Dragon Fey, Mara DragonClaw [finding audrey txt] 📗

his head up to glare at her, but she pushed it back down, “Still Jack, still,” Jack tried to kick her in the foot, but she dodged it and kicked him in the shin, making him cringe, “STILL!” she yelled at him. This time he accepted defeat and stayed still.

Aria then began the laborious process of creating the medicine. She first got the first aid kit plus medicine making tools out of her bag, closing her eyes as seeing the loop that had been Festus’s ultimate doom brought back bad memories. She laid out what she had in front of her; wood fiber bandages, anti itch cream made from pasted Sarean water flower petals, a cotton seed based numbing agent, a paste used to stop infections made from willow bark, aloe cream for burns, some empty vials for mixing things in, a stirring stick, a platform that can be suspended over a fire, an expandable pot for making larger amounts of medicine, and a couple of small glasses for serving the medicine with.

Aria selected the burner plate, the stirring stick, and the collapsible pot and pulled some puffs of cotton from Jack’s makeshift bed. She then started searching around the clearing for a piece of flint she could use to light it and start a fire to boil the medicine with.

‘“What are you looking for?”

“I said keep still!”

“I am being still. What are you looking for?”

Aria sighed, “Flint.”

“There’s some in the outer clearing I cut my arm on some when I landed.”
Aria nodded gratefully even though she knew that Jack couldn’t see her, “Thanks.”

“Hey, it’s my wings that depend on this working you know!”

“I know!” Aria called as she flew out into the normal clearing that held the rock outcropping. Aria was careful when flying out into the open. She knew that the fairies from her Hollow were looking for her, but she didn’t know exactly how far into the forest their search went. She gingerly touched down around the area where she had first met Jack and began to look for the flint that the cut himself on.

Aria had just located what seemed to be a piece of flint and had begun to stand up before she felt cold metal on her neck, “Do you want to come quietly,or are we going to have a mess on our hands?” Aria gulped and nodded carefully, “Good. Now stand up slowly,” Aria did as she was told, “Now walk,” Aria could feel a hand push her in the back,  directing her forward towards the woods.

Aria would have thought that the fairies from her Hollow had found her, but there seemed to only be one person. One of the key indicators was that there weren’t a bunch of men cheering and boasting and laughing and talking about what they were going to do with her. No, whoever this was, they kept silent as they directed her through the woods.

Aria looked up and prayed to the moon god that no harm would come to her under his rays. The pale light filtered through the canopy of leaves, tinted green in places from where it passed through some. Then with a jolt Aria realised that they were heading north. North?! Why are we going north? There isn’t anything in that direction except- Oh gods no. They were going to the cave.

Aria prayed even harder, Lupine, great god of the moon, please, oh please don’t let me die during the time of your rule! For some reason, while most fairies hailed Orion, god of the sun, Aria had always felt a deeper connection with Lupine, god of the moon. Yet another thing that made me the outcast. she thought bitterly.

Aria captor broke the silence, “This isn’t going to be fast enough. We need to fly,” Aria cried out as she felt something wrap around her waist and cinch tight, “Relax, it’s just a rope. It’ll get rid of any ideas you have about flying away,” Aria’s captor pushed off, almost cutting Aria in half as the rope cinched even tighter and came close to pulling her off the ground. She quickly launched off on her own.

Guided by the fey at the end of the rope, Aria flew through the darkened forest for what must have been hours before landing in the place Aria dreaded most. “We are here,” her captor sounded so relaxed, as if walking into a cave full of darkness and demons was something one did on a regular basis.

Aria couldn't actually see the cave. She more felt a yawning open space before her and felt the cold that the surrounding rocks had always been said to give off, and she could make out the area in the black canvas of the world that was slightly darker than the area around it, the moonlight giving her a little help in making out its shape.

“In!” Aria felt a shove from behind as the fairy pushed her towards the cave, she started to walk in nervously. As she crossed the threshold cool air kissed her cheeks, bringing a shiver and making her stop, “Keep going!” Aria felt another shove from behind.

They walked for about ten minutes before they came to what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, “You might want to close your eyes,” Aria decided to take the fairy’s advice and closed her eyes as tight as they would go. She heard her captor messing around with something made of metal and a sound that was similar to that of a door sliding open. Aria closed her eyes even tighter then she had thought possible as light shone upon her, bringing a slight warmth along with it.

