Memories Lost - First of Apocalyptic Hell Series

Dragons

    “I thought you was a takin’ care of our friend, seems that it was just a big ol’ fib.” He sneered as he looked over at Theoden, “Ya couldn’t take a bite out of this here ripe peach could ya? Not man enough to do the job, huh?” He cackled at me as he dug his fingers in and pushed down more, the tip his pole was trying to force its way in, the pressure was intensifying. 

    “No, please,” I whimpered out, not meaning to speak out loud with that, but I couldn’t stop now. Fear had taken hold of me, tears were streaming down my face at this point, I couldn’t let him take this part of me. I’d kept myself pure all these years, I wasn’t about to let someone rip that away from me. “Please, stop, Daryl, please!” 

    “Well lookie here, is she finally breakin’? Did I finally break this wild spirit? Well s**t, if this is all it took I should’ve done this months ago.” He cackled again, one of his hands snaked around to the front of my hips as he reached down and assaulted my c******s causing me to yelp out in pain. Theoden couldn’t stand this anymore as he bolted around the fire, grabbing me and hefted me with enough strength to break me out of Daryl’s disgusting grip. 

    “What in the hell do ya think yer doin’?!” Daryl yelled out as he jumped up and reached for me, I ducked out of his reach and clung to Theoden’s side, “If I want to take that innocence, then I’m gonna. This is my little b***h and if I will have her anyway I damn please!” He growled at him. 

    I watched as the other men in the group stepped up, trying to flank Theoden. One of them was eyeing him with a predatory glint in his eyes. Theoden could see them moving in and reacted quickly. He reached down and pulled a large log out of the fire. 

    “She is not yours, no one owns her, she is not a slave or toy for your enjoyment. If you really want her that badly, come and take her.” His deep voice rumbling like the thunderous roar of a herd of stampeding horses. “Be warned, I will take down all of you if I have to. You will no longer hurt her, you will not touch her or even look at her.” His voice was so cold, even though it wasn’t directed at me it gave me chills. Daryl stood his ground for a moment before stepping down.

    “Fine if you want her so bad, keep the little b***h. Next time you pull a stunt like that I’ll kill you.” He spat at him before he sat back down and motioned for one of the other girls, Theoden guided me away from everyone. 

    I held my strength for as long as I could, we walked for so long before I felt sure that they couldn’t see us and my knees buckled. The fear and tears I had been holding back finally broke loose and I couldn’t contain them any longer. Theoden instantly dropped down next to me, his large arms engulfed me as he pulled me into a deep hug. All I could do was sob in fear, there were other people walking around, I could hear them as they walked past us. 

    “Sir, would you please come with me and bring your girl.” A man’s voice came from behind me. Theoden nodded before he released me and stood, he helped me to my feet before picking me up and laying me over his shoulder. As we walked I was still trembling with fear. 

    “You don’t need to be afraid, little dove, that bastard is never going to harm you again” he said to me quietly, his grip was tight on me, but not so much that it was causing any discomfort, “I’ll get you away from here.” He said that last bit in a whisper so quiet that I almost didn’t hear him. Somewhere in the distance I could hear sharp clicking and scraping, as if something with large claws was on stone or tile.

    Everything faded before my eyes fluttered, I felt confused for a moment. I don’t remember anything clicking when I lived that nightmare. I reached out for Vivaldi, but didn’t feel him, I couldn’t feel his warmth at all. As I opened my eyes, I realized that Vivaldi was standing over me staring something down. Slowly I turned my head towards where Asar was and he was sound asleep still, Vhaenna was still lying down, but her eyes were open and she was staring in the same direction as Vivaldi. I reached out to touch Asar when I heard it. The scraping of something sharp across the tile, it would scrape then click, scrape then click, something with sharp claws was here with us. I placed my hand on the cold floor to cast a bubble of silence. 

    “Asar,” I said while giving him a light tap on his arm, when he didn’t react I did it again only saying his name louder, “Asar, wake up.” Still nothing, “Asar!” I shook him hard, “Wake up!” He started but instantly clamped his hand over his mouth, “We need to leave. Now.” He nodded and scrambled up. As soon as he was on his feet Vhaenna leapt to her feet and mirrored Vivaldi’s stance, keeping themselves between us and whatever was making that noise. 

    Whatever this was we needed to get out of here fast before it found us. I did cast a quick spell to age our smells and to silence our mounts hooves so they wouldn’t make noise on the floor. I led us around and to the back of the store, listening closely to the sound the creature was making while I also checked for other foreign sounds. As we made our way to the side of the store to make it to the backside of it, I could hear something. It sounds like something huffing, then growling. I began to fear the worse and began planning a quick escape route. Thankfully the horses had magic imbued into their shoes so they would be able to have traction on any surface, I wouldn’t have to worry about them sliding on this tile. 

