Legions of Bone: Dragon Rider Book 3

Chapter 18: A Dog, A Girl, A Dragon, And Some Dude

Nevaeha

Nevaeha shuddered under the waterfall. The icy stream pelted her back and head like tiny pebbles. She scrubbed at her skin with a cloth she'd found stuffed in the bottom of her saddlebag, trying to wash away the grime. Including the ash and blood of a fallen city and a dead friend.

She was careful about cleaning the wound on her neck from when Kenji had sank his teeth into her.

When Scylla needed a break from flying and Nevaeha's stomach growled, she had found a nearby stop with a shower. The bite seemed even worse in the mirror. As deep as her pinky nail, the skin was raw and red and caked with dirt.

Cleaning it had been agonizing.

But the woman Nevaeha had saved from Farina helped clean it for her before going on her way. She hadn't ever learned her name, or maybe she had told Nevaeha and she'd forgotten.

Nevaeha felt the wound beneath the water, her breath shaking from more than the cold. She didn't want to remember the memories, but she didn't want to suppress them either.

She extended a trembling hand toward the shadow hunkered in front of the waterfall. Her dragon whistled, fabric brushing her wiggling fingers. Nevaeha grabbed the offered towel and padded over to a smooth, slippery rock to dry off.

They were still in the common territory, a city above Feras where the annual tournaments were held. The city was far enough from the front to not worry about anything in the forest around her, but too expensive for the few silver she found loosely scattered in her saddlebag.

Warmth heated Scylla's scales like hot stones from a sauna, but icy winds still slipped between the nooks and gaps of her dragon's body.

"Something's coming." Scylla's voice was sharp and alert. Her head tilted, ears angled toward a noise Nevaeha couldn't hear.

Nevaeha fumbled through her bag for clothes. She hadn't risked taking them out early and setting them aside in case a breeze caught them and her clothes ended up floating down the river. Now she wished she had left them more easily accessible.

Scylla hissed and before Nevaeha could even yelp, her dragon scooped up her naked form and weaved through the trees. Nevaeha knew enough not to ask questions. She tried to peer through her dragons' talons, her gaze scanning the few areas she could see in the gaps between Scylla's wings and body. She found slivers of forest and grey light and heard the rush of a waterfall off to her left.

Her dragon froze, her chest barely moving-

Branches snapped. The sound of heavy breathing broke through the silence. It got closer, closer, closer.

Then, there were more. It sounded like a pack of hounds on the chase, but Scylla remained too still for it to be animals.

A flash of shadow ran across Nevaeha's view. Then another. Then several other shadows with jerking limbs. She heard growls and shoved herself into pants, threw on a shirt and as much armor as she could while still confined in her dragon's paw.

Once the voices were gone and the rushing stream of a river and waterfall came back, Scylla set her down.

Nevaeha stumbled into her shoes, her socks half hanging on her feet. Scylla shook and shuffled as she dressed as quickly as she could.

She scrambled up her dragon's side, her bag slung over a shoulder. "Go!"

Scylla shot into the forest. She leapt and gilded wherever she could but the trees were too close together for actual flight.