The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Invasion

They rushed to find where their protector (babysitter) had fallen, running towards where they thought he would be. Let him be okay!, the girl thought to herself as a panicked expression formed on her face. Even though fairies and even trees were moving in the opposite direction to escape whatever had created that sound, they were determined to get him up in the skies again to flee together. At least, that's what the girl thought they were going to do. She had no idea what everyone was running away from but from what had just happened, it was something with impure intentions.

Whole trees laid under his limp body that were mostly covered by his wings, his jaws open and the tongue hanging out freely. That landing must've left him unconscious for him to be like that. The girl wasted little time hurrying to dismount the kelpie, running to the dragon's side and trying to shake him awake. Her attempt was in vain. Her friend stuck nearby but remained vigilant and aware of the treeline in the event of the danger coming towards them.

"Come on, Össur! Wake up!", the girl shouted to where she assumed would be his ear but she still received no response. A horn blew nearby and there was cheering accompanying it. Human cheering or something that sounded just like them. The girl didn't know whether they were trustworthy or not; had they done this to Össur? She went to look over the damaged wing and saw two big bullet holes in the forearm, blood leaking out of them and in return making her eyes water. She called her friend over, asking what they could do to stop the bleeding but with the materials they had, there was nothing they could do. They had no materials that were long and strong enough to keep the wing closed and never would she cut through the webbing of his wing just to close a wound to create another that would be more vulnerable to infections!

The cheering was getting closer and as a flock of birds flew overhead, more of that terrifying sound was heard and half of them fell from the sky, somewhere landing nearby with loud thuds. Were those hunters like her father? They must've been. And that sound was like the one of the gun he had used. What was its name again? Honestly, that hardly mattered in the situation they were in. Long range weapons were one thing they had to stay clear of and she could only hope that the birds had landed near them to spare the dragon some time to recover from the hit.

The girl felt useless, the only thing that she was able to do was shake Össur as hard as she could to get him to wake up but her power couldn't much up to the weight of the dragon. Her vision was blurry due to tears of fear and despair. It wasn't just the dragon's life on the line but hers and her friend's as well but she couldn't leave anyone behind; that was what her instinct told her. "If you have to abandon someone to save yourself, then do it" was what her father used to tell her but she would be stubborn and wouldn't listen, so maybe that was why she had this little sense of self preservation, yet again, her little experience in life might have helped with that. She could hardly comprehend the meaning of death at her age but she knew it was something no one wanted to experience. With nothing left to do on her part and the kelpie not having any hands to help her with, she turned to him and shouted, "Go get Odan and Enfys!", as more gunshots sounded in the background.

The kelpie hesitantly took a step to the direction they had come from, unsure if leaving the side of his friend was a good idea but alas he decided that getting extra help was smarter than waiting for the inevitable; especially since she wasn't leaving the side of the dragon. And so, he took off with thudding hooves back into the forest. Meanwhile, the girl tried to remember everything she had been taught about first aid from her mother but nothing other than applying pressure to the wound came in mind. She could hardly put the pressure needed for the bleeding to stop but somehow, she managed to at least minimize the amount of blood exiting Össur's body. Her hands had been drenched in so much red that they were sure to stain, she couldn't even bring herself to look at them in fear of vomiting at the sight.

There was nothing else she could do other than becoming more and more paranoid each second that passed. Just how far away were they from the hut? She sat down to rest her hard-beating heart but kept an eye out for any figures in the treeline. Alas, there were none for a short while but then the cheering stopped and something moved behind a bush. It was a person. They hardly tried to conceal themselves in the underbrush. Immediately, the girl stood up on her feet, backing into Össur as much as she could in hopes that they wouldn't get any closer. More people followed the first one and it appeared to be a group of six men with big guns; some even pointing at her head or at the dragon.

"Stop!", she yelled, shooting her arms forward instinctively, "Please, don't hurt us!".

There was murmuring and some exchanged looks with each other. Unbeknownst to them, Össur began to slowly but surely regain consciousness, a fact they would have picked up on had they not been so engrossed in their little chit-chat. The dragon had began to stir awake but the girl put a hand on his neck as if to say 'stay down'. He wasn't awake enough to protest. asdfsfdsf

"Are you a shapeshifter?", one of them asked.
"No...", the girl answered meekly, hoping that help would arrive soon. Surely the hunters wouldn't just let a dragon stay alive and not skin it for its scales; her father's book had gone in great detail about skinning a scaled beast so there was no denying that that would be the dragon's future if they didn't arrive soon.

"Are you human?"-she nodded-"did you get kidnapped? How did you get here?". The man took slow steps towards her, signaling to the others to lower their guns. He probably was the leader of the hunting group but why would a leader do something so stupid? It was then that she noticed that they hadn't just lowered their guns but taken something else to load into them. Are those... darts?

She couldn't back up any farther since Össur's body was in the way. The man was getting closer and closer and the others were aiming both at the dragon and herself, even though she was a (mostly) harmless child. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait much longer because she could hear the gallop of horse hooves thundering through the forest. The hunters didn't know where to look until a male voice accompanied the sound.

"Össur, fire!"