SAVE POINT 75
Loading a Very Uncertain Amount of Time Later...Dragon's Sea Town...55%
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1102021402707628096/1124323386420633661/02de81bd-8950-4efc-99cf-e5cddea3e06a.png][https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1102021402707628096/1124290211237597264/b5d98cc1-416b-4a8e-a3e7-324e05ff579e.png]
Rosabella
To be honest, I'm not sure how long it's been since the zombie-tree attack. I'm not sure how many miles my aching feet have trod or how many freaking trees my throbbing head has seen. All I know is we're, now, in a hollowed-out, tree canoe, captained by Joy, and, if we don't find land soon, I'm going to grab the oare and row us right back to the other side so I can get a decent night's sleep while there's still daylight.
"Do you hear that?" The pink-haired girl strains at the helm, cocking her head to the side to listen. The salty breeze that's been making my eyes water pushes back strands of her hair from her neck like invisible fingers. Just being real, I don't want to strain to hear whatever damn sound the girl's so intent on. All I've been doing lately is straining—trying to survive...trying to convince myself to take one more step.
And, if she doesn't want to tell me what she's hearing, that's fine. I'll just finally close my eyes and get some rest—well, whatever rest can be had with the wood sides of this solid canoe digging into my back. I've begun to let my eyelids flutter closed when she has to talk again.
"Windchimes," she breathes.
Windchimes?
My eyes spring open in sudden hope. Because they don't have windchimes at sea. They have windchimes on—
"Land?" I blurt.
And she nods.
And I look out into the billowing, gray mist that haunts the top of the ocean with more optimism than I've had in days. The green-blue torrents of dipping waves rocks the boat with every paddle Joy makes. The moisture in the air and the water spraying up from Joy's movement flecks my cheeks and hands.
"We must be right here," Joy's face constricts in confused ripples, "Literally—"
The bottom of the boat scrapes.
I've never been more excited for a sound in my life.
"Finally!" I shout, jumping upwards.
But, just as quick, Joy stands and wraps a constrictive hand over my mouth, pinning me to the side of the canoe again. Her dark eyes leer way too close for comfort as she leans over me. "Don't celebrate yet," she hisses, "We don't know what we're dealing with here. Keep your eyes sharp and your dagger sharper."
I swallow against her hand, which finally releases its stifling hold. And, with far more caution this time, I step out of the boat, feeling the glorious-glorious sandbar underneath the soles of my boots and the thick water pushing against my legs and seeping into my body armor. The wind on my neck feels kinder just now. Like maybe we've found what we've been looking for.
I slosh towards shore, per Joy's warning, with my dagger curled tightly in my fist. ...Well, her dagger; I'd borrowed it earlier. The metal handle bites into the flesh of my palm like a reminder that whatever lies behind this heavy mist just might not be a warm welcome.
"We go together," Joy warns quietly, stepping up behind me. And I nod.
Fear and dread mix the downfall of warriors deep in my stomach as my boots crunch onto dry land. The mist lifts and—
Wow. This place looks like a movie—like I've literally just stepped foot into full-screen emersion on some Pirates of the Caribbean set. ...Damn.
On the way here, Joy had kept calling the place the 'Dragon's Sea Town'. Well, hello, Dragon's Sea Town. Making perfect sense for our trek here, the place looks like the port city of an island. Thatched roofs cover circular buildings which have clearly seen their moment of wear and tear either by hurricanes, darkness or both. What could be a tourist attraction or vacation spot if cleaned up properly is, instead, trashed. Wood boards and pieces of aluminum and waste scatter dirt pathways leading around the buildings. There's rubble piles and cracks in the dry, sandy dirt. It smells like smoke and ash and...fallen things. ...And the place is silent.
The kind that makes your skin crawl if you listen too hard.
Especially when you hear those distant windchimes.
Cling-ca-cling-cling...
And nothing else but the wind, whistling around me and the buildings.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
"What happened here?" I murmur, lowering my weapon. Joy was wrong to be so worried. The place looks absolutely desolate.
But the girl's still high on guard; her thigh-high boots scrabble in the dry soil as she shifts, her eyes raking over every corner and turn and her weapon raised. "Being so close to the Dark Woods, they got the worst of the darkness and Darken," she whispers, "I'd heard they ravaged the place but...well, they must have the root powder you need somewhere..."
