Dragonblessed

Chapter Two - Lynn

I hadn't meant to shoot her. It was a bad ending to a bad day.

I had woken up in my lean-to, made of big logs dragged against a rock and froze together. I got dressed and conjured a quart of water out of the air to drink. I cringed at my empty firepit, I had never been able to build a fire without matches and those had run out ages ago.

You see, I've been on the run almost all my life.

Why, you ask?

Well, I'm a dragonblessed. That means I have wings. Yeah it's creepy. I know that by now. Anyway, humans hate my kind because we're better than them. We're a mix between Elf and Dragon, so we don't have any human blood that makes us slow and stupid. The humans got jealous and are in the process of killing us all off. The Elves don't like us either, but they mostly ignore us. Our species is relatively new, only created 200 years ago by the Great Dragon.

I don't like being a dragonblessed.

Sure, I can fly and bend water and stuff, but would you rather do that or be accepted by society? I'd rather be an Elf. Then I could just live, without the constant hunting, or the prices for my head.

After I got done drinking my quart of water, (I need more water than a human because I'm 86% water when they're only 70%) I walked over to the lake to practice freezing. I didn't use my ice often enough.

I froze the top layer of water and collapsed onto my knees. It was so hard to do that. But practice makes perfect I guess. Or so my mom had told me.

Memories of my mom crashed into me.

She had tragically died when I was only twelve, and that was three years ago. She used to sing to me...

A simple melody that I still had memorized.

I hummed it to myself, trying to keep the tears from my eyes.

I focused on the water again, melting the ice.

My head throbbed with the beginnings of a headache. So I grabbed my bow and made my way into the woods to find some easy breakfast. I heard a rustling in the bushes. Maybe that stupid raccoon that had been stealing my food? So I knocked an arrow and crept forward on the balls of my bare feet. I had grown out of my converse ages ago, though I still kept them in my lean-to back at camp.

There was noises, and... Voices?

In hindsight, I should've realized that they were Dragonblessed talking and that I should put my bow down, but I raised it higher.

This was definitely not that raccoon. I started creeping forward, stepping over a big fallen log and behind a bush. I stopped to listen but in a weird position. My foot was bent weirdly. I tried to hold still as I listened to them talking, trying to decide if they were a threat to me. But my foot was falling asleep, and I couldn't take the position anymore. I moved.

Their heads snapped toward me. I cursed under my breath, pulling my bow tighter in case they attacked.

They looked like an Earthblessed and a Lightblessed. The Lightblessed was shorter, with golden hair and startling gold eyes. Her wings were white and gold. She wielded no weapon, but there was a dagger in a pouch at her waist.

The Earthblessed was taller, with reddish-brown dark hair and bright green eyes. She had tan skin and earthy green wings. She had an axe strapped to her back, but it didn't look like she was going to attack me.

I put my bow lower, just a bit.

"Hello?" The Earthblessed said.

I started scrambling backward. But I had forgotten about that stupid fallen log that I had stepped over.

Time went in slow motion as I tripped backward, my bow still in position and aimed at them. I should've put it down, but I was being stupid and cautious.

So I kept it pointed that way even when I hit the ground. The impact on my elbow threw my hand away, and the arrow went flying.

Straight into the Lightblessed's arm.

I groaned as my spine popped from the impact. I hadn't quite seen what was going on. But when I looked up and saw her shirt splattered with blood, I knew.

I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Maybe "I'm sorry!" Or "Are you okay?!" But those sounded so stupid and naive. Of course, she wasn't okay. And why would she ever forgive me? So I wouldn't say that. But I couldn't say anything, anyway. The wind was knocked out of me. 

The girl shuddered, looking down at her arm. She froze in shock.

I gaped again and stood up, not bothering to brush off my jeans before running into the clearing that they had been talking in. I didn't say anything, just gaped again. I'd never shot any Elf or Human before, much less Dragonblessed. I looked at her wound, then at the Earthblessed, who was staring at me.

"What was that for?!" She screeched. She pulled the arrow out of the Lightblessed's arm and quickly tore a strip of her white tunic and wrapped it around her arm to stop the blood. "Come with me." She said.

She picked up the Lightblessed and started storming through the trees.

Not knowing what I should do, I followed them.