ON HOLD (EDITING) Rise of the Dragons: Beginning

Chapter 14

"What?" I heard black hairs' voice ask, confused. It was as if I heard him from a very long distance. My heartbeat was loud in my ears, and I was struggling to stay conscious. I had to get out of here. They knew. 

"Look at her hand." Long hair said urgently. No. I couldn't let them see. I heard black hairs quiet footsteps coming towards us, and quickly clenched my hands into fists to hide the mark, even though I knew long hair had already seen it. 

My whole body tensed and then went limp, with the pain that shot through my arm. A sharp gasp flew from my mouth, but was muffled by the gag. 

Black hairs armour clinked and rattled as he knelt down beside me and long hair. "Whats' wrong Aldren?" 

"Look at her right hand. I think it has the mark." Aldren spoke urgently, his voice serious but edged with excitement. 

"The mark?" Black hair asked, his soft voice shocked.

"Yes." 

I could hear the footstep- one slightly irregular- of the others walking towards us. I felt a hand on mine, trying to open the fist on my right hand. Gritting my teeth behind the gag, I clenched my fist tightly. 

"Open your hand." Black hair commanded, his hands trying to pull mine apart. 

I swore at him weakly from behind the gag, and held it closed. Pain was shooting through my arm and I breathed in slowly through my nose, fighting the darkness that was closing down around me. 

I could feel his hands starting to pull mine apart and swore, thrashing, knowing I couldn't keep it up for long. Eridor! I screamed in my head. If I could get him to come, he could take care of the soldiers and we could go. Again I got no reply. Where was he?!

I froze, as his hand opened my fist, and he gasped. Shoot! I renewed my thrashing, and managed to get my hands out of his frozen ones. 

I reached up and ripped off my gag, twisting onto my side, needing to get away, but needing to breathe to fight away the darkness more. I coughed and scrambled back away from them, my injured hand limp and numb by my side. 

The sword was lying a few feet away. If I could just get to it, maybe...? A hand grasped my good hand, stopping me. I looked up and saw black hair leaning down, his hand grasping mine. His face was covered in shock and...awe. 

"Get off me!" I hissed, weakly struggling against him. 

Much to my shock, he instantly backed up, and put his hands up in front of him, comfortingly. The others were right behind him. "Its okay." He said gently. "We don't want to hurt you." 

My eyes narrowed, and I glared at them viciously. Right. I stumbled unsteadily to my feet, my injured hand limp by my side. Cautiously, I backed up, towards my bow and sword. If  I could reach it before they attacked, I might stand a chance. Maybe. 

"Its okay." Black hair repeated soothingly, as if I was a rabid wolf he was trying to calm down. I watched them carefully, backing up slowly, inch by inch. 

I stopped when I reached my weapons, and keeping my eyes on the soldiers, bent down and slung the bow across my back, picking up my sword with my good hand. 

I slowly straightened and inched back towards the forest, out of the clearing. Away from them. 

I froze as black hair stepped forward, hands still up. "Wait, E'scarilt. We mean you no harm. We are from The Resistance." 

I stared at him for a second, before taking another slow step backwards. I had no idea what he was talking about. Did Isengards' army have a name now. 

He followed me with a step of his own, the others right behind him. "E'scarlit, we mean you no harm."

I grimaced, taking another step back. "That's not my name."

"It is the name for all dragon riders, E'scarlit." He said softly, eyes never leaving my face. 

I took another step back, until I was right on the edge of the clearing. 

"We aren't going to hurt you E'scarlit. We're on your side." Right. 

I slowly raised my sword and sheathed it. I couldn't hold it and run. He took my actions as me trusting him, and smiled gently. "See. You can trust us. We're not going to hurt you." 

I counted to three in my head. One. Two. Three. I whirled and took off. Injured hand clutched to my chest, I raced through the forest. I heard their shouts behind me, and the thundering sound of their  armour rattling, as they chased me. 

Just as it had when I was running to the village, the trees blurred around me as I ran, faster than was humanly possible. They sound of the soldiers, or whoever they were, disappeared behind me.