“Where are you, Aileen? I know you are in hee-ere.” she heard a voice sing-songing in the distance behind her.
She froze, afraid to move, afraid to breathe. He was so much closer than she thought he would have been with her head start. She tried not to make a sound, at first, but then his voice changed. He was in the cave! She could hear his echoes against the inner walls escaping back out the entrance. After giving him a moment to become further into the darkened passages, she began running again, quickly making it back out to the edge of the cliffs to look down at the waters below. There were rocks all through the shallow area she was in and she debated if this was her best option.
Taking one last deep breath, she shifted and took careful aim, gliding toward where the rocks were no longer visible and hoping there weren’t more lurking below the surface. She folded in her wings just before hitting the surface and shot around the edge of the next set of cliffs toward the other side of the island before stopping and poking her head above water to see if anyone was around. As originally thought, there didn’t seem to be anyone here at all, which was both good and bad. Good for dragons who don’t want to be seen. Bad for women who needed assistance eluding a bad man.
She slipped onto the beach below, her presence hidden by the overhang of the massive cliffs protruding above her and caught her breath. Her heart raced wildly, despite her attempts to calm herself and she knew she couldn’t stay there long. As soon as he figured out she wasn’t in the caves, he would come out to track her again and probably see the broken branches and trampled plants she had created as she had ran through the foliage to the cliffs. As soon as she felt safe, she decided it was time to make another break for it.
She shot into the air and took flight, climbing as high as she could go in an effort to be obscured by the clouds before he could spot her from the ground. Directing herself toward the left, away from the direction from which she had come, she flew as fast as she could toward the mainland she knew she would find there from less harrowing flights out across the water.
After about ten minutes, she felt safe. There was no sign of the larger dragon that had given chase to her. Hopefully, he was long gone - though she remained concerned about why he had given chase in the first place and if he would do so again when, and if, he found her. She felt a tremendous amount of relief and then she was suddenly spiraling sideways. He had come from nowhere and rammed into her, shooting up from the bottom and hitting her squarely in the midriff. All of the wind was knocked out of her and she could feel herself falling, spiraling down toward the dark waters below with no ability to stop herself.
Aileen awoke with a gasp, sweat beading her brow. She looked around, bewildered. Where was she? It took a moment for her eyes to focus and for her to realize she was back at Yakov’s – safe and comfortable in her room. She felt ill, like she had eaten something she shouldn’t have. It was probably just the trauma of the dream. It had felt so real. Lying back against the pillow again, she tried to choke back the nausea that was suddenly flooding over her, but she lost the battle, instead lunging forward and running to the bathroom to purge what little she had eaten on the trip home.
She washed her faced, gargled the taste away and then returned to bed in an attempt to nap. She was afraid the horrible dream would return, but this time, it didn’t, and she slept peacefully until she was awakened sometime later by a knock at the door.CHAPTER SEVENTEENAileen crawled from the bed and made her way across the room, grabbing her robe and putting it on as she went. She pulled it tightly around her as she opened the door to find a member of Yakov’s staff standing there. Aileen couldn’t remember her name.
“Mr. Seputre asked me to tell you he will not be in for dinner tonight and to see if you want us to bring up your food or if you’d like to come down for your meal.”
“You know, I’m not feeling really well. Having my food brought up sounds divine. Something fairly bland would be good and maybe some seltzer water?”
“No problem. We’ll keep in simple and I’ll get you some seltzer up while they are working on the food. Perhaps a few saltines?”