Ahh, tenth chapter! Thanks so much for all the positive reviews and for hanging in there through the cliffies and the long spaces between chapters.
Peri was sorely tempted to stay where she was and stab Dareth in the face, but she knew her chances of even getting close were slim to nothing, especially with that dumb lightning power, or whatever it was that he shot people in the back with. So before she could change her mind, she whipped around and fled back to where her pack lay, quiver thumping against her back. She knew she had little time, so she didn't waste it packing everything away. She tossed her pack onto her shoulder, scooped up the egg, and ran, dragonling in one hand and bow in the other. Each step away from Dragon's Landing- and Nick- shot spikes of pain through her heart, but the threat Dareth posed kept her moving forward. I'll come back for you, she swore in her mind. I swear on my life.
Everything burned, from her legs to her lungs to her barely healed ankle. It struck her how out of shape she was, and she resolved to run more. But then, that seemed to be all that was in her future. Running from Dareth, running from the Riders, running from everything. Would she ever find rest? Soon the exertion consumed her and she could find no time for self-pitying thoughts. The only sound she heard was the pounding of her feet and her ragged breath. Dareth made no noise behind her, but she knew he was there, could almost sense him. Her body flew into autopilot, instinctively lightening her footfalls so they weren't quite so thunderous. Even with this extra effort she was certain Dareth could still hear her, but there was always the chance…
A bolt of energy shot through the trees and nearly hit her in the shoulder, but by some stroke of luck she tripped on a root just then and the shot whistled past her ear. Peri swore and threw herself into a roll, unable to catch herself with her hands. A few locks of her hair caught on a branch, tugging painfully as she sprang to her feet and sprinted faster. Thinking quickly, she shrugged the bow over her head and rested it on her shoulder so that the wooden shaft cut across her body and the string rested on the pack. Now at least she had one hand free, and she used it to pull herself behind a tree as another shot flashed by. She shot off in a new direction, fueled by adrenaline. She fought the urge to glance back over her shoulder, because the slightest lapse in focus could send her tumbling to the ground, but she soon found out exactly where her pursuer was when he tackled her to the ground. Reacting instinctively, Peri rolled over and punched Dareth in the face. The look on his face was almost comical as blood spurted from his nose, but Peri had no time to pause and savor it. She kicked the elf away, picked herself up, and took off again, the egg clutched in her hands.
I just punched an elf, she thought to herself, and she nearly doubled over with laughter then and there. Footfalls behind her distracted her and she threw herself sideways, incidentally down a steep slope coated with a slick carpet of leaves. It was a wonder she didn't fall and break her neck, not to mention the bow straddling her body, but she didn't. She hit the bottom of the slope with a jarring thud and kept going, running parallel to the slope she'd just come down. Unfortuntely, she heard Dareth behind her. And she decided she was tired of running. Peri felt her face settle into a hard mask as she scanned the forest around her. The earth rose in a steep bank on her left, as well as on her right, and it curved off to the right just ahead. Perfect. She threw herself into a headlong sprint, tearing around the corner a few seconds ahead of Dareth. Then, she skidded to a halt and threw the egg up the slope, whipping her dagger from its sheath with the other hand. The dragonling gave a hum of complaint, but she ignored it and turned to run at Dareth, who had just rounded the corner.
Peri lashed out with her dagger, the razor-sharp blade aimed at the elf's throat. She had no mercy left in her for Dareth, after all the trouble he'd given her, and after what he'd done to her best friend. But somehow Dareth managed to jerk himself away, turning the deadly blow into a nuisance. To her credit, she did pierce the skin, drawing a thin line across the elf's throat, but it was barely more than a scratch. So much for her ambush. Dareth recovered impossibly fast and within a heartbeat was coming for her, eyes blazing with fury. Peri felt her body jerked into the air by her throat and then felt her skull slam into the soft dirt she thought she'd been standing on. The rest of her body followed, settling amongst the leaves while she stared up at the murderous figure leaning over her.
