Dragonsbane

Drake Bites Some Wyvern Butt

Chapter 19

Drake

         “Ralem,” Arianna said weakly, her voice hoarse from screaming. There was no response. She sank to the ground, shocked and miserable. She was too shaken to even cry. Suddenly, in the pitch black dungeon, her gaze was caught by a soft glow. She squinted against the glare as the light intensified, slowly bobbing toward her. The light revealed a marble staircase. Someone must be holding the light!  She crept closer to the bars, hoping against hope that it was someone who could help them.

      The fiery orb lit up an amazing amount of the prison, its small flame flickering and creating finicky shadows on the wall.  Arianna caught a glimpse of the beast that had attacked Ralem when it screeched and scuttled away. It was covered in armor and looked like a giant scorpion, its shiny metallic plates shimmering in the low light. It disappeared around the corner, melting into the darkness.

        Arianna watched in fascination as the light drew closer, illuminating a ghostly looking girl.  A large form followed her, its feet making a click and clop with each footfall. When it got closer Arianna identified it as a hippogriff and shivered. She had seen hippogriffs circling high above in her homeland, but they had been white or black, depending on the season. This one had strange markings. She knew that hippogriffs were dangerous and had never gone anywhere near where they were rumored to live.

       The woman held up her candle to the prison bars, peering in, “Hello?” she called daintily. Arianna hated her as soon as she heard the woman’s sweet voice. But she stayed as quiet as a mouse in her jail cell. There was no reply so the woman got the keys off from around her neck and opened the jail. Arianna heard the woman gasp as her light fell upon Ralem’s limp body. “Hurry,” she called to the hippogriff , “That dratted stingler has got to him. He’s going to be dead in minutes.” Arianna clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping.

      The hippogriff hurried over on its mismatched legs, bending over (its horse half was as large as a heavy-set farm horse) to let the woman heave Ralem’s body (not without some difficulty) onto its feathered back. Then they both hurried out, with a strange assortment of footsteps. The light from the candle the woman was holding disappeared as she stepped around the corner.

       Arianna slumped against the bars, her emotion building in her like a tidal wave. But she refused to cry. She knew Ralem would make it through this. He always had…. And he could heal. The memory raised her hopes like a steady wind lifting a kite. Besides, he could just blow that woman into a wall or something.

       Her thoughts were interrupted by an eerily high-pitched voice, “Are you okay?”

       “Of course I’m fine!” Arianna retorted hotly.

       “You’re about to cry. You woke me up with all your sniffling,” the disembodied voice responded.

        “I wasn’t sniffling!” she snapped, then suddenly realized that she wasn’t the only one in the prison cell. She searched futilely, examining the darkness for whoever had asked her the question. Involuntarily, she crawled away from the voice until her back bumped into the steel bars. Remembering the creature hidden in the dark folds of the prison, she jerked away from it with a gasp. “Who… who are you?” she managed to stutter.

       “That isn’t really important. What’s important is getting out of here. Without getting eaten by that giant scorpion, of course. I almost didn’t make it here in the first place,” it squeaked.

       Arianna shivered, thinking of the scorpion, “And you made it here? You mean you can go through the bars?”

       “Yes. I can. And I almost didn’t make it here because the scorpion was running after me while I had to flap really hard to try to get away. It almost got me on my wing…”