44. DAMIAN

Chapter forty-four

DAMIAN

I was holding Aurelia when her body went weak and fell into my arms.

"Belle! Can you help me get Aurelia on your back? Then I'll climb on after." Belle nodded and then knelt down, her wings lowered, allowing us to hop on her with ease. I held Aurelia in both of my arms and pushed her up on Belle's back. Once she was secured, I hopped on as well. "Where do I grab?"

Before even giving me a moment's notice, she sprung into the air; I barely grabbed hold of the spikes on her back, gripping Aurelia with the other hand. The wind brushed past my face, and I gasped, trying to hold on to myself and Aurelia's limp body. The sun was set high in the sky at this point now; the light flaring into our eyes.

In the distance, the dragons were fluttering, soaring through the clouds. They circled each other, dove, then sprung into the air. I wondered how long they were trapped. I wanted to ask the Scalekeeper why they were released when the egg granted my wish. Was it a curse to have the dragons on the land, or a blessing?

Looking behind us, I found the island collapsing in on itself. The crater that housed the dragons expanded, and the island crumbled. Large pieces of rock and trees fell into the water, creating splashes that rippled through the air.

Belle took a quick right and soared over the mountain that was originally blocking the fisherman's cities and towns. After a while of flying in the air, I felt more comfortable on Belle's back as she glided from left to right and dipped through trees and large peaks.

We saw some more knights wearing uniforms stating that they were from the Clandike Kingdom. Why were they looking for Aurelia? They looked like purple specks on the ground, the lion crescent marking their uniforms.

Dozing, I struggled to keep my eyes awake. My muscles were tensed and aching from keeping mine and Aurelia's body weight up on Belle, almost holding for dear life.

Surging through countless trees, I noticed the tops of them were fresh with color, unlike the Forbidden Forest. The smell of pine and the breeze warmed my senses, making the long ride more bearable.

The cliffs dropped quickly, showing the areas unlivable. We cruised past the deadly cliffs, watching the fast and dangerous rapids beneath us, flowing through rivers and dropping into pounding waterfalls.

After what felt like an eternity, and when my arms and legs were burning in pain, we landed on the ground. The sun was setting and started to lower in the sky. Belle landed us in between a grove of trees.

Monitoring the safety around us, my attention arrived on the trees, casting shadows on the ground, hidden from the radiant, glowing moon that was becoming clearer, as the day disappeared. The trunks were large and empowering over the area and the leaves fluttered down gracefully, falling off the tops, forming small piles on the dirt and grass beneath our feet.

I carefully helped glide Aurelia's body off Belle and onto the patch with the most grass in the area. I wasn't sure what kingdom we were in at this point. The trees were fuller and thicker here, their branches dense, and their leaves a canopy to the sky. More mountains dotted the landscape, their rugged peaks boasting narrow, precarious ledges that plummeted sharply to the earth below. An immediate death awaited if one fell off. There was not a town or a village in sight. Only the shadows of the mountains and trees surrounded us.

Slowly letting her down, I knelt beside her, carefully checking her wound. The injury had sticky, dried blood along its outer layer. I didn't want her to get an infection.

The sun set behind the greenery of the forest. It had disappeared, leaving the sky an expanse of deep indigo, twinkling with the Celestials.

Voices filled the air as smoke billowed up into the sky, just probably half a mile over. The night sky rang with laughing, singing, and movement, which was a stark contrast to the ringing in my ears from flying and the silence in the forest.

The Scalebound colony.

I picked up Aurelia's body, holding her under her knees and below her head. Anticipation ignited my steps as we made our way to where the noise was, hoping that we weren't being led to Haxnau 1 .

1. Haxnau (Hah-nah-woo): Hell