,"Where could they have gone?" Danny ran through the forest, with Neelam and Tucker behind him. It had been only two days since he had seen Raven and Sam, and he still was searching for them. They had been tracking the creature's prints, the one named Trella.
,"Danny, I'm tired...Can we sit down and rest?" Tucker complained as he sat on the ground, legs throbbing with pain for running two days straight. He rubbed his legs, but only cease the pain for a while.
Neelam, stood in front of Danny, "Tucker's right, Danny. If we wander around aimlessly, who's to know it'll lead us to The Creepers?"
Danny couldn't argue, they all almost crossed paths with The Creepers nine times, but manage to go pass them inconspicuously. It took Danny some time, to force himself not to move another step and try to set up camp with Tucker as Neelam went to get something to eat.
,"Danny, relax." Tucker noticed how anxious Danny was when his eye twitched angrily as both started to make a fire.
,"How can I relax, when I ran off from my kingdom, endured hard labor, had a magical dragon pop out from my sister's present, and The Creepers are out to catch me, along with Vlad trying to kill me!" He sighed a breath, and let his hand pass through the tangles of his black hair.
A twig broke, Danny looked to his right to see a shadowed figure, among the trees. A boar the size of a toddler came out, running towards the boys, but they heard a screeched voice, and a hard thud that made the boar silence. The creature that had attacked Neelam appeared before them, with the boar in its beak. It nudged Danny gently; he opened his arms out where the creature dropped the lifeless boar.
."Cool! I call dibs on the ribs!" Tucker announced happily, not knowing the creature was leaving into the woods, "Danny?" He had seen Danny go into the forest, and he followed carrying the boar.
Danny had his eyes on the creature, which was now running aimlessly but avoiding trees. Finally the creature stopped, and sat in a dug hole, sleeping. Danny stopped Tucker before he could speak or do anything stupid for that matter.
,"Do you hear that?" Danny whispered, when he heard what he thought mermaids singing in their annual moon praising. But it sounded more human, then again not human at all.
,"Hear what?" Tucker asked as he started to eat the boar. Of course he couldn't hear anything, he sounds like those loud crunchy popcorn eaters at the theaters, disturbing and annoying others who want to watch the damn movie.
,"Stop crunching and listen!" Danny heard this time two voices; he doesn't know if they are mermaids trying to drown foolish men, sirens wanting to have unknown men as their meal or water nymphs trying to lure men to their death, "What do you think that is?"
,"Don't know what it is?" Danny shook his head, "Then let's follow it!" Danny followed the voices; closer and closer the voices were getting clear. I promise to be with you, forever if I ever could...The voices led them to two girls, one of them was on the ground leaning on a log, while the other was in a river with a large waterfall. They looked closely to see that it was Ray and Sam.
Ray got up from the ground, and grabbed her bow, and quickly took out a arrow from her quiver and aimed it right at Danny's and Tucker's direction, but before they could run she had already stuck both of them to a tree with only one arrow.
,"I blame you!" Tucker looked at Danny, who weakly smiled, as Raven was before them.
,"Great! I found another pair of idiotic peeping toms!" Raven placed one hand on her hip while the other gripped her bow, "Do you know the punishment for staring at a bathing woman?"
,"We didn't see anything! I swear!" Those were the exact word that stopped Raven from getting another arrow, and made her look at both boys with great care. She looked to see if it was The Creepers skin disguise, they kill people then seal their wounds, but devouring their organs; so they may wear the dead person's skin as a cloak.
,"What business do you have here?" Raven questioned sternly as she slowly edged herself to grab the vane at the end of her arrow.
,"We came to thank that creature for giving us the boar." Tucker looked at his meal that he dropped when he was hanged by the arrow, "Now, can I have the boar back? I'm damn hungry!"
,"You must be the stupid one." Raven whispered under her breath, "Seeing as your attention is mainly on the boar you must be the carnivorous Tucker."
Tucker was flattered, "What else do you know about me?"
,"That you're a wanna-be Casanova, narrow-minded, egotistical, imbecile." Raven glanced at Danny, and took his right hand, and saw the blue dragon, then gasp, "I was right! You're the New Rider!"
'He's the New Rider! The boy who kept staring at me, as though I came from another universe, but then again he stared at me with great interest' Sam dipped her head into the water as she had the image of Danny in her mind 'Why do I think of him at a time of war? I have no interest in relationships as other princess and maidens; I'm different than them, I care of others than myself' She picked her head and opened her eyes, to see the river filled with lilacs and vanilla, then a fog being formed around her.
