Chapter 49 #2
A vast, dark shape loomed overhead. Gusts of wind from huge wings battered them and a stream of golden fire exploded into the sky.
Ruddy scales flashed and claws as long and thick as tree trunks glinted.
This beast was enormous – ten times the size of the other dragon – its muscled body flashing in the sunlight like molten copper.
Maylie knew instinctively what this creature was: the Great Dragon.
It swooped down and lashed out at the smaller dragon, huge jaws snapping, before lifting its head and roaring again. A sound like sky-shattering thunder. Maylie did not need to understand dragon-speech to know what it was saying – a warning.
Before the Great Dragon could circle back, Maylie turned and threw herself down the mountainside.
She tumbled, her arms flailing, her knees and elbows slamming against jagged stones and twisted roots.
Behind her, the air quivered with more screeches and snarling growls.
Another burst of fire split the sky, illuminating the slope in a violent golden glow, but Maylie did not look back.
She could not bear to see those creatures again.
Her heel snagged on a shrub, yanking her upright for a brief moment before she was hurtling downwards again, half running, half falling. Pebbles and loose dirt slid beneath her feet, and the jagged corners of rocks cut and tore at her shins. Then, at last, the trees closed in around her.
She plunged into the forest’s shadowy depths, crashing through brambles and dry underbrush, ignoring the sting of branches whipping her face and arms. She did not stop until the dense, gnarled vegetation forced her to slow.
Her lungs burned, her muscles ached, but she kept pushing forward until her legs could no longer hold her.
Staggering, Maylie collapsed against a fallen stump, her body shaking.
She clutched her sides, sobbing and retching, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
The scent of pine and damp earth filled her nostrils, but it could not mask the lingering stench of smoke, scorched air and the thick, meaty rot of carrion.
She could still feel the heat of the dragons, could still sense their terrible, looming presence behind her, as though they had seared themselves into her very bones.
She pressed her forehead against the rough bark of the stump, her fingers curling into the dirt.
She was alive.
Somehow, impossibly, she had escaped.
To her side, Maylie noticed a flicker of silver in the trees and she raised her head to see the silvery forest creature. It was standing a few paces away, its wet green eyes watching.
All of her fear turned to anger.
Where were you? she cried.
Its silvery form wavered as if in consideration. After a pause, it replied, I am always here.
Then you saw what was happening to me? Why did you do nothing?
There was no answer, but the creature was shifting back and forth, as though agitated.
You left me, added Maylie.
Before the creature could reply, she tore off her pinafore and turned it inside out, refastening it over her dress. An age-old deterrent against the Hidden People.
The creature was forced to retreat.
When Maylie’s body had stopped trembling and her sobs had subsided, she pulled herself upright.
Checking herself over, she saw that she was covered in scratches and bruises, but thankfully nothing worse.
She was a girl who had faced a dragon and survived.
Maybe the first ever. Even the memory of the beast’s slinking, hunched body and inky eyes made her want to start retching again.
Shuddering, she tried to force such thoughts from her mind.
She needed to find a way out of the forest.
The silvery shadow still lingered near by.
This way, it was whispering, but its voice was faint. This way.
Maylie charged off in the other direction. She scrambled past bushes and waded through ferns, stomping and clattering in the hush of the forest. After a while, she grew tired and hot. Panting, she stopped in a clearing and looked around at the dark, dense gloom. No sign of the end.
But the creature was still there. It had followed her, keeping a careful distance.
This way, it hissed, beckoning. Before they see you again.
Maylie did not want to ask who ‘they’ were.
Reluctantly she turned and began following the creature.
She trailed it down moss-covered slopes and over scrubby rocks.
A few times, it seemed to be trying to speak to her, but she pretended not to notice and refused to turn her pinafore back the right way, forcing it to keep a distance.
Together, they trudged for some time before, at last, Maylie saw a shimmer of sunlight ahead.
She raced towards it, rushing past the creature without acknowledgement.
Finally, she broke through the last fringe of trees with a gasp.
She found herself at the very northern peak of the village.
A little way below her, she saw her aunt’s cottage and almost fell to her knees in relief.
Further on still, stood the rest of Silicia.
All was familiar and ordinary. Just another warm summer’s morning.
Maylie looked over her shoulder at the forest. She could just make out the faint outline of the creature watching her through the trees.
She turned away.