Chapter 11

“James! Wake up!”

My ears were ringing and my head hurt. I could barely open my eyes and I felt a sharp pain in my right side.

“James!”

I could hear Faye shouting my name but it was still so hard to open my eyes or even move. I felt hands grab me and lift me up. My arms dangled and my feet dragged along the ground. One of my eyes opened after a moment and I saw dead bodies all over the ground. Many were burnt beyond all recognition.

My other eye opened and I saw burning houses. Every single house that my eye could see was inflamed. It was absolute destruction everywhere. I saw several people dart by us with bows and arrows in their hands. They were all so young and all had scared looks on their faces. They had no idea that today they were going to wake up and find themselves fighting a dragon in their peaceful town.

“I need to join them!” Marian shouted as she stopped for a moment. I looked to each side of me and saw that Faye and Marian were carrying me. They both had bruises and cuts on their faces. Faye had a cut on her cheek that was dripping blood.

“Don’t be silly! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Faye shouted at her. “We need to get out of here!”

“Where’s Cyrena?” I asked them woozily. My head was pounding and I still felt like I needed to close my eyes for a bit. I wondered if I had a concussion.

“I ... I don’t know if she’s still alive,” Faye said. We all looked over at the inn which was flattened to the ground. There was no movement coming from the debris. I felt a strong pang of despair hit me in the chest.

“Cyrena can’t be dead?!” I said as I looked at all of that rubble. Please, god, no! I thought.

There was a horrible roar from above and I looked up to see a dragon in the sky. On its back was that armored figure. The dragon let out a deafening roar and fire burst from its open mouth. Several houses blew up. We all jumped from the loud sound. I saw to my horror several inflamed people come running out of the house. They collapsed on the ground as the fire overtook them. I felt like I was going to be sick. This was all too much.

Faye and Marian watched all of this with wide eyes. I hung from their shoulders and tried to put my feet on the ground. My legs shook for a moment as I regained my balance.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Marian shouted as she looked up at the dragon.

I watched as the group of people fired their arrows at the dragon above. Many of the arrows missed the dragon while a few hit it but bounced off of its hardened body. The dragon let out a roar and fire jetted out from its mouth and obliterated the people. There were horrifying screams as the people burnt alive.