” Troy asked

“they are valuable,” I said without thinking

“They are quite big,” Matt said “I’m curious how they got it here”

“wait valuable?” said Troy “then why are we not selling it to the highest bidder?”

“cause the damn thing needs it, mother,” said Justin

“We need to get the egg back before-“

Thwap!  

“what the f**k” shouted troy, we all looked back to see that he was pinned to a tree by his sleeve. He pulled the arrow from the tree to free his arm. “okay that could have ended badly” he said half-joking to himself

Thwap, thwap, thwap!

“take cover!” shouted Lucis grabbing me and shoving me behind a tree. I could hear shouting and feet stomping against the ground. Lucis looked at me with his finger on his lips, warning me not to make a sound.

“hey come on guys can we just talk” I heard troy say from

“Great now we have to rely on the elf princess and her laky to save up” and I was pretty sure that was Matt, which just made me think he was the one to watch out for even more

“East” Justin shouted

“who the f**k are you talking to?” shouted a man, His voice was extremely deep and had a weird sound to it. Lucis moved closer to me, all together pinning me against the tree. He peered out from behind it. taking my hand and leading me back into the clearing.

“Now what?” I asked

“we head East” he replied, pulling out a dagger from his belt. I took my bow from my shoulder and an arrow from its quiver. Lucis took lead heading towards what I hoped was east.

The woods become thicker and with that darker. We had been walking for what felt like hours, but we had to be cautious.

“you, i***t” came that same deep voice. There was then a deep wet coughing and throat clearing sound. I pulled a face at the disgusting sound, the sound of him spitting out whatever he just coughed up made me sick to my stomach.

“find whoever is still lurking”

“my pleasure,” another voice said. It was low and to be honest, just sounded terrifying. I ducked down into the dark as I saw the man walk by us. His hair was oily and looked as though it clung to his skin. He was slightly hunched over and looked to have a limp as he walked. he was in no way a strong-looking man, but he looked as though he could get the job done, quick and silently.

“come on” I whispered to Lucis that was now staring after the man, I could still see the other man. We kept our distance as much as we could while trying to maintain sight of the man. He wrenched a few times on his walk back to where I assume was his camp. At one point it was blood that he spat out onto the ground. The man mumbled to himself a lot after having a coughing fit. He seemed to be very sick, if not dying.

I could see a glow coming from ahead and the chatter of a few men. The man we had been following was walked on while we stopped in the shadows to scope out the camp.

A huge fire was in the middle of it with a few tents a few meters away circling it, they had weapons that littered the ground near the fire and the smell of meat cooking was wafting through the air.

“elf ears” Lucis whispered, I closed my eyes listening to the voices that I could hear. I could hear the wrenching of a forced cough again, men that were in tents softly talking to one another or sleeping.

“ya got enuf blankets  on that, there, egg?” I looked up, seeing a man walk into the weirdly colored tent in the center of the camp tents. I pointed the tent out to Lucis who nodded his understanding. I kept listening out to see if I could hear Justin’s voice. I was giving up hope as panic started to rise in me. I couldn’t hear him, nor could I hear-

“told you this was a bad idea” Matt hissed at someone. All I had to do was now pinpoint where they were

“what have you got against Lilith exactly?” came Justin’s voice I listened following the voice. Instinctively is started moving around in the dark. Lucis looked at me surprised but he started to move along with me.

We came to the back of the first tent. I could only hear soft snoring sounds which made me move on to the next one

“she is a cheating b***h” Matt spat, I frowned at the tent before I lifted it at the seam and snuck under it. putting my finger to my lips when Justin saw me. Matt had his back and Troy was sitting to the side. All of them had their hands and feet bound. I ran over to Troy while Lucis went over to Justin, cutting them free

“well, it’s about time you guys got here” snapped Matt I stood up after cutting Troy’s bounds. Looking at Matt almost deciding on whether to cut him loose or leave him.

