The Curse of Night

Night - Falling

It took a moment to realize that I was falling. I let out a shriek of fear, and changed back to my dragon form. Spreading my wings, I stopped myself.

Or... Wait... Was I even falling?

I looked over at Natalie, then looked around. Where the heck was I?!

As I continued to look around, I got even more confused. This made no sense whatsoever to me. First a strange shadow... THING , appeared next to Natalie, then I scared her, and she turned into whatever she was. Then she jumped through a strange circular thing, and now...

"Good grief," I sighed, "Will this madness EVER end?"

I looked over at Natalie again, and I guess flew over to her. Grabbing her, I looked around for something that looked at least similar to what she had gone through.

I couldn't tell which way was up, or if there even WAS an up. But, sooner or later I managed to find something, and went through it.

For the brief moment I could see where we are, I didn't recognize anything. Nothing at all. A second after that, I slammed into the ground, and found myself lying on a patch of moss. I let out an irritated groan, then sat up. "Natalie...?"

A dark thing flew past my head. "What the?!" I looked around for Natalie, wondering if this was another one of her "demon" tricks. It ricocheted off a different tree, and came flying at me again. I quickly changed back to my human form, and ducked. I quickly pulled out my crossbow again, loading an arrow. "What is that?!"

Again it ricocheted, but this time it hit the ground and stopped. Now I could see Natalie lying there. I waited for a moment. She didn't move.

"Natalie...?"

I stood and walked over to her, slightly worried now. She wouldn't die THAT easily... Would she...?

I crouched beside her, and nudged her gently. She gave me an irritated grunt. "Go ahead, touch me again..."

"Are you alright..?" I asked somewhat softly. I was getting impatient. It was dark now, and I knew any moment they  would be after me, if we didn't find shelter. "You like.. Bounced off trees."

I've got a twisted past, but "they" don't need to be worried about, hopefully ever.

Finally realizing what just happened, I fought to keep my amusement to myself. I had to be serious now. Her arms and face were bleeding... Actually... Was that even blood? It was blue.

I again shot the ground, frustrated with this confusing world.

Natalie rolled onto her side. "First of all, ouch. Second, YOU got us into this mess. I know I told you to torch him, but I didn't mean THAT well."

I looked at the ground. "Sorry."

"Third, why the heck are you shooting the ground again? Does that like.. Relieve your stress, or something? And "sorry" doesn't fix anything at all."

I looked up again. "I shot the ground because there's nothing else to shoot."

She didn't look convinced.

I let out an irritated sigh. "Okay, one-"

"Screw it!" She practically screeched. She slowly got to her feet. "We need to go somewhere for the night. I can't stay out in the open."

Neither could I.

I stood. "Like... A cave, or...?"

Natalie gave me a harsh glare. She was obviously hurting, and somewhat embarrassed. "I don't care! Just... Somewhere, please."

I nodded, and started walking along a faint trail through the plants. Hopefully this led to an abandoned house, or something.

It soon became apparent this was a hiking trail, or a walking trail, that did not lead to a house, or really anything, and I turned. I looked over my shoulder to make sure Natalie was still following. She looked back at me. "Are you wandering, or actually trying to find something?"

Without responding, I turned and continued on, knowing she'll follow.