Judson thought that standing as still as possible behind a birch tree would hide him from the sights of a Heathland dragon but he quickly realized that his theory was one heavily influenced by fear and a lack of defensive options.
He rolled away as the creature's spiky tails snapped the poor tree in two. The dragon roared ferociously, baring its magnificent teeth and flaming throat. Judson focused on its steaming gullet as he shuffled backwards on his elbow; the dragon looked ready to spew another bout of intense hot flames at him. He had already risked a lot of feathers from previous attacks and his boots and a few major parts of his clothing. He was sure the next flaming flurry would reduce him to dragon dinner. He had even made several attempts to tie the creature down but whatever he tried only caused the creature to grow bigger and angrier.
Judson rolled away just in time as the dragon spewed fire at him again. He was lucky enough to avoid getting burnt but the grasses around him caught the flames. Smoke billowed as the fires traveled fast on the low dry grass, spreading across the abandoned field and trees until his eyes could no longer see where they went.
For some reason, the same dragon had been tailing him and Waverly for more than a week and what with how much the latter slept almost every time, it was impossible to put the creature down. Their only hopes of escape usually came in the form of hiding as everything else proved ineffective. Judson thought they had lost the creature for good until it showed up straight out of nowhere. His eyes watered as he thought of Waverly.
If he were to die at the mercy of the dragon, how would she feel and what would she think?
She would not have any idea where he had gone as he left when she was fast asleep. . . again.
It was early noon and the sun stood high and hot, prompting Judson to leave their camp in search of water to fill his and Waverly's jars. He had not intended to walk that far but did anyway and found a long river just past a field he thought was abandoned. After filling the jars, he turned to leave and was shocked to find the dragon behind him. It had come in its usual small size but grew bigger as he tried to defend himself against it.
He had tried to fly away but the dragon could too and was a tad faster as both its wings worked perfectly unlike Judson's whose black wing felt as heavy as mountain rock on his back. He could not understand what caused the heaviness but noticed it as soon as they left the realm of Alpgeton. It made him incredibly slow and tired which was partly the reason why they had not gone too far despite having lost four good months on the road. On several days during the wee hours of the morning, given their current location, he had even heard the sound of a strange instrument echoing from afar. Waverly had called it a bugle and whenever it sounded, her eyes would cloud over with an emotion Judson could not interprete. He knew that the sound of the bugle was tied to many of Waverly's memories - good or bad, he could not quite tell.
He quickly took advantage of the rising smoke and began to crawl away hoping to escape the dragon but had barely gone far before a gigantic foot stamped against his left leg. Judson cried out in pain as he felt his bones crushing inside his ankle. The pain weakened him from head to foot and threatened to split his temples. He somehow knew he was done for.
The dragon came into view as he rolled onto his back, grunting and panting in pain. The creature opened its mouth wide and he saw red heat forming at the base of its throat. Flames rolled out and came straight at him. He shut his eyes tight waiting for the heat to engulf him but it never did. Instead, a frightening cold began to creep across his skin. He quickly opened his eyes and looked around; the entire field had gone stark white and sleet seemed to rain from the sky but when it touched the ground, it only disappeared.
A figure emerged from the right side of the dragon with silvery eyes amidst the cloud of smoke and mist. Waverly walked slowly as she approached the dragon whose fire breath had been reduced to cold air. Its tail was beginning to freeze and when it caught sight of her, it began to snap its jaws violently. Judson shuddered as he watched Waverly unleash Calaire in its crescent form.
"You annoying, overgrown furnace." She sneered and swung her weapon.
The instantly dragon froze as Calaire passed through its scaly body and shattered it to pieces. The fog cleared, the cold seized and Judson sighed in relief. He gazed up at the sun as the heat progressively began to warm up his own freezing sides.
Waverly came to him and knelt beside him. She looked very exhausted and quite weak.
"Are you alright?"