"Should we search the buildings?" I ask, stepping towards a wood door that's nearly flapping open due to a fallen hinge.
Joy's lips tighten. "I'm not sure. Let's see if it's inhabited."
"Doesn't look like it to me," I shake my head, letting my boots crunch over the path around one of the first buildings. The windows there are dark, dirty and empty. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that no one's been around here for a while. "Hello?" I call loudly, knocking on the nearest door.
"Don't—"
I whirl around to see Joy flying at me from behind—
But it's too late.
Whizz!
I hear it before I feel it.
The thud.
Against my neck.
The prick of a needle.
I look down and see the wavering shaft of a dart.
Shit of all shits. Really? Joy is going to KILL me.
The world blurs. My body sways. My knees give out. And a blurry figure leans—is it a man or a woman?—into my face before everything goes pitch black.
Reloading Still A Very Uncertain Amount of Time Later...300%
...God, my head.
I clutch at it, feeling the world spin with each pulsing pain. I whimper quietly, pressing my hands against my ears and scalp.
Fuck! What the fuck happened?
It comes flashing back like a nightmare I don't necessarily want replayed:
Island.
Huts.
Dart.
My vision comes back too...slowly. I blink blearily at my boots, noticing the thick tread of them stands firmly against a cobblestone floor. That must be what's making my backside hurt so much—the polished stones jut in there. ...Oh, and, of course, I notice the thick, steel cuffs wrapping around each ankle and the massive chain links connecting them. My wrists too? My wrists are chained together. I follow the chain there to where it connects in the cement wall.
Motherfuckers.
What kind of people would just chain us up? No 'hello'. No 'welcome to our land'. Just chains? Fuck it all, Joy had been right, although I won't be admitting that to her face...ever.
I see the pink-haired girl slumped on the freezing floor next to me. I nudge her gently with the toe of my boot to wake her—
"Fuck off—get out of my face!" she uses a hand to shove my foot back.
Alive and still saucy.
Check.
All the breath wooshes out of me in relief.
I watch Joy take in her surroundings with a scowl etched into her fine features. Unfortunately, the scowl only deepens when she sees me.
"You, you had to shout—" she gripes, looking like she might very well attack me.
I hold up my hands in protest, " I didn't know they'd stick us in a dungeon! I thought the place was abandoned!"
My words echo in the large room, bouncing off the walls like just to remind us that, regardless of what I'd thought, those solid walls are still there...locking us in.
"Clearly it's inhabited," Joy sneers.
And I'm seeing more evidence of it as I look around. The cement room we're chained in isn't empty. There's wood crates and metal cages. There's others chained here too. A scared woman with a child backs away from us, her bare feet scrabbling on the stone floor and her eyes like glassy, bulging marbles—frightened. A man in tattered clothing looks like he's been chained here for a while, evidenced by his scruffy, unwashed beard.
...But there's a familiar smell in the air. I sniff at it, trying to pin it down.
Where have I smelled it before...?
"It's the dragons," another woman further away, dressed in long, purple robes and chained to the side wall, tells me, noticing my expression.
"Drag—?" I barely get the question out before a thunderous roar reverberates through the room, shaking it.
Fire billows from a wire mesh cage that is the entire far wall. Heat sears my face as I scrabble backwards.
> It's no use, Ratadon!
A female voice snarls inside my head. A dragon?
The ground shutters as an enormous, burgundy dragon throws itself against the wire mesh, it's snout attempting to push through and it's colossal claws scraping at both metal and earth.
> I will fight it to the day they kill us!
Snarls the burgundy one—Ratadon—in my mind.
> It's been years.
A third voice—high-pitched, child-like and female—trills.
> You won't get out that way, they've made sure of it but...Grand Dragon...do you see that?
As I continue to stare in the direction of the mesh, I begin to realize that something is staring back at me. The huge, pink, almond-shaped eyes of a blinking...of a blinking, yellow dragon? She cocks her head at me, a smile spreading over her black lips.
> Grand dragon, it is.
The yellow beast whispers in my mind space nearly reverently.
> We won't have to die in here, after all.
She continues to squeak.
> It's Rosabella the Second—the one I saw in my prophesy. She will free us all.