The Perils of Light and Darkness

Chapter 2

Nacira suddenly feels something crash into her side with force, which causes her to be pushed a couple of feet away; she feels excruciating pain from heat before opening her eyes and looking towards the spot where she had fell and where she had been pushed from.

Ashes cover the ground within the spot as Clarett was nowhere to be seen; the only things within the area now that are sentient and alive are Nacira and the dragon.

Her gaze shifts towards the dragon as the glow in the back of its throat seemed to become dimmer as if it had shot a blast of flames. The dragon shuts its maw and gave a light snort, sparks along with small amounts of smoke flowing out of its nostrils like warm breath exhaled on a cold winter day.

It took her a moment before the realization hit her like a falling piano; those ashes on the spot where she had tripped had to be Clarett's.

She... Clarett... she thinks to herself as a buildup of tears begins to grow and cloud her vision. The dragon's gaze shifts towards her as it suddenly got a slight smirk as if it were enjoying every moment of this.

The dragon's voice was as smooth as silk, yet it still sounded rough, and his words seemed to be laced with poison: "Save thy tears for thyself, little one, for you need not weep; you shall soon join the one you humbly shed tears for."

His words seemed mesmerizing...

As the dragon begins to advance towards her in a slow walk, his 10 inch claws sink into the delicate soil underneath and tear into the roots of the grass.

Nacira stares at the dragon for a couple more seconds before quickly wiping the tears away. She attempts to stand back up, but she's cut short from even making it a foot off of the ground as the dragon quickly rushes over to her and slams her onto the ground with immense force and pins her down with one hand.

A snapping noise filled the silence as she winced and bit her tongue from the sharp pain in her left arm. Looking to the left, she sees one of the dragon's claws just above the left arm's wrist as it was pinned against a large, cold stone boulder that's slanted. Her arm must've broke from the force of the slam.

The claw was dug an inch or two into the boulder, and blood was splattered across the slanted side, the side her left arm is pinned against.

It took her a little bit to notice that another one of the dragon's claws was dug into the top of her left shoulder even though it was nearly blocking her view of her left arm until it really started to hurt.

Nacira's gaze falls back to the dragon as she blinks slowly and wearily. She noticed through her peripheral vision that one root that was newly protruding out of the ground had snapped and fell. She also noticed that the rest of the dragon's claws were not pinning down her right arm and were in the area under it.

He chuckled lightly, lowering his head to look closely at her as he snarls, "Tell me, human," his voice was once again laced with poison, "Are you afraid?"

"I-" she cuts off as she uncontrollably coughs. Luckily, no blood came out, so that meant the claw in her shoulder didn't go deep enough to pierce her heart or lungs.

"I..." she pauses for a second as flashbacks from her past flood her mind.

She remembers all of the times when Moss, her older sister, would spend hours on end training her and Clarett with the sword and bow. The flashback then switched to when she last saw her parents as they waved their last goodbye when exiting the house to fight in the Domain War, a war which ravaged the land in the entire realm for years; this is the reason why they moved away from the cities. The war was said to be a war in which a lot of the gods and goddesses themselves fought in. Only a few gods and a goddess had managed to make it out alive, and only one made it out unscathed and victorious, the one who killed the majority.

She also remembered the time when Moss had brought home this little girl that seemed starved and sick, clearly nearing death. This girl was the one she would come to know as Clarett. Ever since then, the two had become close friends, nearly sisters.

The flashback ceases as her gaze is met with the dragon's gaze, his fire-warm breath hitting her face like a breeze; it smelled oddly like... burnt chicken?

She decides not to question what it's been eating, so she silently gulps and sighs before closing her eyes and setting the back of her head onto the ground.

Nacira slowly inches her hand towards the broken piece of the root and opens her eyes once she feels the rough texture of it.

"I'll ask once more, human," he says in a menacing tone and a light growl, "Are you afraid?"

The same flashbacks flash through her mind again after he speaks along with how Moss had saved her from drowning due to being dragged under water and nearly killed by a predacious fish. She also couldn't help but remember how Clarett had pushed her out of the way of the blast of fire and gave her own life to save hers.

It didn't make sense though to her. If it was truly a blast of fire, why wasn't it large enough to catch her in the blast too? None of the dragon species she knew of, including this certain dragon, could shoot such a thin stream of fire. It usually covers a vast distance.

Shaking the thought away, she slightly narrows her eyes at the dragon before speaking.

"I don't fear overgrown lizards."