Forbidden magic

chapter eighteen

Follow your dreams,
They know the way.

_____________________________________

The dragon's huge body glided effortlessly through the air, like how a warm knife would glide right through butter. A red tail at its rear end trailed obediently behind its massive form. Wings the size of a hundred feet building flapped up and down. Lavished with strength, it held the irrepressible weight.

The deep mourn of a horn ensued, resonating throughout the atmosphere. It echoed against the mountains, reverberated across the land and arose to the dragon's perked ears. The beast's head whipped to the side, wary of the sound waves that tore its gaze away from the stunned girl on the ground.

"Don't gawk too long," a nonchalant voice breached her mind with a carefree chuckle. Raven began to look around, frightened of the arcane voice that emerged .

The wariness that swiveled in her gut remained even after she noticed that there was no one in sight. Just your imagination, she assured herself.

"Run, daft one," the voice warned, its tone steeping with caution. "The faerie is not here to protect you."

Raven contrived to strain her muscles as her long legs roughly pushed forward.  The cruddy soil had discolored her shoes and the bottom of her jeans, both soaked with disgusting clumps of mushy brown substance. The damp ground beneath her seemed to stretch on endlessly as she fumbled through the forest.

A surge of newfound energy rippled through Raven before her limbs found sudden strength. No matter how many trees she dodged and side stepped they all looked the same, each a fine replica of the other.

"Faster, Raven, faster," the voice urged.

"Just sod off!" Raven shouted against the roaring wind. She was thinking of eight different ways to torture Gen as soon as she found him. He was using her as bait and Raven was well aware.

However the fey voice that bobbed in unexpectedly remained a question mark to her. What was it? Where was it? And why was it bothering her?  

"She's gaining on you," the sing song words were pronounced with sheer amusement. It only took a couple of seconds for Raven to figure out that it was talking about the dragon.

She cast an effete glance over her shoulder and sure enough the dragon stalked her from the skies. The orbs that were so devoid of mercy were now affixed on her, disallowing any sort of noise from whisking away its kill.

Raven had been so distracted by the fleeting monster that she had not noticed the ginormous tree that stood in her way. She craned her head slightly to the side a second too late before she brutally collided with the robust stem. 

A juddering blow of pain slithered through Raven from head to toe, her body smacked against the dirt as she fell limp to the ground. The whimper that slipped out of her lips emoted the pang of agony thrusted into her.

Raven coughed bitterly, a red liquid sprayed out of her mouth. Blood which had always tasted metallic and bitter to her was now a brief reminder of her failure that entailed the eternal loss of her family.

"Run."

"I can't," Raven gurgled as a trail of blood seeped through her busted lip, a concussed feeling drummed deeply in her head as pain seared at each thud.