Dragon Witch ✔️

75 - Hunters

The rest of the day was eerily quiet. We got about halfway up the mountain (or possibly volcano) before darkness fell. Nothing tried to kill us, not even the rabbit Kyton trapped for lunch or the fish Nissa speared for dinner. We slept under the stars, and I crossed my fingers that the island would still be there when we woke up.

It was, luckily. When I woke up, Nissa was on watch, and the other two were still asleep. I moved to the log Nissa was crouched on. There was something that'd been bugging me since yesterday afternoon, and now seemed like the perfect time to figure it out.

"Have you eaten since we got here? Magic food, I mean."

She stuck her tongue out. "Uch, yes. I don't know how you drink blood. Ky's been giving me some of his. It's nasty. The magic's great, but the texture is awful. And he's my brother, so it's just weird."

"Oh. So it doesn't bother you if someone drinks his blood, as long as it's not me."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't care if you drink his blood in moderate amounts. It's the other stuff I have a problem with. He's in love with you, and I don't like you fooling around with his emotions."

"I'm not-"

"When I first changed, I thought I was in love with this centaur. After a while, I figured out he was a jerk. He'd been a jerk the whole time, but I'd overlooked it because his magic smelled amazing." She gestured toward where Kyton was sleeping. "My brother's not a jerk, but I don't think he's your type. As soon as the magic awe wears off, you'll dump him, and he'll be devastated."

"It's not magic awe. It's not like we've only known each other for a week. It's been a while, and we've been through a lot." I smiled. "Besides, he's a great guy. And I don't think he cares that I look like a lizard."

"Of course I care," Kyton muttered, sitting up. "You're a beautiful lizard." When he noticed us staring at him, he chuckled. "If you don't want people to eavesdrop, don't wake them up."

Eva cooed, flying from her perch in a tree above us to land on my shoulder. He think you pretty lizard.

Piper groaned and sat up. "What time is it? Is something trying to kill us, or are you just cruel?"

I glanced at the sky, thankful for the excuse to turn my burning cheeks away from Kyton. It was barely sunrise. Still, we couldn't afford to wait. Depending on the Dark One's definition of "four days," we either had about sixteen hours or twenty four before we were trapped in this hellhole for a long time.

I didn't want to look back at Kyton. My face was still on fire, so I stood and headed toward the trees at the edge of our clearing.

"Be back in a minute. Restroom."

Groaning, Piper climbed to her feet. "Wait for me. Safety in numbers."

As we moved away from camp, I tried to forget what Kyton had said. It was ridiculously embarrassing, and he couldn't mean it. No one thought lizards were beautiful. Cool maybe, but not beautiful.

Piper punched me in the arm as soon as we were out of sight of the camp.

"Ow, what was that for?" I rubbed my arm.

"You've got to be kidding me. If a guy you like gives you a compliment, you're supposed to say 'thank you' or give them a kiss or something. You're not supposed to run off in the woods."

"Sure. Maybe next time." I couldn't believe I expected there to be a next time. Once we were back at MMC with all the attractive fairies, why would he look twice at me?

Piper seemed to read my mind. "There will be a next time, don't you worry. Now, I actually do have to use the restroom, so whatever you came out here to do, don't look this way."

I turned my back and took care of business. When I was done, the breeze carried a strange scent my way. It was something magical, but the magic wasn't floral or musky like an animal's. It wasn't even sweet like a fairy's or sickly like a dragon's. Still, it was somehow familiar.

"Do you smell that?" I asked.

"I'm trying not to smell it, sorry. I'm done, by the way."

"No, not that." Turning around, I shook my head. "I guess you wouldn't smell it. It's magic, something strong. It wasn't there yesterday, so it's probably an animal." But something told me it wasn't. The smell was more earthy than an animal's, but it was manufactured, like stone dust or metal shavings. Some of the weapons from the armory had smelled like that. They'd been labeled as coming from Draconia.

"I think it's some kind of Draconian weapon," I said.

"Could it just be some type of Draconian manufacturing that's not a weapon, technically?" She bounced her eyebrows up and down. When I didn't get what she was trying to say, she added, "Like a portal?"

"Maybe." I guessed that the portal could've been transporting from one part of the island to the other, just like we'd been doing all across the map. That would explain why I hadn't smelled it yesterday. "It's uphill, so it wouldn't hurt to check it out."

***

After an hour of following the scent, all five of us stared in awe at the glowing stone archway in the middle of a clearing. I hesitated to approach it, afraid it would disappear like a mirage. The others seemed to feel the same, because none of us moved. Finally, Nissa broke the silence.

"This is ridiculous. It's either the right portal, or it's not, but we have to test it to know for sure. Come on. If it transports us to some random place, we'll be safer together." She marched toward the portal, and we followed.

It almost felt too good to be true. After all this work and fear and almost dying, getting home couldn't be this easy, could it?

Sometimes, I really hated when I was right. Halfway across the clearing, the ground leapt beneath us. We all flew in the air, and I was squeezed against the others before I realized what was going on. We were in a giant net hanging from a tree. The oldest trap in the book. I was on the bottom, with Piper on my back and the net pressed against my face.

"I got it, guys." It took me a decent bit of wiggling to get my knife out of its sheath, but after that, getting free seemed simple. I sawed at the ropes binding us.

Two short lengths snapped before Piper elbowed me in the ribs.

"Ow. Be careful." I started sawing again.

Eva nipped my ear at the same time Piper elbowed me again.

"Stop cutting."

"Why-" I glanced up to see a circle of twenty-plus heavily-armed monsters aiming crossbows at us.

The monsters weren't ones I'd ever seen before. They were shaped more or less like a human, but they each sported four arms and a head covered in waving tentacles with eyes on the end. Their green-black skin blended into the foliage around them.

"Crap," Piper hissed, "they're icorits, the only type of monster that prefers monster flesh over magical creature flesh. They'll eat just about anything, though."

One of the icorits climbed a nearby tree and cut our net down. We crashed to the ground in a painful tangle of arms, legs, and tails. A couple of other icorits gathered up the top of our net and started dragging us through the trees.

Every fiber of my being wanted to lash out and try to cut through the net to rip those monsters apart, but I held myself back. If they planned on eating all of us, they wouldn't hesitate to shoot us if we fought. For all I knew, they were keeping us alive because they liked fresh--possibly living--meat. As horrendous as that was, it might just save our lives and give us a chance to escape.

I hugged Eva to my chest, trying to protect her from the worst of the bumps and scrapes.