    I motioned for Asar to mount Vhaenna and sent them down the side of the store towards the back while standing atop Vivaldi to get a better look at what was in here with us. I was impressed with how tall and sturdy the shelves were, I had to climb on top of them and jump from shelf to shelf to get close enough to see what the being was. Even with my weight, they never once creaked or moaned under the extra weight. I finally got eyes on the creature and was baffled by what I was seeing. 

    It looked like a small dragon, possibly a youngling that had been abandoned. I watched as it looked around before it made it to the spot where we had bedded down at. It made some guttural and clicking noises as it sniffed the hay and bedding, what it did next almost broke my heart. It made the saddest cry I’d ever heard, it sounded like sadness that reached so deep it touched the soul. It was even whimpering while it began to make turns then bedded down itself. I needed to get closer to this dragon before making any fast calls about it. I climbed down and began to walk towards it. Vivaldi leapt to stop me, blocking my path and snorting at me. 

    ‘What do you think you are doing?! You don’t know if this thing is friend or foe! Just because it sounds like some lost puppy doesn’t mean you need to try to risk yourself to figure out if it is some innocent puppy or ravenous wolf!’ I could practically hear his chastising as if he were yelling at me in an audible voice. 

    ‘If I don’t do anything it could follow us to our next location. If it has been abandoned then it’s going to wander around until it either dies, gets killed or captured by Lilith. If she gets her hands on it, then that is one more member to her army. We can’t have that. Now step aside and if I need you I’ll call for you.’ I glared at him, he snorted at me again in agitation but stepped aside. I stayed in the shadows as I made my way down the aisle towards the dragon. If I was right, we just gained an incredible ally. 

    Once I made it to the end of the aisle, I stayed in the shadows and watched the creature. Its scales were a luminescent white with light grey marking, it was as large as a small horse. I could see what looked like tears streaming down it’s face as it made whimpering sounds. I could also see that this poor creature had been neglected and abused, it wore a heavy iron collar with chains that linked to iron gauntlets on its forelegs. The irons had been on so long that they had rubbed the scales off, creating sores. I couldn’t bear to see it in such pain, I didn’t hesitate as I stepped out of the shadows and took that first step towards it. 

    Instantly it lifted its head and looked at me, the amount of fear and pleading in its eyes was almost crippling. I took another step towards it, I saw fear flash through its eyes as it started to rise. I stopped and waited, I lowered to its level, removed any visible weapons and extended my hand towards it. It watched me wearily before relaxing some, I spoke softly to it while I inched my way closer to it. 

    “You poor thing, who could do this to such a sweet baby,” I cooed to it as I worked my way closer, it purred at me almost as it was trying to whine even, “Everything’s going to be okay, I’m going to help you.” The more I spoke to the creature the more it seemed to trust me, soon I was so close I could touch the poor thing. I could feel the sadness and fear that radiated from the young dragon. 

    It looked at my hand wearily before reaching out and pushed its nose into the palm of my hand. As soon as we touched it felt as if a surge of power rushed through my body, it rocked me back on my butt and I felt as if I had been hit by a train of magical energy and there was ringing in my ears. I could hear Vivaldi’s worried whinnies in the distance and his voice echoing in my mind. There was another voice coming through my mind, a foreign one that I had never heard before and it was panicky. 

    ‘Oh my goodness I killed her! No! This can’t be happening! First that awful woman ripped me from the Dragon Lands and my family and now I killed my first rider!’ I could hear flapping of wings, scraping of metal and rapid clicking, but it sounded as if it was miles away. I struggled to not black out, I had to focus or I was going to fade into the darkness. 

    ‘Sayuri! Sayuri, answer me!’ Vivaldi’s voice started to ring clear in my mind and so did the other voice. I struggled to sit up and gain enough strength to make them both shut up. 'You! How dare you?!' His voice bellowed in my mind as he rushed between me and the young dragon. 

    His whinnies rang throughout the store as he started stomping and striking out towards her with his hooves. The panicked cries from the youngling clashed against his whinnies. She flapped her wings trying to help her get away from Vivaldi’s hooves. Her chains clanged together as her talons scraped against the tile, failing to gain any traction. 

    “Enough!” I managed to choke out, “Stop talking, both of you! I can’t focus on two voices at once like this!” My voice gained enough volume to gain both of their attention and silence them. The dragon flinched away from me and cowered down, Vivaldi moved to my side while glowering down at the dragon. I cleared my throat and had to bring my focus back in to use the mental links. ‘Vivaldi I am fine, it was just a magical bond forming. It was certainly a powerful one that’s for certain.’ 

