A scream cut the electricity that seemed to hang in the air after the next lightning strike, it had illuminated a figure that Olive’s mind could not even begin to process. She felt trapped within the pages of her own book, her heart in her throat like a caged animal full of panic. At first, she thought the sound had come from herself but as she looked over to Fi, who seemed far too young to be dealing with the situation, had her mouth wide, her teeth seemed so much sharper than before. “JACK!” she realized the scream was the boy's name, and that the figure who had collapsed had in fact been the teen she’d come looking for. She had gotten so wrapped up in the weird intimate moment she’d shared with Dalex that she felt sluggish to react.
As she thought of the man, her eyes shifted to look to him, only to find some of the hazy features about him also having shifted. His eyes almost seemed to glow purple in the growing darkness of the storm, this seemed to match a light that appeared to be coming from his fingertips and the rings that decorated his fingers. She didn’t have time to contemplate if she’d been drugged or had finally lost her mind, instead, two thoughts came to her mind, the first being the need to get the boy and get out of there, the second being the desperate fear that she wouldn’t be returning to Nina. “We need a healer.” The words barely registered in her brain, they sounded so unreal to her ears, she was at a loss for words as the shock rolled through her body. “Fi, get Olive back to the ATV! I’ve got Jack!”
“Pa, something is coming! It’s broken past your wards!” Fi screamed as she doubled back around running for Olive, practically pulling her shoulder out of the joint as the little girl grabbed her arm, suddenly they were moving, Dalex behind them with the teen. She did her best to keep up with Fi, stumbling a little in panic, reaching out to steady herself on the girl, her hands landing instead on the bow and quiver of arrows that she’d taken from Jack, it seemed like such an out of place item in the situation. Whether out of fear for the little girl’s safety or her own self-preservation she took the items from the girl when they made it to the ATV and put them over her own shoulders, she’d been an elite all through high school so if it came down to it she could protect the kids with what she had. Though that was more so true for a normal opponent, her brain couldn’t wrap around the size of the thing that seemed to be following Jack.
Dalex finally caught up to them as Olive was trying to get Fi onto the smaller ATV to no avail, the girl wanted to turn and fight which sent waves of panic through Olive. “I need you to take Jack, don’t worry about Fi she can take care of herself.” Dalex’s words made no sense to her but she didn’t argue, Fi wouldn’t accept her instructions and Jack was in more dire straights as she helped him onto the seat of the main ATV as the taller man turned back towards whatever was happening.
“I’m sorry, you must be scared… and it’s all my fault.” The voice was weak but he seemed to be getting better, whatever Dalex had done on the way over had given him a burst of energy. “If I’d been better at my job you wouldn’t have been dragged into this…” Jack seemed to remorse and it hurt to see him so upset when none of this actually seemed to be his fault in any way.
She had been about to comfort him when Fi went sailing past as fast as her little legs could carry her before Olive could stop her. Smoke seemed to pour from around her like liquid, thick and dark like sludge, it gathered behind her quickly overtaking her, hiding her small figure away in the darkness which shot Olive’s anxiety up as she lost sight of the girl. “We need to go after her!”
Jack looked conflicted and more than a little unsure of what to do as another crack of lightning blinded them for a moment, the cracking of trees falling came from the edge of the clearing as a massive figure stepped into it, Dalex facing it down. “Hop on Miss Olive,” Jack instructed as he sat up a little, shifting as he seemed to mark something off on his pants and then repeated the shape on the seat, tethering him there somehow.
“Jack! You’re bleeding! You can’t drive like that.” Her voice cracked with desperation at the red stain on his shirt, his body couldn’t handle that surely, but she had no idea what to do about it. She reached for the boy, her pale fingers were bright to even her own eyes, too bright, but no thunder accompanied what she thought must have been lightening, and the glow did not fade. For a moment all she could hear was her own breath, the rush of power like the rustle of the leaves nearby that she could no longer hear and Jack’s fading heartbeat. It seemed to get brighter as she moved towards him, a green that reminded her of the sun filtered through the leaves and it was just as warm, spreading through her whole body. When she touched his cheek he seemed to draw some relief as the glow spread through him, she moved her hand to where his wound was on his side and the blood slowed to a stop. He looked stronger in that moment than the one before, getting stronger by the second until the heat of her hands grew too unbearable and she had to jump back. The light faded, but she still found the faintest hint of a warm glow beneath her skin as she finally climbed onto the ATV with him, pulling out the bow. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she knew she couldn’t abandon them. “Go!”
She finally looked up towards what they were facing, the body was faintly proportioned like a man, but it resembled more of a mountain, the sight of it, as massive as an apartment building, was almost enough to knock her off the vehicle.
She barely could process what was happening, they were driving back towards where Dalex stood, smoke, and purple lightning flashing around him and there was a bird was circling the creature’s head.
No.
Not a bird…
Her vision swam as she processed just what she was looking at, the creature circling was not a bird at all, it’s long body scaled and undeniable.
Dragon.
“Where is Fi? I can’t see her anywhere?” Olive was panicking, was the flying creature friend or Foe? What if it had taken the young girl in the middle of the chaos?
Jack pointed towards the creature and Olive’s whole stomach did a flip as she barely had time to process the words that came from his lips before the storm ripped them away again. “She’s just up there Miss.”
She couldn’t get up there, if she shot at the creature it could drop Fi and that would be worse, would they have to follow it? “How do we get her back?”
“She’ll come back when they get the creature to turn around Miss, don’t worry too much, dragons are not all that easy to catch.” The dragon didn’t have Fi, no the Dragon was Fi.
It was nearly impossible to get the arrow mounted on the bow with how much she was shaking, the shock was overwhelming as she processed just how dangerous the whole thing was, if they hadn’t gotten there, what would have happened to Jack?
She took a deep breath, forcing the thoughts she was swimming through away, focusing only on the bow in her hands and the warmth that she felt beneath her skin, she didn’t know where it had come from, but she hoped to no end that it would give her something helpful in that moment. Carefully she drew the string back to her cheek, opening her eyes again as she took aim at what she interpreted to be its shoulder.
When she loosed it, it sucked the breath from her, everything flew out of her as if it was chasing the arrow and as she recovered from the spots on her vision she watched as the arrow exploded upon contact. That combined with everything Dalex and the dragon had been doing seemed to finally force it back, the creature turned and stumbled back the way it came, disappearing again as swiftly as it had arrived. She felt the fog at the edge of her vision before she felt her body slump against the boy, losing consciousness from the whole thing as she watched through tunneling vision as everyone seemed to react around her to her. Finally, she let go and everything went dark, the light that had lit her skin up did not seem to follow her into her own head.
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