They cooked and they ate. It was the most delicious thing Milford had ever eaten in his life since there was the fact that he had gotten the ingredients himself.
Once they were both full, they both decided to call it a night and laid down by the fire.
"Hey, Max. Do you ever think that they're looking for us right now? Searching?" Milford asked.
"I guess. Maybe they are."
Milford rolled on his back and looked up at the stars. A tear formed in his eye and he had to wipe it away.
He grew drowsy and he didn't know how much time had passed until he fell asleep.
Of course, he would have a dream.
There was a lake surrounded by trees and a distant cabin in the distance. Milford was sitting in the sand peering at the water. His reflection slowly formed into Horomir's. It had a smile on its face. Then it immediately turned angry.
"AVENGE ME!" It roared.
His eyes fluttered open to reality.
It was morning. That seemed impossible to him since all he remembered was falling asleep, the dream, then waking up.
He looked to his left. Max was still sleeping.
Milford got up and heard a noise that was small at first, but then became deafening. He looked above him and saw a golden-scaled creature that was flying down towards nearby trees. He suddenly knew that it was one of the dragons.
They had found them.
Max jumped awake at the racket. "WHAT THE-"
Boom! The trees behind him collapsed as the golden beast landed.
Max had the exact face he did after he woke up on the dragon that Saturday. "I-I'm not turning around," he mumbled.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" a voice shouted from the creature. "GET ON THE DRAGON IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!" it yelled.
There were other shouts now from around 30 others.
"Come on, Max!" Milford shouted as he picked up his sword and ran.
He hopped onto it's back. Max did shortly afterwards.
The Mondollion controlling the dragon turned around and said, "Hold on to somethin'." It was Ajax.
The takeoff was exactly how it felt when Milford was paralyzed by the Rinchor, only he stayed on longer.
About a minute after that, they were above the clouds. The other Mondollions behind them started talking.
"So, what happened?" Ajax asked.
Max and Milford each took turns on their sides of the story, and they looked impressed. When it got to the bear fight, Max just got bored and stopped telling Ajax, staring into the distant sky.
"Heh... He jealous?" Ajax whispered to Milford.
"I guess. Maybe," Milford mumbled.
Milford didn't talk for a long while and just looked out into the distance like Max, seeing slits of imagery coming from gaps in-between them. He soon began to see water.
"Our course is Beijing, right?" Milford remembered the previous talk with Horomir when they were riding to the camp.
"Yep. And a few other places too," Ajax explained shortly.
"Like where?"
"Well, there are a lot of people on this ride, so, naturally, we have mouths to feed, so there'll be a lot of stops along the way."
"Oh," Milford replied.
"Wait, where will we eat when there's nothing but sea out here?"
"Hopefully they'll survive until Europe," Ajax said, sounding unprepared.
Milford didn't like that word. Hopefully. That was the sound of a possibly careless leader, a careless person.
That's when it hit them.
The dream. Of course, the dream. It had a meaning now.
It told Milford to stand up, to lead these people, to do the right thing. Avenge Horomir. They would never make it without eating or drinking or tinkle or waste. They'd be weak from stomach pains or something like that. He had to do it when the time came.
It soon became near sundown. Max was yawning from lack of sleep.
"When are we gonna get some rest?" He asked after a huge sigh.
"I dunno, man. Maybe in a few hours," Milford reassured him.
"Oh, then count me in for a nap," Max mumbled and instantly started snoring.
"They shouldn't be doing that. They might fall off," Ajax warned.
"I'll watch him, I guess," Milford replied.
It was when half of the passengers were asleep when he felt the need to pass out.
"Where are we gonna stop to sleep?" Milford asked Ajax with a yawn.
"We don't," Ajax replied.
"What about when you have to sleep?"
"Look, we're a quarter across the Atlantic Ocean. If everything goes down without any distractions or anything, then we'll get to China in two or three days tops. I can make it," Ajax rambled confidently.
Milford was going to say something back, but he wasn't sure exactly what.
"Can I sleep?"
"If you fall, I'm not catching you," Ajax muttered.
Milford looked back at the sleeping half of Mondollions. They weren't leaning off or anything. Then, he looked back at Ajax. "I'm too overprotective," he thought.
The moment his mind said he could, he slept.
All he remembered seeing was blackness until he awoke to a blinding sun, which meant no dreams.
Milford was really woken up when he looked at Ajax.
They were on the verge of sleep and about to lose hold of the reins holding the dragon.
