“Hey! Don’t go down there, there’s a fire. I managed to get them out, but I need you to take them.”
The nurse, whose name tag read ‘Mandy’, looked down the hall to where Mina pointed. Her eyes widened in fright and her training kicked in; she grabbed the bed and began to push toward the emergency exit. Mina could see patients that were strong enough to walk, being escorted toward the stairs. Others were lifted and carried.
Looking down the hall, Mina saw the nurse wave to a young man who did a fireman lift on the doctor and head down the stairs. Mandy scooped up Nan and carried her down herself. They were the last to exit the floor. Satisfied that they would be safe, Mina ran back toward the room.
The floor rumbled under her feet, and then a wall crashed outward as Diedre and Karl fell into the hallway. Karl stabbed the dragon again, but Diedre used her large claws to rake down his stomach. Unbelievably, he wasn’t sustaining as much damage as the dragon. The dragon bit his arm, and a loud metallic crunch was heard.
Mina grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and ran back into the burning room. She used the extinguisher to clear a path to look through the fiery rubble. Somewhere in this wreckage was the Grimoire. Smoke burned her eyes, and she dropped to the ground to stay below the rising smoke.
There it was. The Grimoire was in a pile of debris by the wall. She used the extinguisher on the wood that was burning right above the book, hoping it wouldn’t catch fire. She grabbed the book and hurriedly made her way out into the hall. She saw that the fire had now spread down to the other rooms and that Diedre and Karl were now fighting in the waiting room.
Mina held the Grimoire in her hands and could almost feel the book take an audible sigh. “You ready?” she asked the book.
“It’s about time,” Jared spoke loudly next to her. “I thought you were going to forget about me.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw Jared in head to toe black. “I should have abandoned you. You deserve it.” He was about to say something else when a painful roar filled the air.
Mina began running toward the sound and saw that the dragon had Karl’s blade embedded deep in her belly, but she had pinned him to the ground with her sheer weight. If she moved to remove the knife, Karl would escape. If she stayed where she was, slowly but surely the knife would bury deeper into her abdomen. The dragon roared in pain, and began to bite at the Reaper’s arms, making very little progress.
“Why isn’t he dying?” Mina cried out.
“The Reaper is an iron giant. Her dragon claws, teeth, and fire won’t be enough to kill him.”
“What can kill him?” Mina wailed.
“No one knows, but she will kill herself trying to protect us,” Jared said sadly. He looked upon the old dragon, and his eyes had a glassy look to them, like he was crying.
“Do it!” the dragon roared out in a high gravelly voice. Mina looked over to Diedre whose mouth formed very distinct words. “Do it now! Use the book!” She commanded.
Karl began to panic when it heard the dragon speak and tried to fight. He bellowed and shifted into a man larger than an Ogre but with thinner arms and legs. His skin became translucent and silver. He yelled, screamed, and punched the dragon, trying to get away. The Reaper was fearful of being imprisoned in the book.
“Why is she doing this? Tell her to stop and move away.” Mina opened the book, but Jared shook his head.
“She won’t. He is too strong for either of us, and we can’t weaken him. If she released him, we would never catch him to entrap him in the book. It’s the only way.” Jared stared at the dragon regretfully and walked over to her. He touched the scales of her side, and Mina heard the dragon sigh with happiness.
“I won’t do it,” Mina decided, tears running down her cheeks, feeling intense loyalty to the dragon, who only moments ago she thought was the reaper. She had assumed the dragon was trying to hurt her, but in reality, she was trying to scare her away from the hospital. Now, she was protecting them.
Jared turned on her angrily. “You will. If you don’t, you dishonor her death and it will be for nothing.” He continued to rub the dragon’s scales and even went so far as to touch her bleeding silver snout.
Karl reached down and grabbed ahold of the handle of the jagged knife and began to push it further into the dragon. The dragon roared out in pain. Jared tried to grab the knife from Karl, but the dragon swung her wide head and knocked Jared across the room, out of the reach of the giant.
Mina screamed as he hit the wall, but he rolled quickly to his feet and he glared at her. “Do it now! Use the book and entrap them! She is dying.”