Chapter 81-3

A roar of pure rage. "About damn time" she said happily, Breen blinked and stared up at the lightning strewn sky. The roar sounded again, echoing across the village, causing all the villagers to stop whatever they were doing (trying to sneak up on the people saying goodbye, staring at the empty flames of the pyre,rushing off to find water to put out the fires or trying to get The Tavern door open to steal a drink) and all stare up and around them. There was another almighty roar, much louder and closer this time. And then there was an sound like the flapping of wings, but...bigger, coming closer and closer, the villagers cowered, Luce clutched Marcie, "What is it?" she whispered, horrified, Then a black shape rose up out of the trees of the forest and opened up great, huge wings across the sky, flying up towards the clouds. It turned and began heading towards the village. It opened its mouth and a roar left it and crashed down upon the village, causing everyone to clutch their ears in pain. Everyone except for Marcie and Dafne who both stared at the creature without fear. Breen watched the enormous creature come towards him and wished to wake up. He longed for a sign that he was dreaming and yet none would come. The creature flew over the buildings low, villagers screaming and jumping out of the way as it passed, the ground shook as its great leathery wings, covered in spikes, beat the air. It passed over their heads as they remained cowering and yet rooted to the spot. It twisted then lowered its back legs and landed with a crunch of tiles, stone and wood on the roof of The Hall next to where they stood, the ground trembled as it landed. Its huge long talons gripped the edges of the roof, gouging great big holes in the impeccable stone work while its great spiked tail thrashed behind it, seeming not to notice when it smashed a chimney off another building. It raised its wings above it in an unmistakably aggressive gesture and swooped its head down low to survey all the prey before it, smoke plumed from both its nostrils and its eyes were black holes of fury within a face covered in sharp protrusions. One of his siblings had fainted and his mother did not look to be faraway from collapsing herself, Breen wondered how he himself was still conscious. It, whatever it was, lifted its head towards the sky, opened its mouth and let loose a concentrated stream of bright orange flames from between its maws. The flames rose from its lips them fell around it, great drops of flame, catching roof thatch and dried grass, causing yet more fires to spring up. When it had finished this terrifying display, the creature lowered its body threateningly then crawled off the roof, one leg at a time, the tiles of the roof were scraped off by the scales of the creatures belly and fell down like a shower of slate. It placed one sharply clawed foot down on the ground then another, oblivious to the damage it did in the process. Once it was squeezed into the village square it snarled, more smoke falling from its nose and mouth and shook from side to side, its bulk crashing into the buildings all around it, brick, stone, wood and slate went flying and crashed all around. Everyone seemed to find their legs at the same time and they scurried away from the beast as fast as they could, grabbing children and helping each other as they went, until they were far enough away to realise that Marcie and Dafne had not fled with them, and the creature was stalking towards the two of them hungrily, lashing out with its tail at anything in its way, its front claw came down on the smouldering pyre and squashed it flat, seemingly immune to the heat of the flames. It stopped in front of Marcie, its breath coming out harsh and noisy, while lightning crashed around it, almost muffled next to the creatures bulk. Breen was too terrified to move, he could only watch, heart in his throat as he lost Marcie for the second time. But then, something extraordinary happened. In front of the whole cowering village, Marcie reached out her hand and held it up to the monster. And the monster moved forward and pressed its snout into her palm. Marcie threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around the creatures great head with sigh of relief. The creature held very still then seemed to relax, folding its wings down and lowering itself onto its belly with its own satisfied sigh. Marcie gasped as she felt Dara push against the barriers she had erected to keep him away. And she found that, now the fear had gone, she was able to let him back in. She felt his anger, his hurt, his anxiety, his worry and worst of all, his fear, crash over her and she tried to soothe him as best she could, holding him tight and sending him calming loving thoughts, Dafne coughed, causing Marcie to jump, she had forgotten she was there, forgotten anyone except for herself and Dara existed. "Sorry girly, gonna ave to wait for the reunion. Gotta get you out of here fast, alright?" She handed the pack over and Marcie took it, her face a question, Dafne shrugged, "Just some stuff, probably wont need it, but better safe an sorry" Marcie stared at the woman who was so old she had seen hundreds of generations live and die in her village and she felt emotion swell inside her, heightened by Dara's obvious love for the woman also, "Dafne..." she started to say, voice thick with emotion but The Witch snapped, "Dara, get er out of ere!" And Dara grabbed the back of Marcie's shirt without preamble, lifted her up, leaned around and plonked her down on his back, at the base of his neck, where the little dip between his shoulder blades made a perfect seat. She gripped the spikes in front of her to hold on. Dara pressed his snout to Dafne's forehead and breathed gently on her face causing her to smile, "Go on" she said, sobering quickly, "Get!" Dara took her at her word and twisted awkwardly around, knocking over more buildings, and used another building as a stepping stone to get back onto the roof of The Hall. Marcie held onto the spikes with all her might as Dara moved underneath her. She heard a shout from the ground and looked down. Kena, her hair dirty and tangled, her face streaked with dirt and tears was screaming wordlessly at her, holding a flaming torch over her head, her mouth was stretched open wide and her eyes looked past mad. Marcie felt a deep abiding loathing overtake her suddenly and she took her hand off the spike she was gripping very hard and waved it at Kena in a dismissive gesture. The torch in her hand exploded, sending flames rushing out to grab anything they could. This included Kena's head. She screamed as her hair caught alight and the flames licked her face, the torch fell from her hand as she thrashed around on the ground in blind agony. Marcie stared at what she had done but had no time to think about it because Dara spread his wings and began to beat them rhythmically and slowly, building up speed. Marcie grabbed the spikes in front of her and held on for dear life, the reality of what was about to happen suddenly terrifying. Dafne had spoken briefly of flying and yet she had never actually thought about ever doing it. Dara worked up enough speed that his feet lifted off the roof, Marcie felt her stomach disappear as fast as the ground did and she began to feel more and more weightless with every lurch. Lightning still crashed around them, but it did not seem as frightening and seemed to move around them, she thought it strange that a storm would react this way and she noticed a strange tingle across her skin, magic perhaps? Dara rose above the village then swooped over the trees, Marcie closed her eyes but then remembered she was leaving the only home she had ever known and turned around carefully to watch the battered rooftops and plumbs of smoke disappear behind the trees and be swallowed up by the forest. She turned and faced in front, over Dara's head she saw the forest spread out before her. All the wonders beyond now calling to her. The End