Dragon Racers

Stuck In The Mud

Tonight might have been one of worst nights to go flying. Without any warning, rain came crashing down on me and I couldn’t help, but shiver as the icy droplets crept slowly down my back. Soon enough it was even too hard to see a few feet ahead of me. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and I directed Rose to land in the nearest clearing. When her feet touched the ground I knew immediately that I had made a huge mistake.

Rose began to sink.

“Rose you need to fly!” I shouted through the storm. She started to flap her wings but she was sinking faster than I thought. Rose let out a cry and I started to panic I knew it was unusual that the forest suddenly opened up. But I didn’t care all I wanted was to be warm. I was being selfish. I shook my head, thoughts like that weren’t going to get me anywhere.

I hopped off rose and my feet were sucked in by the mud the second they touched the ground. It took everything I had to just start walking. I gritted my teeth as I realized the mud around me wasn’t rising, but that I was sinking now too. I used my hands to help me through the muck, but it was hard since I had nothing to hold on to. Tears began to rim my eyes when I realized I was basically swimming in this mess. The worst part of it all, I was only a few feet from solid ground and I was hardly making any progress.

I winced when my foot kicked the jagged edge of a rock. My eyes suddenly went wide; the ground beneath me was solidifying! My little victory was short lived when I heard another cry from Rose. I turned my head to see almost her entire body was incased in the sticky mud. She tried to free her wings but it was useless and tiring her out. My heart broke as I saw her panic. I furrowed my brows and tried to walk again. This time I was actually making progress and I sighed when I was finally free.

I smiled when I realized most of these trees had dragons vine growing on them. They call it dragons vine because it’s one of the strongest natural growing ropes ever discovered. Some people carry it in the back of their cars just in case they get stuck in a ditch. The only problem with dragons vine is that they have tiny thorns and if you rub it the wrong way, you’re bound to draw some blood. (That’s why most people also carry a set of gloves in their trunk as well.)

Unfortunately I didn’t have the time worry about having gloves or not. I quickly grabbed the vine and started pulling it toward Rose. I took a deep breath as I looked down at the swamp again. I tugged on the vine to make sure it was secure before wrapping it tightly around my waist. I took a running start as I jumped into the sinking mud.

When I finally reached Rose I had discovered that the vine wasn’t long to wrap her neck and wrapping it around her waist was out of the question. The only other choice was to wrap it around her leg. However that would prove to be quite difficult seeing that I had to dive under the muck to reach it. I took in a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut before going under. It was worse than holding your breath under water; I felt like the mud was crushing my chest. And each second I was down there, my lungs screamed for air a little bit louder. When I finally found Rose’s leg, I quickly undid the vine from my waist and wrapped it around her foot. I started pulling on it to get back to the surface. I was happy to know that my hands were finally free and I pulled myself faster feeling the need for air increase. My head had almost reached the top when Rose’s claw scratched my calf.

I Froze. I wanted to scream. Cry out in pain. I wanted to just stop and take a deep breath.

But I couldn’t. So I bit my lip and kept pulling on the vine. When my head finally made a break through, I let out a huge breath. I had no time to rejoice because Rose was still going under. I swam around Rose’s back side and tried pushing her, but she wasn’t moving and I was way past worried. I knew I had no other choice but to swim back to shore and try to pull her. And that’s exactly what I did except, as most people would think, it’s a lot harder to pull a dragon then it looks. I couldn’t help, but smile when I saw Rose starting to move. At first she looked like a shaky mess, but then she began to make progress and it was evident that she was actually moving.