The Hidden Crystal

Chapter 5

"Dragons!" Kayla's excited voice called out, dragging Iris out of her thoughts and back to reality. Kayla was on her feet, pointing at the five creatures flying high in the sky, just below the darkening clouds. They were far too big to be birds, though they flew in a V-formation, like a flock of geese. Long necks, equal in length to long tails, stretched out on either side of widespread wings. They were headed east. Toward town.

"I've gotta tell the others!" Kayla squealed, taking off.

"What? No! Kayla!" Iris leaped to her feet, but Kayla had already disappeared down the path. Iris raced after her, heart pounding in her ears, along with the echo of words from last night.

You're going to the river tomorrow, right? What time? Good.

He knew.

"Kayla!" she screamed. Why hadn't she caught up to her yet? With Iris' longer legs, she should have caught Kayla by now. Unless Kayla took the shortcut through the undergrowth. A shortcut that Iris knew from when she was Kayla's size, but that wasn't much of a shortcut for her anymore. Only a small child could squeeze through the gaps without slowing down. Iris stuck to the path, running as fast as she could, skidding to a stop only when she reached the tree line.

It was starting.

Kayla was ahead of her, halfway across the grass to the church. To the south, soldiers stood in formation, bows and arrows nocked at the ready, pointed to the sky. Several men mounted on horses stood still and silent at the front and center of the archers. The mage was among them. To the north, in the sky above, the dragons were descending.

Iris couldn't move.

Every instinct was screaming at her to turn and run the other direction, but Kayla - Kayla was right there, in the middle of what was about to be a battleground, her blonde hair streaming behind her as her little legs carried her quickly toward the old stone walls of the church. Was she quick enough? Would she make it? Iris wouldn't. Not if she ran out there now. But if Kayla tripped - Iris might make it in time to throw herself over top of the little girl.

But Iris couldn't move.

An earth-shaking roar tore through the sky, and a burst of flame erupted from the mouth of the lead dragon, twisting straight down toward the soldiers, behind Kayla. The air sizzled and cracked, stinging Iris' skin, and a translucent, spherical blue barrier appeared a few feet in front of the mage, the same blue as his frozen eyes that stared straight past the flaming tunnel at the lead dragon. The red flames hit the blue barrier, colliding and sending another tremor through the earth, and the flames were deflected in all different directions. The archers let loose their arrows, the silvery metal tips smashing through the blue barrier and whistling through the air toward the dragons, trailing blue fire behind them. One large tongue of the deflected red flames reached out toward Kayla, who spun around with wide blue eyes-

"No!" Iris screamed.

A wall of white appeared in front of Kayla, just before the flames could engulf her. Red hit white, red vanished into thin air, and Kayla stood frozen with wide blue eyes, staring at the white shield, large enough to protect a mounted horseman.

"Run!" Iris screamed.

Kayla turned and ran toward the church. The air was snapping and crackling again, roars tore through the sky, arrows whistled through the air, a building on the westernmost edge of town caught fire, and the cold gripped Iris again. It ran down her spine, it settled in her stomach, it gripped her heart. She looked away from Kayla, disappearing into the church, and met the cold blue eyes of the mage, wide and intense as they bored into her. The breath caught in her throat. She was clutching the glass stone in her right hand - she didn't know when she grabbed it. The sensation of fire ripping across her skin came, her head was spinning - and then flames burst out in front of her, removing any visibility and forcing her frozen legs to take a step back. A massive black, reptilian head whooshed past her, a sharp green eye rotating to follow her as it went.