She stood up, revealing a piece of clothing covering her feminine areas, "Ray? Ray!"
No answer. Sam walked past the lilacs and vanilla covered water, only to stop at the waterfall. The rushing water pouring down was the only noise, but she still felt uncomfortable as though someone's presence was before her and invisible for her not to see.
,"Princess, I've found you!" an eerie voice said in her ear, she felt clammy hands with claws on her pale shoulders. 'No, those damn goblins, again!' The voice was thick of an Eastern region accent, and was about taller than her by mere inches, "We found you! At last, for six years we found you!" The jeering and cheering of thirty goblins came from behind her as well, "We'll be escorting you to the Kingdom of Casper to marry Lord Vladimir's distant nephew Daschle Baxter!"
,"And if I refuse?!" Sam's voice was as bold and strong, as her own sword.
,"Then we shall have you as our own bride!" She felt his green hand near her waist, as others laughed with pleasure. She quickly thought about the goblin origin, culture and traditions, to help her get away.
,"You're Queen would not be pleased!" The laughter stopped, as did the movement of the green hand, "It is under her power to choose who would wed who, and who shall fight in honor. You should not dare disobey your Queen's decision and word for you swore fealty to her and only her."
The Goblin words gossiped of what she spoke was true. Then suddenly an unknown presence came into the fog, and was extremely malevolent by the way it cut through the fog. The goblins made a human shield shaped as a circle with Sam and the leader of the goblins in the middle.
,"Sam? Sam!" Raven's voice cut through the fog like a knife cutting someone's throat. A blue streak went pass the goblins, destroying the shield, "There you are, you damn bastards!"
The Goblin words told the others to not allow anyone grab hold of the Princess, and defend the leader. The Leader, held Sam's shoulders tightly her blood slowly streamed down as one of the Leader's claws plunged into her pale skin.
,"Danny, Tucker! Come here!" Raven's voice spoke again, and then said an incantation that was fast for Sam to hear and confusing to the goblins. But then the fog cleared up, revealing Danny and Tucker dumbstruck of what Raven did, and Raven's hands stretched to her sides, hands upward and eyes glowed white as the foaming water of the waterfall.
,"A sorceress!" The goblins held their weapons tighter as Raven lowered her hands and arms, and her eyes reverted back to dark blue.
,"I prefer not to be associated with treacherous magic healers." She held her bow tightly, when they referred to her as a demonic, backstabbing former magic healers or Angel Witches as her people called them for their angelic personalities and hearts, and their mystical magic teachings of the good. She walked on the water, once again, but this time grabbing the nearest goblin by his tunic collar, "Don't you dare call me that!"
,"Fire at will!" Goblins ran toward her, but Trella came and attacked them pushing them out of the river. All groaned in pain, at the impact they had endured.
Raven dropped the goblin to the ground, "You have ten seconds!" He ran out, and as Sam mentally counted three, Raven grabbed an arrow and shot the goblin in the back, he fell down to the ground, "Ten!"
,"Any other step and the Princess will be killed!" The leader now held Sam by the hair, with a knife close to her neck, "Princess will die, if you come closer!" His thick voice trembled, but to Sam's dismay not his entire body.
Raven still had her arrow aiming at him, but as he blinked, the arrow already hit the goblin's shoulder. Giving Sam an opportunity, she cracked his ribs with her elbow, and grabbed the knife he held and placed it behind his spine.
,"You have nothing now." Raven walked toward the goblin, picking up his neck with her arrow's head, "Who sent you, goblin?!" Her voice angered with hostility.
,"Lord Vladimir sent for Princess. He wanted a Mistress for his nephew and powerful kingdom to rule, by his control." His entire skin was green, wearing armor with Vladimir's emblem, on top of a brown dirty tunic. He looked at Raven; his black slit eyes begging for mercy but knew they were deceiving eyes with crocodile tears. She knew his green hand claws would stab them, and his black eyes told the plan of a murder.
,"You'd be a waste to my arrows," His eyes lightened, thinking she had fallen into his trap, "But, then again, you don't deserve to live!" She forced the arrowhead into his throat that began to glow blue. He screamed with agony, as the blue light touched his evil body.
,"No! NOO! I SHALL NOT BE PURIFED BY THE SORCERESS'S DECEIT TO THE LORD!" Raven angrily lifted the arrow within his throat and chanted an incantation that made him disappear into a pile of dust that was cleaned by the wind.
Sam fell to her knees while gripping the goblin's knife. She was in pain, especially by the amount of blood she lost. Raven grabbed Sam before she fell face first in the river, and held her in her arms, "Danny hold Sam, while I finish this!' Danny came to Raven, holding Sam bridal style; her cloak suddenly appeared on her.
