Wings of Avaloria

Chapter 3

"GET. OFF. OF. me." I jabbed her in the face with my elbow and ripped one of my daggers from its sheath. I cut her hand, which was still gripping mine, and then sliced her shoulder. She yelped in pain but finally released me.

"You're gonna regret this Bitch!" she threatened.

"I'm going to kill you; even if you make it up that mountain and fly away on your griffin to Avaloria, I will kill you eventually." I watched horror as Tara dragged another poor boy's limp body down the hill to help support her weight. His screams echoed in my ears, and I felt a chill go through my body as I realized this could have been me. She was a monster and showed no mercy for anyone she encountered on the mountain. I shivered in fear, not wanting to come across her again, but determined to complete my mission and reach the summit, I continued trying to block out the screams and the smell of blood. I jumped, trying to pull myself up, and I continued climbing up, trying my best to catch up with Jacklyn and Abigale.

Up ahead, I see Abigale struggling with a guy about a few feet ahead of me. He tried to pull her down, but he underestimated Abigale's strength, knowing she would win this battle already. I watched in amazement as she held her body weight quickly with one movement and tried kicking him, and then two more guys surrounded them. They didn't yet notice them, so I climbed up as fast as possible and swiped a dagger from the blonde guy's sheath, which Abigale was now trying to fight. I threw the blade at the guy who wanted to grab Jacklyn. The dagger plunged into his neck, and his eyes widened in horror as I quickly grabbed another blade from the guy's sheath. He finally noticed me, but before he could do anything, Abigale smiled, and she grabbed one of her daggers and plunged it into his chest. I quickly dodged his falling body, and with the other dagger that I took from him still in my hand, I focused on the next guy who was making his way toward Jacklyn, and I threw it; we all could hear it whipping in the wind, finding

his target like it was target practice and it plunged in his eye, the boy screams out in pain, forgetting he was even climbing a mountain, he let go.

Yeah, he's a goner too.

"Damn, Marcy, I didn't know you had skills with the dagger like that!" Abigale says, sounding proud of me, and I smile at her.

"Thank you," Jacklyn says.

"Did I just hear you say thank you Jacky?" Abigale says with a shocked expression.

"Oh, shut up and climb Abi." She replies back, and we snap back into reality. Only a few more miles left to this climb. I gained a new respect for them, and now they can see I truly have their backs.

I continued to press on with Abigale and Jacklyn, who were both struggling, but I pushed them forward, pushing through the pain in our legs and lungs. Finally, we started to reach the top of the mountain as the sun blared down on us; it had to be at least three o'clock now.

Tara went to terrorize more people. I don't know how she even has enough energy to do all this while we are all hanging on the side of the mountain. I'm finally climbing in unison with Abigail and Jacklyn. Jacklyn looked at me, "Wait, what happened to you!" She saw the blood on me. "It was Tara," I said. They both shook their heads in annoyance.

"She's relentless," Jacklyn says.

"Yeah, I know. She will try to kill me at Avaloria if we make it." I say to them.

"If?" Abigale says with a huff, "we ARE going to make it." She says. "Be more confident. You have us, so keep climbing." Abigale says, and I did exactly that.

***

"I can see the top!" I yelled, and we began climbing faster; my brother said there would be a two-hour ride on the Gryphons to Avaloria. At the top of the mountain, there were men there helping each Cadet who made it to the top up so we wouldn't fall back down; when the guy helping me reached for