"You would dare attack a Rider?!" Dareth hissed, splittle flying from his serrated fangs.
Peri tried to fire back a retort, but she found her windpipe completely closed off by Dareth's hand. He seemed to enjoy her shock and gave an animalistic growl. His clawed fingers dug into the soft skin of her neck, sending tiny shards of pain through her veins. She thrashed furiously, but that did nothing to dislodge the elf pinning her down. If anything it made him angrier, the hand at her throat tightening even further. Her lungs, already desperate for air from her race through the forest, began to scream and ache, but there was nothing she could do against Dareth's strength. Black spots started to dance in front of her eyes, and Dareth seemed to realize this.
"Any last words?"
The hand at her throat loosened and Peri spat out the first thing her panicked mind could think of. Or, rather, the dragonling thought of for it.
"Slytha!"
The effect was instantaneous, although not that exciting. Dareth didn't even have time to react before his eyes slammed closed and he went limp on top of her. Peri sucked in a panicked breath, then almost wished she hadn't, because it felt like swallowing a mouthful of thorns. She coughed violently and for a moment it was all she could do to keep breathing. Coughing and wheezing, Peri forced her exhausted limbs to work with her, and she wriggled out from underneath Dareth, who was surprisingly heavy. She stumbled to her feet and straightened, then promptly collapsed against the side of the ravine, mouth hanging open to get more air. She realized her hands were shaking and she closed them into fists, trying to stop the weakness she felt from showing. It occurred to her just how many times she'd come close to dying, in one night alone. And what did I just do to Dareth?!
Almost fearfully, Peri turned to face the elf, who was stilll lying facedown where she'd left him. She inched over, half-expecting him to leap up and finish her off, but he didn't move beside the rise and fall of his breathing. Well, at least he wasn't dead. Sure, she wouldn't have gone through with it and killed him before, but now that she thought about it, killing him wasn't in her best interest. She didn't have a problem with a little murder for the good of the cause, because it was bound to happen in her line of work, but cutting the throat of a Rider would only increase her growing infamy and bring the full wrath of the Riders down on her head. That was something she couldn't afford. Peri reached out and rolled the elf over, having to use the full weight of her body to get Dareth to budge.
"Jeez, what have you been eating?" she muttered to herself and, just to be sure, lifted one of the elf's eyelids. Asleep. How had she done that?! Peri forced herself to move, stumbling away from the unconcious elf and scanning her surroundings. Now where had she thrown the egg exactly? Grabbing her knife from the ground where she'd dropped it, Peri sheathed it and quickly scrambled up the steep slope to her left. It wasn't that far of a climb, but the slippery leaves made it hard to get a good grip, not to mention that her limbs were shaking from exertion and adrenaline. When she reached the top she had to stop and rest for a few heartbeats before looking around for the egg. Where are you?
Peri, came the dragonling's response, alone with a quick mental image of her right side. Peri quickly turned and hurried along the edge of the slope. It was hard to see in the dark and the midnight blue of the egg's shell didn't make it any easier, so Peri nearly kicked the egg back down the ravine before she spotted it just in time. She immediately dropped to her knees, reaching out to cradle the egg in her lap, when a resounding crack echoed off the tree trunks. Peri sucked in a breath and leaned closer, squinting to make out the growing crack in the egg's side. Smaller hairline fractures framed out from the main split, visible only if the moonlight struck them a certain way. Peri's jaw dropped open as she stared at the egg, and her mind went reeling when she realized what must be happening. Honestly, it was a wonder anything shocked her anymore. She'd felt enough tonight to last a lifetime. She nearly jumped backwards down the ravine when a second crack hit her ears, sending her heart pounding all over again.
"Calm down, stupid," she muttered to herself, rocking back to sit with her knees drawn up to her chest. She glanced back down the slope at Dareth's prone form. "Ha, calm. I just cursed an elf, or whatever I just did to him, and he's probably gonnna hunt me down and kill me when he wakes up. Yeah, I should be calm."
