Dragon's curse

chapter twenty

I was seen by other people… I am such an idiot, I have to hide my curse and not show it and what do I do? I show my curse because of a thief in a town filled with people and monsters. Why of all the times I transformed did it have to be today and at that moment? I wasn’t able to refill my supplies now, so I have to go to another town for supplies and clothes too. I don't know if it is me but there is a weird sensation on my anchole like a loose string on your clothes.

The boy started to look down to see how high up they were and stared in amazement as he saw how small everything looked below him, he felt hopeless and scared as time passed by. When the sun set, the air got cold as Ash started to descend slowly to the ground. Suddenly, there was a loud roar in the distance and Ash quickly glided away from the sound and the boy gripped on tighter as he shivered from the cold gust of wind blowing against him like a brick wall. Ash slowly landed in the thick, dense woods that surrounded them from every corner and Ash thought to herself, the darkness makes it hard to navigate through these trees. After a few moments she hovered over the ground and the boy felt the ground from under his feet as she slowly descended to the ground carefully. She then landed onto the ground with a loud thump and the sound of all the animals running away filled the surrounding area. She snorted in disappointment as smoke came out of her nostrils for a brief moment, she then moved some leaves that laid before her into a small pile. For a moment the boy thought that his legs were going to give out from under him, he quickly untied the chain from his waist and ran over to a large tree, instantly he heroled from the nausea that filled him in an instant.

Ash said in frustration, “Shit, I can't even get any fire wood in this form and to make things worse, I don't even know if I was followed.”

The boy slowly tiptoed away into the darkness, started to pick up twigs and pieces of wood until he could cry no more in his arms, he then went back to where Ash was. Once the boy got back to where Ash was, he saw that she was laying down on the ground from exhaustion. Ash slowly inhaled deeply and blew flames at the pile of leaves that sat in front of her, the small fire filled her with warmth as she slowly laid her head down onto the ground. She then closed her eyes, the boy slowly walked over to the fire and quietly paced the wood onto the ground, she slowly drifted off to sleep in an instant. He then grabbed three pieces of wood and placed them onto the fire, he then sat down onto the ground as the fire warmed him up from the cold. He sat inches from Ash as his eyes started to grow heavy, he slowly layed down onto the ground and slowly fell asleep from exhaustion. Ash opened her eyes to see the boy shivering from the cold as he slept. She slowly lifted her wing towards the boy and laid it down on the ground slightly as she tried not to wake him up. Her wing slowly and gently hit the ground and made a wall of warm heat that surrounded the boy as he slept peacefully. The next day, Ash woke up to the sun shining on her, she yawned loudly as she almost sounded like a lion that woke up from its slumber. She slowly moved her wing from the ground and away from the boy as she tucked it back in place on her back like an eagle. A few minutes later, the boy slowly woke up to the sun shining on him, he opened his eyes and sat up from the ground. 

Ash said “You are awake.”

Jeff jumped to the sound of her voice, he quickly turned around to face Ash while backing away in fear until he reached a small tree. 

“What is your name?” asked Ash in a calm voice.

The boy replied with a slight hesitation, “Jeff, my name is Jeff Jack’s.“

“It is nice to meet you Jeff, My name is Ash but you probably know that.” 

Flin smiled as he giggled for a moment and then turned into laughing filled with delight. He fell onto his back and kicked his legs in the air with delight and joy, after a few moments, he stopped laughing as he sat up from the ground. Jeff rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tears of joy that streamed down his face, Ash couldn’t but smile as she watched him calm down from the brief moment of delight. Birds started chirping and animals started moving around the woods as if it was instinct, the sound of crickets filled the forest as they chirped for a mate. Suddenly, smoke rose off of Ash as she started to shrink back to normal, her wings disappeared into her back as she felt her skin loosen while turning back into human skin. Her tail turned into Ash’s while her claws shrunk and turned back into human hands. She went from quadruped to bipedal. There was a sigh of relief as she noticed that she had no clothes on and Jaff quickly turned around. 

Ash chanted in a latin language, “Come forth my bag and appear in front of me, I command you.”

Suddenly, Ash’s backpack appeared out of nowhere with the zippers unzipped and the backpack was wide open as if someone was going through it.

Ash said in frustration, “Grate, that is just great. They will be hearing from Flin when I am done with them!”

She went to her backpack and searched for some clothes in frustration. After twelve minutes of searching, she pulled out a blue dress, a small ribbon and more that she needed. Ash quickly got dressed as quickly as she could, once she was finished getting dressed, she tied her hair into a ponytail with the ribbon. The end of the ribbon dangled down her neck and for a moment the ribbon tickled her neck for a brief moment. Ash looked at Jeff as he sat silently while looking into the dense forest while waiting for her permission to turn around. 

Ash said with a smile, “Alright Jeff. I am finished, you can turn around.” 

Jeff slowly got up from the ground and turned to face Ash, his eyes lit up as he saw how beautiful she looked. Ash quickly zipped up her backpack as she sighed while taking a few steps back and turned to face Jeff.

Jeff asked “How did you change from a dragon back into a human?”

Ash replied “I um… I have a curse and it mostly lasts the whole night but I change back a little after I wake up from sleeping. The amount of times my curse lasts is random though, sometimes it lasts the whole night until I wake up and other times it lasts up to four hours.”

“Wait a minute, someone did a spell on you and cursed you?” said Jeff in a surprised voice.

Ash replied “Yes but thanks to a person that I know helped me learn to control it.”

Jeff said in a slightly sad and guilty voice, “I am really sorry that I shot you with an arrow covered with paralyzing poison.”

“So that is why I lost control of the curse. I was wondering why I lost control of the curse so easily.” Ash said with a hint of joy in her voice.

Jeff asked “So you are not mad at me?”

Ash replied “No, I am not mad at you. We are good, I promise.”

Jeff breathed a sigh of relief as he looked around for a moment and looked back at Ash. he thought to himself, she is really pretty and I hope I can be with her a little longer so I can know more about her.

Ash said as she started to follow a dirt trail, “I will take you to the nearest town. I need some more supplies for the next hunt since I was unable to get the things I needed from your town. I also need some more clothes, so you can tag along if you want.”

Jeff asked in confusion as followed Ash on the trail, “Hunting as in hunting animals?”

“If you are asking if I hunt animals for sport then the answer is no! I only hunt for things that I need and my job is to hunt scratchers that harm or kill humans. I acashinaly bring creatchers in for questioning if they cooperate with me or catch them so they are interrogated.” Ash said as she stepped over a log that sat in the middle of the trail. 

Ash quickly noticed that there were mushrooms growing off of the log and mass filled some of the spots where the bark was missing.

Flin said as he stepped over the same log that Ash did, “That is not exactly what I meant but now I know you are protecting humans and only hunt the bad creatchers.”