Chapter 4
I ran as fast and hard as I could.
I wasn't even sure if what I had just seen was even real. Part of me was left in disbelief while the other half knew it was real; hallucinations didn't pull you out of rivers. I didn't even notice the foreign green scenery that blended together in an unintelligible blur until I came to a sheer cliff drop that stopped me instantaneously. It couldn't have been very far-off from where I had started though, since it was common knowledge that I had neither the strength nor the stamina to run that far.
Still damp and exhausted from my 'swim' in the river, I collapsed onto the ledge, overlooking the dense jungle down below me and making a conscious effort not to think too hard about certain matters at hand. But it was no use, and I found myself wondering what was going to happen next before I could stop myself.
What could I do? I had just left Dan alone in the jungle with whomever, or whatever it was that had saved me and any other dangers there might be. The same dangers that were still lurking, somewhere in the gloom of the jungle, just waiting for me when I was vulnerable. Like right now, I shivered.
"I have to find some place safer." I whispered out loud to no one in particular, forcing, no, willing my legs to pick me back up as I spoke these words in a sincere effort to make them come true. As if stating my dreams would help anything, I silently chided myself.
"It's too late for that, human." A sultry, female voice said from somewhere in the trees, coming from no specific pinpointed direction, causing me to jump and scan the surrounding foliage in something a bit more than a panicked disposition.
"Who's there? Show yourself." I snapped, raising my voice, still raw from the recent escapade in the river, to a dull roar.
"You actually have the audacity to order me to reveal myself?" The female voice fumed, clearly offended. "I shall make your death a slow painful one." She finished, the end coming out in a hiss.
"What do you mean my death? What did I do to make you want my death? I've never even met you before." I asked fearfully, my voice noticeably heightening a few octaves.
"Your death insures my survival." That simple answer was hardly pacifying me. "Your kind has caused mine to suffer," She continued, a smirk only too evident in her voice. "And now I shall repay the favor in kind."
"My…kind? What are you?" I simply had to ask, and had tried to make my voice sound as reasonably brave as possible, but the voice that came out of my throat was far from calm, it was the tone of a panicked wild animal, caught in a hunter's snare. Which was only too true, that was sure.
Moments later, a large reptilian creature emerged from the forest, alighting gracefully before landing within the sun's bright rays. She stood at least ten feet tall with her body from head to tail nearly four times that length. Standing on her haunches, she spread her wings to their full capacity, nearly as large as her full body length. Her emerald body sparkled in the sun, sending glitters dancing off her skin, and merely magnifying her already terrifying beauty. If looks could kill, I thought darkly, realizing quickly that it couldn't be anything other than a dragon. I gazed in horror as I watched her advance, all too ready to end me, watching her smirking mouth full of equally terrifying teeth widen horrifically.
As I ducked, trying to avoid the inevitable, and maybe extend my expiration date by a few moments, I could hear the sounds of a screaming animal coming closer, getting louder and louder. The next thing I heard was a loud crash that took me by surprise as something…big collided with the ground. At first I thought it was the she dragon, fed up by the pretense of aiming and firing her tail at me, but then I looked and realized, no, there was a new one, a new, dragon.
My insides plummeted with dread at the very sight.
This dragon was black and slightly smaller in size, but clearly what it lacked in that department, it made up for in muscle. I didn't know what to think of this new dragon, other than, of course, the intermit death threat coming closer, clocking down with every passing second, faster and faster. I couldn't tell whether it would save me or fight to see who got the first bite, but I could guess. And I wasn't liking it.
"Leave Isla. Find some other hunting ground. The girl is mine." He growled.
"Stand aside nameless. I found her first. She is rightfully mine." She growled in return, changing her stance so that she faced him head on, glaring viciously as if to dare him to contradict her.
"Over my dead body." The smirk he gave her showed no fear however, and her gaze immediately darkened, her teeth glinting maliciously in the sunlight.
"If you insist." She sighed, the thinly veiled threat giving way to action as she charged him with her deadly horns. Without pause, he immediately turned, taking hold of me in one of his massive claws non to gently and then ascending into the air currents, riding them skillfully as only an expert could. The sudden movement shook me, and I gasped before the sound turned into a scream, full of fear and panic.
She gave chase, breathing out deadly plumes of fire all the while. The terrifying part was that she had decent aim. If he hadn't been so quick and agile we would have burnt. The only thing I couldn't figure out was why he hadn't killed me already. Perhaps he wanted to eat in peace.
We flew higher and higher, the branches of trees below us melding together into a green carpet below. As we rose higher however, the air began to grow noticeably colder, giving way to stiff biting winds till we reached the top of a mountain. All around me, snow and ice covered the ground, obscuring even the slightest glimpse of brownish rock. I gasped in awe, but that was short lived. The dragon immediately dropped me into the freezing snow and went back to his fight, taking back off to meet the she dragon in mid air some ways out.
I picked myself out of the snow as best I could and felt myself begin to shake uncontrollably. My teeth chattered quickly and rapidly, the sound reminding me of a jack hammer pounding against concrete. My dampness and thin clothes didn't help any and it wasn't long before I could feel the tips of my fingers and toes begin to grow warm.
To me this meant one thing. Hypothermia was definitely kicking in. If I didn't get off this mountain soon…I didn't even want to think about that. I began rubbing my arms and legs in a feeble endeavor to warm myself. And just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, things began to get even stranger than they already were.
