The Fairy Self

Chapter 3

The monsters leapt into action, claws swinging, tails swiping and heads smashing. Azalea dodged all the attacks, seemingly effortlessly, and leapt upon the siren, stabbing a needle into its neck. The siren screeched, then collapsed. Swiftmane leapt out of the way of claws, while I gazed at Azalea, shocked.

"Get to the market and call the guards over!" Azalea called before dodging a creature's attack expertly. Still stunned by her combat, I just stared at her. Swiftmane suddenly jolted under me and I gasped, grabbing the reins tightly. Swiftmane galloped faster and faster. Rocks fell around us and swirls of smoke danced. Swiftmane continued dashing on and on, ignoring the debris around us. An armoured purple crystal monster charged, and Swiftmane leapt right over him, then stampeded out into the market square. Citizens were hastily being hurried off, out of the town. A guard rushed over, ready to help me dismount, but I insistently refused.

"There's a... friend of mine stuck battling five monsters! She needs help! There's no way she can beat them!"

The guard nodded briskly and clambered onto Swiftmane. We galloped back, yet when we reached where they had been previously, they were gone.

"I...I don't know where they went...she was just here!"

The guard turned and gave me a suspicious look, then narrowed his eyes.

"You're not involved with those witches are you? Sending their monstrous creations into our town, just the type of underhand actions they would do. Are you a spy?"

"No! I really–"

"And a young woman too, just the type of person they'd have for a spy. Taking advantage of our trusting nature, they are." The guard gripped my wrist. "

"I'm not a spy! Really, I saw those monsters-"

"I'm afraid I'm the wrong person to argue with about this. You'll have to come with me, miss. Tell the city guards what excuses you have."

"No, wait–"

"Ammolite! You're back, thank goodness. I couldn't fight all five of those monsters, so I had to hide..."

"Azalea! You look terrible, are you okay?"

Azalea was now sporting a scar on her cheek and a slash on her arm. Her dress had been torn to shreds and there were multiple places where the cloth had been completely torn, revealing bleeding wounds underneath. Black blood dripped from down from her arm, leaking down her hand. Thankfully, her cheek seemed fine, and the scar was shallow enough that no blood had escaped, yet blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. She was also huffing hard, and she held out a hand to prop herself up against the wall.

The guard hesitated. Seeing the state of her, it was pretty obvious that she had been attacked.

"That's her! Quick, let's get out of here before the monsters attack again!"

"We need to get a healer – she's been poisoned." The guard added.

"It's fine, I can do it myself," Azalea slurred, swaying from side to side dizzily.

"Azalee, come on," I hastily darted over to her, "we need to go quickly before the monsters come back." Azalea swayed some more. I picked her up and threw her upon Swiftmane, then began galloping back towards the town square. Behind us, there was a huge clang, and the guard, looking back, gave a cry of shock. I glanced back quickly as well. The red dragon was back. He folded his wings and landed heavily down, causing the earth to violently tremble briefly. Then, a huge beam of fire shot towards us. Swiftmane swerved out of the way, and the beam swung around towards him. Swiftmane was forced to the edge of the street. We were trapped. Swiftmane gave a cry, and at the last second, leapt over the beam. He galloped away as fast as he could. The dragon banged after us, but with no way to enter the street, which was far too narrow for him, he roared, and everyone covered their ears as the shockwave exploded outwards. I buried both my ears into Swiftmane's mane, covering his ears with my hand. When we finally felt the shockwave stopping, I raised my head once more.