another life

chapter 6 - asher

even with as terrified as he was, asher thought his scream seemed a little too high-pitched. He felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over him when he realized that it wasn't his scream at all.

he snapped his mouth shut and forced his eyes open. flynn had his hands over his mouth and his already huge brown eyes were bigger then should ever be possible. hold on, he thought, If his hand is over his mouth, then who's screaming?

asher followed his friend's gaze and felt like his heart had stopped. he hadn't shot a dragon at all.

a beautiful young woman (about his age, asher would estimate, not that it mattered) was lying on the grass, the bullet lodged in her leg. her hair was long, chocolate brown and wavy. she had huge blue eyes that were staring at the pair like a deer in the headlights. what looked like three diamonds framed her eye like frozen tears.

he'd never seen one before, but he knew right away that this must be a Herculean. she was so much more elegant and, well, pretty then any of the scavengers he'd ever met. but at the moment, his top priority wasn't to stare at her, more to stop her screaming.

the girl tried to scramble away but she fell back with a cry of pain.

"hey, hey, hey," asher said in what he hoped was a calm voice, "hey, you're okay, let me just -" he started towards her but that was obviously the wrong choice. the girl screamed again and crawled away with only her arms. resourceful, kind of hot, but not helpful.

"leave me alone!" she demanded, "i am princess fei of Okeanos and i command you to step away!" oh dragon balls, asher thought, i've shot a princess. he gulped and stuck up his hands.

"listen, I don't want to hurt you," he told her, "i'm sorry i shot you, but i thought you were a -"

"DRAGON!"

before asher could figure out what was happening, a gargantuan shape that he had thought was a boulder had thrown itself onto flynn. the girl was still screaming something asher couldn't make out but within seconds, the dragon had skittered away, whimpering.

flynn stared at it. "w-why didn't it kill me?"

"you must be a FlameBringer," the girl said, stroking the massive monster's snout, "he's a Pacific SeaDragon - they can't touch you." the princess cooed to the dragon, who purred louder than a sonic blaster and curled up beside her.

"who did you say you were?" asher asked carefully.

"i am princess fei," the girl replied, her blue eyes sparkling majestically in the moonlight, "are you Scavengers?" asher and flynn glanced at each other. there was an obvious tone of fear in the girl's voice when she uttered the last words.

"we'll answer all your questions," asher said, not sure if that was true, "just let us bring you back to camp so we can help you out with that leg of yours." fei glared at him.

"you're the one who shot me in the first place." asher rubbed his forehead.

"yeah, okay, i know that," he muttered, "but like i said, i thought you were a dragon and dragons, well, they don't like us all that much." fei narrowed her eyes suspiciously, which looked less threatening and more adorable.

"take me to your leader," she said after a moment. asher smiled thinly.

"i thought you'd never ask."

they offered to help her up, but the dragon was still sniffing the two of them curiously, as though wondering if they'd taste better with mustard or ketchup. they kept their distance. the dragon bowed its head and fei climbed carefully on, wincing at her leg.

the massive beast kept its head lowered and flynn and asher stared at it. "what's it doing?" flynn asked.

"it's offering you a ride, you dense idiot," fei laughed, with the sound of a thousand windchimes. flynn glanced warily at asher, who shrugged.

"it doesn't look like it wants to eat us," he reasoned. flynn made a noise like a dying squirrel and clambered onto the dragon, closely followed by asher. the beast opened it's massive wings and flew up to the sky.

flynn was screaming but asher found it strangely calming to ride on the dragon. he could see almost everything - he noticed the camp in no time. asher pointed it out to fei.

"just set us down over there," he told her, "try not to, um, crush anyone if possible." fei smirked.

"this isn't my first time flying poseidon," she said. before asher could open his mouth, fei had whispered something to the dragon and suddenly, they were nosediving towards the ground.

flynn's yell was lost in the wind screaming even louder in asher's ears. he let out a whoops of delight which quickly became a panicked shout as the treetops came closer and closer.

the dragon smashed through the canopy, giving both the boys a through dosing of twigs and leaves in the face. asher spit out a piece of bark as the beast ground to a halt.

"see, that wasn't so hard!" fei said. she slid off the dragon's back, still leaning on it, and kissed its snout. "good boy, poseidon." asher and flynn were frozen on the creature's back, leaves still caught in their hair.

"that was..." asher's face slowly broke into a windswept grin. "AWESOME! how do you steer it? do you have, like, some sort of mental connection with it or something?" Fei smiled.

"he's my dragon counterpart," she explained, "so we just sort of know what the other is going to do before they do it." asher stared, star-struck, at the girl who he had thought at first was cute but now seemed completely out of his league.

"wow," he sighed. flynn glanced suspiciously at him then hopped off.

"c'mon," he said, summoning a little flame in his hand, "the camp's this way."