Judson groaned and stared down at his ankle. It was swollen and bent at the wrong angle. The dragon's claws had raked through his flesh and he was bleeding. Waverly gazed at the injury and tried to touch it but he flinched.
"It is broken from the inside. It stepped on me."
Waverly gave a tired, hopeless sigh. "How do we get you back to camp? You cannot walk or fly and I definitely cannot carry you."
Judson seemed to consider for a while. He swallowed nervously. "What about. . .?"
She lifted an eyebrow in understanding and a small smile broke across her tired face. Her gaze went skyward. "He still does not like being near you."
"I know but he will help, will he not?" He asked, seeming very uncomfortable with his own suggestion.
Waverly nodded in agreement. Her one hand was placed on his shoulder and the other on his chest. She wondered why his heart beat so strongly then remembered that he had come only a few seconds close to death. Her gaze traveled skyward again and she gave a sharp whistle.
"He will help but he still does not like you." She teased and stood up.
Chestnut soon came bounding towards them but he did not fly - he ran instead - and came in his full size. Waverly walked toward him before he could come close and rubbed his fur.
"Hello, I need a favor."
Chestnut's blue eyes blinked down at her then snapped to Judson. He growled deeply and shuffled his feet.
"He is badly hurt. He can't walk, you have to carry him." She whispered.
The wolf reared back in objection and huffed.
"I know but it will not be for a long while. Our camp is not so far from here and you can run fast, remember? I promise it will not take long."
Chestnut lowered his head and refused to move. Waverly gently dug her hand into his fur and felt his skin underneath; it was warm and throbbing with the beat of his unusually large heart.
"Do it for me."
The wolf finally consented and allowed Judson to be helped onto his back. Waverly picked up the water jars, thankful that none of them had broken, and joined atop Chestnut's back.
When they arrived camp, the heat seemed to reduce drastically but this was mostly because they were pitched a little close to the sea. The land there was wide; hilly in some areas, sprinkled with a few trees for shade, abandoned cages for livestock animals and good soil for farming. Waverly suspected it had once been a village but there was no sight of a single house or person. The land though was a feasting center for birds as the wet earth provided them with a lot of worms. Waverly even thought she spotted a fox once but it had disappeared the minute she blinked.
She aided a limping Judson into their shared tent and began to tend to his ankle. After a long silence, she finally spoke but kept her eyes on the dressing.
"Why did you leave without telling me?"
Judson lifted his gaze and found that she was not looking at him. During the past week they had spent traveling, he noticed that she sometimes acted differently and in such moments it made him feel he did not know who she was anymore.
"You were asleep. I did not want to wake you."
"And what if I had not woken up when I did?" She asked further.
He blinked softly, suspecting an oncoming argument. It did not surprise him - they had been arguing a lot too. "Are you angry at me for something?"
She scoffed and finished bandaging his leg then gently set it down. "Yes, I am angry that you were so careless."
"What?" He frowned.
She laced her fingers together, a habit Judson thought conveyed self-control, but her face held a lot of fury.
"You know we have barely traveled far because of that lousy dragon. The best shot we had of losing it for good was to avoid getting spotted, and there you go screaming out your presence because of a few silly jars of water."
Judson looked appalled. "Silly jars of water? Did you plan on traveling whilst dying of thirst?"
"No but we could have found water anywhere else and the time wasn't right to go out looking for it." She snapped then stood up. "You could've been killed out there and now look, your ankle's broken - just what we needed to travel much slower than a snail."
"You would put all of the blame on me?" He asked, looking up at her. He was also angry but kept his voice level. "What exactly have you been doing since we started on this journey? Dozing off for half the day as if you drank an ocean sized draught of sleep medicine."
"How dare you?" Waverly asked, looking perplexed. She rubbed her eyelids which were beginning to feel heavy again. She could not remember being so tired when the day first began and her new sleeping habits had come as a funny surprise. She could not explain it nor understand it.
