Jayne and Biastos were travelling on the open road to find a new village, Jayne had insisted on walking as they were diverting away from the mountains, so dragon riding would bring too much attention.
Perhaps they should've ridden instead.
Coming up at an intersection, there was a wooden sign with multiple arrows pointing to multiple locations. It seemed the village they were in was called Scheria. Up ahead was a place called Ogygia and to the right, there was a sign with carvings on it but it didn't make any sense, it was gibberish. Jayne squinted her eyes to look clearly. Maybe this was a different language? But then why would the other signs be in English?
"Hey, Biastos, can you read that?" She pointed to the sign.
Biastos walked up closer to see it and shrugged, "It doesn't look like anything to me."
Jayne glanced at him, "What?"
Biastos looked down at Jayne, "It doesn't look like anything to me."
Jayne looked at Biastos and the sign, then at him again. She laughed with unease and looked down the path it pointed to. It led into a forest. How odd.
Jayne decided to stride forward towards the forest to see if anything interesting was in there. She had a dragon to protect her so if there was anything dangerous Biastos would obliterate it.
The air went cold as Jayne approached the trees and wind started to whistle, warning her not to go in. Something was wrong, though Jayne didn't know what, she would have to discover that herself. Just as she was about to enter the forest, Biastos screamed behind her.
Jayne turned around to see Biastos limp on the floor, behind him were two people who looked related.
"Jayne Smith, you were quite the bother to catch." Hyperion chuckled, holding a crossbow.
"What did you do?!" She saw Biastos lying unconscious with an arrow in his back.
"Oh, relax, just a tranquilliser, dragons don't die that easily."
Jayne's breath quickened as her heart banged in her ears; her bodyguard was passed out! What was she meant to do? She looked over to see a familiar face, "Helios? Why the hell are you here."
"Oh, so you two know each other." Hyperion looked at his cousin and at Jayne, "Here, buddy, why don't you do the honours." He chucked the crossbow as Helios, who barely caught it and fell to the ground due to it's weight.
"I'm not gonna shoot her!" He cried.
Jayne wanted to cry. What the hell was going on? Why would Helios be here wanting to capture her?
"Come on, be a man, redeem yourself for not getting her sooner."
As the two were bickering, Jayne saw this as the perfect opportunity to run into the forest.
"Listen- Hey!" Hyperion saw her run, "Look at what you done." Her yelled at Helios and grabbed the crossbow to run after her.
Jayne felt the temperature drop dramatically, so much so that she had to rub her arms together whilst running due to her shivering. Why was it so cold in here? Doesn't matter, Jayne just needed to hide, there's no way she could take on that man of that size.
The trees covered the sky and Jaye ran like it was the middle of the night, meaning she had no idea where she was going. But then a blue light emitted further into the forest and Jayne chased after it, hoping it to be a person. Every step she took the light shined brighter. It didn't seem to be emitting from a lamp; but from the earth itself. She was nearing it closer and closer, and as she did, she saw something emerge from the light; a tower. But before she could process what it was, an arrow pierced her back and she fell to the ground.