Once again, Kantar steps to the right, and my burning body flings past with a rush of air. I can feel my pupils thinning, readjusting even further to accommodate for my lack of skill, and whipping around, I charge again, my fists clenched and my heart aflame.
I can't let them take me away.
At the last moment, before Kantar sidesteps my maneuver, I angle to the left and hurtle towards Oralina.
I have to defeat them before they defeat me.
Oralina reels back in surprise, but then I'm on her back, digging in with my sharpened fingernails. They reformed when I changed, almost like claws, and as she screams, trying to buck around and fling me off, I thrust them even deeper, willing her to fade. My dad was in acupuncture, and if I just... No, that only works on humans.
If I beat them first...
Unlatching one sizzling hand, I lift it up, willing all of my energy to relocate to a single, focused point, and with all of my strength, bring it down onto the top of her head.
...then they can't beat me.
Oralina's change is instant. She crumples to the floor, flinging me high into the air, and as I fall back-first onto the grass, my nose starts to sting, and my breath is knocked out of me. By the time I raise to my feet, Kantar's almost on me. His raging roars cause a rumbling against the ground, and as I face him head on, I feed him some of his own medicine.
I step aside.
He shoots into Oralina's unconscious body, and ramming into it, roars all the more. Meanwhile, I clamber up his back, raise my arms into the air, and then, once again, bring them down with full force against the back of his skull. Somehow, I hit hard enough, and as he slumps forward, I laugh into the sky. I did it.
"Lily?!"
I slowly turn around, and there stands Max, sweating through his shirt and lugging a body in his arms. Maddy. I shudder, my pupils rounding once more and my my claws straightening back into nails, and after a moment, run towards them. Max looks at me in horror, staring at my hands, and as he trips backwards, I realize what he's gaping at.
My fingers are soaked in blood, and the sickening smell slowly wafts up to my nose. Green, yes, but it's still blood. He saw me on the dragon, he must've seen me change...
As I approach him, I wipe my soiled hands on my shirt, and offer my once again pale, skinny fingers. He hesitates for a second, but then grasps my hand and I heave him up. He eases Madeline into the ground, her hair falling around her in the bristling grass, and then rises once more, smiling nervously at me.
"Well... we made it."
That statement somehow cracks me up, so ridiculous after all of this, and cackling into the sky, I laugh until tears begin to form in my eyes. I fall to the floor, snorting and giggling, while he just stares at me in shock. Chest still heaving, I rise to a knee, and wipe my eyes with a sigh. I rarely have moments like this. A hiccup erupts from my throat, and falling back down, I continue to laugh. Max attempts a nervous 'hah', looking on at me in concern, and as Maddy stirs, I finally will myself up, giggles passing by my lips. Just the way he said it...
After all this time, we finally made it in. But was it really worth it?
Maddy's eyes flicker open, and the first sight she sees is me, continuing to giggle into my hand. She flings up into a seated position, and gasping, slowly turns around to look into the sky. As I follow her stare, my laughter finally dies, dried in my throat like a worm in the sun.
A black, treacherous-looking dragon's circling above us, gliding almost like a hawk. A hawk above it's prey. As it slowly descends, Maddy whispers almost inaudibly.
"It's... It's on our side."
I glance at her for a second, but then train my eyes again on the form that's descending with an angry look on its maw. "Are you sure about that?"
She slowly nods, entranced like me by the sight. "Yes... It pulled us in. It was the one to make this all happen. It wasn't with us then..." She pauses as the beast gets closer and closer, and gulps before uttering her next words. "...But it is now."
I honestly doubt it.
Stumbling onto the floor, I stare at it much like Madeline, on the grass and sitting like a dunce. Max has his fists clenched, and as I look closer at his left hand, I see he's holding a white, glowing dagger. As the dragon comes closer and closer, the glow increases, until it flares almost as brightly as a torch at night. I feel the burning in my chest again, and as I raise my head to squint at the creature, I feel my eyes readjusting, my pupil shrinking once again. If it comes to it, I'll be ready to fight. And as it seems, so will Max.
The hulking mass slams to the floor, and I finally appreciate how large it is. There's no way I could fight this. Its legs tower above, only connecting to a chest about a house's height away, and as small black tendrils reach out from the hide, I back away with narrowed eyes.
"It's trying to separate us," mutters Maddy.
She's inching away as well, and as Max notices what we're doing, he only holds his ground more firmly, fingering the knife in his hand. She glances at me, obviously realizing that I'm doubting her original thoughts, and she continues. "Something... big's gonna happen if we all meet up. That was... Their plan."
My eyes widen as I hear her say 'Their' in the way that Kantar and Oralina did. "But we're all already here..."
She shakes her head, and stares me in the eyes. "Not Jacob."
As if on cue, I hear a rumbling from above, a piteous roar, and a rush of wind as the creature collapses backwards, tripping up, and nearly landing on Kantar and Oralina. It lands instead on its side meters away, jarring me off of my feet, and when I raise my head from my new position, I see a wriggle in the exposed side of the dragon's chest. The tentacles retract, and as the skin splits, out climbs Jacob, endless tendrils retracting into his skin and his eyes fading from black to their original blue. His hands were jet-black, but they slowly recolor back to normal as he raises his weary head. He stumbles down the darkened scales, tripping over a human-sized purple claw, and wiping his mouth as he rises to his feet, stares me in the eyes.
"Well, that didn't go quite as we'd planned."
YOU ARE READING
What Was Missing
Science FictionALSO KNOWN AS 'A DRAGON'S ARC' In a time not far from today, an archeological excavation digs up something unexpected. The 'Iss.' And the date on it: Before electricity was discovered. After Madeline's father becomes entrapped within a coma during t...