Indebted

53

Atticus was close, getting closer every second. He still did not feel like he was making fast enough time. Esti needed him, right now, and he was far too far away. Then, faint, carried on the winds, hidden among the smell of salt and seaweed. There was Esti. Atticus found new strength, and new speed that he did not know he had. Pushing himself harder. 

No one knew it yet. But the end had already been written to this chapter. The witch had signed her own death certificate. Wakame's confidence in a magical artifact she did not understand was to be her undoing. Yes, the collar bound around Esti's throat and shoulders and the bracelet paired to it gave Wakame the witch the impression that she could control Esti without limits.  

Wakame's Mistress had been walking in Wakame's dreams. Teaching her each night what she needed to know to use the strange, otherworldly magic device. There was a link between the two of pieces of metal. One spell bound across two separate worked metal objects. A link Opal was working to exploit. Hearing the witches name and inner monologue was an excellent start for this plan as far as Opal was concerned.

Opal was cut off from Esti, could not easily tell the girl to hold strong through he spell trying to keep them divided. Opal knew, with no doubt that Esti was strong enough to preserve without reassurance. Esti had now enjoyed a taste of freedom. Seen more of the world, lived on her own comfortably. Had a chance to stand on her own two feet, try hobbies, watched movies. Esit had been as happy as she could manage while alone.

Esti wanted more of life, and living. She wanted to experience being in a real city, with buildings that rise into the skies and crowds of people too numerous to count as they passed by, each individual living their own separate life. A place where you could just be yourself and know there was no one watching for any mistakes you might make. Esti wanted to eat strange new foods made by experts and not ones she made herself. Esti still wanted so much.

Woman and dragon both steadfast in their shared goal, each were doing what they could to try and gain some advantage. The dragon was expanding the link Wakame was wearing around her wrist. If Wakame knew the truth of the magical artifact, she would have known to never use it on a dragon. No one, and nothing can leash a dragon.

Esti did not have a great natural sense of direction. Esti thought that they had been traveling and taken more inland on the island. When she heard a sound she had only ever heard once before. A million small, rounded rocks rolling and clattering in the waves along the shore. Revealing that some time while she had bounced on the strange man's shoulder that she had lost track of where she was. They were by the ocean again.

"Where is the boat?" One of the other men called out. Esti and Opal both enjoyed that he sounded concerned. That something in her captors plans appeared to be falling apart could only be good for Esti.

Our moment is coming. Esti heard through the bond. Opal, Opal was back! Esti realised and with her voice in Esti's mind, a flash of certainty that Atticus was indeed nearby, coming for her. Esti had to use nearly all her willpower to not grin like the Cheshire cat in the strange Alice in Wonderland story she had read once in the castle library. Esti heard her dragon, and having no better plan, trusted that their moment was indeed coming. She wasn't expecting the moment to be when the muscular man carrying her, dropped her onto a sharp scrub grass covered sand dune.

***

Atticus rounded a hill, the sound of the ocean, tidal waves moving the shoreline with their strength. Theo and Joe hot on his heels. Atticus trusting his dragon, Onyx. The dragon was able to connect to Opal. However they were managing to connect; it wasn't easy, and consumed an immense amount of Atticus's strength.

It didn't matter how much energy Ravenkor needed, Atticus was going to push his body, his endurance to the limit to catch Esti. To save her from whatever monster had stolen her from her bed. Whomever was trying to take her from him before he had even found her again would die screaming by his own hand; Atticus vowed.

There in the distance, down the shoreline, was Esti. Her dark hair blowing in the strong ocean winds. Wearing a white nightie, the cotton gown now ripped, stained grey with soot. There was another woman who looked like she had survived a shipwreck, three men acting as security, and one man, carrying Esti. He would die first for touching what Atticus considered his.

Atticus was already increasing his pace. Esti was there, just ahead of him. So close after so much time and physical distance separated. He watched with horror as the man who had been carrying Esti roughly dropped her to the ground.

Atticus instantly felt his heart jump in his throat, the instant he saw Esti being dropped. Until before she had hit the ground, the area around where she was erupted in a blinding white light. Esti was shifting, into her dragon, and this time Atticus was close enough to see her beast. Except what should have been exciting and reassuring to all was causing the mated pair of dragons Atticus was traveling with to become unnerved. they had caught up, Esti was breaking free.

Atticus and his buoyant mood were slightly deflated when Esti's dragon appeared down the shore line. Smaller than he had expected. A dragon at any size was formidable- Looking at Esti's impossibly small size, against a trained, and prepared group of hyena mercenaries, the odds of the fight were impossible to guess.

Atticus was surprised that it was Joe who spoke to break the silence. "Whatever is happening, Esti isn't alone. There are dozens of magical links to her coming from the sea." Theo nodding his confirmation, that Joe was certain of his words. Atticus just wanted to be next to Esti again.