No Longer Freedom

20. Countdown before chaos.

Tom's POV

The wind started to get harder to resist. Clouds upon us roared at our way like monsters as I glided farther from the tropical island. "Mother nature must be angry." Tord chuckled cheerfully. How were he able to always be such a careless brat and still he managed to rule his lost kingdom. Somehow, it impressed me but at the same time, it gave me shivers. A powerful man like him could had snapped my neck at any time if I would gave him a reason to. I really should had watched my back... just like Billy had said.

While I drained myself out of reality, my body felt like a machine. Everything was automatic. The way I dodged the sharp rough edges of the mix of limestone, garnet and schist without thinking caused Tord to grab tighter me by the horns as we flew over a depressive looking boulder field. "How long are we going to fly?" He complained as he leaned closer to me. It caused me to snap out of my gloomy thoughts. "Though, why am I even asking you when you can't even talk to me like that." He hummed as brushed my dark scales.

Both of us stayed quiet for the rest of the flight. We admired the views as we flew above the islands and the beautiful ocahen. Only the disturbing sound of the seagulls broke the peace as they passed by us and the raging waves which hit the smoothed rocks in the deep water. Sun had already set, saying goodbye to the nice calming clear weather and it had been replaced by the autumn chilly windy night storm. The weather was as unstable as my mental state. I couldn't decide either which side I was on. I couldn't help but wonder what Billy had meant by saying that he knew what I was. I was a dragon, what else?

Although a creeping feeling had started to carve its way into my heart. What else... What else was there? I thought.

The luring full moon gilded melancholy across the night sky as the time passed by what felt like seconds. The moon had always been my friend or that's how I felt. When I was sad I whispered my worries to it. When I was happy I thanked it. When I was free, every night I tried to reach it. Sadly, I never made it. It was too far for me. But I had learned how to adore it from a distance. The mighty moon, it was almost like a mother to me, even though I didn't know her I sensed that she was there. Spectating from the shadows, protecting. Maybe she even mesmerized the moon as me wherever she was.

"Hey? Are you listening?" His sharp voice cut my thoughts like a scissors would cut string. "Are we there yet? We have been flying for at least 12 hours or more. My butt hurts and I'm hungry." Tord whined like a baby child. 'Well now you know how it feels', I would have said, if I could. "Are you positive we aren't lost?" He clarified. Humans had no sense of directions; they needed maps. They lacked self-esteem, unlike me. I could have flown across the continent, blindfolded. "I guess I just need to trust you." Tord mumbled while he took a look at the moon. "If my theory is right, dragons should have come back by now, we have been gone for two weeks after all. That means our business can continue as it should." I chuckled while he leaned back.

I only shook my head while I reached the familiar coast of KOTLO. We were almost there. Just when I was about to land I noticed it. Everything was quiet. Like the world would have gone mute. The oppressive silence pressed my insides into one lump of flesh, making me feel sick to my stomach. "Do you sense something unsettling too?" Tord looked around while I reached the ground. While I transformed back into my smaller form Tord had already jumped on the ground. "Yeah..." I admitted and took a long sniff of the muggy air. Then I felt it. Piercing odor that made me gag. The familiar smell of...Death...

It filled every cell in my body. My body went limp. I fell on my knees as I held my stomach with my left hand and I covered my mouth with my right one. "What !? What's wrong?" Tord placed his rough palm on my shoulder as I tried to gather myself, my sanity. The smell I sensed wasn't the ordinary fresh smell of death. No, this wasn't beauty. It was agonizing and disgusting. "This smell..." I fought back to the urge to vomit.