Page 38 of Where Broken Wings Fly

There were about a thousand stitches in my sides, I could no longer feel my thighs, and my lungs had ruptured about ten miles back. My hair was back to how it looked in Choilltean, though it wasn’t of my own design this time but because of the several times that I had hit a rock and stumbled down to the earth, only to hear both Raegan and his fox chirping laughter into the vast beyond.

Things only got worse as the grass beneath me gave away, the earth in front of us being replaced with violent, ragged grey rocks that stretched into the sky. Raegan pushed on, maneuvering his way through a tight path of gravel and pebbles that I had no choice but to follow, taking extra care to not allow my ankles to roll. I knew, deep down, that if that happened and I was unable to move — Raegan would just leave me there.

The ground began to slant upwards, the first stretch of several where at times I needed to resort to crawling my way up the rocky climbs, only for them to level out and allow me to catch a breath before it started all over again.

“Where are we?” I panted on the third landing, where Raegan slid down from the fox and muttered something in its ear. The creature wasted no time, spinning around and sprinting down the treacherous slopes that we had been climbing for half an hour.

“Shush,” Raegan said as he pressed a pointer finger to his lips, then pointed to what was in front of him.

We were on a flat stretch of rock, tucked against a small rocky alcove along one of the beaches. Where we were, I had no idea, only that the flat slate beneath us was not the only thing in our vicinity. Tucked into the wall itself was an opening, the beginning to a moist, dark cave that reflected absolute darkness in all directions.

I’m not going in there.

Raegan looked far too calm, considering when I stole a glance over the edge of the clearing of rock, we looked to be hundreds of feet in the air. Gulping, I resorted to watching Raegan as he leant against the opening of the cave, cupped his hands over his mouth, and hollered out, “Gliocas?”

Silence followed his call, until the rock that felt like a mountain started to rumble. Pebbles at my feet skittered across the slab beneath us, each one dancing to the same rhythm that the world shook at.

Two red, beady eyes appeared within the blackness of the cave mouth.

Stumbling backwards, I gasped before I could throw my hand over my mouth. Following the red eyes was a large serpentine head, ridges of small horns that spiked from the tip of his flaring nostrils to the peak of his scaly skull. Each step that he planted against the earth continued to send tremors across the mountain, until his slithering neck emerged next, followed by a tremendous body of scarlet hide and intricate scales that spanned his whole length, ending only at the end of his spiked tail.

This was no reptile that I had seen in my life, at least not with my eyes. Because instead of two forelegs, he rested on the clawed ends of two sweeping, leathery wings.

A dragon. A wyvern, if we’re going to get technical, but a dragon.

I pinched myself. Twice. Three times, just for good measure.

A side of Raegan that I had yet to see took form on his face, his whole body unfurling as tension rippled off of him and faded into the sky. His smile stretched wide and true, his eyes brightening as he stepped towards the beast. “Gliocas, how glad I am to see you.”

The dragon — Gliocas, apparently — lowered his ginormous head and rested his muzzle against Raegan’s chest. The head was the size of Raegan, let alone the rest of him.

A puff of steam blew from Gliocas’ snout just as his carmine eyes latched onto me, a hidden transparent eyelid glossing over them before he let out a low grumble.

“It’s alright, old friend. She’s… she’s fine.”

That might have been the one and only nice thing Raegan would ever say about me — or do for me. Because the dragon’s eyes settled once more, his spine relaxing as he slumped down to the rock.

A slithering noise came from Gliocas and Raegan nodded.

“We know. They attacked Choilltean a few nights back.”

They were talking, which shouldn’t have been odd to me at this point. Yet it was.

“That's why I’m here. No — why I’m in Cluaineach. I need no reason to see you.” Raegan smiled. It was so strange on his brash face.

The integrity of Raegan’s promise to protect me was about to be challenged, because a third voice, not belonging to either myself or Raegan, cut through the air.

“Outsiders do not visit us.” His voice was hoarse and deep, the type of noise that you just knew contained age and a dash of exhaustion.

Raegan hadn’t moved.

“Who’s there?” I shouted, my body snapping straight as I nervously began to turn on my heel.

“What is it, Olivia?” Raegan went rigid, his hand moving for the sword at his waist.

“There’s someone–”

Not someone.