    ‘Are you alright? I’m sorry if I hurt you, I didn’t mean to do that.’ I looked down at the young dragon, the voice in my mind was feminine. 

    ‘You didn’t hurt me and it wasn’t something you could control, no worries!’ I smiled at her,  ‘Now do you have a name?’ 

    ‘My mother gave me the name of Fayrova, she said it was the name of my great grandmother who was the Queen of the dragons centuries ago.’ I gave her a soft smile. 

    ‘That is a beautiful name, Fayrova, can you tell me some things?’ I waited for her to nod in response, ‘What happened to you? Where did you come from? And,’ I motioned towards her irons, ‘who did this to you?’ She looked away momentarily, looking down at her irons for a moment. 

    ‘Answer her, dragon!’ Vivaldi’s voice crashed through the telekinetic bond, Fayrova flinched at the harsh tone. I shot a scolding glare at him instantly. 

    ‘Vivaldi! She is a scared young dragon, there is no need for being so cruel to her!’ I scolded. 

    ‘What is she doing here? How did she know that we were here? If you won’t ask these questions, then I will. My job is to protect you, she hurt you just now with a burst of magic that could’ve killed you!’ He looked at me worriedly and rightly so, magical bursts like that can harm someone, but it won’t kill me. If I were human then there would be a greater risk of death, humans typically can’t handle large bursts of magic. It’s not so much the physical damage that would kill them, but the damage to their psyche. 

    ‘I will tell you anything you want to know, just please,’ Fayrova looked at Vivaldi pleadingly, ‘don’t yell at me. I’ve been screamed at and beaten more times than I can count since I was ripped away from my home. I haven’t seen my family in so long and I worry that they are either dead or worse. I was able to escape with the help of an older dragon, but he paid with his life to save mine. Lilith has been building up an army of dragons, I don’t know what she is planning with an army like that, but she has been testing out as many Fae as she can to find riders for the dragons.’ Upon hearing those words I looked back at Vivaldi and he looked at me, both of us were concerned now. We needed to get back to Eindenia and soon, we couldn’t continue to search for survivors or gather supplies. 

    ‘Is there anything else you can tell me about Lilith’s plans? Anything that we can use to inform the queen?’ As soon as I mentioned Queen Alenia, Fayrova looked at me questioningly, ‘The Queen of the Fae? You know who that is?’

    ‘You mean the Mother of All? I have heard stories about her, but have never met her or any of the other Mothers. You work for her?’ Fayrova asked curiously. 

    ‘I do, my mission is to search for survivors and gather supplies, as well as search for my friends. I’ll take you there and we will get you healed, you don’t have to fear Lilith. She won’t harm you ever again.’ Upon hearing those words and the sincerity in them I could see a stream of tears slide down her scales. ‘For now let us get these irons off of you and get you mended as best as I can.’ I started working on removing her irons when I noticed Asar and Vhaenna approaching from the other side of her. ‘Do not panic, but I am not traveling alone. There are two others in my group and they won’t harm you either.’ Fayrova looked in the direction I had glanced in. 

    “Is that a dragon?!” Asar exclaimed in surprise, his face in complete shock upon seeing a dragon. 

    Vhaenna looked at her curiously, approaching cautiously before reaching out as far as she could to sniff Fayrova. I chuckled as I watched Fayrova do the same, as soon as they nose to nose Vhaenna squealed and snorted. Fayrova growled and chittered as she tried to duck behind me. I couldn’t help but doubled over in laughter at their reactions. 

    ‘Easy, Fayrova, meet Vhaenna and she is a golem horse like Vivaldi. Only nicer.’ Fayrova looked up at me, then to Vhaenna then back to me. Vivaldi snorted annoyingly at me for my comment. 

    ‘She’s pretty.’ Fayrova observed as she gazed at Vhaenna from behind my legs. 

    ‘That she is, and she is gentle. I promise.’ I reached down and gently scratched just behind her small horns that were across the top of her head. 

    “I didn’t think dragons were real.” Asar asked in shock. 

    “Really?” I looked at him dumbfounded, all I could do was stare at him for a moment. “After everything that you’ve witnessed and you thought dragons weren’t real?”

    ‘He’s not that bright, is he?’ Vivaldi retorted, I rolled my eyes at his comment. 

    “Asar, there isn’t much that you once believed to be a fairytale beings that isn’t real. Don’t be surprised when you see these things, especially when we get to Eindenia.” I paused as I summoned the telecom crystal from one of the satchels. “I need to contact the queen.”