Watch Out!
1039 Words
Maybe I should be happy that we stopped a red dragon from attacking a village. Maybe I should have some pride. Well, now I was just running for my life. I didn't expect a red dragon to be this far north. This was the first I had heard of it.
"Watch out!" Annabella yelled as Jordan dove under a blast of fire. The dragon was the biggest of kinds; a red dragon.
"What's it doing in the middle of nowhere?!" Annabella screamed as Jordan swerved away from a claw.
"Maybe it was after the village," I yelled back as I struggled to keep control of Jordan. He wanted to attack but I wanted to escape.
"We need to leave!"
"Don't you think that's what I'm trying to do?!" I yelled back as Jordan tipped his wings and we swung a full circle around the dragon.
"Come on, Jordan," I yelled, "you can outrun it!"
Jordan let out a roar as he shot forward like an arrow but not fast enough. The bigger dragon caught ahold of his tale and sent us off course.
Annabella wrapped her arms tight around me as we fell away from Jordan. I felt the box of the weapon sticking into my back as we crashed through the trees.
"Alaina?" Annabella's voice came in a whisper. I frowned as I tried to lift myself but there appeared to be something on top of me.
"Get off," I said as I rolled over, sending her to the side. I sat up and looked around us. The forest was thick and they blocked the light except from the space that we had just fallen through.
"We need to find Jordan," I said as I started off in the direction that I assumed Jordan fell.
"You're just going to start off?" Annabella asked.
"Any better ideas?" I asked her. I knew how dangerous it was to wander in unknown forests. But we had no one to look for us, Nathaniel had kept our destination a secret, and Jordan might be hurt. Or worse: he tried to take on the dragon.
"Fine," Annabella asked as she followed me into the trees. She held the box close and stayed close behind me. The forest, though the sun was high and bright outside of the trees, was dark. Not dark enough that we could see, just dark enough so that shadows touched everything.
"How are we going to find him?" Annabella asked from behind me.
I didn't answer her question as we kept forward. He was somewhere and we were going to find him. Besides, if that dragon was part of Erin's game then he would have been able to find it if we stayed still.
"You don't think he's hurt," Annabella asked, "do you?"
"Jordan's fine," I told her though I wasn't sure, "he'll be just fine."
It was only when I noticed the forest floor getting even darker that I decided that we should stop. We hadn't a clue where we were going to find Jordan.
"This is bad," I muttered as I gathered nearby sticks. I shoved them in the pile Annabella was forming.
"It'll be alright," Annabella said as she started the fire.
"Yeah," I muttered as I wrapped my arms around my legs. It was going to be okay. Jordan was going to be okay, Felix was, maybe even Potts and Jasmine. I'll have to ask Nathaniel about that.
"You remind me of Felix," Annabella said. I glanced up at her. Her dress was torn and she held the box to her chest. She was wearing Felix's sword across her back. The handle was dark against the night.
"How so?" I asked.
"He had grown too close to death," she said, " for most it would make them more able to accept it. But not for Felix. Not with you. I remember when his grandmother died four years ago. He was only fifteen at the time and he...was very attached to her. I remember catching him reading these books about death and ghosts and looking for ways to bring her back."
"This is different," I said.
"How so?" Annabella asked, "I want him back just as much as you do but I wouldn't ever go to man of dark magic. When he comes back, Felix is not going to be the same. They never are after they've come back."
"You say that like you've experienced it," I commented. Her back went straight and a sadness came to her eyes as she turned away.
"I say it like it's the truth," Annabella spoke slowly with a heavy voice.
"This is different, Annabella," I told her, "he didn't die. He was...sucked into the necklace the warlock was wearing."
"Sucked in?" Annabella's head snapped up as she looked at me with suspicious eyes.
"You didn't tell me this," she muttered as she stood.
"I was a little focused on other things," I told her, "primarily that Felix was dead and Nathaniel had appeared in a dream of me."
Annabella stared off in the trees but she didn't seem to see them. Her eyes were focused on other things.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she said blankly. I frowned at her. Something was definitely up.
"Annabella?" I said as I stood, "shall I take first watch?"
"No," she said, her head snapping in my direction, "you get your sleep."
"Wake me up in a couple hours, okay?" I told her as I curled up on the ground. I didn't sleep though. I kept my eyes half parted as she tended to the fire.
"Hush little baby," she started singing under her breath, "don't you cry..."
I watched as she grabbed a stick from the fire and carried it with her as she walked away from the fire and into the thick expanse of the trees.
I sat up and followed her by the light of her makeshift torch as quietly as I could. We walked for a while until the light suddenly went out, leaving me in complete darkness.
"Annabella?" I whispered as I felt around for something to hang on to.
"You shouldn't have followed me, child," a voice said harshly in my ear as I was yanked back.
- Writer
