Two dragons ran out of the trees. One of their riders—a blond elent I unfortunately recognized as Clarisa—hopped down from her class 6's silver back. The rod zipped over to hover my her head.
I'd dropped the gemstone when we crashed. Where was it? There, just a few feet away. I lunged to grab it, but the rod slammed into my chest. Wheezing, I stumbled back. I wanted to tackle Clarisa or risk unsheathing one of my weapons, but her friend had an arrow leveled at my head.
If I didn't die now, I could find a way to get the gemstone back later. Reluctantly, I moved away from the gemstone and toward Leera. The rod followed my every movement.
Clarisa retrieved the gemstone as Leera began to stir. My former classmate looked less confident now that she was about to be faced with a class 7 dragon. She hurried back to her mount and took off with her partner.
As soon as they and their rod were out of view, I knelt by Leera's head. She groaned, eyes flickering.
"Come on, they've got the gemstone." I pushed at her snout.
Her eyes snapped open, and she was immediately alert. I climbed into her saddle as she lurched to her feet.
[Why did you let them take it?] she demanded, raising her wings to take off.
[Says the dragon who was unconscious.]
She huffed and leapt into the air, pumping her wings to stay aloft. Though unsteady in the air after her crash, she was still very fast. The trees blurred around us as she sped towards where the elent riders had gone. I leaned close to her neck and held tight to the saddle's handles to avoid falling off.
Within seconds, Clarisa and her silver dragon came into view. The other elent wasn't with her, and the gemstone was strapped to the back of her saddle. She glanced over her shoulder as we approached and suddenly veered right. Leera was right on her tail, pounding the air with her emerald wings. Clarisa did nothing to keep us from following her. I managed to pull my bow off my back and set an arrow to the string, but when I tried sitting up just a little to be able to shoot at Clarisa, I was nearly yanked backwards out of the saddle by the wind whipping around us. When I tried to put the bow back on, my hand slipped, and it flew away.
Leera was able to keep up the chase after Clarisa, even though Clarisa's dragon was smaller and faster. I stayed close to Leera's neck, waiting for when we would slow down and I'd have a chance to fight. The dragons were moving so quickly that I couldn't see anything clearly, but I spotted a flash of gold up ahead on the trees.
[It's the barrier line.] We were over it before she could reply, but she didn't make any effort to turn back. [Go back inside the barrier. We can catch her when she comes back in.]
[That flying moon cow called me a vleknarg.] Leera pounded her wings even harder.
I didn't know what vleknarg meant, and I didn't particularly care.
[Turn back. If we get hurt out here, there's no clever magic to keep us alive.]
We flew for a good five minutes, but she wouldn't give up the chase. The trees were younger here—smaller and packed closer together. Clarisa's dragon had trouble avoiding them, but it was even worse for Leera. She kept knocking the edges of her wings into branches. Clarisa pulled farther and farther ahead because of how long it took Leera to recover after her impacts.
[Pull up, above the trees. We should wait for her to come back somewhere that you won't end up crashing.]
She didn't even slow, even though the trees were getting closer together, collisions more frequent.
I winced as one drew blood.[We have to stop. This is ridiculous.]
If anything, she seemed to fly even faster, a feat I wouldn't have thought possible.
Clarisa dived towards the ground. Leera tucked her wings in to follow. The earth rushed up to meet us. At the last second, Clarisa's dragon pulled up and sped away.
"[Pull up now,]" I shouted with my voice and thoughts at the same time.
Finally, she listened to me, but it was too late. She snapped her wings out and plowed chest-first into the ground so hard that it shook me through our mental link. I flew forward out of the saddle, greens and browns racing past me in a blur. When I hid the ground, I heard something snap. My chest throbbed like I had broken ribs, but I wasn't sure if that was my pain or if Leera's injuries were bad enough for me to feel them.
I lay there for a second and recovered the wind that'd been knocked out of me. There were no sounds from Leera, mental or otherwise. I saw Clarisa fly back overhead and back towards the barrier.
Several minutes after she'd left, I managed to push myself to my hands and knees. I'd been laying on a broken branch, which had something to do with the pain in my chest. It also meant that I might not have broken any bones. I looked over at Leera. Her breathing was hampered by her chest plates, which had been dented inward by the crash. When I crawled closer to inspect the injury, I noticed a vine creeping around her neck.
In the few seconds it took me to retrieve my sword and chop it off at the base, the vine had grown all the way around her neck. And it wasn't alone. A dozen more thick vines ensnared her legs and tail.
[Leera, you need to wake up. These vines are trying to- I don't know, but I can't get rid of them all.] I cut back the vines, but for every one I cut, three or four more sprouted out of the ground to replace it.
Reluctantly, I brought out my wand, whose protective enchantments had kept it from breaking in the crash. I drew a heating rune and was glad when it worked the first time. Lowering my wand to a vine on Leera's left foreleg, I tried to burn it away. The heat only seemed to encourage it. When I pulled my wand away, the vine was unscathed but growing much more rapidly than before. I put up my wand and turned back to using the sword.
For what felt like ages, I fought against the vines, chopping until my arms were ready to fall off, but it was no use. I had no idea where they were coming from, let alone how to get rid of them. Leera didn't respond to my mental calls other than to groan every once in a while. And to make the whole situation worse, I was pretty sure someone or something was watching me. I kept seeing glowing eyes out of the corner of my vision.