"Ajax, dude," Milford said loudly as he tapped their shoulder.
"Huh? Whuh?" Ajax mumbled, opening his eyes in realization.
"The reins! Are you awake or what?"
"I'm fine, really."
Milford saw that the clouds weren't below them. The dragon was currently flying around ten thousand feet, he guessed, over the sea.
"Have you been asleep all night?" He asked Ajax.
"We're still alive, aren't we?" Ajax questioned, more awake than before.
"Well, not for long."
They turned away in disgust.
"At least let the dragon rise." Milford considered trying to compromise with Ajax.
"No," they said back, without looking at him.
"Why?"
" 'Cause ya can't tell me what to do."
Ajax abruptly smacked the dragon after saying this, making the beast grunt. Milford didn't even flinch. Ajax set their back where it was and that was that.
Ajax eventually led the dragon above the clouds again, listening to Milford's suggestion. He felt like he'd won that argument.
Max soon awoke casually.
"Hey, Ajax, how far are we until this quest's finished?" Max asked.
Ajax cursed something quietly. They were obviously in a bad mood.
"Um, okay. Could you answer my question, please?"
"We get there when we get there." Ajax sounded on the brink of losing it.
"Man, he's no fun," Max whispered to Milford.
"Don't think I didn't hear that," Ajax shouted with a louder tone. That caused some Mondollions behind them all to become startled and awoken.
"Hah, you should pipe it down a bit there," Max spoke in a shaky voice.
Ajax, without even glancing, shot their arm behind himself and their hand found itself upon Max's neck. They began to squeeze.
"Ajax!" Milford yelled at the top of his lungs.
Max was struggling to speak. "Let him go," Milford spoke calmly. "Shut up!" Ajax roared with their eyes closed.
Then, they realized the other Mondollion passengers were staring at him. They looked afraid of him. It was as if to say, "Why is he doing that? That's the guy we're supposed to trust?"
Ajax looked guilty. Max was turning purple. Milford wondered how their head hadn't exploded by now. Two seconds later, Ajax stopped squeezing Max's windpipe and let them free from his grasp. Max took in a giant breath immediately after.
"Dude! What the hell!?" Max's voice was all scratchy after being choked by somebody as strong as Ajax. They didn't turn around to respond to Max.
For two hours, Ajax was awake. Then, out of the blue, they weren't. They dozed off in a millisecond, almost. They let go of the reins, allowing them to fall into the water. The dragon wasn't being guided or directed, unauthorized about which direction to go.
Speed factored too.
When he saw the clouds moving round and round for a second, Milford figured it was probably Ajax just getting a little unorganized, because everyone made mistakes. He figured that for about half a second.
As soon as he heard one person scream, Milford automatically knew something wasn't right. He instantly looked to his right and saw Ajax collapsed on the dragon's back.
"Ajax!" He yelled. Of course they didn't wake. "Everybody hold on!" Milford yelled to everyone.
Max, however, was disoriented.
The dragon whipped around so fast that they were about to fall off. Milford caught them by their shirt collar just when they lost their grip of the dragon. Now, Milford had a heavy person in one hand and his sweaty, slippery other hand on the dragon's back. He knew he had to haul himself up before he and Max would be separated from the group again, but Milford didn't have the strength. Then, he saw Ajax about to slide off.
"Oh, come on!"
He pushed himself to his limit, reaching for Ajax with his free hand while also lifting Max. His muscles popped. The scream that came out of his mouth gave him the confidence to nearly reach Ajax. "Almost... Almost..." He thought to himself. His fingers grazed Ajax's armor. He got a handhold of their armor and pulled himself and Max up. Max sat on the dragon and held on as tightly as possible. Milford held on to Ajax until they were below the clouds again. This is when Milford felt it was right to shout at Ajax to wake up, which they managed to do afterwards.
"There aren't any reins!" Milford shouted.
They were seven thousand feet above sea level.
"We gotta do something!" Milford kept on yelling.
"I can't do anything!"
Five thousand feet.
Manly screams of warriors told them both that they knew of their inevitable fate.
Ajax was staring at the sea below in disappointment for the shortest time.
"Ajax!" Milford screamed yet again, giving them a chance to do something about this.
Two thousand feet.
Ajax sighed and turned to face Milford.
They stared at each other for a while, considering what little time they all had left.
Five hundred feet.
Ajax uttering one last sentence before plunging into the Atlantic. "You better hold your breath."
