The Formidable End

Chapter 6

            Through the path you could see nothing but rock and when those rocks fell, if I hadn’t have moved out of the way in time I would have been crushed for it wasn’t just the path that crumbled but part of the ceiling on the outside leading into the path that crumbled. I quickly dashed over rocks an onto the ground of the path my mother went through, it was the narrowest out of the three and was very cramped to go through. Walking would be the only way through at this point.

            The path opened after a quick human like jog for ten minutes and it was huge. I saw a light shimmering down another path to the right of the enormous room and knew at once who is was. This path was large enough for error in movement so picked up my speed. Within moments I had caught up to the woman any child would have called mom, but not me. She was wicked and dangerous and even the way she walked made me want to shake her until she told me why she did this to me and my dad, until she finally told me why she left. Then and only then I would end her miserable life and strike her down where she stood, but she seemed more like a ghost than an actual being. There was a slight shimmer around her as if she weren’t actually here, so I continued to follow her. Not long after, the path opened into an even bigger room than before, in the center of the room was a giant nest with one singular egg in it. The egg was so beautiful, and the color was incredibly visible even in this dark room as if it was made of light itself.

            My mother ran up to it and quickly looked around, she seemed frightened as if what had laid the egg was right around the corner waiting for her to grab it before it took her life. My mother suddenly relaxed slightly still wary that the creature could return any minute and take her out for invading this sacred space. She took the egg and as quickly as she entered she started to run back towards the exit, I quickly moved out of sight with the fear that she could see me as I see her. I followed her from behind when she suddenly stopped to look at the egg once more.

“You will be perfect in the spell I need; she has to be safe and no one can know what she is. You will make sure that she is safe and not found out upon. Unfortunately, I will only be able to watch from a very safe distance to see what you make of her, for if I am around her, she will be found out and killed.”

            I was in complete shock; THIS was a dragon egg. Did I just find out how my mother did what she did to me? Why couldn’t she stay with me to see me grow up? Why was I in danger and she was not? I quickly followed her to see if I could hear more, but she kept silent. She was quick and agile stepping only on the plates for the boiling liquid, and I pursued her. Once we reached the beginning trap, she jumped over the plates and stepped on the holes for the floor spikes. As soon as we were out of the cave she vanished, and I awoke.

            The moment my eyes were open I knew something was wrong, there was a searing heat beneath me that was making my back-sweat blood profusely. Not to mention I was now chained with twice the amount of chains I had before, and I was now hanging from the ceiling directly above something VERY hot. I looked around and saw all the coven leaders were there and they were chanting, I had no idea what they were saying since I was kicked out of the coven the moment my mother ran off for that damned egg. As I look around the only one not chanting was Maggie, her head was hung low and she had that stupid look on her face, she was thinking about something and I needed her to see me. My voice was choked off, probably from the ritual they were performing, and they all looked at me EXCEPT Maggie. Agatha told them all to keep going and not pay attention to me at all, that got Maggie’s attention. She looked at me as if I was a hurt puppy about to die and whispered, she was sorry and ran off tears welling up in her eyes.

            I understood the look in her eyes immediately and tried to turn on my vamp strength, but it wasn’t enough, the chains were too strong, and I couldn’t get them to even chip let alone break. As I was about to give up a familiar voice started yelling. “What the hell is going on here? Put her down immediately.” It was Greggory, he had seen his mother run up from down here crying and needed to see why. His face was red, I had never seen it this color before. I mean it got red every time we had to run at school, but it had never gotten this red before.

“I said put her down!”

“We will do no such thing! We are the head coven and you are a mere warlock in training why should we listen to you?” Agatha was furious and trying to keep her composure under control, but she was failing.

“She isn’t a normal dragon! You will all be responsible for killing her, I know Agatha is fine with this on her conscience.” He then looked at the others and said, “However I do not think any of YOU will be able to live with yourselves for hurting one your own, or did Agatha forget to mention what she actually is to you BEFORE she started barking orders.”

            The others stopped chanting and began glaring at Agatha, she knew they wanted answers and they wanted them NOW. Agatha slowly backed up against the wall and cleared the phlegm out of her throat, “Well, Greggory is right, she is not an ordinary dragon. Her mother was Morticia Bryant, and she turned her into this beast. As most of you know Morticia’s father was a vampire and thanks to his wife they were able to procreate, Morticia never received the gene to turn her into a vampire. Opal here was very unlucky on the draw and became a witch-vampire hybrid, very rare already as only three cases have been found in the U.S. That wasn’t enough for Morticia she was afraid that the Ringling Brothers were after Opal and she made the stupid mistake of running off for a legend, which as we see now is no longer a legend. What we were in the process of doing was to see if Opal here really became a dragon or if Morticia never succeeded. Unfortunately, with the little knowledge we have on the beasts, it is a possibility that Opal here would not have survived the process since she is not just a dragon.”

            While Agatha was trying to calm the mob that was happening, Greggory was in the process of getting me out of my chains and away from the enchanted fire. Right before Agatha finished her speech of why they were willing to burn Opal alive, Greg finally got the chains free and I grabbed him and took him to our secret place.

“You always forget. Just how nauseous. I get when you take me for rides like that.” Greg said in between hurling chunks of his dinner out.

“I’m sorry, but we couldn’t just run your pace, once they figured out that I was loose they would immediately follow. We both know that all of them EXCEPT for Agatha are a lot faster than you are at running. I needed to get us both to safety before they noticed we were gone, and I was loose.”

“But my mother and my sister are still there!”

“Actually. They aren’t, you didn’t notice how it took me a little longer to get us here than usual? I left a note on your mother to grab your sister and leave immediately.”

“Then where are they?”

“We should be seeing them within the next few minutes, I told them to take the tunnels under your place with their brooms. They should be here soon, since I left them with our coordinates and had spelled the paper like you taught me to for once it was read. Everything except the last 4 numbers of the coordinates were burned, the other 4 turned into a picture of what the outside of their exit looks like. I taught myself that using one my mother’s old books and my father’s help reading the Latin.”

“Opal Olivia Bryant! You are brilliant! I cannot wait to rub this in my mother’s face once she arrives.”

“Speaking of, you may want to turn around, someone is exiting the tunnels.”

            The moment Greg turned around his sister and mother were emerging from the darkness of the tunnel and of course Janet had to bring along that hideous cat with her. Its hair was fine except for the many bald patches, it made its orange and brown hair look even more unwilling to touch than usual. It didn’t help that the cat was also missing one of his eyes and Janet had the vets permanently attach her favorite teddy bear’s eye to where the old one used to be. Oliver was hit by a car three years ago and Maggie brought it back to life unwillingly to make Janet stop screaming, she botched the spell since Janet was in hysterics and she couldn’t concentrate correctly. That is why the cat looks as if it was dug up out of a grave and given a very brief wash before returning to civilization.