Blue Blood

Blue, Red And Dead

I'm walking through the forest. It's quiet. The only sound is the rushing of leaves in the wind. It's so dark, I can barely see. There are no birds in the sky, no fish swim through the creek, the trees lay dead and lost. I'm alone.

My hooves crunch the dead leaves below me giving me anxiety but why should it? I'm alone.

I look to the sky and see the moon resting in its place as it always has, dull and blue. Blue. It's always blue and nothing else, just blue. The color of sadness, of tears, of alone. I'm alone.

Snap. My head turns to the sound. Something new. I'm scared but I don't move. Something moves the dead leaves. I'm not alone.

I'm scared, I'm so scared but I'm moving forward. The leaves rustle again but I keep going. I reach my nose down and a nose touches mine in return.

I move my head up and there's a glowing red wolf smiling at me. Red. It's so beautiful: red. The sound of the word. Red. The color of . . . The color of . . . I don't know, I've never seen it.

It stands up and shakes. Then it smiles at me with its tongue hanging from its mouth. I laugh. Laugh. That's new.

It barks at me and licks my face. I feel embarrassed and . . . Happy. Such a strange feeling. Happy red.

From beneath the creatures foot, a flower blooms scorching red. My eyes widen. It's alive. It's beautiful. It's red.

I reach down and nuzzle it and there's a new color. It's so calming.

The wolf inspects the new color and jumps around happily. It comes close and darts around my feet trying to . . . Play. I don't know how.

He doesn't mind and leans into me almost like a hug. He's so warm, so soft, so beautiful.

We both turn our attention back to the flower. It's small but beautiful. This color, I think I'll call it purple. The wolf barks in agreement and kisses my face once more. I smile and go to kiss him but-

BOOM

We turn our heads in unison at the sound. Another crash is heard as a tree falls to the ground and a roar pierces our ears. Red starts to growl and inch closer to the chaos. I want to stop him, tell him to stay but I can't. Im too scared.

Red crashes into the darkness, the poison, the hate. There's a blood curdling, mind shattering, world ending scream and then . . . Two yellow eyes gaze from the black clouds. A strike of lightning shows its shadow. A dragon.

From its mouth it spits out the wolf and I bleet out a cry. I rush to the wolf, to my beautiful red but he doesn't move.

"YOU CANT SAVE HIM. YOU WONT. I AM ALWAYS WATCHING. I WILL ALWAYS FIND YOU."

A giant claw bursts though the shadow piercing through my chest.

I scream and . . .

I wake up.

I jolt up gasping for air almost knocking heads with Roman. Lukas and Rody's eyes are wide, both wet. I grip my chest and look around frantically looking for the darkness but there is none to be found. Roman grips my shoulder shaking and stares into me with worry.

"You were tossing and turning frantically so we tried to wake you up but you wouldn't and then you screamed and-"

Before he can finish I pull him into a tight embrace still trying to catch my breath. His scent helps bring me back to reality and I realize I'm shaking really bad. Rody hugs me tighter and tells me it's going to be okay and that it was just a nightmare as Lukas quietly freaks out.

I squeeze my eyes tight and try to listen to everything around me, trying to bring myself back from that hellscape. Rody rubs circles into my back and I finally catch my breath.

"I'm . . . Alright, I'm alright just . . . Just a dream, just a dream."

Sweat drips down my forehead and onto Rody's shoulder which I feel bad about and somehow that brings me fully to my surroundings. We're in the woods and he's safe, he's safe and I'm safe, we're safe. It's okay.

We pull apart from the hug and I rest my face in my hands.

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I mean yes, I'm okay but . . . J-just-no no I don't want-I can't-"

I start to breath heavier and Rody tells me it's gonna be okay and gently shushes me.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me, but if you do want to talk about it, I'm here okay?"

I nod and run my fingers through my hair.

"It's gonna be okay." Lukas squeaks quietly while placing his small hand on my knee.

I flash him a weak smile to say I'm okay and I get dressed. Rody tells me to take things slow but I need to get out of here, I can't stand being here for another second.

We pack up everything and start walking again. Rody keeps glancing at me worriedly but I don't care. Edima nudges me but I refuse to acknowledge her presence. I just can't.

Lukas slips his hand in mine and gives me a sad smile. I give a weak one in return and hold his hand slightly. Lukas's eyebrows furrow and he stops.

"Wait, I know . . . I know where we are!" He cheers.

"Really!? Are we close? Do you know the way from here?" Rody asks almost as happy and I can't help but smile with them.

"Yeah, yeah it's this way, it's this way!"

He bolts off in front of us and we follow close behind. After turning a few times we find ourselves on the outskirts of a small village.

An old rotting house stands before us. The roof sags and the windows hang open. Old rusted toys sit in the yard, encased by grass. Lukas begins to cry happy tears and runs up to the door. He goes to knock but stops just short. Me and Rody exchange a look.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Rody asks confused.

"What if . . . What if they forgot about me?"

I walk up next to him and knock on the door. "No one could forget you, especially your parents. They love you."

He smiles up at me and sniffs. I give a smile and the door opens to a disheveled man In His 40s and four little girls behind him. One 14, one 12 one around 5 and another just learning to walk. The mans eyes grow to the size of boulders and he immediately starts crying.

"Lukas" the man whispers behind his hand before encasing the boy in a tight bear hug.

They laugh and cry and the man kisses his head nearly a hundred times. Once the girls see who it is they start crying and join in the hug.

Rody wipes a tear behind me, "I just love wholesome family moments."

I role my eyes at him with a smile.

The man tears his eyes away to me and embraces me into the group hug. At first I'm shocked and a little uncomfortable but I quickly join in the hug.

"Thank you . . . Thank you! You brought my boy back to me, thank you!" The man grabs my face a leaves a wet kiss on each cheek before hugging Lukas again.

Lukas mouths a thank you to us and we sneak away. We didn't want the man to think he owed us anything and they seemed so happy.

We stand at the entrance of the town and sigh. The silence between us is surprisingly sharp for what's just happened. My heart beats in my ears.

"Rody . . ."

"Yeah?"

"I just want to say that . . ."

" . . . Yeah?"

" . . . Never mind."