Dragon Aster Trilogy

8: FIELD RUSH



Sybl woke up to the fragrance of flowers and the uprising snow that came with them. She was still trapped in the dream and running, falling and trying to reason her way out of it wasn’t working.

She reached out to where the demon had left the mask, as its carved-out smile grinned back at her. Sybl picked it up and put it face-down back on the flowers.

If wishes into dreams didn’t melt, neither would the nightmare release her back to reality.

She rolled over to her back and looked up at the moon that glowed down on her. Both it and the stars seemed closer, as if tempting her to reach out and pull them down. For a moment, it looked like a bright blue star had hastily rushed through them.

As if to remind her that she couldn’t fly a harsh breeze passed over her body, but it didn’t die down. It lifted her necklace up from her neck, and she looked at it before catching it in hand as she sat up. It had the effect of stopping the wind as her tangled brown hair fell all at once. The pollen-snow seemed to even pause in its rising, stopping entirely in place. The only explanation to any of it was a gentle smell of lavender around her.

Sybl let go of the necklace, and the breeze started again. The field remained utterly still. Something watched her from nearby, as the hairs on her arms stood up. Her instincts told her that it wasn’t something that could fit into the mask.

She touched her necklace, and the harsh breeze stopped again. “Okay show yourself already!”

Something moved in the field, and she wasn’t sure what it was in the darkness it blended into. The ground shook, and she began to fear the worst as she glanced back at the canyon, remembering the things that had attacked her. Now she had unwittingly gotten their attention again.

Getting to her feet, Sybl made a break for the trees as the ground continued to shake. Only something huge could be climbing out of the chasm this time. But before she could reach the trees, a heavier darkness passed over the grass. It landed in her path and moved to match her when she tried to change it.

Sybl looked back as the monster had reached the top of the canyon, as a giant foot appeared and set down on the edge. It was similar to the winged cougar—only it looked more like a lion. The ground was shaking because it was the size of a house.

The massive winged-cat set its green eyes like a watchtower her way and kept her in a frozen spotlight. It spread its wings upward like a peacock would into a galaxy of colors. Its semi-transparent feathers used the light of the moon to turn the field into its chosen shade by the moment. But the display wasn’t to impress anyone but the reaper of death. The shadow of the monument’s feathers revealed that between the black hole and the house-sized cat, was an even bigger monster of a dragon.

Sybl only caught half the features of it in her eyes before she decided to take her chances with the black hole and ran across it.

The feathers of the cat tightened and closed its display of colors, before unleashing a torrent of feathers that poured down as arrows. Before death could reach her, the dragon did first. He pulled her under him, and used his wings like thick shields to guard them during the onslaught. When the last feather fell, he made a spin so fast he had gone straight through her. His tail collided into the wolf-like creature that had emerged from the dark portal, and sent the black monster in a fierce tumble across the field.

Sybl was already cowered into a duck, as the creature got back to its feet and let out an infuriated growl of fangs like those of a sabertooth tiger. This can’t be happening. She looked in her terrified fear as the ground shook again and the winged cat folded its wings up like lightning antennas. Now what? The cat began to walk over to them for a more direct strike.

The dragon vanished again.

“We need to get off this field.”

“YOU THINK?” Sybl shouted back at the new voice in her head as the wolf began to calculate its next strike as it circled around her.

“I need you to run for the trees in five.”

She wasn’t given another option as the countdown started in her head with his voice and she stood up and made a break for it. The black monster came straight for her, but the dragon caught its flank in his claws and held it back, before they both exchanged glancing snaps of teeth and claws. The dragon was only slightly phased out of his invisibility, even amidst an all-out brawl that put the wolf at a serious disadvantage.

The wings of the cat began to ripple upwards again, before they came down on the dragon and wolf like the snap from a whip of lightning, sending the two of them scattering to avoid the strike.

Sybl reached the trees, but when she looked back, several more of the surreal black monsters appeared. In the least, it was enough to make the winged lion take to the air in retreat. Why the dragon didn’t take to the air to do the same, she didn’t know.

The wolves set their full attention on the dragon then, before colliding with him in a rolling and spinning flurry of teeth and claws.

“Keep running!”

She could only listen to him, and hope that he would get himself off of the field with his own wings with her out of the way.