Chapter 5: The Separation

By the time the last bullet is finally taken out, G’reth’s sides are heaving and the tree no longer existed. Make that ten trees that no longer exist. About half-way through, I had to close the link connecting our emotions because the pain traveling through to me was too much to bear and keep from killing Jake at the same time. The human drops the last bullet onto the ground, with the other seven that had dug into the joint of G’reth’s wing, and sits down next to the small pile.

“I do believe,” Jake inhales deeply, “that is all of them,” he releases his breath, running a hand down his face. “Oh gross,” he smeared blood on his face. He takes his shirt off and uses the inside of it to clean his face off before putting it back on. I take the tree from G’reth’s jaws and his head limply goes to the ground with a soft thump. I turn and toss the tree behind me a little ways away and then press the bridge of my snout against G’reth’s softly.

“What are you going to do about your clothing?” I ask Jake, sitting on my haunches, looking at his bloody shirt and jeans.

“Oh, right…” Jake looks down at himself and the blood rushes from his face. “You know where any source of water is that I can use to wash this stuff?”

My voice rumbles, “Yeah, I can show you…” I look at G’reth lying there. “But I don’t want to leave him.” A bad feeling had begun to grow within me.

‘I’ll be fine. Go help the poor human,’ G’reth tells me.

‘Are you sure?” I look into his dark, brown eyes.

‘Yes,’ G’reth looks back into mine, ‘I’ll be fine. Go.’

‘Okay,’ I place the bridge of my snout against his once more before I take Jake to where I hear the water. I stop and turn my head to look at G’reth, “If anything doesn’t feel right, roar and we’ll be there as quickly as we can.” G’reth rumbles a deep hum in the back of his throat in acknowledgement. I look at Jake and motion him to follow and start walking towards the scent of water. I found it even more disturbing that even the water was silent.

 

We find the poor excuse for a pond and I sit on my haunches examining the surrounding area; Jake starts washing his clothes. I don’t pay any attention to him as I take note of everything I see. I walk to the edge of the water and consider the still surface. The pond is fairly large for being man-made. The water is somewhat clean, the rocks at the bottom are distinguishable, but not clear. The lack of wild life seemed very unnatural, especially around a water source - there aren’t even fish swimming around. I stand up and walk around part of the perimeter looking at the trees and get a crushing feeling in my heart. I miss the sounds of wild life, the wind brushing against my scales, everything. I wanted life to be back to the way it was a few days ago. I get angry and release a jet of flame across the water; I roar in frustration after the stream of flames stop. I lift my wings and crouch down, preparing to take flight. I spring up into the air, my wings beat down at the same time, lifting me higher. I snarl viciously as my wings and claws tear through the air. I find the top of the cage and blast fire against it without breaking.

After a few minutes of this, my vision goes red, black spots swimming around the edges and I stop. My whole body gets weak and I start to fall back to the ground; my wings on either side of me, my back facing the ground. I drift in and out of consciousness as I fall until I meet the ground. Pain erupts within my back and I give a sharp cry of pain.

My tail thrashes and I pant, trying to get back the breath that got knocked out of me. I twist myself so I am standing, my head hanging, eyes closed tight; claws ripping through the dirt as I grip the ground. I catch my breath and I breathe in deep and start walking the pain in my back off. I remember about Jake and pad around, waiting for him to get done, anxious to get back to G’reth. After the fifth pace, I walk back to Jake to see what was taking him so long. I see him putting his shirt back on - everything is clean.

“About time,” my voice rumbles suddenly, making him jump slightly. I sit on my haunches and give him a kind of criticizing look, secretly enjoying the fact that I made him jump. Jake turns and starts to give a reply until a roar splits the silent enclosure. I look at Jake with a look of fear, “G’reth…” I move quickly. “Get on my back.”

Jake’s expression turns into shock, “What?”

“You heard me!” I get frustrated that he isn’t moving. “I said, get on!” I lower my body so he can climb up me. Once Jake is on, I take off and speed to where we left G’reth. I see him in another net and I get angry. They anticipate my moves and I find myself wrapped up in a net as well.

“No!” I bellow. “You can’t take him!” I struggle against the netting, panicking as I see the hunters drag the unconscious dragon across the ground towards the doors with a large yellow truck-like machine. I hear a yell of pain but pay no attention to it, all of my focus on getting out of the net and to G’reth.

I give off a scared, high pitched call, still struggling to get out of the net.

‘G’reth…’ I stop finally as I see him being taken out of my sight, my breath heavy from the effort of trying to free myself. Despair and fear takes ahold of me and I fight against the net with renewed vigor and I roar in frustration. I forgot Jake got entangled with me and nearly catch him with a claw. I see that he is yelling something and realize he is shouting my name. I start to calm down and I hear him yelling.

“GRACE!!”

“I have to…” I pant, “G’reth…”

“Yeah, I know, but you have to calm down first before I can help you.” Jake is on the ground, holding his arm across his chest, looking up at me warily. I stop moving and let him work out the netting. His hands moving carefully, trying not to make his arm angry with pain.

‘I’m sorry I broke your arm.’ I sigh. He doesn’t say anything, just works on the netting.

Author's Note

I don't know if I should keep the part where Grace tells Jake to get on her back because the hunters would see Jake, but nothing comes up because of it. Maybe if Grace leaves Jake at the water and goes after G'reth by herself and gets caught in the netting. By that point, Jake could have made it back to Grace and then help her with the netting. The broken arm could be taken out as well, as it has no relevance in the story. What do you all think?

Also, I think that there might be some confusion as to how big Grace and G'reth's cage might be. It's about the size of the Wembley Stadium (the whole cage is as tall as the arc over the stadium). It's a sort of dome shape, as well.