A Dragon's Tale Ch. 01

For some reason, Alana was expecting Ethan to fly as naturally as a fish in water.

He didn't.

He was flapping hard, but barely staying aloft and barely controlling his direction. He was still clutching her bundle of staves and dropped them as he focused on trying to control his flight.

Thundering hooves behind her brought her back to her own situation. In one smooth motion, she stopped, turned around, nocked an arrow in her bow and drew it to her cheek. She might not be able to pierce their chain mail, but not every inch of them was protected by it; their faces were exposed.

As she stood facing the approaching horses, a curious kind of calm overtook her. She knew she was going to die, but she wasn't going down without a fight. After a few precious moments of aiming, Alana let her arrow fly. It struck true and the soldier fell backward off the horse, dead before he hit the ground.

Unfortunately, his partner was bearing down on her. She dived to the side to avoid him, but he brutally dragged on the reins, forcing the horse to follow her. Mere moments before the horse would run her down, a massive shadow swept over her. Alana felt her heart soar as she realized that Ethan hadn't left.

He had come back for her.

Ethan crash-landed into the mounted soldier and they tumbled to the ground in a frantic tangle of wings, limbs, hooves and claws. The soldier had lost his sword when Ethan crashed into him, and the dragon was up first on all fours and attacking with tooth and claw. The soldier's chest and limbs were armored, but his face wasn't and he stood about as much chance as any unarmed man would have against an angry mountain lion. The fight ended when Ethan managed to get his claws under the man's chainmail hood and into his neck.

Alana turned her back on Ethan to face the only pursuer left; the tracker who was significantly behind the others. Alana nocked another arrow into her bow and took careful aim. However, the tracker was low in the saddle, hiding behind the neck of his horse and Alana couldn't get a clear shot.

The tracker drew his bow and nocked an arrow. Judging by the smoothness of the motion, it looked like he was born holding a bow. He thundered closer and Alana tried to get a good shot, but the rider wasn't giving her one.

Then the tracker moved.

Like greased lightning, he leaned out from behind the horse, drew the bow and released it in one smooth motion. The moment he exposed himself, Alana let her arrow fly. Given his obvious level of skill, she half expected to feel his arrow hit her, but he missed. His arrow went wide by a couple of feet.

Alana's arrow didn't.

Her arrow struck him in the left eye. He fell from his horse and rolled half a dozen times. When he finally came to a halt, his neck, arms and legs were at odd angles that no living person could endure, not to mention the arrow embedded in his eye.

"Yes!" Alana Jumped for joy and turned. "Ethan, we did--"

She stopped cold.

The tracker hadn't missed after all; she just hadn't been his target. There was an arrow embedded in Ethan's chest. Seeing where it had hit, she was certain it had pierced his heart.

He fell backwards onto the ground.

"No!" Alana called. She dropped everything and ran to his side. He was coughing and gargling, as if trying to get air.

"Stay with me!" she shouted. "Come on, use your mana. Heal it up."

"I... I can't..." Ethan gasped. "There's none... I don't have..."

"Shh, let me do it. This is going to hurt like the blazes." She grabbed the arrow and unceremoniously ripped it out of his chest, thanking God it was another bodkin arrow and not a normal hunting one. He blanched and blood started pouring from the wound.

Alana was an enchantress at heart. She had spent her entire life enchanting and her skill with active spells was almost non-existent, so she did the only thing she could think of: she gathered every last ounce of mana in her body and threw it all at the wound while focusing on healing it. It was wasteful, but time was of the essence and she wasn't good at healing others.

It wasn't enough.

The wound was largely closed and the blood flow slowed, but she could feel that the damage wasn't fully repaired. His heart was still pierced, though thankfully it was still beating faintly. Ethan's eyes rolled back in his head and he went still. He wasn't dead, but he would be soon if she didn't do something fast.

She was completely out of mana; she had no medical supplies or bandages, and no enchanted items that could help her. Ethan was dying in her arms and she was completely powerless to save him.

Alana screamed.

It was a deep, bloodcurdling scream that echoed across the plains. It was a cry for help and she wished for help so badly that she felt mana from somewhere leak into her scream. It amplified her wail magically and made it reverberate across the plains.

That was when she realized there was one more option -- one more thing she could try. The deep mana that flowed through her, giving her life and keeping her alive was still there. She could use that. It wouldn't provide much, but it might be enough.

Maybe.

Possibly.

She had to try.

There was a moment's hesitation as she realized what the implications would be if another elf ever found out. What it would mean for her and Ethan in the elven culture, but she didn't care.

Alana grabbed hold of the deep mana in her body -- the mana that anchored her life and soul to her body -- and carefully poured that into Ethan's wound. She could feel herself getting weaker, but she only needed to heal a little more. She started to become lightheaded and couldn't maintain the flow anymore.

She collapsed on the ground next to him. She couldn't tell if he was alive or dead. She didn't know if her healing had been enough. Her vision was becoming cloudy and the bright blue sky began to resemble midnight. As the darkness closed in on her, her last thought was a prayer to the Great God Illuminar that she had done enough to save him.

Then the world faded to black.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Note: I'm going through and re-uploading the whole series to fix typos since an editor is helping me proofread it. If you hit a chapter with an "I self-edit" disclaimer at the beginning, you've caught up to my re-uploading and there will be typos. I'm so sorry for my poor/dyslexic editing skills and I'm SUPER grateful to the fellow who volunteered to help. I'm also incredibly grateful to the readers who have been following this story despite the many, many typos I subjected them to. I didn't realize there were so many and thank you all for sticking with our heroes despite them.