DragonHeart

14: Hazel

"It will probably take us two or three days to get to the foot of the mountains," Remi said. It was morning, the sun had just come up.

"Wait," I said, "Two or three days?! We got out of the forest in one or two!"

"Well," Nick put in, "We were riding you for a lot of that time, Dragons move a lot faster than humans do, especially in the air."

I nodded and Remi shifted Gen around on her back. She winced slightly, "This journey is going to be a lot longer."

Nick glanced nervously at the sky, "There isn't much shelter out here. Also, are we going to discuss the ten different ember alerts that were called? Zorg will be swooping around on their Glyferno for weeks now!"

I shuddered at the thought, Glyferno had always been horrible. They were mutations of Dragons but much smaller. They had small wings and their heads were too big for their bodies. Their tails were unnaturally tiny and their jaws made up half of their faces, ending in two curved fangs that met. They spat a sort of acid from their front fangs and were very fast, but those were their only defenses.

"So we need to move fast," I said and took the lead.

We walked and walked, talking little and resting occasionally. We found a small pond to fill our water bottles at. Most of the day was uneventful.

The sun began to set so we set up camp for the night under a small tree and decided not to risk a fire. We were much too close to Pira and a Zorg watchtower. We all sat and ate while I tended to Nick's wounds. When I was done with Nick, she decided to go to sleep. She was soon out like a light. I then did what I could for Gen, which wasn't much.

Remi watched as I washed and bandaged Gen's wound, which hadn't gotten any better, but not any worse. She saw me look at her and gave me a small smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

I tied off the bandage and turned to Remi. "Your turn," I said tiredly.

"Alright," She said and let me untie her bandage.

Remi closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath in through her nose.

"It's ok, '' I said gently, "Don't suppress pain, there isn't anyone here but me."

She sighed and relaxed slightly as I finished and then sat next to her.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the sun make its journey down the sky.

"It looks like a Fire Dragons scales," I said quietly, "Not that I've ever seen one, but I've read about them, seen drawings. Most of them were done by the Zorg to get everyone to fall under their rule, though, so they weren't very good."

"It does look like a Fire Dragons scales," Remi agreed, "Except from what I've read, Firetails scales have more of a flame design. I've never seen one either."

I nodded. "Don't you think it would be cool if we could meet all the tribes of Dragons? I mean, I haven't met any Nocttails, or Grasstails, or Firetails, or Entomotails, or any of them really, other than you guys. I guess I can put Snowtails in that group too."

"That would be interesting," she said wistfully, "But that probably won't ever happen thanks to the Zorg. They'll hunt us to the ends of Eisildor to find us and make sure we won't ever try to stop them again. It could only be a matter of time before they find...us. But I promise on my life they aren't going to get you, Hazel."

I met her eyes, there was less than six inches between us.

"I don't think all the Dragons will be found," I said, surprising myself at the words "I have a hope."