Dragon's Blood

The Forest

Iyla woke with a start and a sudden need to be very sick. She clapped her hands over her mouth and threw herself forward onto her hands and knees but her mouth was dry and her throat strained in a dry heave with nothing in her stomach to come up.

Sam was at her side instantly, a soothing hand on her back and Iyla found she was shaking uncontrollably as she sat back on her heels. Everything came flooding back to her all at once, sights, smells and sounds bombarded her and fear gripped her again, she couldn't control the waves of panic that swept over her, the relentless waves of a stormy sea of emotion crashing against her and threatening to sweep her away.

Sam was calm, arms round her, shushing her as she cried and struggled to regain control. She felt the concern of her dragon and a shadow fell over the spots of now pale sunlight that snuck through the small gaps in the tree canopy as it now circled overheard. The faint sound of its wings, pushing through the air as it flew provided a calming rhythm and, as Iyla steadied her breathing and the panic attack passed, the sound became more distant and the dragons shadow gave way to the patches of early dusk sun light once more.

"It's ok Iyla," Sams voice was low and soothing, "You're in shock," he said, "Sit back down."

Iyla sat, she didn't think her legs could stand her up anyway. She put her head between her knees and closed her eyes, when I open them, I'll be at home in bed, she told herself. She opened her eyes. She was not at home in bed of course and she gave a deep sigh and looked across to see Bill, sleeping soundly exactly where they had placed him. He hadn't moved at all but he no longer had a sheen of sweat on his skin, his breathing was deeper and slower and his features were serene. He was as pale and ashen as ever, that in itself was not unusual.

Sam had stood up and climbed up out of their hidey hole to peruse the forest. He stayed up there for a minute or two then climbed back down and handed Iyla the bottle of water he had retrieved from the car boot earlier. "Hopefully we will be able to find fresh water nearby," he said, "This is the bottle of water Alan kept to top up the leaky radiator, it's probably been in there a while." He sounded apologetic but Iyla didn't care how long the water had been stagnating in the car boot, it tasted amazing.

"We haven't got any food I'm afraid," Sam went on, "I can go and look for something?"

"No," Iyla said quickly, not wanting him to leave, "I'm not hungry." She wasn't, her stomach was empty but she didn't trust herself not to be sick if she tried to eat anything.

"Ok," Sam sat back down after checking on Bill. "He doesn't seem to have a temperature," he said, "I don't know how long he will sleep for, we may have to try and wake him soon, we can't stay here too long, we are still to close to the car for my liking."

There was a few minutes silence as Iyla tried to decide where to start with the multitude of questions she had. Some of them sounded ridiculous in her head, questions about other worlds, magic, dragons, healing powers ...

"Shall I just start?" Sam said, as if he had read her mind, "I can't possibly tell you everything in the time we can stay here but I can try and fill in a few gaps at least?"

Iyla nodded, "Please," she said, "I don't even know where to start."

"Neither do I," Sam admitted, "I suppose I should start by saying how sorry I am." Iyla was shocked to see tears in his eyes, she had never seen Sam even close to crying and she wasn't sure what to do.

"Sorry?" she asked, confused as to why he felt the need to apologise after saving their lives.

"I made a choice," he said, "A long time ago, that I would be as honest with you as I could be but that I couldn't tell you everything. You have to understand, I never expected that we would be able to get back, why cause you anymore pain than you already had to deal with?" He hung his head. "And then, as you got older, I saw things, things that should have made me realise you needed to know more, but I made a choice again, to ignore them and the nagging voice in my head."