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The interlinking branches crack, breaking into dust as the creature shakes his gigantic body. Turquoise scales shimmer underneath, reflected through the rounded fruits wobbling on the remaining trees. These ones have thicker trunks and create a straight line down the back of its arched body. Either side, a wing unfurls and my stomach drops.
It’s a fucking dragon.
A puff of smoke curls around us, a pair of nostrils flaring an inch from my feet. Dropping down on the snout, I spy the two rows of razor-sharp, pointed teeth.
“What the hell happened? Does it want a piece of me too?!” I start plastering kisses along the scales still partly coated in dirt, and that just seems to piss it off more.
“That jackass knocked down her baby,” Cash shouts between a rumbling roar stemming from the dragon’s throat, pointing at his twin. The teal fruit is still clutched in Tweed’s hand, a crack forming around the outside. Placing it down in the curve between the huge yellow eyes, I just about make out the small head of a baby dragon breaking free of the fruit-egg before Tweed tackles me off the edge.
Cash dives just after, his hands outstretched for me. I reach back for some unknown reason, not wholly comfortable with Tweed’s shoulder rammed into my gut and hurtling me to my death. Our fingers brush as Tweed lands on his feet, his arms wrapped around my middle to set me down on uneven ground. Diamonds and jewels glimmer in a ditch the size of a football field. Evidently, the same one the dragon was laying on. Cash lands a second later, the power of the thud mimicking Tweed’s.
Crack.
Every jewel in a fifty-yard radius shatters, sinking us further into the ditch of swallowed screams. This angers the dragon more. A roar pierces the air just before a stream of fire blasts between where the twins and I have fallen. It’s no accident we’ve been divided, I just hope Tweed and Cash resist from killing each other before I manage to save my own ass.
Scrambling on my hands and knees, gems slip out from beneath me, making my ascent to the edge of the ditch slow. Fireballs rain down, the heat blasting into me from all directions. Sweat drips down my cleavage, my cheeks puff out. Closing my hand around a protruding branch imbedded into the dirt’s edge, I drag myself up onto solid land.
Devoid of trees, I spot the entrance to the wood beyond the webbed, turquoise feet in the way and it somehow all makes sense. We haven’t traveled far, but rather, trekked over. A shadow hops on the edge of my vision, but when I look, it’s gone. Cash ploughs into me, sweeping me away on swift feet.
“Wait! I need to go back,” I start but my words are lost to the wind. Tweed is at our side, giving me a nod to trust him. And damn myself, I do. The dragon groans, filling the sky with a rumble just before it begins to sway. Tilting this way, then that, we’re covered in shadow and this time, I don’t hold back my scream. Dipping my head into Cash’s shoulder, I hold onto his shoulders until a thud rockets through the earth and we’re thrown aside into a layer of grass.
Flat on my back and panting, the clouded sky above sparks with a glint of lightning. Now devoid of trees to act as cover, I’m left laying like a starfish wondering what’ll come next. A lightning bolt to the chest or just a simple heart attack. Neither apparently, but a blasted snore at my side that has us barreling over several times into a Tweedle sandwich.
“Dragons are quick to waste their energy,” Cash tells me, stroking the hair back from my face. “They can only remain awake for short periods of time.” The beast shuffles back into the ditch now a short distance away from the black grass we’re nestled in. With a giant flap of its wings, the dragon kicks up enough dirt to fill the air and settle over its scales, effectively camouflaging it from view.
“Good to know,” I mutter to myself, already taking in my new surroundings. Some might call my lack of attention span ADHD. I call it being a nosey bitch.
Pushing up on my hands, the black blades tickle my fingers, a trail of blood red roses leading towards a portal in the distance. A rectangle, framed by intricate iron gates I can’t make out in clear detail, which opens into another universe. A sea of stars rests against swirling crimson and merlot, coaxing me closer. Black smoke plumes from the doorway and I’m already running when an arm snatches around my waist.
“Nope, not yet,” Tweed growls, dragging me away. I fight and claw at his forearm, trying to throw my head back to connect with his nose.
“I wanna see! What is it?!” I beg of Cash who takes Tweed’s side.
“The entrance to Hell,” he eyes me seriously and I still my struggling. Tweed relaxes his hold, making the mistake of setting me down. Elbowing him in the balls and kneeing Cash in his, I’m running alongside the roses with a string of cackling trailing behind me. Sorry boys, but now Ihaveto see.
19
Bound by the twisted twigs locking my wrists behind my back, I jostle on Tweed’s shoulder. My throat is raw from screaming every obscenity I could think of, then a few made-up ones. Tweedle McCunty Twat Tickler, and the likes. When that didn’t work, I turned to singing a made-up song to the tune of ‘It’s a small world.’
It’s a world of douchebags, it’s a world of dicks,
It’s a world of assholes so just take your pick,
It’s more than looks that they share that it’s time we’re aware
They’re the same cunt after all.
They’re the same cu-
Tossed to the hard ground,pain trickles through my shoulder. Not as bad as it should have been, and I can only think of Tweed’s blood being responsible. It’s about time he did something that worked in my favor, and yes – I’m still pissed about that rejected kiss. Cursing, I roll across the concrete until my back meets a pillar. Scraping the twigs against the stone, I free my damn self and glare at the twins. They ignore me, tearing down sticks and clawing at the moss clinging to a small building.
The windows have been bordered with wooden planks; the doorway covered in a network of vines. With the sunlight peering through, I can make out a single desk and random assortment of seats, from dining chairs to beanbags.
Outside the building, I sit beneath a rickety canopy preparing to collapse on me. A sign postered beside a broken bench signals the left as the ‘Right Way’ and other as the ‘Un-Right Way.’ A wonky yellow strip painted along the edge of the concrete beneath my butt lines the platform, leading my gaze to an abandoned train further down a set of overgrown tracks.
“Where are we?” I breathe, pushing myself upright. Thick foliage coats the steel exterior, spots of bubblegum welding the metal sheets together. That train isn’t holding anyone, despite the row of seats visible through the open windscreen and is barely the size of a van. I don’t get an answer, but rather Tweed drops off the platform and onto the tracks.
“I’ll get her some dinner, before she takes a chunk out of me,” he grumbles. My eyes narrow dangerously.
