The town drifted from sight as the wind whipped through Anna’s hair and lashed her cheeks. The whooting beat of the creature’s wings thudded in time with her erratic breathing. She twisted and slammed her fists against the gray-scaled talons digging into her shoulders. The pain and the blood oozing from her wounds seemed distant, lost in the wave of horror and her need to get free.
As they rose higher, her lungs burned, and her arms grew heavy. Dizzy, she hung limp and helpless in the huge creature’s claws, watching the pinpoint lights of the towns below drift past. The air around her hummed like a frigid vacuum, mottled by the sound of the creature’s relentless wings. Time could have stilled for all she knew, and the lights passing below could be just a mirage. Her eyes fluttered closed. Maybe if she slept for just a little while…
The beast holding her pitched to the side, and pain ripped through her shoulders. Anna hung on and prayed for this new torture to stop.
Her abductor howled into the night. Blinking away the tears, Anna caught an immense, dark form in the moonlight seconds before it slammed into her captor’s hide.
Anna gasped as the creature above released its grip.
She seemed to hang for a moment before gravity took hold, pulling her back to the ground where she belonged.
The lights of the town below raced toward her. The frigid wind cut into her skin. All pain whisked to the recesses of her mind as she flailed, her scream frozen in her throat.
Coherent sound vanished. The howling of the wind was her only companion, before a cascade of warm green fluttered around her, bumping her back up in the air. She struggled to catch her breath and a scream finally wrenched from her throat as she began to fall again. Her stomach balled as she grappled for unseen purchase.
The green shroud encompassed her again, before a gentler grip took her by the arms and pulled her back into the sky. The lights below grew distant once more. Anna pawed at the warm talons wrapped around her arms. Her shoulders screamed, but the pain paled in comparison to the merciless grip of her former captor. She struggled for breath and leaned her head against the claw gripping her left arm, thankful for the few second’s rest despite being flown off by a different beast.
Somehow, though, she didn’t feel threatened as she had by the gray dragon, as if this huge, gentle creature above meant no harm. Deep emerald-green scales sparkled in the moonlight as her new captor spun, heading away from the mountain.
Her wounds started to throb despite the gentle touch. A whoosh of breath escaped her lips, and she drew in another. Even though they were turned away from the mountain, heading back toward the populated areas, she was still the prisoner of a giant, flying reptile.
The beast slowed, hovering.
Anna blinked the sting from her eyes until the mist cleared and a gray dragon came into focus, beating its huge, bat-like wings. What took her breath away, though, was the pale, limp form of her sister dangling from the creature’s talons.
“Sybil!”
The green dragon holding Anna bellowed in fury. Anna cringed, her ears ringing from the deafening sound. The gray howled once in return, and Anna could swear the beast smiled before opening its talons, dropping her best friend and only sister.
The sky became a nightmare as the green craned its wings and fell, careening toward Sybil’s falling body. One of the dragon’s claws released Anna as it grabbed for her sister, snatching her wrist. They jerked as Sybil’s limp form jolted to a stop. The dragon’s wings beat furiously, but they continued to fall.
Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, Anna screamed down to her sister. “Sybil! Sybil, wake up. Sybil!”
When would this insane nightmare end?
They spiraled toward the ground, the dragon beating its wings in a mad fury. Anna thought the creature looked at her, sorrow in its huge, dark eyes as it grunted with the extra weight of two women in its claws. It made a pitiful, whining sound before Anna’s arm slipped from its grip.
Her stomach lurched as she fell, undeterred. Screaming, she looked up to see the beast wrapping its other claw around Sybil before night enveloped them. Anna flailed her arms and legs as the lights below screamed toward her.
They were beautiful, those lights, almost serene from above. Too bad she’d never know which town they were.
Another roar echoed through the darkness, and she slammed into something hard and warm. The breath knocked from her lungs. She coughed as she started to ascend like she’d landed on the floor of an elevator.
Her breathing slowed as a sense of safety rolled over her, but that was ridiculous, because the warm, gray-scaled hide beneath her hands was not an elevator. Anna trembled as the creature beat its wings, gaining altitude. A deep sense of calm fell over her like a veil. She closed her eyes and languished in it, until another hulking form slammed against her savior’s hide.
Wait. Savior? This was another dragon!
She blinked away her stupor seconds before another huge, dark hide slammed against them. Anna wrapped her arms around her dragon’s neck as it reared back. Her dragon inhaled, and night became day as a stream of blue and yellow flames spewed from the creature’s mouth.
Holeee… Anna cringed back from the heat, but held tighter as the beast’s neck warmed beneath her hands.
Something else slammed them from the side. The dragon balked and Anna lost her grip. She tumbled across the dragon’s rigid spine and pawed at the creature’s tail before careening toward the ground again.
Her scream echoed over the growls and roars of the multi-colored creatures whisking about, clawing at each other. She fell through them and back into the solace of darkness. Three seconds of relief was replaced by the shock of the lights below screaming toward her once more. Her head spun, the lights clouding into a haze as they got bigger.
It didn’t matter anymore, nothing did. She closed her eyes and embraced the frigid air.
Something growled, joggling Anna out of her stupor as a streak of white flew past her. With the lines of the town below in view, Anna screamed as the blur bumped her from below, slowing her fall before white, glowing talons wrapped around her biceps, raising her into the air and dragging her feet across a sloped rooftop.
Dazzling white wings sparkled above, robbing the sky of moonlight and infusing the stars’ brilliance into its own. Overhead, a green and a gray dragon beat their wings, snapping and spewing fire at each other before her white rescuer whisked her away from the mayhem and turned them once again toward the mountains in the distance. Those high peaks that only moments ago sparked terror through her core, now looked more like solace and salvation.
The dragon above her was small, maybe half the size of the others, but even more gentle than the green. He craned his neck to look at her, and what she saw stole her breath—not the soulless eyes of a beast, but concern, tenderness.
She closed her eyes and turned away. It was a trick. Somehow the creature had pushed her terror aside, masking her primal instincts and forcing her to be calm—probably making it easier for the beast to carry her to her death. She wouldn’t give in.
The white dragon growled and coughed. They faltered, falling slightly before gaining altitude again. One of its wings flapped erratically, a dark fluid dripped from a jagged rip from the outer edge, clear through to the wing bone. Anna shuddered, remembering the clawing and hissing mass of dragons that were… fighting over her? All of this was too insane to comprehend.
With a final grunt, her sparkling savior stopped struggling. The bright wings wrapped around her and tightened. Her world became a glowing pearlescent tourniquet, tight and constricting. She struggled to breathe as dragons bellowed their fury somewhere in the distance.
The white dragon’s heartbeat drummed in her ears, belaying a terror that may have matched her own, before the all-too familiar sensation of falling flayed what was left of her resolve. She pressed against the warm, tense wings nearly suffocating her, carrying them both to their death.
She yearned for the lights of the town, for the comforting presence of anyone human in these last few fleeting seconds; when the brief cry of dozens of muffled voices seeped through the creature’s wings.
A moment of hope dissolved into a horrific crash, slamming her against the base of the dragon’s still-clenched wings. Anna’s head throbbed. Her chest stung. Dizzy, she was unable to suck in a breath, as the dragon’s heartbeat faded to nothing.