Tamed

Chapter 36.The Help

"If you want help, you just need to ask Natalie"

A young chubby Natalie fixed her gaze on the wrinkled hand which squeezed her shoulder. She looked up to meet the ocean blue eyes staring down at her. The round peaky face was full of creases. But the old woman's head was adorned with mysterious jet black hair which was unusual for her age.

"I don't need help Grandma" Natalie wrinkled her eyebrows and looked away "I don't need help and I can do things on my own"

Her grandmother's lips twitched upwards. With a firm grip on Nat's shoulder, the old lady scooted down and sat next to her dear grandchild and sighed.

"Look at me Natalie dear" She said, tilting Nat's chin so that she was face to face with her.

"I know you are a smart girl. I know you are growing up into a bold young lady. I know you are capable of doing things on your own but.."

"But what grandma?" Natalie hated it whenever the "but"s crept into conversations.

"Remember when you fell down from the highest branch of the old oak in our backyard? What did you do when you realized your leg had slipped and you would hit the ground any second from then?"

"I grabbed on to the nearest branch that I could find" she replied

"And did you hit the ground?" the old lady asked.

"No" Natalie shook her head.

"You didn't fall because you held on to whatever you could find. Had you hesitated to hold on to that branch, would you have saved yourself from hitting the ground?"

"No" Natalie admitted.

"Situations may arise in our lives when we need aid from outside. At that moment you need not wait to sort it out by yourself because you are too proud to ask for help. You need not hesitate to ask for help just because you feel that all odds are against you. Not only people dear, the whole nature is around to help us. The living help each other, that's how life goes on" Natalie looked into her Grandmother's eyes brimming with unconditional love. A smile crept into her face. Grandma kissed Nat on her forehead and held her close.

A sigh escaped Natalie's lips. She opened her eyes wide and stared at the sky which was painted blue, just like her Grandma's eyes. The distant sound of dragon flipping its wings echoed in her ears. She stared at it without blinking even once. The mighty creature flailed it's arms proudly  as it flew.

you just need to ask  she told herself. But how do you ask a dragon for help? You need to grab its attention. How do you do that? Dragon ears are sensitive to low frequency sound in the air, she had read. It readily follows the sound and chases it.

Natalie made a deep humming noise and fixed her gaze on the dragon. Wherever it flied to, her eyes followed without breaking contact. The dragon changed its direction and looked down for the possible source of sound. Her eyes twinkled with hope. She hummed as deeper as she could. The dragon became restless. It increased its pace and kept changing directions. It came closer to the ground. And then its gaze met hers at once. In the whole wide world, that pair of blood red eyes were all that mattered. She stared at it. "Help" her lips uttered. tears trickled down  her temples. Neither the dragon, nor Natalie blinked. The Dragon was hovering 10 feet over her, flipping it's giant wings and sending chills down her spine.  It moved in pace with the invisible force.

Breaking eye contact with Natalie, the dragon spit fire and the flames danced in the air.  A tiny green spark was emitted from the aura of the invisible force. Natalie squirmed again, but the grip was tighter than ever. The dragon exhaled fire again but it wasn't enough to weaken the Nihilaturus. Nothing could easily conquer the force.

The dragon suddenly paused , shaking it's head and let out a loud screech which reverberated across the mountains. A few seconds later hundreds of wings flipped in the sky. Tiny dark long tailed birds soared hundreds of feet above the ground and as they came down, they grew bigger and bigger with deafening roars. The group of dragons huddled together , thrashing their wings violently in the air while the rest hovered in circles fifty feet above, making loud screeching noises.

One by one the dragons spit fire at the invisible force shaking their heads aggressively. Bright green sparks began to appear. A burning sensation crawled up Natalie's skin. It was painful. The dragons breathed fire again and suddenly the grip around Natalie's feet began to loosen. She pulled herself out of it and crawled away.  The green flame grew brighter and brighter until it burst into tiny feeble sparks and faded away into nothingness.

The dragons screeched again and took off. The dragon which had first came to Natalie, landed beside her.  She was kneeling on the ground. Blood oozed out of her blemishes. The dragon lowered its face to get down to her level. She gently raised her arms to stroke it's head. The dragon blinked. "Thank you" she muttered as tears shrouded her eyes.  She got to her feet. Skin burnt and bleeding , she managed to take her steps forward. Holding on to the spikes on the dragon's skin, she mounted on it.

The dragon swayed its head slowly. The mighty creature spread its wings and soared into the sky.  Her long black hair swirled in the wind behind her.

From a distance Charlie spotted a hebridean black emerge out of the thickly packed trees and into the clear sky. 

"Look" Alzena said, pointing at the proud creature, which came flying in their direction.

They buried their faces behind their arms as the dragon landed on the ground in front of them. The dry leaves and dust circled in the air around them. As they slowly blinked their eyes open, they saw it with their own eyes. Mounted on the dragon was their friend Natalie Scott.  Bruised, blemished and covered in blood. Her ocean blue eyes as bright as ever. She was right before them but it felt so unreal.