Raven grabbed another arrow within her quiver and aimed it precisely at the group of goblins. As she released it, the arrow produced a blue glow that streaked the wind, and hit the goblins. All begged for mercy, but she never gave mercy to those who tried or did kill someone, that left others mourning for their lost ones.
,"Could you show me how to do that?" Tucker asked as Raven placed Sam on her bed of gathered hay and grass, as she placed her hand on Sam's bloodied shoulder, as it glowed blue.
,"Magic cannot be taught by those who do not grow up with magic as part of their own family." Raven released her hand, and saw that Sam's blood decreased from pouring. The magic healer wrapped a bandage around Sam's shoulder, to let the bleeding ceased, and looked at Tucker who still gazed at her, "Why are you two still here?"
,"So you can train us, and to ensure Sam's wounds heal." Danny finally spoke, and Neelam sat beside him, eating an already dead cow. He had been gone for some time, but it was because his winged was injured by a fireball thrown by The Creepers that mistook him for a hippogriff. He tried to fly away, but was so badly injured that he had to create a tunnel underground to escape, then close up the tunnel, and by walking he found Danny and Tucker by Raven and the unconscious Sam.
,"I can't just train anyone." She placed a wet towel on Sam's forehead, "I'm a very...strict teacher, you can say. But I, honestly, can't teach anyone who wasn't experience magic at a young age."
,"What do you mean experience magic at a young age?" Tucker confusingly asked, as he bit into his dinner: the boar.
,"You know? Seeing someone do magic, or even a magic healer mending a wound or cut. That kind of experience with magic. I've always experience magic since many magic healers lived in my village..." She looked at Sam's wound and glanced back to Danny and Tucker, "But now we have to train you Dragon Rider."
"We?!" Danny curved an eyebrow, "Who else is going to train me? Tucker?" Getting an angry glare from Tucker.
,"No, he hasn't experience Dragons before." Ray looked at Tucker, with what was thought she was being very arrogant, "But Sam has, she had seen, touch, even fed a dragon at an extreme young age."
,"I had that experience with Neelam." 'What makes this girl so different from me, or actually what makes this girl so equally like me?' Danny glanced at the fire that was the only spark of life in the pitch-black forest.
,"Well, Neelam isn't vicious towards you. This dragon was very evil, it's heart tainted by its former master's treachery toward him. Sam was only five or seven years, and she had seen his ruby eyes that spoke of death, but saw no evil within them, she had touched his scales that burned more than the flames of hell, but felt sweet warmth, and fed his razor teeth, but he never bit the hand that fed him." Glancing back at Sam, who's wound seem to stop hurting, by how calm her facial expression was, "She did what no other knight, or magic healer would do- tame a dragon, when she wasn't even a Dragon Rider. She also avoided any harm because she knew the dragon felt upset that his Rider betrayed him and guilty for not protecting the other Riders."
Sam shifted in her sleep, opening her eyes slowly, "Ray?" Raven kneeled to Sam, "Sing me a song."
,"But...I..." She glanced at the two boys and dragon, and secretly blushed at her request, "B-but I-I...But I hate singing"
,"Stop lying, Ray..." Her chest rise, gently closed her eyes, "Sing one more time...for me...please." Peeking, she saw Raven sitting back on the log, and Trella besides her pushing her back, as though she was urging her to sing.
,"...Only this time..." She closed her eyes, not wanting to be stared at by the boys and the dragon while she sang. She drew a breath,"...I promise to be with you, forever if I ever could. I promise to sing you a lullaby, to give you the stars in the sky. I promise to be there, if ever you're real scared. I promise to hold you tight, throughout the entire night. I promise that we'll stay for the sunset, to say for as long as we never meant..."She opened her eyes, to see the snoring boys asleep on the ground, but the hippogriff and dragon still away," I promise to help you up, even by your lack of luck. I promise you, never to leave anywhere, always be by you, forever...to-ge-ther..." She fell asleep, with her hippogriff's feathers as a pillow.
For now, all of them had a moment of peace; no worries, no wars, no pain, no death, nothing bad existed to them anymore. For a moment in time, they actually never worried what happen to them, right now the beautiful song brought peace in their sleep. Tonight, there would be no wars in the borders of their dreams, but only for tonight...
Kind of long, but I had 2 use my imagination somewhere. So I hope u like it, and I'm working on the next chapter, as I type. So please, review! Was it bad? Good? Too Long?