Bridge of Worlds ( On Hold)

Chapter 8

Kiran

It was one of those days. I had gotten little sleep, due to my wounded back. When Burnemarr let me out to do the milking, I was groggy and in pain. I silently made my way to the sheep barn, Burnemarr trailing behind me. The sheep, perhaps sensing my mood, were anxious, and several of them knocked my pail over, spilling the milk. I cleaned up with a set jaw.

When I finished at the sheep pens, I headed back to the mansion kitchen, where I was put to work washing dishes. When a glass dropped and broke on the floor, the bad-tempered cook slapped me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then bent down and picked up the shattered bits of glass.

Finally it was time for my lunch with Silver. I sighed with relief. She was my anchor in the storm, my light in the darkness. She was the reason I persevered.

"Kiran!"

She gave me a worried smile as I came in. She could sense through the bond that something was wrong. I tried to give her my most reassuring smile and carefully sat down, always conscious of my back. I saw her noting the stiffness, but could tell she did not understand the cause.

"What should we talk about today?" I asked, cutting into a leg of mutton.

Silver frowned, then let me distract her.

"I've wanted to ask you - how did you get this?" She gently traced the raised scar on my right cheek. She moved as if to pull back, and I caught her hand and cupped it to my cheek. I turned my face to kiss it.

"It was about 5 years ago, when I was looking for Shanook..."
I sink into the memory, with Silver following.

...I had come out of Creature Caverns and onto the Lly mountains, with no idea what Llyador was like or where to find Shanook, or even what kind of creature he was. I set off down the mountains, determined to travel all of Llyador in search of him. I descended into Winter's Fort a few days later: snowy peaks and snowy trees and snowy lakes with penguins and polar bears. It is where the creatures who must live in cold areas reside. I asked every creature I met if they had heard of Shanook. The answer was always no.
I continued on down the side of Llyador without passing through the Forest of Creatures and found myself in the Abandoned Desert. I had been traveling for 5 months at this point and was weak and weary. The sun in the desert was hot, the sand got into everything, and the only water to be found was in prickly cacti.

Until one day I came upon an oasis. There was a bubbling pool surrounded by grass, with trees shading it from the sun. Exhausted, I stumbled to the water and stuck my head in, parched.

Something large slammed into me from the side, and I was knocked over. I lay there for a second, disoriented, and the creature pounced. I cried out in fear when I caught my first glimpse of it: it was about the size of a buffalo, with scales like a snake and wings like a bat, teeth like knives and long, long claws. A spiked tail thrashed at its end and smoke streamed from its nostrils. Its eyes glittered hard, like jewels.

It was a dragon.

I thought I was about to die. The dragon played with me, letting me struggle, but I could not escape. He tried to pin me down; I struggled harder, his claws tearing into me. He must have decided enough was enough, because he took a deep breath and began to breathe flame.

His concentration wavered for a second. I ripped myself out from under him and rolled a few feet into the pool. I sank under. I hit the bottom and looked around. Water bubbled up between the rocks at the bottom of the pool. I selected a rock. I pushed off, hard, from the bottom of the pool and shot out above the surface of the water, water raining around me. Water splashed the dragon, getting in his eyes. He shook his head to clear it and lunged forward, claws extended. I threw the rock as hard as I could and fell back into the water, out of his reach. The rock struck one of his outstretched wings; he jerked and dropped out of the air with an ear-splitting shriek.