The Golden Bridle (Open novella contest)

Chapter 24

Louise's POV

I looked across at Ella. Even though she was the shyer twin, around things other than people, she is probably just as courageous as me. Leaning down from Pegasus, she is yelling and clapping her hands at some stymphallian birds trying to scare them away. The look on her face says "I don't care what you do to me, I will try my best to beat you".

This has been a battle of fire and air, where dragons and other winged terrible creatures have swooped down upon us, ready to end our lives. As I angle my tusk upwards, preparing to strike a blow to a dragon, it lets out a scream and an arrow pierces its hide. I look down to see my mother, holding the bow of one of Artemis' attendants and shooting with well-practised accuracy. I never knew mum could do that.

1 hours before...

I am sitting on the deck of the boat when something comes whirling through the air and hits me on the arm. I am about to yell at one of Artemis' attendants when I realise that this is not one of Artemis's attendants arrows but a feather made of bronze. I know my Greek mythology well enough to know what is coming. "Stymphallian birds! Stymphllian birds! Stymphallian birds!"

Instantly all Artemis's attendants on board ship are on full alert. But as we only have this one feather, we have no idea where to shoot. Both Pegasus and Artemis have been alerted and so will be coming. I breathe a sigh of relief, Pegasus is coming back from land shift. That means Ella is as well- I need my twin by my side for this. I go to the rail as quick as I possibly can and I focus on my bond with my ancestors. This allows me to pass information straight to Ella "i'm here. A stymphallian feather has wounded me but apart from that, there has been no other overt threat. I'll go and get my boar tusk but you need to be armed and ready as soon as possible."

"Gotcha!"

While we have been having this conversation, one of the attendant of Artemis step forward "let me help you".

She applied a salve and bandaged up my arm "thankfully it was your left arm and not your right arm, you should still be able to fight. If it was your sister I don't know what we'd have done."

She would've continued if someone at that very moment hadn't had yelled "get down" and we both dropped to the deck.

More bronze feathers were whirring past our faces. "Luckily for us they were shooting blind. If that's even the right word" says Artemis.

"They are stymphallian birds right?"

"Yep – got it in one. He's one land, sea and now he is doing air."

The rain of feathers won't stop but soon I hear Ella's voice in my head "we're coming as fast as we can. In fact we are above you right now. Hold on and once were down on the deck, you can hop on to Pegasus and come with us to see if there is anything we can do about these birds."

"Good shout, see you later."

I wait and suddenly there was a shout from Ella "Look up if you can"

I do it and staying as low as I can, I move towards them. The second I am anywhere near Pegasus, Ella grabs me. I grab my boar tusk, which thankfully I had with me on the deck and Pegasus and I swoop up and away.

"so stymphallian birds are scared of noise" Pegasus says in our heads "so if you can just yell as loud as you can, we should be safe".

When I look down at the birds, my first reaction is shock. They are amazing, beautiful, terrifying creatures about the size of a swan. They glint; their feathers are literally made of bronze. But they are definitely, disconcertingly alive. They are shaking, shaking with so much force that there are literally falling off and streaking towards our boat like arrows. Ella starts yelling and clapping and generally making noise. I start shrieking along with her and the stymphallian birds are obviously spooked as they rise up and leave in the opposite direction of the boat.

"They're going back to David Ridley. He'll know" Ella says

I respond "I don't care if he knows or not. He should've have realised by now who he's messing..."

I don't get to finish the sentence because out of nowhere a real life dragon.

I looked across at Ella. Even though she was the shyer twin, around things other than people, she is probably just as courageous as me. Leaning down from Pegasus, she is yelling and clapping her hands at some stymphallian birds trying to scare them away. The look on her face says "I don't care what you do to me, I will try my best to beat you".

This is going to be a battle of fire and air, where dragons and other winged terrible creatures will swoop down upon us, ready to end our lives. As I angle my tusk upwards, preparing to strike a blow to a dragon, it lets out a scream as an arrow pierces its hide. I look down to see my mother, holding the bow of one of Artemis' attendants and shooting with well-practised accuracy. I never knew mum could do that.

I don't have much time to marvel. Instead I yell to Pegasus "Dive!" and I stab the falling dragon once more as we pass it. Pegasus hovers level with it allowing me to continue and end the fight. More of its companions swoop down. Both I and Ella have their attention now and Ella is punching and slapping her way through the dragon. Our mother's arrows are helping too and Pegasus doesn't need any urging to dodge them. We think it is ok but then they biggest dragon I have ever seen; both terrible and beautiful at the same time and done ask me how I know this but indescribably ancient. Ella is understandably terrified, grabbing my wrist she mutters "we could use the bridle to catch it, get it tangled up".

"But wouldn't make me lose control of Pegasus" I respond at once "I'm not a control freak but we can't lose control of him in the middle of a fight."

We ask Pegasus and he explains the deal. "The bridle gives us a mind-to-mind connection and means I have to follow your orders. If you were to remove it then I wouldn't be bound. However, I like you two as people and if you remove the bridle I swear on the river Styx that I will follow your last instruction to me until the bridle is replaced."

We nod. "You swear on the river Styx?"

"Yes, I swear on the river Styx ."

"Okay, can you get us in to position? You know the plan, you've heard us discussing it."

He does so, slipping down so we are level with the dragon. Ella then carefully tugs at the bridle. Thankfully it falls away without us having to undo the straps. Pegasus holds u in position as Ella casts the bridle out like a lasso. It tangles with the dragons wings, we now connect with our ancestors once again and signal to our mother "tell them they can shoot, it won't move."

Finally, our last monstrous adversary goes down in a shower of arrows.