Another crack interrupted her ramblings and the split in the egg's shell widened. She swore she thought she saw something move within the crack, but before she could get a closer look the egg began to rock back and forth. A series of squeaking noises emanated from the quivering orb as the dragon hatchling struggled to break free of its prison. Peri wondered vaguely if she should help, but she was too concerned about harming the hatchling to actually do anything. It turns out she didn't have to do anything, because seconds later a chunk of the shell bulged outwards as if struck from inside, then slowly fell to the ground. Peri reached out with trembling fingers to pick it up, turning it so that the silver flecks sparked in the light. A squeak drew her attention back to the egg, which was now being dissembled at a rapid pace. A few more chunks of midnight blue fell away, and then a tiny, reptilian head poked out of the growing gap.
Peri could do nothing but stare at the tiny dragon, and it turned its head to stare at her, enormous blue boring into her soul. Peri wondered what it saw: a tough, hardened criminal or a scared, lonely girl on the run from one of the most powerful groups in the world. Maybe it saw neither. The dragon gave a squeak that sounded almost like a hello and clumsily broke away more of its container, until it could fit its body through the gap. Peri waved numbly until she realized how dumb she must look and dropped her hand. The dragon hatchling gave a strange trill and ambled awkwardly over to her, stopping once it reached her feet. It stared openly at her, almost sizing her up, and Peri found herself doing the same.
The dragon was rather slender and long, a little longer than her forearm, and even as a newborn it appeared graceful and proud. Its head had a noble air, like that of a finely bred stallion, but its eyes seemed too big for it. A closer look showed her that its eyes weren't blue all the way through, but in fact speckled with silver. The rest of its body was long and willowy, a lot like a snake's, but the resemblance ended there. A pair of enormous wings slowly extended from its body and fanned at the air, the thin membrane pulling tight against the air. Its legs were long and delicate, holding it clear of the ground, ending in long, ivory-white claws that pierced the dense foilage beneath it. It opened its mouth to squeak and Peri saw rows of dagger-like teeth the same color as its claws, as well as a narrow tongue that tapered to a point. The hatchling's scales were the same shade of midnight blue as the shell and its eyes, and like the shell there was the occasional silver scale scattered amonst the darkness. Almost like the night sky, she thought, and suddenly she realized she had extended her hand towards the dragon. She froze for a heartbeat, but her hand seemed to be moving with a mind of its own. A lot like when I touched the egg in the Lodge. And then her right hand touched the the dragon's ridged back and all thoughts vanished.
A torrent of ice and fire bolted through her veins and froze her in place, her entire body locking in protest to the violent invasion. Every single muscle trembled from exertion, but Peri could do nothing to relax them. She couldn't focus on anything, not with this burning cold shooting through her veins and pumping through her heart. Frostbite, her stunned brain offered weakly, trying to explain why she was so cold so suddenly. But she could feel every nerve ending, every inch of her skin so acutely, and there was no numbness warning her that her body was dying. There was no sluggish thinking- in fact, she'd never felt so alive. As the painful ice continued to paralyze her body, she felt her mind shifting, changing, and suddenly she was aware of the bugs skittering across the dirt, and the doe and her fawn standing a hundred paces away. She could feel Dareth's mind as a vast, alien presence, and she instinctively shied away from it. Her blood continued to run cold, her heart a pit of ice and her hand burned. It could have been minutes, but it felt like hours when she finally felt the excruciating cold begin to lessen. Her lungs suddenly remembered how to function and she gasped in air like it was her last breath. The moment she was able, she ripped her hand away from the dragon's hide and fell onto her back, limbs shaking.
