Tainted Wings

Chap. 7: Skylar

“I thought we agreed no horse play.” Seth. I could tell that was him.

“I’m sorry. I was going to train her today anyway.” Axel seems even angrier than what Seth does. “Relax dude, we don’t have anything serious going on.”

“That doesn’t matter! We just need to make sure she gets stronger!” 

“Dude, she will! I’ll take her out today, unless you want to do it yourself since you’re just so perfect!” I can hear him growling now. I try to run in there and stop them, but Alice grabs me before I can.

“You’ll just make it worse.” She mutters, as she cranes her neck inside the cave to get a peek. “They’re a good ten feet away from each other, so we’re good for now.” I lean back against the wall to hear more.

“You think I’d be the leader for any other reason! I’m better than you in every way!” 

“Well let’s see you prove it!” I can’t believe they don’t think we can hear them, even if we weren’t by the cave.

“I’m done with you!” We hear footsteps stomping our way. Alice and I stumble over each other trying to make our way to the tree line.

“So where’s everyone else?” I ask trying to make it seem like we were here chatting the whole time as Seth storms out of the cave.

“Oh some went out to try and find a town for us to stay at, while the other’s tried to find some food.” We both look over as Seth makes his way out of the cave. “How’d it go Dragon Breath?” He shoots over an angered look at Alice, as he disappears into the maze of trees. “Well I hope he doesn’t forget what I’m capable of.” She spats.

Axel soon comes casually walking out of the cave like nothing went wrong. “Hey girls, why don’t we try to go find some water?”

“What was that all about?” Alice questions. She jabs a thumb in the direction in which Seth has disappeared.

He shrugs. “No clue. Anyway we better get going.” He heads into the woods. I look at Alice. She shrugs as well and follows him. I look in the direction Seth has gone, then turn around and catch up with Alice and Axel.

After walking for a few hours, we finally come across a vast lake. The water is a beautiful clear color. It’s an odd looking lake. Most of them aren’t this color. I lean over the edge to see my reflection. My auburn hair looks like how I last remember it, long and silky looking. My eyes blend in with the color of the water which surprises me, I would’ve never thought they were that blue. Axel leans in next to me.

“So what do you plan on bringing water back in?” Alice blurts out from behind us. She startles me so much that I almost fall in, but Axel holds out his arm allowing me to balance myself by grabbing on to him.

“We can improvise.” He says back to her. He grabs a large leaf from a nearby tree and some blades of grass. He twists them and attaches them, and grabs more leaves and grass. Before we know it, he’s created a reasonable sized bucket to carry water. “See. I improvised.”

He walks over to the lake and dips the bucket in. To my surprise when he pulls it out, it holds together and doesn’t drop a single ounce of water. 

“Let me see that!” I run over, snatching the object from him. I dump out the already collected water, and reach in to get some of my own. When I squint to try and see the bucket under the surface, I find more than what I probably want to.

I stare into deep red colored eyes. Of course I lean in closer to try and see if I’m just imagining things, but as I get closer, I see there is a scaly complexion surrounding it. I’m too late to pull away, because the creature jumps put and grabs hold of my hair and puts another arm around my neck. I try to yell out but I get a mouth full of water instead. I turn to look to the surface to see Axel and Alice reaching out their hands trying to grab me. I hold out my hand desperately grabbing for them, but I just get farther away. Once they disappear from view I clench my throat.