“Come,” Aria’s captor walked through the doorway that Aria sensed had opened up in front of them, dragging Aria along by the rope.

“Where have you taken me?” Aria asked weakly, straining against the rope around her waist.

“I have taken you home,” the fairy said quietly.

“You can’t be from the Hollow. And that is definitely not where we are now.”

“That Hollow is not your true home. This is. Open your eyes.”

Aria opened them as she was told, blinking furiously from the light. When she had gotten basic sight of shapes and motion back, she could see things moving beyond where she was standing. As she got her depth perception back, she could see that she was standing on a sort of ledge or cliff looking down on a seething mass. And when she had gotten her full color vision back, she gasped.

Below the cliff on which she stood, there was a whole Hollow full of fairies. And every single one of those fairies had dragon wings.

 

Chapter #8: What The!?!?!?!?

Aria stumbled back and almost fell off a cliff, “Easy! I can’t bring you to the council if you’re dead,” Now that she was in the light, Aria could see her captor. He was only a little taller than she was, maybe 5 ½ inches. His hair mostly covered by the hood of a black cloak, but Aria could see a few strands of platinum blonde that fell into his face. He wore black clothing, Aria though she recognized the material as shadow lily petals. The three things that held Aria’s attention most, his age, which was not much older than she was, his eyes which we pieces of black onyx, and his wings.

The peculiar thing about his wings was the coloring: blues and purples with flashes of silver. Aria had never seen a boy fairy with purple on his wings, though she did admit that she had only ever met one “dragon fey” boy before.

“Uh, council?”

He sighed, “Yes council.”

Are all dragon fey boys so impatient? “You really think your going to get me to go down there?” Aria pointed to the Hollow on at the base of the cliff.

“Ya.”

“You're in for a disappointment then. I am definitely not going down there.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not dumb enough to not be able to realise that if someone feels they need to kidnap me to get me to go somewhere, that that somewhere is probably not a nice place to go.

“Now, if you would excuse me, I have a friend up there that will lose his wings if I don’t help him,” Aria tried to pry the rope off of her waist. When that didn’t work, she simply walked in the direction of where they had come in an attempt to go back through the door they had come in. There were two problems with this plan. One, she couldn’t have moved her captor with the help of twauge. And two, the doorway was now gone.

“Where the heck did the door go?!”

“Aw, does the wittle girl want to go home?”

Somewhere inside of her a part of Aria screamed, Please let me kill this guy, oh please just let me kill this guy! The more sensible part of her suppressed this urge and instead replaced it with the though, I am definitely not going to live in the world of the dragon fey if all the guys are going to be such pains in my A.

“Look dude, not cool. Back. Off.”

“Oh, we’re getting mad now are we? Well, let’s just see how this plays out,” he gave a wicked grin that made Aria want to hurl and whipped out a knife, startling Aria as he cut the rope that attached her to him. He grinned even wider, “Catch me,” he flew off faster than Aria had thought possible.

“Damn him!” Aria muttered under her breath as she launched off after him, something in her not being able to resist. It was at this time that Aria remembered earlier when she had been wondering how she could loath Jack so much after knowing him only a few hours. Maybe it’s a genetic thing. All dragon fey guys are incredibly easy to get ticked at. She gave a small smirk at this as she sped down and around the cliff face after the nameless dragon fey.

“To slow?” He called back over his shoulder and then laughed, giving Aria enough determination to go faster.

It was then that Aria remembered something Calea had said to her long ago after she had had come home crying because some of the fairies were picking fun at her for not being fast and losing all the races: Child, you may not be as strong or fast as them, but I can guarantee that you are ten times as smart. Use that. For example, what are the rules? Bend them to the breaking point. She had won almost every race  after that. As far as Aria could tell, in this race, there were no rules.

Instead of following him in what seemed to be a spiral around the cliff face that Aria now realised to be a pillar of rock, Aria flew up and over the pillar. When she reached the other side, she waited like a tiger ready to pounce.

When the boy came by on his normal course, still thinking that she was following him, Aria flew straight don the cliff and stopped right in front of him. He was so startled, he stopped and gave Aria time to grin before putting her hand out, grabbing his shoulder, and saying, “Got you.”

The boy swore, bringing