Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 62: Severance

When I finally dragged myself to my feet and stumbled over to my friends, Tawny and Kuertis leaned in like they expected we were going to have a friendly conspiratorial talk. No, I had half a mind to strangle the two of them. Since I'd already laid into Tawny, I rounded on Kuertis.

"Why did Flametongue attack you?"

He focused on his shoes. "He didn't like his collar."

"Neither did the rest of them, but they didn't try to kill us because—guess what—dragons whose riders aren't total jerks tend to stick with their riders. So what did you do?" I crossed my arms, sensing hesitation in his expression. "You said I could trust you. Trust me when I say that I won't kill you when you admit how much of a prip you've been to your dragon."

"I didn't know, okay?" he blurted, throwing his hands up. "I didn't know they thought or felt like we did. I didn't think one of them would choose me, so I-"

"You mind-jinked a dragon?" Tawny asked with an air of righteousness she didn't deserve.

"Says the rider who went through with a mental cleansing." Both of them were just as bad as the other, and in a way, so was I. I'd seen how docile Kuertis's dragon was this whole time. I'd seen how Tawny was working on the mental cleansing. But I hadn't done a thing about either of them. The one time I'd tried to do anything good for dragons, I'd nearly died and killed Leera with me.

Now I was stuck on an island full of katalnis that Clarisa wanted me to betray, and what made me hate her even more was that she might actually have a point. My options were to destroy the portal and doom the Lykelan dragons to eternal slavery or open the portal and risk all of Lykela falling to the Ferentisians. What kind of choice was that?

"I didn't know," Tawny said after an age.

I shoved her back. "She talked to you telepathically. She probably begged and pleaded for you not to do it, right? But you couldn't look past your stupid ideas about dragons, just like you and your stupid ideas about pa-" No, I couldn't say that. Mentioning paltors would only give her a reason to ignore everything I said.

Guilt merged into anger as Tawny put her hands on her hips. "You think you knew any better at first? Leera hated you the whole time we were at the Academy. She got blood frenzy on the trip here because of you. So don't pretend that you're the perfect rider, Ella."

"I never said I was perfect, but at least I didn't-"

Kuertis grabbed my shoulder. "Ella, calm down."

I glared at him. "Why should I?"

He yanked his hand back with a sharp intake of breath. In the light of Tezzla's floating glow sphere, I saw a red burn mark against across his fingers.

I backed away. "Fine. I'm going to calm down. 'Cool off,' if you will." I turned and ran into the sea before diving beneath the water. My temper cooled as quickly as my scales, but I didn't want to go back to the others. I wasn't in any state to keep a cool temper around them right then.

I turned into a dolphin and stayed under the water as long as my expanded lungs would allow, until my anger faded away to a general feeling of annoyance and unease. Then I swam back to the shore and transformed into a talme. Further up the beach, Tawny and Kuertis were standing a ways apart, not looking at each other. I sat down on a dry patch of sand far away from them.

I wished I'd never let them come with us. A part of me waited for Leera to interrupt my thoughts and say [Then you should've listened to Clarisa,] but there was only silence.