"Where is he?" a large light blue, and obviously native to this area, dragon asked urgently. This one was definitely the largest of them all and the miniature of him that followed only a few paces behind was far smaller than him, about my height. I looked out at the impending fight below to find that the black one and his foe were indeed missing from the picture. As if in answer to this question the both of them came shooting out of the tree canopy far below, green and black locked together in their fight.
"Kidril, go get help." The larger one ordered, gazing down at the fight before his eyes flickered to me and back. He took off moments later, with the obvious intent of stopping the fight before it could go any farther. The smaller one, Kidril it appeared, flew off in the opposite direction, disappearing quickly from view. I could only hope he wasn't bringing more dragons. I didn't know how much more I could handle at this rate.
One would never guess the amount of shock I was in though. I was so focused on trying to keep warm that nothing else completely registered in my mind. I watched absentmindedly as the three dragons fought. It was more like the black and green fighting and the ice trying to break them apart like a father scolding squabbling siblings.
Warmth began spreading throughout my body and under normal circumstances it would have been welcoming. My mind began slipping away, slipping down to embrace the warmth that was so obviously dangerous, but was too hard to fight when I had nothing left.
I crumbled to the ground, floating towards unconsciousness easily as the warmth enveloped me eagerly. I barely registered the shapes the hovered over me, becoming indistinct as they shouted at each other, my mind already too far away to care.
"How could you let this happen, Frost?! You were supposed to get her out of here!" The dark dragon shouted at the ice dragon, his breath coming out in an irate huff.
"I sent Kidril for help. It looked like you could use help yourself." The dragon, Frost defended, glancing sideways at the black one in a vaguely offended voice.
"It wouldn't have mattered what happened to me! If she dies Frost I swear…" But he never finished his sentence, instead choosing to let his voice die, instead letting the silence speak for itself.
"Look." Frost motioned in an obvious attempt to dissuade his friend's anger. In the distance Kidril could be seen coming, growing clearer with ever passing second, a pale white figure on his back.
It was when he finally got close enough to drop his passenger that he greeted them. "I brought him as fast as I could Father." Kidril apologized shortly, allowing the pale white figure to slide off his back easily.
"Good job, son." Frost acknowledged the younger dragon, nodding his head slightly in approval.
"What do you dragons want now?" the white figure irritably asked with more than a hint of agitation.
"We need your help." Frost declared. "She," He motioned to the unconscious girl, "Needs to be someplace, safe. Can you take her to Ta-Koro?" He finished, gazing at the figure restlessly in question.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place instead of dragging me out here and wasting my time and hers?" he said bending down to examine her more closely nonetheless.
"We had our own problems to deal with at the time!" The black dragon snapped furiously, his voice rising in response.
"Give it a rest!" Frost reprimanded him, shooting a deadly glare out of the corner of his eye. "Kopaka, will you help or not?"
Kopaka stood, answering curtly, "Of course. Can you get me back to the village fast enough?"
"I'll take him. You should get out of here before you end up like her." Frost suggested, glancing meaningfully at the dark dragon beside him.
"Fine, fine just hurry up. You're running out of time!" He urged as he left the icy region, his dark wings sparkling with icicles that were just beginning to grow.
"Alright Kopaka, hop on." Frost said, kneeling as low as possible in an obvious invitation to hop on. Kopaka gathered up her unconscious form before mounting Frost. He didn't completely trust the dragons, but if they wanted to save the human, he was willing to help. As soon as Kopaka had a tight hold on Frost they descended into the air, riding cold wind currents down to the earth below.
Within in a few minutes he landed, coming to a swift and precise halt directly in front of the village before allowing Kopaka to dismount.
"Be quick Kopaka, and give her our apologies." Frost called to the quickly disappearing toa. Kopaka, giving no indication he had heard, went swiftly through the village to the Kini-Nui. Setting it to go to Ta-Koro he stepped inside and waited for a few precious seconds before he was transported, his form melding away.
Once assured that he was there, Kopaka immediately left, going in search of his fire brother, feeling the hot muggy air surround him. He didn't have to look very far, finding the fire toa mere minutes away.
"Kopaka, what brings you…" he trailed off as soon as he saw the figure in his arms, curiosity piquing. "What is this?"
"She was attacked by dragons and nearly froze up on the mountain. She needs to stay here until she recovers." Kopaka explained, never one for details.
"Of course." Tahu nodded, frowning. "The healer's hut is vacant. She can stay there for now. How exactly did she get here?" He questioned, knowing he would have to pull anything he wanted to know out of his brother carefully.
"I'm not sure. I know about a much as you do. Perhaps when she wakes up you can ask her yourself." Kopaka suggested, giving the very subtle hint that he was done with the round of questioning and wished to be off.
"You're not staying?" Tahu knew the answer, but asked for politeness' sake, trying to keep a civil tone even though he knew the ice toa wasn't one for warm climates.
"No, Tahu. I'm going to see what I can find out from the dragons. I'm entrusting you with her." He said, quickly convening with the fire toa to hand the girl over as gently as possible.
"Very well. Good luck to you brother." Tahu murmured as Kopaka began to walk away, watching the ice toa with an unreadable look in his eyes.
"You shall need it more than I, brother." He threw over his shoulder. Tahu frowned, but knew all too well that his brother was right; he would need all the luck he could get to make it through this one if there was any indication.
Here's the update everyone was waiting for. Let me just take the moment to say thankyou to all my loyal readers for sticking with me and my beta darkraven0 for putting up with me these past few months. You guys rock!