Cinderella vs. Happily Ever After

Chapter 34

            Miette’s arms tightened crushed Valerie’s waist and her voice screeched in her ears, making her wince. The roar of air as it rushed past them had doubled in volume as they aimed at the fast approaching ground. Ahead of them, Val could see Faal snap his wings out and begin backwinging as he came in to land.

            A moment later she experienced what Isaac must have. The sudden jolt as they began to slow rapidly followed by the dropping of Rish’s back half as she backwinged hard, turning any stray bits of dirt into a whirlwind. She closed her eyes against the dirt, feeling one or two small rocks score lines on her exposed flesh. She thought the scratch on her hand was probably bleeding from the tiny flare of pain there.

            Then there was the gentle impact as first Rish’s back feet touch down then she dropped forward onto her front legs. The rustle overhead as she folded her wings in was loud in the absence of bird song, all animals in the area having fled immediately at the thunder of Faal’s approach.

            Faal was the only other thing making noise, loud wheezing hisses escaping his mouth along with the flames. Already there was a smell of burnt grasses and half a dozen brown patches on the ground. As another patch of yellow grass brightened colours until it became fire, she watched Faal stamp on it immediately. Solving two questions of hers at once.

            Rish watched him for a moment then let out a long stream of air, sounding a bit like a sigh to Valerie. “Is he alright?” she asked, keeping an eye on Faal and Isaac, neither of who seemed injured.

            “Yess,” she replied, something in her voice sounding almost amused to her. “He iss laughing. I believe he laughed ssso harrd he could no longerr fly.”

            She jerked upright then turned to look at the boys. Faal’s face was only a foot from the ground as his sides heaved and the wheezing continued. On his back, she could see the flash of Isaac’s teeth as he grinned. Her eyes narrowed as she considered things then she nodded. “You can blame Isaac. I’m sure he’s been telling Faal all sorts of horrific things to make him laugh on purpose.”

            “It iss good. He hass been verry…upsset ssinsce the murrderr. Asss we all have been but he hass taken it the harrdesst ssinsce he iss the male. He needss to focuss on Kerrashiix onsce the debt iss paid and not on hisss failingss.”

            Valerie flinched slightly at that and began twisting the corner of her shirt with one hand. “I…I guess it’s better to concentrate on what you can do and not what you should have done, huh.”

            “Alwayss.”

            She sighed and watched Faal stamp out another patch of flame. Behind her she felt Miette lift her head. The way she immediately pressed it against her back again made her think the sight of Faal dropping fire had scared her. She shook her head but given how well Miette had held up before this, wasn’t going to say anything against her. She supposed that girls here were probably taught to be afraid of dragons lest they carry them off and eat them or whatever.

            Rish lifted her head and began hissing and growling, the rise and fall of the sounds making Valerie think the dragon was speaking. Faal lifted his head though he continued to wheeze and choked out some hisses and growls of his own. Rish responded in kind then shifted her wings slightly. “He ssayss that yourr knight hass been telling him sstorriess of human mating rritualss frrom yourr worrld.”

            “Oh god. Don’t ask. Seriously. Isaac knows way more horrifying, will make you blush kind of stories than anyone else I know.”

            “Drragonss do not blussh.”

            “Well Isaac could make it happen. I don’t know how but he would take that as a challenge,” Val said, shaking her head as she looked at her still grinning friend.

            The light metallic growl coming from her throat put Valerie in mind of the human thinking noise. “Faal ssayss when he hass calmed himsself we will take to the ssky again. I would lead but hisss territory hass been easst forr asss long asss ourr nesst hass been therre. He iss farr morre likely to find yourr arrmy firrsst.”

            “Please don’t feel like you need to hurry on our account! It’d have taken us probably something like two weeks to get to the camp without you. We’ll be back way ahead of anything we’d thought. I really can’t thank you enough for taking us.”

            Rish snorted. “We have a debt. And it will not be rrepaid by ssimply ferrrying you to yourr alliess. We will fight,” she said her tail lashing around her feet. “And we will look for the murrderrerrss of ourr childrren. They will die. Sscrreaming.”

            Valerie shivered at the dragon’s tone. Hatred and anger were rolled into pure fire and venom in that voice. She would not be the people responsible for the destruction of the eggs for anything. Even had she ever been willing to harm a dragon. She wondered what kind of people would dare do that and how they honestly thought they were going to be safe ever again.

            Her thoughts were interrupted by Rish’s hiss of “He iss prreparring to take off.”

            She nodded, squeezing her legs around the dragon’s chest, the muscles already twinging in a way that told her walking tomorrow wasn’t going to be easy or painless. She watched Faal gather himself, shifting his backlegs and tail back and forth, putting her in mind of a cat about to pounce on something. He did leap but upwards rather than on top of something. His wings beating rapidly, raising dust again, he fought the air for height, slowly rising.

            A minute later and Rish was doing the same. Again, Valerie felt the wind push down on her as she slid back and forth on the dragon’s back in time with the wingbeats. Powerful muscles underneath her strained against gravity, pushing upwards. Then they hit another thermal and it was again the glorious, rushing flight that had her laughing with pure joy.