Inferno Legacy: Valor of the Dragon (Book One)

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

            Blackscales raced back to camp, clutching the unconscious woman in his arms. He was incredibly worried; her heartbeats were faint and slow as well as her breathing, her skin was pale and colder than normal and her body was completely limp. Omen and Aval seemed to wake up to the sense of urgency he carried with him as he carried Autumn into their midst.

            “What’s wrong!?” Aval asked, very concerned about his sister.

            Blackscales didn’t take the time to look at the man when he replied, “I don’t know; we were talking, then she suddenly dropped to the ground for no reason.”

            “What were you talking about?” Avalsmokes asked. “She might have just fainted from something you said.”

            The dragon rider took just enough time to toss him a furious look before saying, “Since when does Autumn faint about anything? Besides, this is no faint; it’s like her body is shutting down completely.”

            “It had to have been caused by something,” Inferno said to Blackscales, copying his own thoughts, though it seemed to be on accident.

            “I have no clue what caused it; one minute she was acting moody, the next she was completely nice and generous, then she was lying in my arms, unconscious.”

            “I thought she seemed a bit negative today,” Aval said.

            Everyone ignored him and Omen said, “Did she say anything? Maybe she knew it was about to happen and told you?”

            “Well,” Blackscales began, “she said that she felt some sort of presence forcing her to be rude and…grouchy.”

            “She did seem pretty irritable lately,” Aval said, though he was clearly solely concerned about his sister.

            Then Blackscales suddenly realized something and announced to the others, “What are we going to do about Autumn?”

            “What do you mean,” Omen asked carefully.

            “I mean that we can’t return to the last town, we don’t know the way back to our home town or Starling, and we don’t know the exact direction to get to the Hidden Mountain Pass or even another town. For all we know, the next civilization is several days’ trip away and she could be dead by then.”

            Avalsmokes glared at him, and then grabbed his sister from Blackscales’s arms angrily. He pressed his forehead against Autumn’s, then removed it and pressed his right palm against it, trying to hide the silver tears that glinted on his cheek.

            “Perhaps Argos and his rider can help,” Inferno suggested.

            Blackscales glared at him before replying in an angry tone, “I can’t speak to him at will like I can with you, Ashheart, and Omen. How do I ask him to help?”

            “Will you relax? You might be able to communicate with him through your dreams on purpose. When you fall asleep, try to control your dreams and stretch out your thoughts to try and find them,” Inferno growled.

            “I can hardly communicate to people when I’m right next to them, let alone someone who is possibly thousands of leagues away and I’ve never seen before,” Blackscales argued.