A Tale of Dragons

Chapter 05 - Lost

The change happened rather quickly. What used to be a calm flight had now turned into a search. A search for Nigel and George and the way back to The Shard.

"Take out your mobile!" Alyssa shouted pointing to Max.

Max slowly took his mobile phone out and held it up to the night sky.

"No signal." He mumbled shutting it quickly.

"Dammit," Alyssa cursed. "Who's at home? Mother? Father? Brother? Sister?"

"M-My brother, but I told him wasn't gonna be home tonight. I lied and told him I was staying the night at Nigel's. What about your mobile?"

"I leave it home since I can't take the tracking chip out and I don't want my parents to know about the dragons." Alyssa sighed, frustrated. "So no ones gonna be looking for you? What about your parents? Won't they be worried?"

Alyssa's words stung bitterly.

His parents.

Would they? Would his parents have been worried?

Well, Max would know the answer to that question if he even had parents. For as log as he could remember it was his brother who took care of him.

His brother who won custody battles over their grouchy aunt and uncle.

His brother who helped with his homework and told him he was the smartest kid he knew.

It was his brother that would be worried. His parents were gone.

"I-I'm sure they are worried." He lied. "Or they will be when I don't come home tomorrow. They're out for tonight though, and I told them I'd be gone."

Alyssa sat down beside Akeethen, burying her head in her hands. The sounds of the night had ceased and a thick silence took its place. Occasionally there was a hoot of an owl or a snap of a branch echoing through the forest. Alyssa was right, no one would be looking for them and by the time somebody noticed their absence, they would be dead. The thought of death plagued Max.

"Let's do something." Max said after a while.

Alyssa looked up slowly.
"What? What can we do Max!? We're stuck in this goddamn forest!"

"Let's get back on the dragons and go look for Nigel and George." Max suggested sitting down beside Alyssa.

"We can't." She mumbled.

Max gave her a look that resembled that of disappointment.

"Why not?"

Alyssa sighed trying to stay calm.

"Do you remember when you first got on Akeethen? Nigel said a couple words of dragon and that's how he knew to fly. I'm not a dragonlord. I can't speak dragon. If we want to fly, we have to command the dragon to rise or something like that. I'm not even sure, but I know I can't do it. Nigel always does it, he's the bloody dragonlord. Besides, dragons can't take off at night. It's too dark for them to see."

Max kicked a pebble with his boot.

"It's gonna get real cold soon." He mumbled crossing his arms against his chest. "We can't stay here then, we'll freeze to death. Should we walk?"

Alyssa pulled down the sleeves to her hoodie over her fingers.

"What about the dragons? We can't leave them! The forest is too thick for them to follow let alone us navigate. I'm not leaving the dragons Max."

Max thought about the dragons, great big creatures of immense size and colour. Surely they'd be fine on their own.

"We can't stay here. We'll die and then where would we be? I know I'm new at this whole dragon thing, but right now I see two clear choices. Stay and meet an imminent death, or leave knowing there's a possibility that we will get back to The Shard. And I'm sorry Alyssa, I truly am, but I'm leaving whether you're going with me or not."

Alyssa stood there, astonished at what Max suggested. He would leave her on her own if she didn't agree to go with him!

"Max no! Please don't leave me alone!" She sobbed.

"It's your choice Alyssa. I'm leaving whether you want me to or not. The real question is: are you going with me?"

Alyssa fell to her knees beside Akeethen who had picked up on her sadness.

"I'm not going with you! I can't just leave the dragons on their own to wander. Who knows what trouble they could get into? I doubt they would stay in this clearing for long. I can't leave them by themselves."

"I'm not taking them with me." Max said flatly. "There is no way that we would get anywhere with them getting stuck on trees and god knows what else. Come with me Alyssa. The dragons are huge, they'll be fine. I bet they'll just sit down and wait for us to get back.Nigel and George will know what to do when we find them. They can't be that far."

"No Max. I said I don't want to leave the dragons. So you go, go on and get lost and freeze to death on your own. I won't abandon them to wander and loose them. We've already lost Nigel and George and the other green dragon, we don't need to loose track of each other."

"What if I need help then Alyssa?!" Max started to shout, loosing his temper. "What happens they got hurt and need help?"

"They're probably fine Max! Let's just wait for them!"

"You can wait. I'm going to find them."

Max turned abruptly and stormed off towards the forest. He would find a way back to Nigel and George, even if he was alone.