Halfblood

Chapter 7

"Wait, where are we going? Don't we need a pl-" my objections were cut off in a heartbeat as talons close around my arms and my feet leave the ground behind. "Let me go this instant."

"Are you sure?" Suddenly an unbidden scream leaves my lips as my right arm is released, leaving me hanging from the left one.

"Uhh NO. I didn't mean DROP ME!"  

"But I can't just drop you! I need you alive."

Ugh.. Does this creature only hear me when I yell now?

"I DIDN'T MEAN DROP ME."

"Oh." Suddenly, I'm sent flying into the air. I don't even have time to scream before I land hard on Spectrum's back.

"I think you just bruised my tailbone." The pain in that area seems to make that fact perfectly evident.

"I think I just bruised your ego." The dragon chuckles.

"What ego?"

"The one you obviously have if you think you can just order such a mighty creature as me around like that."

"Well, I'm sooo sorry if my writing knocked you down a peg. Not that it was a bad thing anyways, considering that your ego is the literal definition of admiring oneself with pride. Maybe I'll actually be able to get some sense into that head of yours."

"I already have all the sense I need." I'm not sure what worried me more... that statement, or the fact that there was a little snore at the end of it.

I leaned up on his neck, putting my mouth as close as I could to his ear. "WAKE UP YOU NUMBSKULL!"

His head visibly shook. "But I love flying dreams."

"WHAT ABOUT CRAS-" That timing could not have been better, as he plowed headfirst into another dragon right in the middle of the word 'crashing.' Thankfully, we had just soared over fire falls and we landed safe yet bruised on the highlands beyond.

"Mommy, daddy." He started crying. "I had a bad dream."

I reach out to the creature, hoping to offer a bit of comfort. But as soon as I touch the shivering dragon, blackness fills my mind, fading into a scene I had never seen before.

There was a new creature in the camp. It waddled across the ground on two legs, leaving us to wander how such a thing could possibly be accomplished without a tail. Or even with one. It's skin hung loose along its bones, in some places even showing a second layer, uncovered by the first.

It seemed lost and confused. Alone. Melody sensed that.

She was a beautiful girl, my Melody. The sun played off her golden scales in such a way as to accentuate her deep amber eyes. But her voice... well that blew everything else away. She opened her mouth to a dress the stranger, to offer assistance, and time froze for me at the first tone that escaped her lips.

But then a new sound so rudely interrupts the song (for even her plain speech was that musical.) A loud discordant 'BANG' that seemed to shake her entire being before she collapsed to the earth, her lifeblood spilling out of a hole in her chest and into the rich soil on whence she lay.

It was at that moment that I knew two things.
One; that my love had been cruelly taken from me forever.
Two; That this creature and all of its kind were evil, and that all must pay. All of them must feel the pain I now felt. All of them must see the one they most loved laying bleeding and lifeless in front of them. And then, they too would come to an end, that the pain would be inflicted on someone else.

Shocked, stunned I slowly remove my hand. Black once again filled my mind, then it faded and I saw once again the cliff we were on. Where had that come from? Was that Spectrum's dream? Did ghosts even have dreams? Why did I only see such things when I was touching his scales? Did it work on other creatures? What if Spectrum was awake? Would it work then? Why didn't it happen when I was in contact with him before?

"Kaelie!" His voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "It's only mid afternoon now. If we hurry, we should be able spend the night on top of mount Everfog."

Exactly what I don't want to do, especially knowing what sort of phantoms and phantasms roam the twin peaks when the sun sleeps below the horizon. Not the type I want to meet.

Note to self: It is a bad idea to write your worst nightmares into a fantasy world. Especially if your main character can travel through between the worlds if they move at top speed.  

But the sooner he finds this Halfblood, the sooner I can go home. So I nod. "Just give me a few minutes."

A few minutes to steel myself for what I need to be able to face.