Shifting cautiously, she pivoted, her heart pounding in her chest, unsure of what she would find behind her.
OhmyGod.Oh.My.God!Her mind exploded with screams that didn’t stop as her brain tried to process what was coming in toward her from the sky.
Is this the beast they sent for me?The shadow of the wingspan blocked out the rising sun and swallowed her.
The darkness sent tremors into her stomach.
“They want to kill me.”The back of her eyes burned, and things began to blur as she stutter-stepped backward.
The giant beast dove toward the ground, aiming for her with its massive feet and long talons spread wide.She would have considered the mythical dragon majestic, with its blue scales shimmering under the sun's rays, if it wasn’t headed right for her.
Run!Moving on survival instinct, Avalore turned and ran blindly toward the trees.The blue truck was a blur in her peripheral as she ran past it.
Boom.
The ground rumbled under her feet, knocking Avalore off balance.She stumbled to the side but quickly regained her footing.
The beast made a sound, and she wasn’t sure if it was a roar, a growl, or some screeching warning of its imminent attack.
She told herself not to look back, but she needed to know how close the blue-scaled monster was to catching her.
Or eat me in one bite.She thought as it opened its gigantic mouth, showing the viciously sharp teeth inside with a burnt-orange glow lighting them from behind like an old-style jack-o-lantern.
It was right behind her.In one humungous step, it would be upon her.
“No, please...”she whimpered as tears ran down her cheek.She veered right toward a small glen of trees as the mammoth formed lumbered toward her.
A freakin’ dragon.
The beast roared again, and Avalore was engulfed and blinded by a wispy ring of gray smoke floating around her.
A strange coolness caressed her skin and tingled, but she didn’t give herself time to process what the thing was doing.Instead, she propelled her legs to move quickly.She broke through the smoke, but as she was free from one thing, she ran too fast to stop her forward movement.
She plowed directly into a large hive hanging low on a branch.Smack.
Buzz.Buzz.Buzz.Buzz.
“Ow!”
The bees swarmed and stung.Swarmed and pierced her body with multiple stingers.
Red-hot pokers jammed into her.Tiny needles like flames of fire stabbed her from everywhere as warm honey drenched her.She knew better than to fight and agitate the yellow-and-black-striped flying insects, but it hurt so bad she couldn’t help but flail her arms about wildly like a deranged lunatic.
Her vision began to recede as her eyelids swelled, her throat grew tight, and it became hard to breathe.Avalore’s legs trembled, and her body felt weak; then she smelled it through the single nostril not closed off: roasted cinnamon and sulfur—smoke.When the breeze caressed her skin this time, she could barely feel the thick, dense, white cloud surrounding her.
As blackness enveloped her, Avalore’s final thoughts were that the dragon would still eat her, even inflamed and swollen.
I will die this day.
~YH~
Mine.
“Fuck,” Liekki growled in response to his dragon as he shifted on an exhale.He ate up the ground with hurried steps as he pounded through the dense smoke to close the distance and get to the stranger in two heartbeats before her body made contact with the saturated ground.
“How about going for brain over instinct?It would have been wiser to shift out and let me smoke the bees, don’t you think?”Liekki continued to chide his dragon as he crouched, holding the weight of the female's lush form in his arms.
His dragon retorted with a huff and attempted to push its way out to the female again.
