The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

The Dragon

Hours passed and the girl was still reading those notebooks. There was nothing of use and most of them were either unfinished or were so old that the ink had started to fade and the paper had become weak. Her father had made sure to point out that the forest reached around the globe and that it was like a maze, even though it was super easy for a child to navigate. At some point he had written a passage about how he thought that the forest had a mind of its own and afterwards his suspicions were proven true. The ink of the paragraph underneath it, that -perhaps- contained more details about what was going on in the place, was smeared and smudged and really hard to decipher.

There was something very useful in there, however; a map! It looked very old with how dark the paper had gotten and how dirty and gruff it felt to the touch and seemed to have most of the forest drawn in great detail, including the clearing and the lake she was at as well. Forest surrounded them from all sides, some landmarks like weird trees were noted and a big mountain was way up north from where the clearing. She wondered if there were any mountain villages up there or if someone lived alone in a lovely cabin. Maybe there was more life up there than down here; a bunch of different creatures could be living there and she would have no idea about it.

"Can we go up there?", she turned around to her friend, who was walking around the perimeter and held the map up for him to see. Before he could come take a good look, something grabbed the big piece of paper and took it in the air. The two fairies were back and giggling their tiny hearts out as they floated about with the map in their clutches. The kelpie tried to bite them but they only flew higher to dodge his dangerous, sharp teeth.

"What's this?"
"A map?"

The girl quickly closed her backpack and put it back on her shoulders in an attempt to hide it from their eyes -she didn't need them fiddling in her family's affair; they knew a lot already. Nana was the first to point out how well drawn the map was and how precise it seemed. Did she look suspicious of the girl? Well, her father had killed her mother and then attempted to do the same to her so why would she be suspicious of a victim? A six-year-old nonetheless yet Nina seemed to feel the same as the other.

"Why do you have a map?"
"Why are you here?"

The valuable piece of paper was thrown in the lake out in an attempt to be destroyed but the girl was quick enough to catch it, though not smart enough to guess what would happen. She was pushed into the cold water by the fairies, who had began giggling again, her friend coming to her aid and helping her out of the water. The map was now gone but her life mattered more. More fairies gathered at the treeline as the moon rose up into the sky, creating light in the darkness amidst the many trees, floating up and down as they spied on the four individuals in the clearing. Nana and Nina repeated their questions once their giggling quieted down and the girl repeated what she had told the dryad to them in return, no more was revealed about her situation.

The two of them were glaring at her and they would have spoken more words had the other spectators suddenly disappeared. No floating lights were around anymore and they had just noticed. The environment was disturbingly quiet; the ambience was so quiet that it almost didn't exist. There was a slight breeze that went wild and then back to calm before repeating and going into an infinite loop. There was a weird sound accompanying the strange phenomenon; one of leather being battered or something like that. And then it stopped with a loud boom. Nana and Nina rushed to hide alongside their kind in the various nooks and crannies of the forest whilst the girl wondered what was going on. Even her friend seemed unnerved and it pushed her towards a rock so she could get on his back.

After a few moments of looking around trying to locate the source of the sound, she got on his back, gripping the short tufts of mane at the base of his neck to ensure that she wouldn't fall; wasn't that how Indians rode their horses? That didn't matter. There were more booms coming from the direction of the first one and before they could come closer to the clearing, the kelpie took off running towards the opposite direction, the child's legs and arms stuck on his soft fair and wild mane.

There was a roar similar to the ones the mockingbirds would mimic that sounded from behind them but the birds were nowhere in sight. This was the real deal; the creature they would mimic to scare away predators... But what was it? They were already running through some of the most dense parts of the forest, the kelpie weaving through trees and jumping over bushes with the speed and agility of a cat hunting its prey. However, there was no prey anywhere and she realized then that they were the prey of whatever the owner of that big roar was.

Three booms were heard and then the wind picked up as well as that weird leather sound that accompanied it. The trees were rustling without having any leaves to produce that sound and the twigs and branches clacked against each other and some fell to the ground. Looking up, there was nothing out of order other than the swaying of the trees but then the girl spotted a weird outline and for whatever reason, the sky darkened. Sure, the moon was out but it wasn't that dark!

Right as they made it to a big valley, fire spread like water on the tall grass; blue fire that shone vibrant purple and appeared to make anything it touched into icicle instead of burning it. The two of them were frightened and had the kelpie not foreseen such a scene and hadn't secured the girl on his back, she would have fallen off right as he rose on his hind legs. A creature landed behind the frozen grass, snarling angrily. Only the outline of it was visible and some sort of water effect played over what could be considered its transparent body. Is every creature transparent? Right as she thought that, scales started to pop out of nowhere on the creature, almost like it was waiting for her to think that.

Scale after scale, the image of a giant dragon was illustrated in three-dimensional about the size of her house form right in front of their eyes. It let out a deafening roar, the back of its throat shining a white light.

"We must get away!", the girl shouted after the initial shock of their situation washed away but her friend wouldn't listen. His ears were flat on its head, fangs showing and looking determined. The dragon growled confrontationally and repositioned its wings. The two creatures' eyes were locked and no one was backing off; it was a big stare down between a giant and a dwarf.