“Lilith,” Justin said slowly “we need him,” he said in a gentle tone almost like he was able to read my mind about leaving him behind. I walked over to Matt, and cut his legs free. Staying on my haunches I looked him in eye and whispered so low that only he was able to hear me 

“I’d watch what you say, I’m a pretty good shot” I moved so that I could cut his hands free. He looked up at me with a scowl on his face but the fear was light as day in his eyes. I half smiled and walked back to the others.

“the egg is in the middlemost tent,” I said softly we each went through a plan that would help us get to the tent unnoticed. Our best bet was to sneak around the back again, and hope that no one was in the tent. Although that was probably going to be slim to none. Lucis came up with a plan to cause a distraction that would lead most of the camp out into the dark wood leaving the camp empty with just a few to fend off.

“it’s going to take two of us to carry that thing,” Troy said

“or one… and a blue Dragon,” I said looking at Justin

“you are going to get a dragon into the camp without causing a scene” Matt objected

“he doesn’t need to be in the camp, I just need him to land and get out”

“they will be all over him,” Troy said but he looked deep in thought

“Dragons breath fire don’t they?” I looked at Lucis that I was staring at the front of the tent

“here’s what we do” he suddenly said

Lucis

Lilith was the first to leave the tent heading as far as she could, before calling to her dragon.

Matt and Troy walked out of the tent causing the men around to shout and rage, the two of them ran out of the camp, with a few of the men following them out. Justine poked his head out from the tent and slowly made his way towards the weapons that were laying on the ground, chucking the majority of them into the fire, and had a few of them tucked into his belt. A sudden cough made him freeze where he stood. Justin turned slowly to see a man asleep on a stool. It was the guy that he assumed was in charge. he moved slowly again making sure to stick to the shadows as he made his way to the center tent. Lucis had taken the back way, moving swiftly through the dark until he got to the tent that Lilith had pointed out earlier. Both men found themselves in an empty tent that had a bundle of blankets and animal skins on the ground. Lucis shifted around the skins and there lay the bright blue and black egg. Troy had been right; the thing was huge. Justin wrapped a skin around the egg to keep it somewhat warm. They lifted it and started to carry it out of the tent.

“what the f**k do you think you are doing?” they were surrounded. the men had returned to camp with Matt in hand. Lucis was grateful that Troy had at least got away. But where the hell was Lilith?

The two put the egg down carefully, standing up straight with their hands in the air. Two arrows flew out from the darkness hitting one man in the back, the arrow driving deep and dropping him to the ground

“attack!” shouted one of the men. Lucis stood over the egg, his sword in his hands, and at the ready. Troy came out from the dark, sending arrows flying. Justin was in the middle of a scruff defending people off him as they tried to cut him down. The scene was mad, the sound of iron hitting against ion filled the air, arrows flying through the air hitting their targets.

A fire erupted from the dark woods, lighting up a few of the tent. An earth-shattering roar followed it

I was trying to keep my eyes on Lucis but I couldn’t the number of men with sharp weapons that kept coming at him was making it hard to him in my sight. As he pushed one off another two were on him.

“Fire” I shouted unsure if it would even affect. Suddenly a blast of fire exploded from my Dragon cutting through the trees and tents of the camp. The men backed off and took cover from the fire leaving Lucis open again, Matt ran over to him and helped him lift the egg as I lead the dragon into the camp. The two hurried over to me walking up the dragon's extended wing. The egg was put down in front of me wrapped in what looked like wolf skin. As the egg was set down, a loud crack echoed through all the shouting and the sounds of battle. Everyone went quiet, I looked up at Lucis

“mother fucker” we both said at the same time as he and Matt jumped down

“get out of here” Lucis shouted “head towards the blue mountains”

“but what about you guys” I shouted as the men started running towards us

“Go! We will find you” I held onto the base of my dragon’s wings

“fire” I shouted, another jet of fire shot from its mouth “before I could evaluate the damage it had done I shouted again

“fly”