"Do you think I want to be sleeping all the time? I don't know why I fall asleep so much but even at that I am way more alert than you are."
Judson rolled his eyes. "If you are so good at being alert then maybe you should stand outside the tent and keep watch tonight. I bet we would both be so safe."
Waverly grunted in anger and stormed out of the tent, kicking her way through stones as she walked farther and farther headed for the beach. The Heathland Dragon had first ambushed them after they crossed the Gateway realm, tailing them until they stopped in the deserted village to set up camp there. That was four days after finally and completely leaving the In Between behind - a tiring journey that had cost them three whole months and twenty nine days.
Waverly was angry that they were not traveling as fast as she wanted nor gone as far as she hoped. In the aftermath of the just concluded war, she thought traveling would be easier and smoother but it proved not to be; Judson became ten times slower than he usually was, Chestnut was absent all the time and sometimes ignored her whistles (she guessed it was because he did not like being around Judson), she developed an uncontrollable sleeping habit, she argued with Judson over literally anything and the map she had been given proved impossible to follow.
She arrived at the beach and found a small boulder to sit on then pulled out the golden parchment. She always kept it tucked under her shirt to avoid losing it but even at that, she had to brush her hands across it from time to time to make sure it was still there. The first time she had taken a look at it was their first night in camp and it had been very difficult to understand. The locations on a Crysotoni map did not stay immobile like that of Humans neither did it move like that of Elves. It was quite simpler than both and yet more complicated. The names of all the places on it were written in strange symbols instead of words. The locations seemed to blend into each other like a big sketch instead of being broken down into categories such as forests, towns, villages, mountains, lakes, streams or valleys - the way it would be on a normal map.
Everything looked to be the same and everywhere at once.
Waverly glared hard at the map, trying to pinpoint where they were. Geographical lines across it were drawn with silver dust and it shimmered, a feature she first appreciated then despised later on. The map became like a beacon under her shirt at night and drew attention easily. For some reason, the only thing she could understand clearly was the outline of Alpgeton. The realm was drawn near the edge of the map - southwards - every inch of it distinctly detailed. Instead of symbols, its name was written in local Alp.
"Alpéniti Elvén." She whispered.
It translated as Land of Elves and was scribbled in bold letters across the entire landmass. Waverly traced her fingers across the familiar spots in the realm, her head filling up with memories and her eyes with tears. She recalled every inch of every landmark the she had been to; the shared border, Snaw Ford, The Woodlands, The Isolated Plateaus, Nael, Eden, The Oasis and some familiar parts of the Great Jungle.
She recalled the training grounds, the hill on which she had camped near the palace, the palace itself, the beautiful forests, the gigantic waterfalls and long winding streams and wide lakes, the trees and Derews that lived in them. She remembered the swamp, the Repelling Earth, the small mountains across the ocean where the coin shield was kept hidden by magic. She even remembered the confinement building she had stayed in for fifteen days. It felt all at once like a wonderful dream and a terrible nightmare to Waverly.
She shut her eyes. A tear slid down her cheek and dropped on the map.
Waverly jumped up in alert and looked at the tearstained spot. The silver lines there began to fade until it was left bare and plain gold.
"No, no ,no!" She panicked, trying to recall what exactly had been on the spot but nothing tangible came to her mind.
The little accident did warn her of something important - water was not good for the map. Waverly knew she had to keep it somewhere even safer now. She began to imagine ugly scenarios where she became drenched and all the lines on the map wiped off then shook the thoughts away.
"We'll be fine." She whispered, breathing in and out slowly in an attempt to calm herself.
A faint crunching sound from behind made her turn quickly with Calaire in sword form pointed at the intruder.
Judson's arms went up as he gazed at the tip of the sword under his chin. "Are you going to stick me for interrupting?"
Waverly sighed and dropped the sword. It shrunk down to a wristband. She sat back on the boulder and returned to staring at the map again.
