25. AURELIA

Chapter twenty-five

AURELIA

" G ood girl," I said to Belle. "I want you to join us."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You really think that we are going to take her kind with us?" Damian shouted. He was dragging behind, distracted by something. However, I noticed he said ‘we', as if this was our journey together. The thought of ‘we' instantly disappeared as he said ‘her kind', putting down the dragon species.

I realized that maybe I should've told her that inside our minds, but it was too late. I didn't think that he would make a big deal about it. I was half-dragon. She was like family to me, and no one could possibly understand how lonely it felt to be half of something that was sought after to be killed.

Belle's claw scratched against the ground, a clear sign of her displeasure at Damian's words. Her demeanor was brimming with attitude, and I loved it.

"She needs us! And we need her. She saved our lives, you know," I reminded him.

"She can't fly us anywhere in the cities, though! She will get shot out of the sky without hesitation!" he exclaimed. He had a good point, but I wasn't planning on her flying us everywhere.

"Belle, can you walk on your hurt foot?"

"I can't walk long, but I can fly really low."

"That works."

"She's coming whether you like it or not," I said out loud. I wasn't about to bargain or fight on this one. My mind was made up, and there was nothing he could say that would change it.

He walked ahead of us, not looking back. "Well, we better get going. It's getting late." He was right. The sun lowered in the sky, sprinkling what light would penetrate through the trees into a dull yellow, showing that the night was coming. It would be best to get as close to a village as possible to escape the Forbidden Forest. It was definitely not a place that we would want to stay in during another night. Who knew what else we would encounter out here?

***

I asked Belle questions, and she would respond to me. I would then relay the answers back to Damian. Belle said that she came from across the seas and was following with her division and that they were going somewhere. They wouldn't tell her where they were going because they kept telling her she was too young to know. I thought this odd, wondering why the dragons would fly across the seas for anything.

She said that she had never seen any Scalebornes before, but was excited to learn more about me as much as I was with her.

I asked her how old she was, and she said she was over a hundred years old. Apparently, compared to human years, she was about twelve years old. At least from the conversion that I remembered from my books.

***

We walked for what felt like hours, Damian silently following along. There was a time when he was right by my side, glancing the opposite direction when our hands touched. Looking at each other, we both quickly stepped aside, shaking away the accidental touch. But I couldn't help but wonder if he felt the shock spark his fingertips the way they had mine.

The sun had gone down, and all that was left was the slight glow of the large moon. It was almost full, enlarged in the sky. The gray dim light of it brought me some sort of comfort. I couldn't pinpoint why, but it reminded me of feeling the hope that radiated from it when I would stay up late watching out of my tower. They were the only things constantly in my life: the high moon, and staying trapped in my tower.

Belle's foot must've started to hurt, so she went up, flying above us. She was over the trees, but not high enough to be seen. It was also comforting that she was up there because she could easily alert me if she saw anything suspicious. I also felt safer with a dragon on our side, anyway. However, I noticed that when we weren't looking, she wasn't limping as much on her claws, and would go along with us normally. As normally as a dragon could walk through thickets of trees, anyway.

It made me sad that her family had discarded her without a thought, leaving her to fend for herself at such a young age. She deserved much more love, and I was determined to give that to her.

I remembered the animals that came crawling out of the Forbidden Forest like broken little things, barely able to move their limbs, having been devoured by another creature higher than them on the food chain. Their limps and how their eyes couldn't look at my own made me want to protect them. Take them in and hide them from the rest of the world. Claim them in the tower.

We had been walking in silence for a while, not seeing anything more than a few birds or squirrels ravaging the rotten trunks of the trees throughout the Forbidden Forest. With the moon's location high up in the sky and its perfect slant, I knew we were still on track. We were supposed to be close to exiting the Forbidden Forest.

Based on my knowledge of the map, we were supposed to come to a village any second now. Masa was the name of the town that came to mind.

"Tal berries!" I announced as I found a patch of them off to the side of the path we were walking through. Their green bodies were covered with bright blue flowers all along the small berry. The bushes brimmed with the blossoms, the leaves lunging to the sides in elliptical shapes.

Belle followed me as we plucked the berries one by one, folding them into a cream-colored napkin I had brought with me. The berries were bumpy, with florals sheltering the top, a protective layer over the sweet fruit. Belle nuzzled her snout in, eating some of them along with me, enjoying the robust flavor of the tart foraged berries. The greenness of them marking her snout.

As I reached for another handful of the berries, screams pierced the distance.

We paused.

I glanced at Belle, the blue-green along the outside of her snout from the berries instantly getting licked off.

"What is it?" I nervously asked.

"I see smoke," she responded. I could feel the emotions that came from her racing heartbeat.

"From what?"

"I think it was my father. I feel his presence, but he is flying in the opposite direction. They must be done. I think they set the town on fire. The flames are growing bigger."

"Fire by dragon," I instinctively told Damian. He paused, frozen in place, as he stared up at the sky. His eyes were distant, his gaze devoid of any emotions.

He snapped back into place, his wide eyes normalizing and gradually going back to their typical state. "We should hurry!" he exclaimed, his complexion pale. "We might be able to save some of the people." I was shocked by his reaction. It didn't seem like something Damian would say or do. When did he ever care about helping someone, let alone save them? This was the first time I had seen him so emotional about something, leaving me unsure of how to respond to the situation.

"That's too dangerous! I can't be seen." I halted, not able to get myself to move further. The chapter on Scalebornes in my book came to mind, ‘Scalebornes have a 10% chance of living.' I couldn't be the ninety percent that wound up dead.

"So you're going to let innocent people die? This is why dragons shouldn't be trusted," Damian spat. His body language was uptight, his eyes continuing to glance at the flames rising in the sky, antsy to do something.

My limbs refused to budge, as if trapped once more in the earthy grasp of the sinkhole we had escaped mere hours ago. Paralyzed by the looming threat of death, I couldn't move.

Belle's heart fell. "He didn't mean it." I tried to make amends to her for what he said, but it didn't help.

Damian shot me a look of disgust, scoffed, and then darted off in the direction where the smoke billowed up into the sky. There was a certain curiosity that flagged Damian's character for me. With how tough and strong he acted, he never showed this soft spot of emotions. I didn't notice that he had some level of care for others besides himself before this moment. I followed him, intrigued by what his next motions would be.