The Unknown Realm #4 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

I

"You annoying, overgrown furnace." She sneered and swung her weapon.

The instantly dragon froze as Calaire passed through its scaly body and shattered it to pieces. The fog cleared, the cold seized and Judson sighed in relief. He gazed up at the sun as the heat progressively began to warm up his own freezing sides.

Waverly came to him and knelt beside him. She looked very exhausted and quite weak.

"Are you alright?"

Judson groaned and stared down at his ankle. It was swollen and bent at the wrong angle. The dragon's claws had raked through his flesh and he was bleeding. Waverly gazed at the injury and tried to touch it but he flinched.

"It is broken from the inside. It stepped on me."

Waverly gave a tired, hopeless sigh. "How do we get you back to camp? You cannot walk or fly and I definitely cannot carry you."

Judson seemed to consider for a while. He swallowed nervously. "What about. . .?"

She lifted an eyebrow in understanding and a small smile broke across her tired face. Her gaze went skyward. "He still does not like being near you."

"I know but he will help, will he not?" He asked, seeming very uncomfortable with his own suggestion.

Waverly nodded in agreement. Her one hand was placed on his shoulder and the other on his chest. She wondered why his heart beat so strongly then remembered that he had come only a few seconds close to death. Her gaze traveled skyward again and she gave a sharp whistle.

"He will help but he still does not like you." She teased and stood up.

Chestnut soon came bounding towards them but he did not fly - he ran instead - and came in his full size. Waverly walked toward him before he could come close and rubbed his fur.

"Hello, I need a favor."

Chestnut's blue eyes blinked down at her then snapped to Judson. He growled deeply and shuffled his feet.

"He is badly hurt. He can't walk, you have to carry him." She whispered.

The wolf reared back in objection and huffed.

"I know but it will not be for a long while. Our camp is not so far from here and you can run fast, remember? I promise it will not take long."

Chestnut lowered his head and refused to move. Waverly gently dug her hand into his fur and felt his skin underneath; it was warm and throbbing with the beat of his unusually large heart.

"Do it for me."

The wolf finally consented and allowed Judson to be helped onto his back. Waverly picked up the water jars, thankful that none of them had broken, and joined atop Chestnut's back.

When they arrived camp, the heat seemed to reduce drastically but this was mostly because they were pitched a little close to the sea. The land there was wide; hilly in some areas, sprinkled with a few trees for shade, abandoned cages for livestock animals and good soil for farming. Waverly suspected it had once been a village but there was no sight of a single house or person. The land though was a feasting center for birds as the wet earth provided them with a lot of worms. Waverly even thought she spotted a fox once but it had disappeared the minute she blinked.

She aided a limping Judson into their shared tent and began to tend to his ankle. After a long silence, she finally spoke but kept her eyes on the dressing.

"Why did you leave without telling me?"

Judson lifted his gaze and found that she was not looking at him. During the past week they had spent traveling, he noticed that she sometimes acted differently and in such moments it made him feel he did not know who she was anymore.