Dragon Fire - Book 2 [discontinued due to rewrite]

Chapter 15

Marcie felt her body hit a hard thing then bounce into another hard thing. Her arms began scrabbling and her right leg snapped like an old twig as it hit something else, she had no time to cry out before her body jolted to a halt as her arm snagged an old dead tree root, yanking it out of its socket. This did make her cry out but then her cry was lost as the old tree root ripped from its moorings and she fell the rest of the way.

Both legs hit the floor, one buckled, broken for the second time, the other bent under her weight and somehow did not break, although the shock ran through her body and she collapsed to the blessedly solid ground.

For a moment she was sure she was dead.

It was dark and she hurt.

She hurt so much.

Worse than any pain she had endured.

She longed for unconsciousness but panic denied her its relief. Was she dead, broken beyond repair? Was this it? The end of her grand adventure? Would she die? Would it be quick or slow? Would she live, but poorly? Confined to a bed for the rest of her life, unable to walk or talk?

She managed a gasp of breath but wished she hadn't. Her face hurt so much, actually, her whole head hurt.

She tried to move her body but it wouldn't respond to her, her left leg twitched a little and she daren't even attempt to test the feeling in her right leg. The snap of it breaking seemed to still echo around her.

She twitched her fingers but only one hand responded to her, a terrible feeling rose within her, had she lost her arm?

She opened her eyes. Somehow she had been squeezing them so closely together that the pain in her head lessened almost as soon as she did so. Very faint light came from above her, a tiny pin prick. Using that light she tilted her chin down to look at her body, dreading what she might see.

All in all...it could have been worse.

But she sucked in a painful dusty breath all the same.

Her right leg was bend underneath her, the ankle facing the wrong way, and her right arm was laying by her side, unmoving and the shoulder looked to be in two places at once.

Her mind spun, bile rose and she was forced to swallow as she could not move to throw up. Memories of her father choking on his own vomit rose unbidden. So she swallowed and frantically tried to organise her thoughts.

She looked around, trying to distract herself from the state of her body.

She was in a cave. A small cave, or more a tunnel. Low ceiling, high enough to stand in, wide enough for two men to walk abreast. The rock was jagged and layered like all the rock in this area, thin layers of sediment pressed flat over millennia, changing colours showing the differing materials built up over time. The earth she lay upon was uneven but swept clear of debris, except where she had fallen.

Nothing about her surroundings helped her at all. She had no idea where she was or how to get out...even if she could move, her chances of survival were so slim she started weeping, right there.

She reached for Dara instinctively but felt...nothing.

And she wept only harder.

When she needed him the most...he was not here, he could not help her. No one could.

When her sobs had calmed, she took deep breaths in through her nose, flexing her working arm and leg.

She managed to raise her left leg until her foot was flat against the floor, all the while, shooting pains ripped down the other leg.