"Wake up, Miss. Silver," were the words that awoke me from my deep slumber.
"Ten more minutes, nobody goes into that dumb old store anyway," I mumbled groggily, rolling onto my side and away from that voice. I was still too much asleep to detect the iciness in its tone, and had I been slightly more awake. I would've immediately known who that voice's owner was.
A pain so great that it dislodged the core of my being, suddenly ripped through me, and I cried out in agony.
"How about I send you into an eternal sleep then?" the voice said and laughed.
My eyes fluttered open, and I gazed into two empty gray eyes hovering above me. Greta grinned triumphantly down at me, her smile crinkling her pale skin. She wore a plain white dress splattered with specks of red liquid, which looked an awful lot like blood, and her gray hair had been slicked back into a bun with a few stray pieces perturbing from here and there.
"Greta," I growled, attempting to sit up so I could claw her stupid, ugly eyes out with my nails, but something was pinning me to the ground and preventing me from completing my wish. I looked down at myself, confused, and saw that something was protruding from my stomach. It was a long, black blade of a sword, and Greta had its hilt clasped in both her hands.
I let out a small gasp, and as I did, blood gurgled in my throat and spilled down the corner of my mouth. I coughed violently as more blood filled my throat and blocked my airway, spraying blood on Greta and me in a fine layer of my blood. This only made Greta laugh harder, her mouth opening impossibly wide.
"Violet!" I heard someone cry out in agony.
I turned my head to look a Henry standing a few feet away. He was being held back by two soldiers in bright red uniforms, but by the looks of things, they were barely restraining him. His electric blue eyes were wild with anger and fear, and they were locked onto me.
"Don't hurt her anymore! If you do, I'll make sure to burn you alive!"
Greta flicked her eyes over to him and back to me, a look of annoyance on her face.
"How irritating, I'm trying to have a girl-on-girl talk, and you keep interrupting me," she sighed. "Don't hurt her, if you do, I'll burn you alive, " she mimicked him, while she took one of her hands off the sword and held it out to where Henry and the men stood. Slowly, she began to close it into a fist, and Henry stopped struggling. He took his eyes off of me and looked at Greta in shock before he began to convulse.
"Henry!" I tried to cry out, but all I managed to do was cough up more blood. Greta simply laughed and twisted the sword in my stomach, and my vision began to fade.
"Violet!"
I opened my eyes to Vivian leaning over me, shaking my shoulder violently. She was crouched down on the ground beside me. The sky above us had just started to gray.
I sat up abruptly and began to frantically run my hands over my stomach to try and find where the sword had pierced my stomach. I sighed in relief when I felt nothing. A dream, it had all just been a dream. Wow, hadn't had one of those vivid nightmares in a while.
"Come on, get your ass up and help me wake the others; they followed us to the campsite."
"Who? Greta's men!?" I asked, slightly panicking as I remembered my dream. From the corner of my eye, I could see Goldfish pacing back and forth along the tree line. He was letting out a low, menacing hiss. He was probably the reason that they hadn't attacked yet.
"I wish," Vivian said, rising to her feet. "The dang griffons did. I should've known that two boys, especially since one of those boys was a powerful fire mag, would be too much for them just to let go."
I rose to my feet quickly and almost tripped over Henry, who was lying very close beside me. "Henry, wake up!" I whispered and shook his shoulder as Vivian had done with me.
"Mmh?" he murmured and sat up and looked at me sleepily. He rubbed his eyes and stretched.
"Get up and get ready to leave, we've got to get out of here now," I told him.
Instantly, he was on his feet and wide awake. I stood, and I briefly scanned the campsite, if you could even call it that. All it really was was a clearing with a makeshift fire pit at its center and a canvas bag hanging from one of the trees that bordered its edges. But beyond that tree, I could make out a pair of yellow eyes. Actually, I could make out lots and lots of pairs of eyes.
I spotted Santana and Arnold curled up in a ball a couple of feet away, and since Vivian was moving towards Arnold, I hurried over to Santana with Henry close behind me.
"How were they able to track us over such a long distance? Usually, griffons don't venture far from their territory," Henry said.
Of course, Henry noticed the threat immediately, and not only that, but he knew everything about it.
"You're really asking me, as I would know?" I said, and knelt beside Santana and began the process of waking her
"Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, asking you," he laughed as he had just told a joke.
I turned away from Santana and towards him, "What is that supposed to mean?"
Henry froze like a deer caught in the headlights. He realized he had just made a no-no. "I meant nothing," he said nervously.
"Are you saying I'm stupid!?" I accused, my eyes moving from Santana to Henry to Santana again
"Ahhhhh..."
Just then, Santana's eyes snapped open, and she looked at me and blinked. Her eyes widened, and then they narrowed, "No," she said.
