Scales and Talons

Chapter 11

Sarah's body shook violently and she coughed desperately to get the water out of her lungs. She was exhausted, frozen to the core and terrified.

And worst of all, she was alone.

Her muscles continued to quiver as she dragged her heavy body to the shore, her tail and wings making deep tracks in the dark sand. But she would not lie down or rest. She could not. No! She forced her body to cooperate and keep standing, holding back the terror that was beginning to rise in her stomach.

Roan. Roan was gone. She could not reach him. She could not secure him. He was...

Desperately, her blue eyes searched the dirty water for any sign of her friend's red scales. She could barely believe she was claiming the red dragon as her friend now, or that she was so afraid of losing him.

In her mind, she saw him clawing at their attacker again, she heard the crack of breaking bones. But in the water she had lost his red form. Her head had been lost in the raging red gore that dragged her farther and farther away. She had been no match for the icy water, and for the second time in less than a week she found herself fighting for her life - fighting not to drown.

And now all Sarah could do was wait and stare at the dark water filling the lake. Helplessly, her eyes traced every part of the water. She did not know which was worse, the emptiness or finding Roan's lifeless body.

Her muscles trembled beneath her murky scales. It was a combination of worry and exhaustion that had her shaking to her core. No, he could not be dead, she decided. He had to be alive. He had to be out there and she could find him and bring him back to safety. But deep down she knew she was only fooling herself.

Still, her fear made her trembling body move. Directionless, she dragged her dirty paws along the shore. At her feet, the nightmare continued. The human body parts and the dark reddened sand. They lay scattered along the shore, making a seemingly beautiful area look like something out of a horror film.

But that was not the worst of it; the smell was. The tang of blood stained the air, combined with a sweet rotting smell that made her nauseous. Although she had noticed that every time she smelled blood before it made her body all hot and hungry, this time it made her want to throw up. For the first time since she had become a dragon, she wanted to run away from the smell of blood, not towards it. But she stayed strong and kept running, kept searching. 

She had to. She had to find him.

Her paws ached, her body screamed in agony, and her tail felt broken - she could no longer lift it from the ground. Meanwhile, a nasty cough kept bothering her. She tried to be quiet, tried to focus on her surroundings, but with every step she took it became harder to concentrate. More difficult to contain her despair. 

For a moment she thought she saw him in the river, a red shape passing by, but it was only a tree trunk covered in the red mush of the lakeshore.

She almost choked at the sight, not knowing whether to be happy or disappointed that it had not been him. What would she have done if it had been? And what was she going to do now? Sarah looked behind her. The mouth of the river was now just a small dot on the horizon. She had walked along the lake for hours and seemed to have covered a great distance. And in all the steps she had taken, she had not seen him.

She stared across the vast lake in front of her. The water was slowly losing its sparkle as the light grew dimmer by the minute. It was as if the world around her was mimicking her feelings. Slowly the light left her eyes as she lost hope. 

And then it snapped. Every emotion she had pushed down in the last few weeks came crashing down on her. The fear she had felt in the cellar, the pain she had experienced, the confusion and the loneliness sinking into her heart. She was truly alone now. She had no idea what Roan's company had meant to her. Even though she hadn't trusted him completely and even though they had been in constant danger. She had not been alone. He had known what to do and everything had not seemed so dark.