Page 35 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
There was nowhere to go even if I could get down. I was trapped.
I didn’t mean to lean so far forwards toward the edge, but I’d never been so high before; it was higher than even the cliff to get to the seat. Panic took hold of my body and suddenly I was falling, my feet and arms scrabbling uselessly at the hardened, black earth. There were no trees, no vegetation to grab onto. Nothing but pain and heat and darkness. I didn’t even scream as I fell, the ground rushing up to meet me.
A strange whooshing filled my ears and the dragon dove underneath me, flaring his wings as I dropped onto his back with a hard thump. I gripped onto his neck spikes as a lifeline as Zariah tried to pump his wings and gain altitude. It was too little, too late, and together we slammed into the ground. I was thrown from his back and hit the hardened ground viciously. Pain exploded through my body as a I rolled, finally coming to rest a short distance away from him.
I sat up slowly as I gasped in air, making sure I still had my body parts and that nothing was broken. I felt like the food cart had hit me, but the pain would pass. I turned toward the giant mass of scales next to me. The dragon—Zariah—wasn’t moving.
Tentatively, I took a few steps toward him. “Hey,” I said softly, as though I were talking to a wild animal. “You ok?”
The dragon made a low groaning sound in his throat and rolled toward me. Scales rippled and limbs sucked inwards, and in seconds, Zariah collapsed in front of me on his back. I hovered over him, holding my breath as I tracked the rise and fall of his chest. Good. He was alive.
But still naked.
A bruise was already forming on his chest from where I kicked him, and I felt a little bad about it. There was obviously more at play here than a man trying to press his advantage. I just wish I understood any of it.
“Zariah? Are you ok?”
I tentatively pushed and poked at all his limbs, getting no reaction until I prodded a lump near his shoulder bone. Zariah hissed at me, his eyes cracking open and glazed with pain.
“Broke something here, I think. It’s swelling,” I remarked calmly. I scampered to his other side on my hands and knees. I felt around his hairline, finding another large bump on the side of his head. Silver eyes shifted to gold and back as I tentatively touched around the edges with my fingertips.
“Yeah, that’s probably going to sting,” I agreed. I shifted behind him and put his head in my lap. It was softer than the hard, charred black ground, anyway. The sun was setting, and already the wind held a chill that was slicing through my fighting leathers. It could have been worse: at least I wasn’t in a silk dress. Had the ball really taken most of the day? My stomach growled.
“I’m assuming we shouldn’t stay here,” I asked the empty air.
Zariah shifted under me, then went limp.
“Wonderful,” I remarked to no one.
For a while we simply sat there, my focus primarily on ensuring he was just resting and not actively dying on me.
Ssssssst.
I jumped as a hissing noise came from my right. It was getting hard to see in the semi-darkness, but I didn’t miss the glint of the hard exoskeleton ofsomethingthat slithered out from under the rock.
Sssssst!
It looked like an ugly little monster with eight legs and a hard outer body. It had a tail that reared over its head with a sharp little jabber on the end. I didn’t want to find out what it felt like.
“Alright, we gotta go.”
I stood and shifted Zariah, getting in front of him and bracing my legs under me. Seizing my strength, I hefted him up so that he sprawled across my back, his weight as evenly distributed as I could make it. My legs trembled for a moment, but then I adjusted. I may be skinny and underfed, but I was strong.
I glanced back down, seeing the little monsters had gathered. Four of them had slithered out from under the rocks and hardened earth, and they were all hissing at me.
“Yeah. Thanks, but no thanks.”
I started trudging back toward the large cliff that rose in front of us like a mountain, but realized I was at a loss. There was no way I’d be able to climb with an unconscious prince/dragon man on my back.
I sat Zariah down on a rock carefully, slumped against the side of the cliff. “Wake up, Zariah.” I shook him slightly, but his head only lolled to the side.
Ssssst.
Sssssst.
Ssssst.
The little monsters were coming out from everywhere and circling us. A bolt of fear shot straight into my stomach, and I forced myself to take a deep breath. I would not enjoy this, but it was necessary.