Peri stared up at the clear night sky, thinking about how it looked like her dragon's scales, and had to take a moment to get her mind to cooperate. What had just happened?! Was there some sort of spell cast of the dragon that froze her every time she touched it? Sounded like something Dareth would do. Or maybe that was just something dragons did when they hatched for the wrong person? Had something gone wrong and the dragon had thought she was someone else? What if the dragon wasn't hers at all? Peri was surprised at how much that thought filled her with fear and loathing, hatred for whoever the dragon preferred over her. She didn't care whether the dragon wasn't meant for her or not. She would still fight to the death to keep it. That had to mean something, this fierce protectiveness raging through her shivering veins. She'd never felt so fiercely about anything, not even when Nick was captured. Her throat tightened instantly at the thought of her best friend, who was probably already undergoing some hideous form of torture, and on her behalf. Her mind happily offered her all sorts of images of what they might do to him, when suddenly something landed on her stomach and made its way up her torso.
A tiny face filled her field of vision as the dragon nosed at her cheek. Peri flinched when its nose made contact with her skin, but there was no freezing like before. Just the cool touch of reptilian scales. She realized she had tensed up all over again and forced her body to go limp, a tiny smile creeping onto her face as the dragon rubbed its rough head against her cheek. She hesitantly raised her hand to stroke the dragon's back, then froze. The moonlight glinted brightly in her eyes and she had to turn her hand away from the moon before she could get a look at what had caught her attention. There, in the center of her palm where she had touched the dragon, was a shining, silver patch of skin, and now that she focused on it, the skin began to itch furiously. No matter how hard she scratched at it the sensation would not go away so eventually she gave up. The dragon chirped in her ear and blinked at her, its wings fluttering slightly to stay balanced. Peri smiled wider and reached up to run her fingers along the dragon's side, the scales feeling cold and warm at the same time. The dragon seemed to like the contact, for it arched its back against her touch like a cat and chirped again.
Suddenly what almost felt like a touch brushed against her thoughts, and for a moment Peri jerked her mind away, thinking it was Dareth somehow. But when she felt the touch again, so faint she almost didn't notice it, there was a comforting feeling to it that convinced her to linger. Cautiously she extended her awareness towards the touch and it solidified into a thought: Peri. She stiffened at the sound of her name, but not from fear. Moving slowly, Peri worked her way into a sitting position, using her hands to deposit the dragon in her lap. It squeaked in complaint and wriggled free of her grip, immediately clawing its way up her side to perch on her shoulder. It was lighter than Peri would have expected, but she supposed it had to be light if it was ever supposed to fly. The dragon touched her mind again, offering her an image of… her ear. Peri turned to give the dragon an odd look and the image in her mind shifted, becoming her face. Peri noticed how much her ice blue eyes blazed out from her face while other colors remained muted. Peri smiled and struggled to form an image and send it back, giving the dragon a rudimentary picture of itself. The dragon chirped happily and rubbed its head against Peri's jaw.
Peri didn't know what made her think about Nick. But his image flashed in her mind and reality came crashing back down. Nick was captured, maybe dead, she was on the run with a stolen dragon, and Dareth was lying unconcious less than fifty paces away. He could wake up at any moment and Peri was certain he would pick up right where he'd left off- killing her. And she was just sitting here playing with her dragon like there was nothing wrong with the world. The dragon sensed the change in her mood and touched its nose to her cheek in a comforting manner.
''We've got to get going,'' she murmured softly, getting to her feet. She winced as the dragon's claws dug into her shoulder, struggling to stay still and not tumble to the ground, but she didn't pause. She shifted her pack back into place, eased the longbow off her body and unstrung it, took one last look at Dareth's prone figure lying in the ravine below, and ran. The dragon scrambled down her body and slipped into the pocket on the inside of her cloak, seeming strangely fixtated on Nick. Every so often, his image would fire across the bond, and his face spurred her on, giving her energy when she was near collapse. She had to keep going, because Nick was out there somewhere and he needed her. The only way she could help him was to find him and break him out, somehow. The last thing she thought before she fell asleep high in the branches of an oak tree the following morning was, I'm coming, Nick. Stay alive for me.
I'm trying to dredge up a name for Peri's dragon, but I will welcome all ideas! I'm ruling out Elvish names, since Peri has no knowledge of the language, so what I'm left with isn't much. :3 Post ideas in the reviews!