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Chapter 16, Curses

My eyes looked at his shadow figure. "Send the dragons home," he whispered, "That can break both of our curses." His shadow faded away. I looked around. "Are you here?" I whispered. Nobody replied. A man ran up to me. "Where's that boy?" he asked. "I don't know," I told him. "Next time you see him, be careful. He's part of the shadow people," said the man. I saw him look at the water. "And they take people to join them," he said. I looked at the water. A dragon suddenly appeared out of the water. He surrounded us in water and dragged us into the sea.

Down we went. We need air. Badly. The dragon made sure we didn't get loose. He tossed us in a cave. He covered the entrance with a bolder. I swam up and found air. The water drained suddenly. Dragon people grabbed us and led us down the cave. Dragon people lined the walls. They stared at us with hate and anger. We were led to the king of them all. He sat on a throne made of gold and he was holding an alien skull looking thing. It was fake though. You could tell someone made it out of a rock. It actually look more like a helmet than anything. Then, I knew it was a helmet because the king put it on his head. He was creepy.

He stared at us. "Put the man in a cage," he said, "Send the girl into my room so I can talk to her alone." They dragged the man off. They led me to the king's room. The king came in. "Draw me a device that will turn humans into dragons," he said. "No," I responded. He grabbed me and slammed me into a wall. "Draw it," he yelled. "No," I responded. He tore my bandages off. "You're cursed?!" he screamed. Silence. "Leave her alone," said a familiar voice. The shadow boy appeared. "A shadow boy?" he asked, "Is your whole group here?" "I'm not answering," he said. The king pushed on me harder.

The boy scared me. He ran up, grabbed the king, and pushed him into a wall. He grabbed a knife and put it to his throat. "Let every shadow person you ever captured go," he said with anger in his voice. Suddenly, pain struck my arm. I fell to my knees. The line got bigger. "Including your pre-member?" asked the king, looking at me. "Wrong curse!" the boy yelled, "She won't be one of us." The king looked back at the boy. He saw the anger in his eyes. "I won't," he said, "You can kill me." "Please," I begged, "Please don't kill anybody." The knife scratched his throat. But it stopped. The boy looked at me. I held my arm. Then he turned back to the king.

I didn't know what would happen. My arm was hurting badly and the king could die. The boy took his knife away and threw it on the floor. The king stared in disbelief. "Please free my people," he said gently, the anger draining from his eyes.