A Tale of Dragons

Chapter 10 - The Grip of the Forest

Tears started to form in George's eyes. "N-No no no." He cried. "Not again, no. I just got him back. I just got him back. No no." He sobbed into his hands thinking about all the things he'd done wrong, looking away from Nigel laying in his lap.

"George." Max began.

"No, shut up Max! Just....don't. Don't even try."

Max ignored George's hurtful words and moved George's hands away from his eyes to reveal that Nigel was glowing silver.

"Wha-?" George's mind couldn't fathom what he was seeing. Just in front of him, Nigel was shining a metallic tone of silver just like that of the silver fish in the lake.

A second passed and the glowing stopped. Nigel gasped and coughed once hard. His eyes fluttered open and he looked up at George.

"Never again." He said in a hoarse but orotund voice. "I promise."

George nodded, choking on his words.

Nigel sighed and sat up with ease. "Well," he started, "Let's go find Alyssa and those dragons." He stood up and the dragon rose with him.

George's gaze was frozen on the lake. He blinked away tears before standing up and following Nigel and Max out of the Whisper Forest.

----

They found Alyssa and the dragons back at the safety of the Shard. After reuniting the emerald dragon that they had travelled to the Enchantment Lake with the other two dragons, it was time to leave the forest.

It was nearly impossible to tell what time it was as the four friends walked along the path from the Shard to back to civilisation. Somewhere along the way, Alyssa was caught back up with all that had happened since she had last seen them flying in the sky.

"All of that happened in just this night?!" She said astonished.

"Yeah," Max confirmed. "And I'm pretty sure that Nigel was dead like twice too."

George was leading at the front and Nigel had taken up the back.

"I'm just glad we're all getting out of this forest tonight." He admitted chuckling slightly. "We've all got our stories straight, right? Everyone has got an excuse for where they were tonight if they get caught?"

Three 'yes's' followed his question.

"Okay that's good. I want to make sure that what happened in the forest here stays in the forest. Dragons or no dragons this forest doesn't exist on any maps and nobody knows that it even exists past the city, alright guys?"

Three more 'yes's' followed that question.

"Does he say this every time?" Max whispered to Alyssa.

"Yes." She confirmed. "It's like a reminder I guess. He wants to make sure that we still have something wonderful in this world to appreciate. Nigel used to be the one who said it and then George just kinda would add things to it that he thought were important until he decided that it was his job to do the talk after every day."

"And Nigel doesn't mind that he took over?" Max continued in a hushed tone.

"Not at all." Alyssa smiled. "He thought it was kinda cute to be honest. Every time George does something Nigel beams like he just won the lottery. Besides, Nigel has his own thing."

Max kicked a stone in the dark trying to keep it on the trail.

"What's that?" He asked before kicking the stone too hard off the dark trail.

"He's a dragonlord you plum!" Alyssa said amused. "He's the reason that we even know about the dragons. That's something that no one can ever take away from him. Being a dragonlord is in his blood. It's who he is and no body, not even the flipping Queen can take that away from him."