Through Smoke and Ashes

Ten||The Mighty Valairex

Rough hands pulled at my hair, dragging me back into the thick undergrowth. The dragon had been walking ahead of me, creating a trail for me to follow him easily within the forest. Now, he walked onward, letting me get dragged away from him without as much of a glance in my direction.

I screamed out as the hands dug viciously into my scalp. I feared my hair would completely rip out of my head by the force exerted on it.

"Help!" I called out to the dragon that seemed not to notice the situation behind him. Or maybe he did, and he thought this was an easy way to get rid of me.

My vision of the dragon was obscured as I was dragged behind a large bush, completely forgotten about and alone with whatever ripped me away into the shadows. I struggled, clawed and kicked out at whatever held me captive, but the grip held firm, and I was left at a disadvantage.

Suddenly, the grip released its hold, and my head smacked against the hard ground, leaving me in a daze. My world spun. Foggy vision twirled within my eyes as I tried to gain focus on my surroundings. But my body felt groggy and slow, like I could not function properly.

Someone sat on top of me, weighing my body and pushing on my lungs. Constricted and feeling deflated, I could barely gasp in a single breath from the downward force on my body.

"Would you like to reconsider my offer now, little rider?" A voice sneered in my face—an echo of a memory.

I tried speaking, but my words sounded jumbled as I choked on a lack of air.

My vision, although blurry, I could tell the voice was the Captain himself, who sat atop my body. His unforgiving hands squeezed my throat, further cutting off my airway as I gasped violently to try and gain a single strand of air into my dying lungs. I was dying, and my brain knew this, but it kicked into overdrive and tried fighting for a chance of survival.

"Desperation doesn't suit you, rider," The Captain's voice was full of mockery as he watched me struggle for my life.

The squeezing on my throat lessened, and I greedily gurgled in lungfuls of sweet-tasting forest air. With my vision clearing, I could now see an endless sea of blue eyes staring at me, framed with an armour of black obsidian. His talons pierced my chest, and I watched as blood pooled around me in a slow-flowing river. I dug my hands into the earth below me, trying to grasp the reality of this situation, but my mind could not fully process it.

The urge to cry was overbearing in my throat as I felt a tear in my chest from the betrayal I felt.

"Kill her," A voice spoke above me, and the dragon who I thought was my other half opened his bloody maw, and that was the last thing I saw as darkness washed over me.

My eyes snapped open, and before I knew what I was doing, I gasped in large breaths to my lungs which seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. I scrambled off the forest floor, looking around me as I saw the forest encompassed in darkness. It was nightfall. That much I knew.

With delirious thoughts, I tried figuring out what was real and what was not as I stared at the sleeping form of the black dragon just a few feet away from me. His tail twitched ever so slightly as his dreams occupied his mind.

A whimpered breath slipt past my lips at the thought of my dream. It felt all too real. The hands, the voice, the betrayal.

The dragon's nose twitched as his eyes cracked open and instantly snapped to mine. His head rose, and he peered around the clearing, sniffing the air for danger. When he realized there was none, his eyes returned to mine in a curious gaze.

"Just a nightmare," I spoke softly through shaky breaths.

He didn't indicate he understood me, but I'm sure he knew what I was saying. I sunk back to the ground, resting my back against a tree. The bark dug sharply into my skin through my shirt, but it helped ground me as I absorbed the pain. "Just a nightmare," I repeated in a whisper too quiet for even the forest to overhear me.