DRAGONS' GAME | JENLISA

Chapter 8

A gentle touch on my arm woke me up in the middle of the night. It was dark, but I felt Lisa's body next to mine and saw the silhouette of her head leaning over me. My heartbeat accelerated in a second and I felt a loud thumping in my chest.

"Lisa..." I whispered her name and leaned in for a kiss, closing my eyes. But instead of her lips, I felt her finger on my mouth.

"Shh... Hear that?" she whispered and I opened my eyes, painfully realizing that I completely misunderstood her intentions. I didn't even have time to think about how awkward it all was, because I heard a branch crack nearby. Someone or something was slowly approaching our camp and I sensed an imminent danger.

"Be ready." I barely heard Lisa's voice and my body instantly prepared for a fight. When the faint sound of footsteps seemed already very close, Lisa whispered a spell and a radiant ray of light flashed above her head. We both gasped as we saw the figure of a giant basilisk, just a few meters from us. Its terrifying green reptile eyes glowed in the darkness, making my skin crawl. Luckily, it was temporarily blinded by Lisa's spell, which gave us much needed time to jump to our feet and hide behind a nearby rock. Panic entered my mind as I remembered that basilisks were immune to most spells, I quickly glanced at Lisa's frightened face: she knew that too.

"Move!" she yelled and I lunged to my left while she jumped to her right. A split second later, a poison spit from basilisk's mouth hit the rock where we had been standing. A single contact with such potent poison meant certain death. An extremely painful one.

Lisa conjured up the blinding ray of light again to gain us some time, but her spell was slightly weaker this time, her magical energy was almost depleted, I knew I had to think of something really quick or we would both die.

For a reason unknown to me I recalled how I learned Telekinesis spell in the Academy, I was able to use it to move small objects like a coin or a spoon. But if I could combine this spell with Lisa's...

"Lisa, help me!" I yelled and uttered the spell, concentrating my mind on the large rock. She understood my intentions in an instant, an intense frown appeared on her forehead as she cast Amplification spell with all her remaining energy. Our spells clashed together and the large boulder trembled. I could feel that I could move it, I just knew it. Seeing that the basilisk is about to target Lisa with its poison spit again, I threw my hands forward, commanding the rock to move. The effect was unbelievable: the heavy boulder flew with great speed towards the monster and hit it with such force that the reptile's front paw got crushed by the rock. The monster let out a high-pitched shriek and a second later it was already scurrying away, limping and bleeding profusely.

Sighing heavily, I came over to Lisa who was breathing deeply, looking completely drained.

"That was close." I said. "How did you even hear it coming?"

"I knew this forest was dangerous so I stayed on guard while you were sleeping." she explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. To be honest, I felt a little guilty for resting while she was watching over us.

"I guess it makes us even."

"Yeah, we're really making a habit of saving each others' lives." she replied as we were both slowly calming down. "By the way, those spell combinations? They are amazing, we work so well together."

"We really are."

Our breathing returned to normal and although it was still dark, we decided to keep moving. The injured basilisk was unlikely to come back but we didn't want to take that risk.

"Lisa, what else do you know about people who are 'bound by fate'?" I asked as we were walking side by side. "What exactly does that mean?"

Her face darkened as if I just reminded her of something upsetting.

"I don't know anything else." she said in an unconvinced voice. I didn't insist more but the feeling of uneasiness started growing inside me because I knew she wasn't telling me the whole truth.