The Dragon Curse

The journey continues

"Jack." I stood up excitedly and ran up to him I could saw on his face that he was worried about me.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I was so scared," he said and hugged me tightly, not letting me go like he would lose me again. "I thought you were dead."

"Everything is okay. A mermaid saved me." I said and he kept hugging me.

"I'm so sorry." he apologized over and over again and I was patting his back to reassure him that everything was okay.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." I said and looked at his wing, so I released from the hug. "Is your wing okay? That lightning hit you pretty hard."

"It will heal fast. Right now I don't think I can fly though," he said as he spread the wing and looked at it.

There was a big burnt hole on the leather part, probably where the lightning hit him. It looked really bad, but he said it will heal. I hope he will be okay soon because just looking at his wing it looked really painful.

"So where should we go?" I asked and he looked around to find out where exactly we were.

"Let's just look around first. I know a village where we might find a witch, but we have to be careful," he said and I nodded so we started walking. "So you said that a mermaid saved you."

"Yes, she was really kind and helpful," I said and I immediately felt this weird feeling as I was thinking about Amy. "Her name is Amy."

"You like her," Jack said, but then he stopped me and looked at me which made me confused. "No, you love her don't you?"

I looked away, not answering his question, but it just made it more obvious to him that he was right. He gasped and excitedly turned me back to look at him.

"You do." he smiled, but then his smile faded. "But she is a mermaid and you are a human. How do you want to... "

"Right now we agreed that we should stay separated," I said to assure him that I won't do anything crazy. "She said her father is really powerful and he would kill me if he found that his daughter fell in love with a human, especially a simple woodcutter and not a prince."

"Hold on." he stopped me again in my walk and looked at me confused. "So you are saying that you fell in love with a mermaid who is a princess as well?"

"Yes, but she has a sister who would heir the throne. Therefore Amy doesn't really have to marry a prince." I explained then we continued walking.

We were talking about what happened after we fell into the water. I told him everything about Amy and what I knew about her. Jack seemed to like her. Then Jack told me how he ended up on the shore, washed out. He was really worried about me and he thought that it was his fault that we fell. I tried to reason him every time he said sorry, but after what happened to Robin I don't think he would believe me anymore that he is not a burden to me.

We were walking in the forest and Jack was telling stories about him and Robin playing out here. Every tree in this forest held a special memory for him about his friend. He showed me a tree that had claw marks on it. Jack said they were practicing fighting. Then there was a burnt down tree in the middle of the forest. That was the first time when Jack tried his fire, and he said that it nearly hit Robin as well, but they were just laughing at it. They were just kids back then and now they are grown-up men. Jack kneeled in front of the tree, his wings lying behind him.

"I miss him, Mark," he said as he touched the tree.

I couldn't say anything, because there were no right words for this. It hurt him I understood, but I couldn't fully understand. Jack knew Robin since they were little and all of a sudden he lost him too.

I put my hand on his shoulder to make him feel better and that I understand his pain. He stood up and wiped a single tear away from his face. We continued walking, but all of a sudden we heard movement from behind the bushes. We stopped and Jack defensively stood in front of me, spreading his wings. I grabbed onto his arm and with my other hand, I grabbed my dagger, ready for anything that would want to attack us. Jack looked back at me and then back at the bush. With a big and powerful flap of his wings, he made the leaves from the bush fall on the ground, revealing a young woman.

Her dress was green and she had a little bag on her belt. Her brown hair was let down and braided in some parts. Her brown eyes were inquiringly looking at us, waiting for our move. She had a little dagger in her hand as well, holding it defensively in front of her. She was tense and we looked at each other with Jack.

"Who are you?" she asked and stepped closer a little.

Jack slowly let his wings down, while I stepped beside him and put my dagger away. I showed her my empty hands and she calmed a little, but she still had the dagger in her hand.

"We don't want to hurt you," I said and she put her dagger away as well. "My name is Mark. He is my friend Jack."

"What are you?" she asked Jack as she straightened back up.

"I'm a dragon," said Jack simply.

The woman scanned us all the way, then she saw the symbol on Jack's arm. Her eyes widened and pointed at the symbol asking from Jack.

"Where did you get that?" she looked back up at Jack with widened eyes.

"From a witch," he said confused, then the woman rolled up the sleeve of her dress and showed the same symbol on her right arm as well.

We looked at each other with Jack then back at the woman. Jack was about to ask her something, but suddenly his head started hurting. He screamed in pain and collapsed onto his knees. I quickly kneeled beside him to check on him, but he was just screaming more.

"What is wrong with him?" asked the woman.

"He is slowly turning back," I said calmly and tried to comfort Jack, but without any luck. "We need to find a witch fast."

"Follow me then," she said and I tried to get Jack on his feet, but he was in too much pain to be able to walk.

I put him on my back and kept telling him to try to relax, while I followed this woman. Eventually, Jack fell asleep on my back from the exhaustion and I was hoping that whoever this woman was she could help him and end his suffering.