Winged Knights

Chapter 7: First Encounter

"Tarin," I heard my brother call. "Ugh, five more minutes Fulgur." I heard my brother heave an annoyed sigh, then the crunching of dead leaves as he walked away. Wait, dead leaves? I sat up instantly. Oh yeah, we were on some journey to find information on Lord Erickr. I had thought it was a dream. "Oh, now you wanna wake up." I looked over to Fulgur, who had his claws cupped with water. I smiled evilly. "Yep, didn't want you to get the better of me." Fulgur just rolled his eyes. I walked over to him, carefully avoiding a sleeping Novis, Ventus, and Malum. I stopped briefly by Malum. He looked so peaceful, better than I had ever seen him. I smiled, then stopped. What was I thinking? I hurried towards Fulgur, who was gathering kindle for a fire. "Want some help with that," I asked. Fulgur looked up at me.

 "Yeah. Just gather up some twigs and stuff will ya?" I nodded, then went searching. I found a few twigs, but that wasn't enough. Without noticing, I strayed farther from the campsite. CRUNCH. I stopped. Who made that noise? I listened carefully. CRUNCH CRUNCH. Footsteps. I waited until I heard the footsteps right behind me, then spun around, leaping towards and straddling the unknown stalker. I looked down, and saw a terrified Malum looking up at me. "Malum!! Damnit what the hell are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?!" Malum tried to speak. He finally found his voice. "I..I saw you leave camp. I wanted to know what you were doing," he said, trying to get up. I got off of him. 

"Well next time make your presence known before I try and kill you." Malum nodded. "Right. Well, let's head back to camp," I said, setting off at a brisk pace towards camp. Before I even got within ten feet of camp, I was pounced on by a blur of silver and red. I screamed out of surprise. I looked down and saw that Ventus and Fulgur had just surprise attacked me.  "Where did you go sis!! I thought you had gotten captured or....." Fulgur stopped when he spotted Malum a few paces behind me. His eyes narrowed. "Why were you with my sister  Malum," he asked, his words venom-laced. Malum back up a little. "I.. She walked away from camp. I wanted to see what she was doing." Fulgur picked himself up, stretching to his full height. 

He walked over to Malum, stopping only about a claw-length away from him. When he spoke, his words were colder than ice, and sharper than steel. "Now you listen to me Malum, and listen close. If you touch my sister, and I mean EVER touch her, I will personally rip off your talons one-by-one, then proceed to rip off EVERY scale on your body before ending your miserable existence." Fulgur slowly backed away from Malum, letting his words sink in. I watched as Malums' scales, normally a pale gold color, were now an even paler yellow. After Fulgur left -Ventus trailing behind him- I went to comfort Malum. He looked up at me, shying away so he wasn't touching me. I gave an exasperated sigh. 

"Really Malum. All the times my brother has threatened you, and you choose to believe him now?" Malum just sat on the ground, curling his tail around him. I sat down beside him, careful not to touch him for his sake. "Malum. Do you really think I would let my brother hurt you? NO. My mom made me promise to keep everyone from fighting. And I will stand by that promise," I said, scooting closer to Malum. He didn't react. I thought of this as improvement. "Alright, I'm gonna help with the fire and stuff. Come join us when you're ready," I said, before getting up and walking off. When the campsite came into view, I started to quicken my pace. Ever since I had left Malums' side, I felt as if I was being watched. 

Almost there, just a few more steps. I was grabbed from behind, heavy chains wrapped around my snout as I was dragged away. I felt hot breath on the side of my face as my captor bent down next to me. "Stay still. We have one of your friends," they spat the word," and we won't hesitate to kill them if you make this difficult. Got it?" Their voice was low and raspy, but it still held venom. I nodded, wondering who they had gotten. Novis? It was possible, I hadn't seen her all morning. Or maybe Malum. I did leave him all alone. I cursed myself. I should have stayed. My captor finally stopped. I looked around. We were in a dark clearing. It was at least 15 degrees cooler than it had been at camp. I shivered. 

Then I got a look at my captor. I would have screamed if I could have. She was female. I could tell by how slender she was. But her arms bulged with muscles, like all she did was workout. She had a deep, jagged scar across her left eye, which continued down her chest and stopped right below her ribs. But the worst part was her eyes. Well, her eye sockets. Instead of eyes, she had thick, black ooze running out of her sockets. The same ooze that Ventus, Fulgur and I found at the tree. It covered her. Parts of her scales peeked through, a deep brownish-red. She terrified me, and I think she knew it. She laughed. A dry, horrible sound. "Your terror is hilarious! Wait till I show you to the others," was all she said before heading off. 

Which means I was left alone with my thoughts. My horrible, terrifying thoughts. What am I gonna do?! Do the others know I'm gone?! Are they looking for me?! What others?! Which one of us does that sicko have?! I strained against the chains that bound me. They didn't even budge. I heard the crunch of leaves as something came towards me. Please, please be my friends. My captor returned, with two other dragons. One was sleek and slender, just like my captor, but was dull orange instead of brownish-red. The other was heavyset, and big. He towered over the other two, his black and grey scales glistening ghoulishly. He looked at me for a long while, his sockets seeming to see right through me. 

Then he laughed, along with the others. "Didn't I tell you she was hilarious? You see what I mean now," my captor said in between her laughter. The tall one spoke up first. His voice was deep and booming, but made my bones shake with fear. "Yes I do Terrent. This one will please boss the most. Better than that other one that Celer and I found. All she does is sit there and stare at, nothing. I don't even think she is scared." My captor, now known as Terrent,  sneered. "Then the boss will just kill her. Their no fun if their not scared." My heart seemed to stop. Her? That means they have Novis. And if what Terrent said is true, then she will die. I struggled against my chains, not caring that they were biting into my flesh. I stopped when I felt strong arms picking me up. It was the tall dragon. He shook me, very violently. I couldn't think straight, but I did know one thing. My first encounter with these dragons was not gonna end well.