(Author's Note: I apologize for the wait, I've been very busy. This chapter is short, but the next will be longer. Thanks for reading.)
Chapter 3: Enemy
Days felt months.
The nights felt longer, the clocks ran slower… Tick… tock… tick… tock…
Rayman's mind was ready to explode. It's been far too long. Don't the parents of the child – err, well, now young teenager, care enough to come and rescue her?
Maybe it wasn't that. The limbless fellow thought for a while.
Was it possible that the parents were in a fatal accident? That they were not able to come rescue her, simply because they were gone in the afterlife?
Or maybe, they really couldn't find her. They tried, but achieved nothing.
Or maybe… and this was Rayman's final thought, pushed back in the depths of his mind, was it possible the parents… didn't care at all?
Rayman sighed at all these doubts.
He secluded himself in the woods alone to think. Skye was with Betilla during this time, and Rayman truly didn't mind this. Betilla was a much better sitter then he was anyway.
Rayman groaned to himself, his hand under his chin, supporting his head while he thought.
My job isn't to babysit… where the hell are the kid's parents?
He growled and splashed the water out of the puddle with his foot, shaking his head a bit and tugged at his hair slightly, still trying to think.
Rayman didn't hate the child, but he felt she wasn't truly his responsibility, and that she should grow up with her biological parents. He was mostly angered because if they don't come by anytime soon, she will start to question her life and where they are. She would be left in wonder, and might never get answered. He didn't want her to suffer like that.
There had to be a way, any way, that he could get her home, or at least find the parents himself.
Then it hit him. Ly!
Before he could move, a harsh yell pierced his ears. He shot up. "Skye!"
He rushed to the sound of her distress.
His heart was pounding rapidly as the cries of the little one were becoming fainter and fainter… He heart was in his throat now, as the cries and yells began to settle.
Something happened, and the hair on the back of his head stood in dread. If something happened to her, then what happened to Betilla? …Were they both hurt?!
He gritted his teeth and kept running, so fast he could hardly breathe. He finally found a clearing in the forest and stopped, dead in his tracks.
The Glade became still. Time froze. Rayman's spirit broke. Everything happened all at once.
In front of him, a horrid, colossal dragon stood. It glared at him, hate dwelling in it's narrow eyes.
And there, in the monster's mouth, was the limp body of Skye.