Tales of Malenatu: The Blue Dragonlady

I Come Face-To-Face With Death... Again.

I woke up in a very strange room. Melody waited in her Dragon Tamer Uniform, leaning against the wall and stared at me. She had a gleam in her eye and a knife in her hand. A large man lay against the wall on the wall on the floor, the blue "P" on his shirt stained red from blood.

"You killed the Punisher!?" I yelled out at her, horror and fear shining in my eyes.

"No. He'll wake up. After I'm done with you. I just hit him in the head, like they hit you. Only, I did it harder and cracked his skull." She giggled maniacally before walking over to me, running the knife along the bottom of my chin. I was laid down on a metal table, my hands and feet bound by leather straps. The only things I was wearing were my bandages, a bra, socks, and panties. It was quite embarrassing, but I couldn't worry about that now. My head throbbed. I couldn't stay awake.

Melody stabbed my arm with the knife. Blood poured at my severed artery. I screamed the loudest I could. Melody laughed sadistically.

"Oh, no one can hear you here. We're on the Punishing Islands." The Punishing Islands. Great. She was right; no one would hear me. That's the point of the Punishing Islands. The room fit too. Blood stains were all over the place. A table of weapons and punishing equipment sat to my left. A blinding light was overhead, no doubt from dragon's fire. It heated up the room like a Baker Box, all except for the table. The table I was strapped to, laying on my back, was freezing cold.

I felt alone. For the first time in years, I felt truly alone. I couldn't feel Gaddie. I couldn't feel Baya. I couldn't even fool Camo. There was nobody.

Guys? Gaddie? Baya? Camo? Anybody? Hello? I called out, but no answer met me. I was scared. I didn't know where my dragons were, I had no way to contact them. They could be dead for all I know.

I wanted to cry. I tried, but nothing came out. I could numbly feel pain slash after slash as Melody ran the knife through me again and again. I could feel myself getting weaker. I heard myself scream and felt my tears fall down my face. It was like I was a different person. I heard and saw this happening, but no feeling came. Atami had seemed so nice. Where was he now?I guess he's not really my friend either. I'm stuck here. Taking blow after blow. I can't even feel it, really. Maybe I should join my dear dragons. I just need to fall asleep, after all. I closed my eyes, prepared and ready to accept my punishment.

Melody stabbed down into my stomach area hard, twisting and turning the knife to dig it in. I screamed louder than before. My throat hurt. My eyes watered. My hands strained against the binds, I bled more than ever before. I arched my back, but that only made it worse.

Oh, I'm never going to see Tadon or my children again. My sweet Yekaterina, Quiannan, Rolenan. Caden, Robbie, Kimmy, Liam. Megan. None of them. The thought of never seeing any of them again forced me into tears. This time I could feel it. The pain of that feeling, it ate and ebbed at my heart. I wanted to die.

"Get up. Wake up. It's not your time yet." I opened my eyes. Caedamon's voice had seemed to come from everywhere, but he wasn't here.

Am I going insane? What's happening to me? The door burst open. In fact, it practically exploded and Caden, Robbie, Kimmy, Liam, Atami, Caedamon, and Serandah entered the room. Caden grabbed Melody's ponytail and yanked her backwards as she was about to deliver the finishing blow. She threw Melody backwards into the arms of Kimmy. Kimmy held on to her with inhuman strength.

Liam and Robbie went back outside into the stormy night to fight the guards now closing in on us. I saw blinding white fire through the doorway, then a red and white figure flash by. So my dragons aren't dead. They're here, fighting for my life. Caden ran over to the unconscious man leaning against the wall. She checked for a heartbeat, and when she found one, she dragged him outside.

I started to fall asleep again from weakness when I heard another familiar voice.

"Wake up. Wake up. You can't fall asleep now or you'll never wake." I opened my eyes to see Atami and Serandah. Caedamon's voice had kept me awake, but just like last time, he was nowhere to be found.

A wheel-chair made completely out of tree roots emerged from the floor and formed itself. Atami came into my view, looking like an angel from the way he blocked out the candlelight overhead.

"Dear gods, you're bleeding a lot. Okay, hold on. Don't fall asleep just yet. I got you." Atami spoke softly to me, as if he'd hurt me by uttering a word. He undid the straps holding me down on my wrists, frowning at the sight of rope burn on them. Serandah undid the straps on my ankles before Atami lifted me off of the metal table and into the woven root wheel-chair.

Serandah snapped his fingers and disappeared as Atami wheeled me out of the cement room on the Punishment Island rocks. Waves crashed and lapped the rocky shore. Thunder struck, lightning crackled, rain came pouring from overhead. It was cold out here. I got soaked very quickly, which only made me colder from the icy ocean waves. It was so dark that the only light came from my dragons' fire and the doorway from whence I just exited. I could hardly hear anything over the dragons' roar and the serious storm we had just gotten ourselves into. Atami looked up at the sky and glared at it for a moment. I could see all my friends, including Kimmy, fighting now. Melody must have gotten away from her.

"Stop following me! You make it impossible to go anywhere!" Atami shouted up at the sky before disappearing in a strike of lightning. Gaddie spotted me and picked me up in his jaws. We flew up a little, but when we almost get struck by lightning, he teleported. The lightning hit the man below us who was about to fire a Mass-Destroyer at us. The Mass-Destroyers went off in the distance when Gaddie and I reappeared. As soon as we had, I felt our connection again. It was there the whole time, just shielded from me. And now that we were out of range, it was back to normal. All of our friends were flying close behind us. We were out of the storm now, but I could still hear the large wooden machines launching heavy copper balls in our direction.

Too bad the Mass-Destroyers have terrible range and speed for fighting dragons. Too bad for them, at least.