Distance Between Us | Peterick AU

14

They stuck around in the room for awhile longer to grab the rest of the food that was left for Pete and to take a quick rest before preparing to move back down the tower, down the mountain, and walk for hours, maybe even days, all the way back to the castle.

Once they had finally left the cell of the room, Patrick stayed in front, leading the weakened Pete the way he came. It was complicated, trying to get down the holes in the floors without much injury, but it was doable.

They reached the level that Patrick remembered having the staircase, but when he moved to go down in, the steps had already broken off and fallen down. The rest seemed like they were ready to do the same.

"We can't make it here. We have to find another way."

The two searched around, only finding success in breaking weak parts of the stone floors out with their weight and hopping down the floor. It was time consuming, but seemed to be going well up until they broke through one of the last few floors.

The men dropped down carefully after letting the stone fall and were about to continue the process when Pete stopped in his tracks.

"Uhh, Patrick?" He whispered, frozen in his tracks. "Why is he still here?"

Patrick looked up, not yet noticing the "elephant" in the room. "What do you mean 'he' is still. . ."

Just ahead of them, an enormous dragon, curled up in slumber on the stone floor.

"What the hell is that?" Patrick whispered slowly. He was frozen in shock now too.

"That," Pete responded harshly. "Is a dragon. You're telling me you didn't slay the dragon?!"

"Dragons don't exist!" Patrick shot back. "They're just mythical creatures meant to scare people like you!"

Patrick immediately knew that he had said the wrong thing. Pete glared over at him, but cut off his forming remark when the creature next to them stirred, beginning to open its eyes.

"Sorry to burst your bubble your highness, but dragons in fact are real and if we don't get out of here in the next two seconds, the one right in front of us is going to maul our asses."

The dragon began to raise its head, noticing the visitors inside its castle. Patrick drew his sword and pushed Pete behind him, ready to defend against the creature that seemed to be getting angrier by the second. Upon it getting to its feet, Pete suddenly seemed a little unsure about his companion's confidence.

"Umm, Patrick? I don't think this is too good of an ide-"

The dragon roared, loud enough to cause Pete and Patrick to stumble backwards in fright. They both looked at each other with an expression of pure fear before realizing they needed to get out of there. Fast.

The two boys ran to the right, just in time to avoid a huge burst of flames coming from the creature's mouth. They could feel the intense heat as they ran, motivating them to move faster to avoid certain death. It was a miracle they weren't a pile of ashes yet.

They ran all the way to the other wall, searching and searching for a way out of the circular room. It seemed hopeless until bits of the floor began breaking under the dragon's feet.

"We have to lead him on," Patrick panted. "let him chase us around. The floor has to break through at some point."

Pete immediately agreed without word, leading the way in circling the dragon's body while the gigantic animal tried to rotate and maneuver in the room. A big portion of stone fell apart under its back legs, causing it to jump forward to stay steady and give Pete and Patrick the chance to quickly jump down the whole, this time taking no safety precautions.

They took advantage of the time they had by continuing the earlier process, breaking through the weakened floor. The boys had just made it though to hopefully one of the last few levels when the dragon began to figure out how to get down also. Their time to get ahead was quickly running short.

Luckily on the next floor down, there was a small entrance way to the old staircase. They both raced for it and squeezed between the narrow opening, flying down the steps once they were through. All seemed well once they reached the bottom and began to run out towards the front doorway, but a loud thumping sound made them freeze in their tracks again. If it wasn't the middle of the morning, they could have mistook it for oddly sounding thunder.

Both decided that it wasn't safe to stick around like idiots, and they took off again where the gloomy sky was visible outside. It was a huge relief stepping outside of the stone castle, up until the one last, loud boom.

And that's funny, Patrick didn't think it had ever rained little bits of rocks before. He was careful to shield his eyes when he looked up at the sky, hopeful to find an answer. It wasn't anything what he had hoped.

There was the dragon again, perched upon the ledge that it created on the upper floor by breaking through the wall. It screeched loudly again and began to take off, heading straight for Pete and Patrick at the entrance of the castle.

"We need to go," Pete stated obviously. "Now."

They took off again, this time down the mountain, doing their best to leap on and off the right rocks without falling. It was easy at first with the big boulders, but became trickier and trickier as they got towards the middle of the mountain. The rocks were getting too small to balance equally on.

Pete was the first to fall. He was behind Patrick, but that didn't stop the prince from turning around and pulling him back up. There was a small trail of blood running down his calf from where he must have made contact with the stone, but there wasn't any time to stop and fix him up. The dragon could fly faster than they could run.

They continued, unfortunately at a slightly slower pace this time, and the dragon beginning to blast more flames their way. Patrick swore he could feel the baby hairs on the back of his neck singe and fall off.

"We're not going to make it," Pete panted as they began reaching the bottom of the mountain. "Do you expect us to run all the way back to the castle?"

Patrick scanned their surroundings, praying for his quick thinking to help him out once again. He transferred his sword into one hand and grabbed Pete's with the other, pulling him to keep up. "I have a plan."