"Still no luck figuring it out?" He asked.
She heaved another sigh but it was more of a tired one. "How are we supposed to travel by a map if we can't understand it? I should have opened it right after the Lady Maddei gave it to me."
Judson chuckled. "I thought she told you not to. Or did you simply not want to open it?"
"I did not. And look where it's gotten us - nowhere. We are definitely going to get lost. Who knows? We might be lost right now."
He held out a hand. "Let me look at it."
"Sure, have fun." She said indifferently, handing over the map.
She covered her face with both hands and rubbed her eyes. The strange feeling of exhaustion had begun to creep into her bones again, numbing her thoroughly as it did. She wanted to lay down and sleep and the stranger thing was that the feeling was impossible to fight.
"Tell me if you find anything." She insisted and stood up then began to walk away.
"What exactly did you not understand on the map, Waverly?" Judson asked, his eyebrows creasing in wonder.
Waverly halted and turned around. His attention was still fixed on the map and he muttered incoherently as he read it.
"What do you mean? There's nothing in English there or in any language I understand except for local Alp."
Judson looked around. "Well, I believe we are in Belling."
Waverly's face twisted into one of shock and disbelief. "What? You mean—?"
"Yes, the little village; this whole landscape and I guess that field I almost got killed in and beyond. It is all called Belling." He elaborated.
She blinked. "No, no. I mean, how do you understand the map?"
She remembered that he had not looked at the map ever since she received it. It made her wonder if his ability to read it now was because he was only seeing it for the first time in broad daylight.
Judson looked up with an expression of uncertainty then he shrugged. "How do you not understand it? HalfHyde taught you how to read maps, you are supposed to be better at this than me."
Waverly walked slowly toward him. Each step she took felt heavier and weaker. "I thought so but apparently I am. . ."
She broke into a long, tired yawn. ". . Not."
He gazed calculatingly at her for a few seconds. "You are not going to fall asleep again, are you?"
Waverly shook her head as she reached for the map but the environment had begun to look blurry. "No, no. I won't fall asleep, I'm fine."
"I think it is very unusual that you are this tired at noon." Judson commented, frowning deeply.
He quickly dropped the map and caught her as she fell forward, her eyes closed in sleep. He winced when her weight began to press down on his broken ankle causing him to stagger and fall back with her on top of him. For a long time, he could do nothing more than stare down at her as she slept soundly without even much of a snore.
"Definitely unusual." He muttered.
Soon, the sun receded in the sky and slowly began to sink back into the horizon, bathing the ocean in beautiful warm color. Judson watched the sunset while Waverly remained fast asleep on his leg. He patiently waited for whenever she would wake up as he could not carry her back to the tent. He had applied a healing balm to his injury which had given him enough allowance to walk but it was not fully healed yet. Adding pressure to the leg would only worsen it.
He looked down at her and felt a strange urge to pinch her cheeks. The thought made him want to laugh and scold himself at once. Her face was becoming rounder with every passing day, a growth spurt that he suspected had nothing to do with her diet or sleep routine as she barely even ate or slept - at least until recently. She had also grown taller than him, just by a tad but still. Her legs and arms were fuller and her fingers that he recalled as being slender had gotten slightly fatter. He tried not to think too much of it but it was alarming how fast her hair grew out. She would cut it off twice in two weeks and had done so once the day before - a task she carried out without actually thinking about it first. Despite her accumulating weight she was as light as a feather and an Elf on his feet, that is, until she fell asleep.
He sighed and leaned back, gazing around at the beach. There was nothing interesting about it as it was bare and deserted much like the village itself. He sat up and rolled out the map to study it then felt the parchment suddenly lift as if being poked from underneath.
"Can you tell me where we have to go next after we leave here?" Waverly's tired voice came from under the map.
Judson slowly moved the parchment so that he could see look at her. The sea breeze had blown strands of her hair into her face but she ignored it.
