I am a Side Character, right?

| 12 | The Right Path

A large wolf came out, hackles up, a chain hanging from its neck. I recognized him: Dera. 

He approached me his growling growing louder with each step. The distance between us was closed with three steps and he sniffed, the breath from his nose strong enough to blow out the fabric of my skirt. After smelling, his growling subsided. He lowered his neck for me to scratch him. 

I breathed out in amazement that he didn't eat me. I smiled, remembering my fathers words. Wolves choose their owners. 

Moving toward Dera, I scratched my arm into his scruff. He groaned with satisfaction. Then, with a huff, he lowered his entire body to lay on the ground in front of me. He turned his head back, nuzzling me towards his back with his nose. 

"You want me to get on?" I asked, pointing at his back. 

Dera huffed air again, lowering his head to the ground this time. I guessed I should take that as a yes. Using fistfuls of Dera's hair, I climbed onto the crook between his neck and shoulders, holding onto the chain around his neck with my hands. As soon as the wolf found I had settled, he stood up. The sudden movement jolted a small yelp out of my throat, as did the height from the ground. It was higher than when I was on a horse. Dera turned his head so his left eye could see me on his shoulders. 

He growled. 

"Don't let go. Got it." Satisfied with my answer, he took off running. He dashed through the forest at quadruple the speed and skill that I had. Dodging trees and jumping over the swollen roots like they were tiny puddles. This far into the forest, tree roots were like winding bridges across the ground. Moss, fans of ferns, and flat plates of mushrooms big enough for me to sleep on hung off the trunks and roots of the trees. 

In the distance, I could now see the reflection of water. In a few leaps, Dera had brought me to the waterside. He laid down so I could slide off his back. My feet hit the ground, my toes sinking into the mud. I peered over the water's edge into the expansive body of water in front of me. It was not a marsh, but a shallow-water lake, surrounded by a mangrove of the same thick-trunked trees that made up the inner part of the forest. In the center of the lake was a cliff-like island with a mangrove tree that had overgrown the island itself. Roots of the mangrove burst out of the sides of the rock cliff and into the lake and disappearing into the depths. 

Sleeping in the center of the island, its massive tail curled around the trunk of the tree, was a dragon. The dragon I had been searching for: Niobe. 

Water and earth. I had found it, I had found her. 

I stared, amazed, at the sleeping dragon. Instead of scales, the dragon seemed to be covered entirely in wild grass. The grass swayed in the gentle breeze that flowed throughout the lake, almost hiding her as a small hump of mountain on the lake island, if not for her wings. As the dragon breathed in, I could almost see through the dark grey opaque skin of its wings. The dragons' head wore a crown of trees that were in perpetual bloom, large pink and yellow flowers opening their bright cheerful petals to the sky in greeting of the evening sun. This was the dragon that brought life to all of Evangelogia.

But as I observed her, I felt an uncertain feeling nagging at me. It was Niobe, right? It had to be Niobe. I had just seen her the other day, there was no doubting it was her. Although I didn't really get to see her but for a few seconds. That day, I had seen the dragons grey and red scales along the underside of its belly. This dragon in front of me, right now, did not have any.

No, this had to be Niobe. She was the only dragon left now. I turned my attention to another issue. How was I supposed to convince her? I do not speak dragon. 

I heard a small voice in my head. It was grainy like it was being spoken through the speakers of an old radio, "Go to the dragon." It said. It was the voice I had heard in the dragon egg cave. A death wish, this new voice in my head had. But somehow, I decided to listen to it.