the unknown space

chapter 18

I was flying over the land at a fast pace. Isolde rode on my back and soon I could see the small town the humans had made on Covanity. As we got close I flew to the ground and landed. I tried to go back towards the ship or turn back into a human but I couldn't move a muscle. We were in a forest and I was concealed in the trees so we wouldn't alarm the humans. Isolde hopped off my back as we got to the end of the treeline.

"This is where I will stay. I can't risk being killed, I am the Queen afterall." Anger welled deep inside of me. I was being used to win a war for an alien species against my own kind and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I managed a small growl in the back of my throat. "How cute, King Evander is upset, now go kill the humans." As if on cue my wings started flapping and I was lifted above the forest. I flew over the town and looked down. There were lots of people looking up at me in surprise and shock. It was hard to tell from how high in the air I was, but some people looked scared and others just looked curious and amazed. I recognize some of the people here. I saw many people I trained with.

I swooped down towards the village hitting one of the houses and causing it to collapse. People screamed everywhere around me and dove for cover. I flew back into the air and opened my mouth. I felt heat rising in my throat and fire launched from my mouth onto the village below. People cried out in pain as some were hit by the fire and burned. I tried to close my mouth and stop but I couldn't. I ran into another house and wood flew into the air around me. While I was close to the ground I tried once more to move. I forced my legs to straighten and finally they did. My legs skidded across the ground causing me to slow and crash to the ground. People ran from me as I tumbled into another building. Some ran towards me with nets and rope and tied my legs down and my mouth shut.

I tried to get up and fly away, to fly back to Isolde so I could kill her but I still could hardly move. I could feel that Isolde was no longer in control of me but it didn't feel like I was in control of myself either. A man was tying my wing to my side with rope when my wings suddenly flew out from my sides. The man was thrown several feet away. I stood up, this time by myself and leaped into the air, shaking off the ropes and nets that had been tossed over me. I roared, snapping the rope that held my mouth closed and flew to the forest where Isolde would be waiting. I now had control over my actions. The anger I felt for Isolde surged through my entire body. I have never been more angry in my entire life. I thought to myself I can't believe I was tricked into killing my own kind.

I flew over the forest scanning for any sign of the ruvataur queen. I could not see her. I got back to where the ship was and looked around the clearing and saw her. Isolde was running back towards the ship. I tucked in my wings and spiraled towards the ground. Isolde taught me how to fight, I thought, now I'll kill her with what she told me. I landed, shaking the ground. Isolde fell to the ground and turned just in time to see me swipe at her with a giant foot. She ducked and one of my talons caught the side of her face, black liquid squirted out of the wound. I stood up on my back two legs and fell to the ground attempting to catch her with my two front legs. She rolled out of the way just avoiding my attack.

Isolde jumped up from the ground. She ran to my left side with blinding speed and leaped at me. I moved my wing to use as a shield. She came at me with much more force than I had been expecting and my wing crumpled back to my side. I swung around and snapped at Isolde with my jaws. Once more she was able to move out of the way. I saw her start to run behind me and swung my tail. She jumped trying to leap over my tail but I moved it higher and caught her legs causing her to fall to the ground. I grabbed Isolde in my mouth and launched her into the air.

I flapped as hard as I could, rising higher and higher into the air. We had made it so high up that I could hardly breath.

"Goodbye, Isolde," I said, dropping the struggling Queen from my mouth. She screamed as she plummeted towards the ground. Suddenly a wave of tiredness overcame me and my body started to tingle. My eyes turned green and I fell. I was no longer a dragon. I was falling from the sky at an extreme speed. There was nothing to catch me, I didn't have a parachute and I was too exhausted to turn back into a dragon. Was this it? Was this how I would die? Falling from the sky because I was so angry that I would have done anything to get revenge? I saw the ground. It was approaching faster than I was ready for.

I wasn't ready to die. I'd made too many mistakes and left them unfixed. I heard a thump as Isolde hit the ground. Now it was my turn.

"Evander!" I heard my name from below. I looked to see Karen, she was covered in black liquid as well as her own blood. Karen reached out her hands and two blue beams were shot from them, and for once they didn't miss. A light blue circle surrounded me right before I hit the ground. I fell onto the floor and the blue bubble around me acted like a cushion. The bubble popped leaving me unharmed. I was alive.