The Dragon Curse

It's a trap

We were once again flying through the forest and now I sat on his back with more confidence. We were just flying between the trees when an arrow suddenly went by me and it made me worried. I looked back and I saw that four hunters were following us on horses with bows in their hand. Jack figured as well that we were followed, so he picked up the pace and flew between the trees faster, hoping to lose the hunters in our track. Another arrow went through the air, luckily it didn't hit either of us, but two more were shot out and one hit Jack's right back leg. He growled in pain, but he didn't stop. We were trying to lose them, but they were really fast. Jack seemed to think otherwise though. He was flying above a river and as I looked up I saw that the river ended in a waterfall. Jack confidently flew towards the waterfall and when we reached it he dove down, but before we would hit the water he flew back up and we could finally leave the hunters behind. When they were out of sight Jack came to a halt and gently landed on the ground, but as soon as he tried to stand he collapsed from the arrow in his leg. I quickly jumped down from his back and went to his right back leg to examine his wound. I pulled the arrow out and he whined in pain, but the damage wasn't that bad. He had this healing ability so the wound would heal within no time. We had to hide though until then, so nobody could find us.

"We need to find a hiding place," I told to Jack as I looked around. "Just in case the hunters decide to follow us."

He whined again as he tried to stand up, but he eventually could get up from the ground. He couldn't walk that far though so I had to find something fast. Luckily there was a cave nearby so we walked there and got inside where Jack laid down on the ground and I just sat beside him, leaning against his stomach. He was looking around in fear and from his body language, I could see that he was scared too. He looked around in the cave and that was when I saw tears dripping from his eyes. I didn't know dragons could actually cry.

"Jack..." I started and he whined again as more tears fell from his eyes.

He placed his head on the ground and kept looking at the other side of the cave. I turned my gaze towards it and I saw something on the cave's wall. I crawled closer to the wall and examined it. There was a red stain on it and it looked like some creature's paw, but there was a black handprint of a human as well inside of the red paw. At first, I didn't understand it so I turned to Jack and he tried to crawl closer to the wall too. He placed his clawed paw on the wall at the red paw and it made sense for me... it was Jack's and Robin's handprints. They were here.

"Sorry, Jack," I said with empathy and he just crawled closer to the wall and laid beside it.

I sat at his head and I gave him a hug at his neck to comfort him and calm him. I wanted him to know that I was still here and that I will keep my promise to Robin and won't leave Jack's side. Eventually, he calmed down and I felt tired too so we both fell asleep. I don't know how long we were out, but I woke up to a loud noise. It made me curious so I stood up and slowly went outside to check around. I heard movement from behind me and soon Jack was standing up behind me. He looked at his leg and the wound was completely healed so it meant we could finally go back to Evelyn before she would become worried. I went outside, but suddenly a giant rock fell from above, blocking completely the way out from the cave, so Jack was trapped inside. He tried to move it, but it was too heavy for him. I looked up and on the top of the cave, I saw five soldiers, who probably rolled the rock. Before I could react three soldiers were tackling me down on the ground and tried to tie my hands together. I tried to resist but they were holding me down firmly and I couldn't even move. Jack all the while tried to escape and reach me, but the rock was blocking his way and he could only reach me with his paw. The soldiers pulled me up to stand up and pulled me away to put me on a cart and no matter how hard I tried to escape I couldn't.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright," I told Jack, but he just screamed and with anger, he tried to move the rock, but it still didn't move. "Everything is going to be alright, I'll come back, I promise."

But I started to tear up because I wasn't completely sure that I'll be able to keep my promise. I felt like I won't be able to come back and the thought made me cry. They will probably come back to Jack after they are finished with me and they will kill him surely. I was still resisting though because I couldn't let this happen. I was almost free for a moment when the soldiers on top of the cave came down to help the others. They hit my head and it made me dizzy, but I was still on my feet. They hit me again and it was more powerful than the one before and it sent me into unconsciousness. My vision became blurry and the last thing I heard was Jack's powerful scream before everything went dark and my body went limp.