Dragon Seekers

Chapter 16

"Jamie! Wake up!"

A tired moan escaped Jamie as he felt someone shaking him. He opened his heavy eyelids, blearily looking up at Ash. She was wide awake, fully dressed and with her hair looking more messy from when he last saw it. He also noticed something like a harness on her as well as her spear seemed to be attached to her back.

"Ready? We've got to go now," Ash hissed, keeping her voice as quiet as possible. She hurriedly started to sit Jamie up and drag him out of bed.

"Wait! Ash, my feet!" he complained, struggling to not cry as his feet touched the ground. They weren't as bad as they were, but he still felt like he wasn't quite ready to walk on his own.

"Don't worry. We'll be flying on Cinder for the most part. You'll be okay," Ash whispered, slinging Jamie's arm over her shoulders to help him walk. Jamie just had enough time to grab the Soul Statue on the bedside table as he was carefully led out of the bedroom. "You've got to be quiet too. We're the only ones awake."

They were?

Whilst limping along, Jamie carefully observed his surroundings. No one else was up and moving around yet. The house was deathly still compared to the two children roaming about in it. What time in the morning was it? Too early for everyone else to be as wide awake as Ash. Did they need to be up this early?

Ash moved Jamie as quick as she could through the house, trying not to disturb the sleeping members of her family. She did her best to move Jamie, but it was proving to be difficult with how his feet were at that moment. Nonetheless, she helped him get his boots on before helping him outside. Cinder was waiting outside, looking just as awake as Ash was. Jamie recalled that Pyro's and Blake's dragons had saddles. Cinder didn't seem to have one. Maybe the reptilian preferred to have one. However, there was something that looked like a brown jacket laid across her back.

"Here. You'll need it when we're out of the heat," Ash insisted as she unhooked Jamie's arm from her shoulders and passed him the jacket. He wanted to say no, because it truly felt too hot to wear it. However, now that he thought about it, it might get quite cold to him once they were in the air. He slipped on the jacket. It was a little long on the sleeves (which he rolled up a little), and it felt quite big on him, but he didn't have time to complain. Ash nodded in approval before she dug out two scarfs, one red and one a dull orange colour.

"Put this on as well. I don't want you passing out from the carbon dioxide when we get out of the air bubble," she warned after passing Jamie the orange scarf. He shuddered as he recalled the suffocating sensation he had when he was chased and when Ash saved him. He followed Ash's example, tying the scarf over their mouths and noses. He felt a little silly, looking like a bandit from the old cowboy movies, but again he didn't complain. After all, he needed to be safe until they get far enough away from this environment.

Once her scarf was secure, Ash promptly jumped onto Cinder's back. Cinder remained still, almost like a statue as her rider reached out to Jamie. He was hesitant. This would be his first time flying on a dragon. Was there supposed to be a proper procedure? Where are the seat belts? Okay, stupid question, but he honestly didn't know what else to think at that moment.

Seeing the impatience brimming in Ash's eyes, Jamie cautiously grabbed her hand. Ash effortlessly pulled him up and made sure that he was seated safely behind her.

"You might want to hang on tight," Ash said, with Jamie picturing a smirk on her face. Hesitantly, Jamie wrapped his arms around Ash's waist, not sure what else he could hang onto. Feeling that Jamie was hanging on tight enough, Ash muttered something and before Jamie could ask her to repeat that, Cinder suddenly started moving. She was walking to begin with, which wasn't too bad. Then she started picking up speed, breaking into a steady gallop. Jamie found himself automatically tightening his hold on Ash as Cinder's wings moved up and down, causing powerful waves of air. Jamie couldn't help but close his eyes, feeling like his stomach was going into knots. There was what felt like a jerking motion and the sense of passing through something. Was that the air bubble they passed through?

Jamie had no time to think about that. There was a feeling of being hot, causing him to sweat right through his clothes again. He felt like he might pass out from it, but he held on with seemingly limitless determination. The last thing that he wanted was to fall off as the dragon was ascending. Gravity pulled hard at him, threatening to cruelly yank him down to the ground without mercy. He couldn't let go, his life literally depended on his ability to grip tightly. His hands felt sweaty from the heat, making it more challenging to hang on. He couldn't even tell how tight his grip was.

"Jamie, open your eyes," Ash could be heard smiling as the heat was suddenly gone. The gravity suddenly felt more merciful as Cinder seemed to slow down. Jamie opened his eye by a crack, before they both opened in surprise. He then blinked a couple more times as he wasn't used to the light of the sun after a short while. He had a better chance to look when his eyes became adjusted to the morning light as the sun started to rise over the ocean that Cinder was now flying over. The sun's reflection made the ripples of the sea look like gemstones. The sky was painted with the last few evening stars, which were now fading, and shades of orange, blue and purple. The wind smelled o freshly of salt from the sea, offering more clean air than Ash's homeland. Speaking of which, Jamie looked down at where they had taken off from. He couldn't see much of it other than the faint flashes from the lava since smoke made it impossible to see anything else. It was definitely a small island it seemed.

Curious, Jamie looked around. He could more islands in the distance. About five more: one surrounded by mist and was pure white; one that seemed to only have sand with a small port and nothing else; one that seemed to house a dense forest; one that had large building structures that reminded him of sky scrapers and one that seemed to be surrounded by a thick black cloud. The last island caused Jamie to shiver, giving him an awful feeling. There was something about the island that he didn't like, but he wasn't sure why. It seemed to be the furthest away out of all the islands.

Jamie looked again, seeing something that he had found quite interesting. Five of the islands, including Ash's, surrounding the larger island that had the buildings in an almost perfect ring, as if the island was a representative of a capital city back in his world. Both worlds seemed to be more similar than Jamie thought. How remarkable.

"Nothing like your world, eh?" Ash smiled as she pulled down her scarf.

"No. This is amazing!" Jamie smiled back, taking everything around him in. Despite the island that gave him a bad feeling, he was awed by al that he could see. He was so used to seeing concrete, aside from the forest near his house, for most of his life, that seeing all this nature around him was a nice change.

"I guess so. I don't leave the Magma Isles much, so this is a nice change," Ash smiled as she took in a deep breath of fresh air. Jamie did the same as he took off the scarf he was still wearing. "We're going to Central Isle. That's where Nexus is. Hopefully it won't be too busy with other kids getting their dragons this morning."

So that's why they left so early. It was so that Jamie could get help as quickly as possible. Hopefully it won't be easier said then done. Jamie tried not to think about what might happen and focused on where they were going. Central Isle couldn't have had a more obvious name. It almost reminded him of London, aside from a few details. The buildings weren't entirely made from concrete but seemingly natural stone. They weren't lit up by electricity on the outside it seemed. All the walls had crystals that were dimly lit. Shadowy shapes moved between the buildings or past them. It took Jamie a moment to realise that what he saw was dragons. Even though he had seen them already at Ash's home, he was still blown away at just the sight of these mythical creatures right then and there.

And Jamie couldn't wait to see all of them.