From Sea to Sky

s e v e n t e e n | l a n a

Time to escape.

She pulls her chains tight around the guards neck, forcing him to walk backwards with her, and hiss in his ear, "Let's go."

He nods slightly, and they move back slowly. She doesn't take her eyes off the dragon hunters surrounding them, almost not believing that they would let her leave this easily, but as her back presses lightly against the ladder where they climbed up, a flicker of hope ignites within her. Perhaps she will escape after all.

Then everything goes wrong.

The guard starts shaking in her grip, a drastic difference from his still and quiet aloof behavior, and she feels a sob escape him, "Please don't...my lady, don't do it!"

She frowns, and stops in her escape, realizing there's something wrong. Something's off about this. Is he talking to her? Does he really believe that pleading with her will work?

"No! Please!" he begs, and she's about to tell him to be quiet when his skin starts to heat up. It's not a feverish type of heat, but more of a burning heat that sears pain into her skin the moment she makes contact with him.

With a yelp, she lets go of the guard, and the guard drops to the ground, screaming. He shrieks, striking fear in concern in her heart, and covers his face, as if trying to shield himself from whatever is attacking him. He must be faking it so he could get away from her...

Then he rolls over, and bares his face to everyone on the boat and they all step back in horror. His eyes are glowing as if the power of the sun has been infused into his very irises, and the rest of his skin is bubbling and glowing unnaturally. It's as if there is something burning him alive from the inside out. It's like this for only a moment however, when with a final bloodcurdling scream, his skin is burned away from his body, leaving only a bare and dry skeleton to lie atop the deck.

She thinks that's her cue to leave.

Quickly, she spun around to head for the small boat she had arrived in but immediately comes face to face with a large and threatening double edged battleaxe. She feels her eyes going slightly cross eyed as she stares at the blade vigilantly, and it keeps on coming closer to her, forcing her to continuously step backwards to evade it's edge.

After moving back several paces, something sold smacks against her back, and she realizes she's hit the mast. There's nowhere left for her to run...she has to defend herself.

She starts to raise her sword in defense, but the same burning sensation that she had felt on the guards skin rushes through the hilt, forcing her to drop her only weapon. She hisses in pain as the burning sensation persists in her hand even after she's dropped the sword. Through the pain, she knows she needs to take hold of the sword again, despite its sudden burning heat. It's her only hope for escape but as the cool steel of the battleaxe pushes against her throat, the axe's double blades on either side of her neck, she knows she's been trapped.

She starts to raise her fists to take her final stand, but the man holding the battleaxe chuckles, "Oh no, I wouldn't do that if I were you. I wouldn't want to cut your pretty and very valuable head off. Or perhaps Vyanna will burn you from the inside. We'll see who can act first."

She freezes. She recognizes that voice.

Slowly, she raises her eyes from the blade to stare at her attacker, and she can barely keep a gasp from escaping her lips as she recognizes the person standing in front of her.

"Welcome back, Lana," Captain Henry Drax sneers with a triumphant grin, then pulls the axe away from her neck, only to slam the butt of it against her forehead.