"Ah, yes?"
"No, she didn't just cold-cock me and make me ride on that giant flying lizard!"
"Umm, yes, she did?"
Santana leaped to his feet and stormed over to Vivian, who was getting Arnold to his feet." Arnold's hair was a frizzy brown mess, and his glasses were fogged.
"Hey!" Santana yelled, storming towards her.
Vivian turned and gave her a look that made me shiver a little in fear. There had been a time when I had been the focus of that look, and it was downright terrifying.
What!?" Vivian snapped.
Santana froze mid-stride. "Ahhhh.... good morning?" Santana squeaked.
"You are going to ride that dragon. Two knocks on the head aren't good for you. Actually, you might not wake up from the second knock, and that wouldn't be good. Would it?"
Santana shook her head.
"Good, I'm glad we both agree," she said.
"Yeah..." Santana said, before turning and practically running from Vivian.
"Why is she so scary!?" she asked once she reached us.
"Because she's powerful," Henry answered her. Come on, let's get out of here," Henry said and jogged over towards Goldfish.
We followed and reached it just as Vivian was hoisting Arnold onto the saddle. She turned to help someone else up and came face to face with a very reluctant Santana.
Vivian held out her hand, and Santana squeezed her eyes closed and let Vivian help her up.
"Ew, ew, ew," she kept whispering over and over again once in the saddle on Goldfish's back, and as Henry and I slid in behind her.
"Stop complaining. It's just a giant lizard!" Vivian groaned.
"A giant-"lizard was what I think Santana was going to say, but she passed out before she could finish it.
"Um, Vivian, I think she just fainted," I said, trying my best to support Santana's weight, and only somewhat succeeding.
"Ah, I got her," Vivian said and grabbed Santana, hoisted her over herself and placed her in front of her. "That will just have to do for now."
"Oookay," I said, letting Vivian handle it.
Vivian gathered the black reins in her hands and cracked them, and we were high in the air within a couple of minutes.
Once we had leveled out, Henry reached up and scratched his head, "Hey, Miss B."
"I thought I told you that wasn't my name anymore," Vivian snapped, "Don't test me today, Henry, I didn't get a good night's sleep last night, and you know what happens when that happens. And oh yeah, I'm going to be especially cranky because, on top of not getting enough sleep all day, I'm going to have to fly for six hours straight before we reach base camp. Oh, I almost forgot, Violet, your mom is there, and she has, umm, some news to share with you."
"What?"
"Yeah, I scribed her last night with my mirror and told her you were with me, and she wanted to talk to you, but I couldn't wake you up. No pun intended, but you were dead asleep."
"Well, can I see your mirror? Can I talk to her now?" I asked, excited that I would be able to speak to my mom after a year of separation.
"Well, you can't do that right at this moment because I kind of smashed the mirror."
"What!?"
Vivian gave me a sheepish look from over her shoulder from her position at the front of the saddle, "She started yelling really loudly to try and wake you up, so I told her to be quiet because it could give away our position, but she wouldn't stop, and I lost my temper and broke the mirror."
"Um, well, I guess I'll see her in six hours anyway," I said, trying to mask the disappointment in my voice.
"So back to what I was saying," Henry said, clearly annoyed from being ignored two days in a row, "You know that griffon that Goldfish ate earlier? Well, if that was their alpha, then they are going to hunt us down to the ends of the earth, which might explain why they came so far out of their territory to hunt us."
"Not if we outfly them," Vivian laughed softly and wiped the reins as hard as she could, and Goldfish rocketed upward.
Five and a half stomach-churning and vomit-inducing hours later, we were hovering above a large cluster of tents of various colors and shapes. People, both men, women, and children, stood outside them and pointed to us while we gracefully floated to the ground.
"Why are all those people here?"
"Because they don't want to be ruled by Greta, our oh so lovely dictator." Vivian spat.
"So are they the refugees from Greta's rule?"
Goldfish touched down in a clearing between the tents.
Vivian shook her head, "No, they're the resistance. Not everyone wanted to follow Greta's rule without question," she said and slipped off the dragon. I followed her example and landed on the ground.
"VIOLET ELLEN SILVER!"
I looked up to see a blonde head pushing her way through a crowd of people that had gathered around us.
"Mom!" I cried, throwing myself at her, but something was preventing me from hugging her fully, but I ignored it and cried into her shoulder for a solid five minutes, while she hugged me back
She brushed a stray piece of hair, and I looked up into her blue eyes, which were filled with tears. "I missed you so much, baby," she cooed.
"I did too," I sobbed and pulled away. It was only when I got a good look at the thing that lay between my mother and me.
"Mom, are you pregnant!?"