Gregor and the Prophecy of Death (Book 7)

Chapter 23

Lizzie POV

Everything after the initial shock of falling on Hazard was a blur.

The first snake that attacked was coming for us. Gregor lunged forward before it hit slicing it in half. Suddenly the whole jungle was raining snakes.

"Are you okay?" Hazard asked me in the chaos helping me up.

"Yea I'm-" I began.

"No time for lovey-dubey, the both of you get out of here!" Ripred yelled at us interrupting me. Then he started spinning. He was spinning so fast all I could see was fur, teeth, claws and dead snakes bouncing off him.

"Come on," Hazard said. He helped me keep balance by wrapping his arm across my back holding my waist on my right side. I walked as fast as the pain in my leg could let me. I noticed Gregor had begun using the same strategy as Ripred. Spinning. But he was doing it to protect Boots.

I hadn't noticed Luxa was covering us until I dared to look up at the catastrophe above us. She was slashing and slicing snake after snake but despite that was getting few scratches on her arm here and there. She stopped covering us at some point where the snakes began to dim and we kept going.

"Can we stop now?" I asked after about 10 minutes. "My leg is killing me."

"We can't. At least Ripred wouldn't want us to. It's too dangerous. Could you at least try?" Hazard replied.

I let put a sigh and kept limping forward. We went for 20 more minutes before we finally stopped at a wide clearing.

"This is where we were to stop for the night," he told me. "We'll wait here for everyone else to get here."

"What about my leg?" I asked.

Hazard didn't reply. He was staring at the floor. "Here we are again."

Now it was my turn to pause. "Maybe it is really fate," I said, pushing my hair behind my ear.

Hazard was staring at me with an expression I had never seen before. He slowly reached out and gently brushed his hand against my cheek. He suddenly let go. As if a stranger had taken my place.

"What about your leg?" he asked.

"I-I wanted to see if you could check it," I said taken aback.

Without a word he knelt on one knee, rested my left foot in his lifted knee and took off my shoe. He gently moved my ankle around examining it and suddenly pushed against the joint on both sides.i winced but didn't make a sound to show it.

"Did that hurt?" he asked, looking up.

"Yea."

"From what I can tell you fractured your ankle. I can't tell for sure we'll have to get Howard to check it," he said.

Just then the bats flew in with our group that we left behind.

"Are you guys okay?" Hazard asked as he rushed in to check on them. He met Luxa who was already running at him midway in a big hug.

"We're fine are you okay," she asked him.

"I'm fine, I don't think Lizzie is though," Hazard told her.

As if on queue Howard got off Pandora and made his way towards me. "I'll deal with your leg now. It definitely isn't well off with all the walking you're doing."

"I took a look at it already. I think it's fractured but I can't tell."

Howard took a few minutes checking my ankle while everyone prepared for the night. "It is indeed fractured. I'll wrap it up for you but you have to stay off your leg if you want it to heal anytime soon."

"Is she going to be flying then?" Gregor asked joining us.

"I think it will be best if she does," Howard said.

"Oh when will I break my leg and get to be carried all day," Ripred whined.

I ignored Ripred and went over to Hazard who already had my share of food with him. I sat next to him quietly and nibbled on my bread.

"I'm sorry about earlier-."

"Again." I was done with Hazard's indecisiveness.

He sighed. "It's complicated. I'll explain it later."

"Sure," I said, and tan my hand through my hair, "Do you know how long it'll take to get the docks?"

"It would take about a day for a group but with a group as large as ours it would take less than 2. That is without any interruptions," Hazard said.

"That'll be hard to come by," I said with a little chuckle.

We ate the rest of the time in silence. After dinner I found a spot in our clearing with Boots and snuggled into our sleeping bag with her.