The Dragon Curse

Runaways

"Now what?" asked Jack as we were walking in the forest.

"We should leave this area. Maybe we can hide in another city for a while," said Robin.

"I'm sorry that I dragged you into this, Mark," said Jack as he hung down his head.

"Don't be sorry. It's okay." I said assuring him that it wasn't his fault.

I don't have anything to lose, so why not help. He is nothing like these people think. Maybe Jack is a half-dragon, but it doesn't mean that he is a bad person.

All of a sudden Jack collapsed onto his hands and knees, screaming loudly. Another pain wave. He is slowly transforming back into a dragon, which means our job will be much harder. He won't be able to hide as a fully formed dragon.

His scream echoed between the trees, and he clawed the dirt and leaves to be able to take the pain. His clothes ripped apart as a bone started growing out of his back. His scream became louder when the skin on his back ripped as well, blood pouring out of it and a long white bird bone structure grow out, attached to his shoulder blades. When the bones fully formed the scaled skin on his back started growing and covering the bones along with muscles.

Throughout the process, he screamed loudly that it could be heard anywhere in the forest. It was so painful to eve watch, but we couldn't help to ease his pain. The scales fully covered the bones and between them, a thin layer of green leather formed to fill the structure of the wings. As it was over Jack unconsciously collapsed on the ground, his big wings falling along with him. We could go closer to him, grabbing his arms and walking with him to the nearest cave. It wasn't as big as the other one, but it was enough for a hiding place. We carefully laid him down on the stone, watching to not step on his wings and slowly spreading it out under him.

"Now what?" asked Robin.

"We need to find a witch who can fix this. He can't hide in a full dragon form." I said as I looked at Jack.

"Well, we won't find any here," said Robin with a heavy breath.

"What about the witch who raised Jack," I asked and Robin looked at me. "Maybe she can help us, she probably has a potion or something. After all, she knows Jack better than us."

"He didn't tell you, did he?" asked Robin and I looked at him confused.

"Tell me what?" I asked and Robin's face twisted into sadness as he looked down at Jack.

"Jack's mother is dead," he said and I was shocked, but he kept explaining. "When Linda tried to turn him into a human the potion exploded. At least that's what Jack said. They both survived the explosion, but Linda was dragged into the nearest town and they burnt her."

"And?" I asked as I looked at Jack with sadness.

"I met Linda in the town before she was pushed up on the stake. She told me to protect Jack with my life. I would because he means so much to me." explained Robin. "So when I told him what happened we escaped together. We went around all over Iris Isle, but we were highly wanted so we came here."

"Either way. We should go back to Iris Isle. Until things settle down here too." I suggested, but I couldn't explain myself, because Jack started moving around.

"What happened?" he asked as he sat up, but he couldn't control his wings and he hit us with it a couple of times.

"Jack, watch out," I said as I blocked his big wing, so it wouldn't hit me in my face.

He looked behind him, and he saw the wings. He started freaking out, but we tried to calm him because he would cause more damage to them than us. He was panicking with pure fear on his face, as he tried to process what happened.

"Hey, calm down," I said and he sat back down, then looked at me with fearful eyes.

"I won't be able to hide like this," he said scared and looked between me and Robin.

"That's why we thought we should go back home," said Robin, but I saw that he doubted this idea, however, we didn't have much choice.

"They want me dead there as well, remember?" Jack said angrily.

"Just like here," stated Robin and Jack calmed a little. "We don't have a choice. At least we will lose them. Before anyone else finds out. Like the king. And we have a better chance to find a witch there."

Suddenly, we heard as soldiers were passing by still looking for us. We couldn't leave just yet of course, and Jack seemed afraid that they will find us again. Robin tried to check outside just to know how far they were while I sat closer to Jack as much as his wings let me.

"Don't worry they won't find us," I said because I saw the fear in his eyes as he hugged his knees.

We were waiting, but they didn't seem to leave. They found the horses, but they didn't just give up the searching. We heard leaves ruffling under their foot as they looked through the forest, but mostly at the part where they found the horses.

"Look, I see footprints over here." shouted one of the soldiers and we became worried.

We heard as the soldiers were getting closer and closer, but we didn't move, hoping that the soldiers might give up and go away. But they didn't

"Jack, you have to go back home and find a witch," said Robin as he grabbed his friend's shoulder. "Mark is going with you too."

"But what about you?" asked Jack worriedly grabbing onto Robin's shirt for dear life.

"I buy you time to leave," said Robin then he looked at me. "Look out for him and help him, okay?"

"I'll do." I nodded and Robin wanted to stand up to leave, but Jack didn't let go of him.

"Robin, please don't," Jack said and I saw tears building up in his eyes. "I can't lose you too."

I stood up and went beside both of them to exit the cave because I couldn't let Jack lose Robin. It should be me instead of him. Robin knows Jack better, I'm just a stranger to both of them I should be the one sacrificing himself for them. But as I was about to shout to get the soldiers' attention I saw as Robin ran past by me right to the soldiers to get their attention.

"ROBIN, NO!" shouted Jack and tried to run after Robin to stop him, but I quickly stopped him. "NO! DON'T DO THIS!"

"Hey!" shouted Robin when he reached them then started running.

The soldiers followed him, so we could leave, but it was really hard to drag Jack into the other direction as he was still screaming and trying to free himself from my grip on his wrists. I was pulling Jack away with as much of force I could, but he was resisting and wanted to go after Robin. We saw as the soldiers caught Robin and it was harder to keep Jack back at this point.

"MARK, LET ME GO!" he shouted, but I didn't do it.

"I can't. We have to go." I said to reason with him, but he looked back at me.

His eyes were vibrating light blue and I could see as his pupils' shape changed to a lizard's. I was shocked so Jack used this as an advantage and freed himself from my grip. He started running, but he stopped when his eyes met Robins. A soldier followed Robin's look and spotted Jack behind a tree.

"Jack, run!" shouted Robin, but Jack didn't move.

The soldiers were running towards Jack, while the other two put Robin on a cart and locked him to the chains on the side of the cart. I went up to Jack and tried to pull him away, but he was completely frozen. He didn't move.

"Jack, let's go," I said, but Jack was slightly shaking his head.

"JACK..." shouted Robin as the soldiers got on their horses to take Robin back to the town. "SEÁN, YOU HAVE TO GO!"

To that Jack came back to reality and was moving as I pulled him away. We started running, but the soldiers were on our track, so we had to speed up. They were shooting at us, but the arrows went pass by us. As we were running we ended up at the edge of the sea, so we didn't know where to go from here. We were stuck