A Fairy Tale With Two

Chapter 24

      Rowan had been forced to land once the storm had started, but had forced herself farther on foot. She could barely move her worn body anymore. All of her magic spells had taken from her energy instead of magic power, since she had none. The wings had beaten her down, and she fell against a slick stone. She forced her shaking legs to support her as she stumbled forward. She had seen a valley from above, before she had nearly passed out and fallen. The dragon would have to be in the valley.

      She slipped again, and her head smashed into a boulder. Pain jolted through her skull, and she moaned. Her hand rested on her head to dab at the blood, which was coming much too quickly for her taste. It oozed through her fingers, staining her fingertips despite the rain washing it away.

       Her head ached, but she placed one foot in front of the other, holding herself steady against the rocks. Her hand dragged across the cold surface as she gritted her teeth.

       Rowan's sister was captured somewhere, maybe dead. She felt worry twist tightly in her stomach, and her teeth sunk into her lip. She opened her mouth to say something to Kaden, but realized he wasn't there. Why had she left them? Regret settled deep in the pit of her stomach.

       She remembered the feeling of hopelessness inside of her when she had taken off. She had believed they were slowing her down.

       Rowan slid down the edge of a boulder, landing hard on the wet rock beneath her. Her foot slipped, and she landed hard on her side. A pained gasp escaped her lips, and she pressed a hand on her side. The pain was on her hip, but she got up again. This was agonizing.

        At this point, she had gotten turned around, unsure which way she was supposed to be heading. The spell might make her pass out. But it would be pointless to continue if she didn't know which direction to head.

       Rowan stared at the sky, then as she opened her mouth to speak the words, blood rushed to her head. Her legs buckled, and the last thing she remembered was a blue wisp stretching north as her head hit the soaked stone surface.

Elsewhere...

        "This way!" Marcus called, and the griffin dove down towards the valley below them. Aliyah inhaled sharply as she held on tightly. The griffins spiraled down outside the mouth of the valley, and one screeched something to Marcus as they each shook their rider off.

         "This is as close as they want to get to the dragon," Marcus explained to them astray got to their feet. He petted the beak of his griffin before it spun around. With a bound and a flap of its wings, each griffin returned to the clearing sky in a streak of golden brown.

        Kaden looked up at the foreboding arc of stone looming above them. Vines intertwined with rock, the green contrasting gray against the white splotched sky. Aliyah marveled at the sudden quiet that had fallen like a blanket over them, and she nearly jumped at the crunching of leaves as Kaizen strode forward.

       "We need to get to the tower," he said confidently, pointing a finger up at the huge tower standing in the center of the valley clearing. The tower was made of white stone, smoothed into a tall structure. The top was the size of a small room, capped with black slabs to seal off the roof. The sides were completely sheer, seemingly impossible to climb.

        "I bet they're up there," Kaden said, and Kaizen elbowed him in the side.

        "'Cause that's totally not obvious," he snorted, giving his brother a pained look, "I'm more worried about the dragon, to be honest. That sucker was huge, and I doubt that any of out puny swords can get through its scales."