"I am not sure but if we leave, we will be heading toward a forest. It does not seem to be a big one but it is there."
"Does the forest have a name?" She asked.
Judson glanced briefly at the map. "No, not exactly. Do you want to give it a name?"
"If it is friendly, then yes." She replied then pushed herself up. She gasped when she noticed the sunset and turned on Judson with a look of worry.
"You let me sleep until the sun went down."
Hee stood up gently. "Waverly, please."
"We have just lost hours of travel." She whined.
"Our journey is not time sensitive." He reminded. "By the way, if you had gone back to the tent, Waverly, you still would have slept until sundown."
Waverly opened her mouth to speak then grunted and covered her face again. Silence fell between the pair for a while before Judson spoke.
"Do you think the reason you fall sleep so much is because. . ." He hesitated.
She prompted him with a brow lift.
"Because you are somewhat tired of always taking responsibility and wish to rest for a long time?"
Waverly's eyebrow creased slightly but she kept silent. She watched him fiddle with the map. "I am not tired."
"Maybe you think you are not but your body knows you are."
"What about you?" She asked. "Are you tired?"
Judson managed a weak smile. "I cannot get tired of what I have been doing since I was a child."
Waverly looked puzzled. "What is that?"
"Being on the road. I guess my body does not need to adapt when this is its way of living."
She fell silent again. What he had said made a lot of sense to her but then the feeling that came before she fell asleep was not a normal one. It felt as exhaustion should but came even when she was far from tired. It felt more like an induced sleep but she thought it unlikely.
Who would do such a thing to her?
Her head suddenly tilted to the side as she recalled something vague. "Jud? Do you remember that time we came to the other end of the bridge of Bridge?"
Judson nodded. "Yes, why?"
"Did you notice anything. . . odd?"
"Odder than normal odd you mean?" He inquired.
She nodded in agreement. "Yes, odder than normal odd."
He pondered for a while then shook his head. "No, no. I did not. Did you notice anything odder than normal odd?"
She walked forward. "I cannot say but I can swear it felt like someone was following us into the In Between."
"You think so?"
"I know so. And before then, I saw Edsel by the bridge. He was watching us when we started to cross."
Judson went pale in the face then quickly regained himself. "I wonder why he was watching us. Do you think he was the one following us because I doubt he would do that."
Waverly bit her lip. "I doubt it too."
"May I ask why you brought this up?" He inquired not quite certain of Waverly's point.
"Because I started getting unusually drowsy right after I noticed that strange presence. I did not see it but I felt it and maybe whatever power it has, it must be affecting me somehow."
"Why not both of us then? We were both there."
"That would have been terrible, Jud. Imagine the two of us falling asleep all the time, we'd be dead and besides it was just me that noticed the presence. You did not."
"You think that it has something to do with why you are always feeling tired and sleepy?" He asked again.
Waverly beckoned on him and took the map when he came close. "I might be wrong but whatever that was, it was far from ordinary and it's slowing us down for a reason. I know it. We have to break camp."
"Now?" Judson requested, peering at the sun. It had dipped halfway into the horizon so that it looked like a peeking yellow semicircle.
"Yes, now. We don't stop and we don't make camp until we're sure that we are traveling alone." She whispered.
"Alright but what if we need to sleep or eat or wash?" He inquired.
She tsked. "We will figure it out, alright? Let's go."
Judson nodded and began to follow but she halted after the first two steps.
"But before we do, I want to apologize for getting angry at you. I am grateful that you wanted to get us water despite the danger of going out in the open and I am sorry for calling you careless. You are not careless."
He nodded solemnly and shuffled from foot to foot. "Thank you. And I am sorry too, for saying that you drank an ocean sized draught of sleep medicine."
Waverly broke into a short laughter and he joined in. "What a huge stomach I must have. Come along."
She took his hand and they walked off the beach toward their tent.