A man and a Beast

Chapter 9 - Hunted

(Like cat and mouse)

(Uh... sure?)

Colin

"Run," Felicia told me.

And run we did. Dodging trees and bullets as we darted through the forest. Flying was but an option as we'll be shot from the sky. 

"Keep going," I hear Felicia call out to me, "I'll buy us some time!"

After a few more seconds of running a bright orange light shines behind me. The shrieks of men quickly follows. I just keep going. I break through a tree line and almost run off a cliff. 

"WHOA!" My hand manages to grip and a tree branch and I halt myself from falling. 

I hear Felicia's heavy stomping approaching fast. I suddenly realize that she doesn't know about the cliff. 

"Felicia wai-" I couldn't finish before she broke the treeline and rammed into me, sending us both off the edge.

As I fall backwards I try to collect what is happening but before I can map my surroundings my shoulder connects with a ledge. Sending searing pain through my shoulder and the rest of my body spiraling. 

"COLIN!" I hear Felicia scream

I quickly adjust myself so I'm in a skydive position. Felicia flies under me then gently pulls up. I land on her back. Quickly warping my arms around the base of her neck, she fully attempts to stop our fall. Unfortunately we picked up too much velocity and it we were going to crash through the trees.

In a desperate attempt at keeping me safe, Felicia turned and held me close while draping both her wings around me. Breaching the trees wasn't as bad as ramming into the earth. Upon first impact I felt my organs move as I was launched from Felicia's stone grip.

When I hit the ground I made sure I rolled the force off. Mid-way doing so I heard another crash from further ahead. With a dizzy head I attempted to get to my feet. I stumbled back a bit and used a nearby tree for support. Breathing heavily I look up and in front of my I see a recently beheaded tree, behind it was non other than Felicia.

"Felicia," I attempt to call out, "Are you ok?"

She groans, "Nothing a bit of sleep can't fix... I think..."

Sighing I say, "You sure can be reassuring at times."

She chuckles as she gets up. I manage to get myself walking.

She looks up, "This forest isn't safe for us anymore."

"Where should we go now?" I am now by her side.

She sighs, "I suppose our only option is my parents home."

My brows furrow, "What about any other forest?"

"Any dragon could be living there."

I look up to her, "How many of you even are there."

She gives a light chuckle, "Colin, there is a whole kingdom of us scattered across the globe."

I have some more questions but I decide it can wait. We continue to head east, being cautious not to be spotted. We were halfway out of the park and it was mid-afternoon when the sound of spinning propellers caught our attention.

I look through the trees and to my horror I see a helicopter zooming in our direction. We quickly pick up our pace. But the copter, having no obstacles, quickly catches on to us. A explosion to my right almost knocks me off me feet. I risk a glance behind me and see that the helicopter is shooting missiles at us.

After seeing this me and Felicia start rapidly shifting our direction to confuse it. Which it worked. The missile barrage stopped but that didn't halt our dash. But our luck ran short when we broke the treeline. There, on the other side of the clearing, another helicopter stared us down. We were trapped.

"What now," I whisper to Felicia

"On my mark you jump on my back," she explains, "We could possibly fly out of here."

I nod.

"On three," she tells me, "1... 2...-"

Before she can finish a canon sounds. I snap my head to the left. I can barley register what looks like a ball of electricity as it crashes into one the the copters. The whole thing then starts to spark as it spins out of control. A second later it crashes somewhere in the trees. I second canon fired. I had a hint on where it was going and turned around to the one behind us. Yet again another ball of energy hit it.

This time luck tried testing us one more time. As it started spinning our way. After a quick calculation I knew it would hit us if we stayed. I told Felicia to run and that we did. We just manged to outrun the helicopter as it crashed 20 feet behind us. But the shockwave knocked me off me feet. Felicia, being a dragon, stumbled for a second. 

I scramble to my feet as I hear another sound approach. I turn to it and this time I am greeted with a military grade helicopter. The uh, something Osprey I think it was called. If what I've been told by my brother was correct. He worked on these for a while. Said they were his favorite aircraft in the arsenal. This one seemed like exactly like the model he had in his room. Except there wasn't the US flag embedded on its side. It wasn't Thorn either.

When it turned to land I got a good look at who it is. I don't know what to think of it. It's better than Thorn but not quite as good if it was government. But then again I don't know what the US would do with a dragon, and I don't really wanna find out.

But these people, they are interesting. They could be dangerous but they could help me. A man stepped out of the copter. I knew who it was instantly.

Nickolas Holt, Secretary of Armada industries.