SILVER
~âIf you manage to hurt me and Storm realizes you are the reason behind any injuries I obtain, I canât guarantee your safety or your life,â~ I warn Elena as she encroaches upon me, her large Dragon form easily bending trees and snapping trunks that get in her way.
I continue to speak even as I back up, using my advantage of having a smaller body to slither through smaller gaps between the trees that she wonât be able to fit through.
~âStorm may not yet accept me as worthy to stay by his side, and he may not think I am worthy of his lessons or his attention, but I know how heâll respond if he finds me bloodied.â~
~âYou may think I want to rip you apart with the aim to make you bleed heavily.â~
Elena lowers her head, her red eyes running over me, as confident as the biggest and baddest predator on the land as she easily sidesteps some thick tree trunks to find my unblinking and yesâI admitâterrified eyes.
~âBut that isnât necessary, little Silver. I donât need to break your bones or maul you to make you scream.~
~âThe most painful area on a Dragon to be bruised, let alone cut, is right under where the wing meets the body.~
~âThose ropes you spoke of that the Prince adorned me with cut into the underside of my wings⦠I know how excruciating it is for the first time to feel such pain. I barely kept silent.~
~âI know you wonât be able to handle it. But thatâs the point. Storm will treat you better, and you will guarantee me safety in his territory.~
~âThe injuries I leave you with will be from a fallâ¦not meâ¦do you understand?â~
~âHow can you possibly make it look like I fell?â~ I ask while snorting out a breath. ~âI have wings, you know!â~
I keep backing up, and she keeps pace, waiting for the right moment.
I get a little worried as she smiles with her fangs, starting to weave in such a way that she is almost directing me as I attempt to create distance from the Rogue who canât wait to hurt me.
As I keep my gaze trained on her, my tail feels the surroundings behind me, acting as the eyes for my next steps.
Eventually, she slows, and I also slow, curious about her intentions.
~âI do not like this plan,â~ I say, eventually speaking up. ~âI donât thinkââ~
~âShut it, Silver. If it works, you owe me, big time.â~
Itâs Elenaâs only warning before I see the slither of flames licking from her mouth around her large fangs as she launches out of the trees toward me, ready for a fight.
I have also tensed my muscles, and I donât think she expects me to come in for the fight willingly.
I manage to jump up onto my hind legs and avoid her lowered headâ¦and I strike down by instinct, my teeth nipping her neck and ripping off a few roughened scales.
With a surprised and angry snarl, she uses her weight against me, her tail wrapping around my leg to stop me darting into the trees.
She jerks me off my feet, and I fall to my side.
As my wing crumples, and I feel minor to moderate pain, her head surprisingly lowers toward my neck and shoulders, where she barges into meâ¦almost like she wants me toâ
~Oh my gosh!~
The force of her shove makes my body lift through the airâ¦and then Iâm fallingâ¦and fallingâ¦as there is no ground.
At least there is no ground for the brief moment that I register that I should have hit it by now.
Instead, my body collides with a small, rocky hill, almost as steep as a cliff. A place she has ~purposefully~ directed me toward.
Not that I can curse about being so stupid and not realizing it until now.
Because now my wings are being shredded, rocks are evading my clawsâ grip, and my momentum is only slowed by the rocks I hit.
The pain becomes unbearable, to the point I stupidly spread my wings to desperately try to fly out of my rough tumble.
It is at this point, as my wings open, that a sharp point of a huge, flat rock not only stops my descent, but pierces right through my left wingâs nervesâ¦at the point they connect to my body.
The large rock has my wing skewered as I scream in pain.
~âHelp! Help!â~
I call out to anyone and anything that can hear me through the mental connection, over and over, as I feel blood running from my head, some bruised scales, some missing onesâ¦and my wingsâ¦
Not only are they bleeding, but now one is pierced, and the pain is unbearable.
~âHelp, please. Help me! Anyone!â~
I half expect Elena to come rescue me and pretend to be the hero.
But she doesnât come to help meâ¦and I know why as I glance up and see one enormous, horned Dragon, reflective of the sky, flying directly to me in a straight line.
~âIâm here.â~ Itâs his only answer.
The sight of Storm relieves me so much I almost pass out. I donât truly pass out, however, until a bit later.
Through my bloodied tears, I see Storm land by me; his anxious, quickly moving head then nudges my wing up and off the rock that skewers me.
I scream again, and then I mist, hoping the pain is more bearable as a human.
However, I slip on a rock and hit my shin as I transformâ¦and that, of all the things to make me lose consciousness, is the very thing that pushes me over the edge.
My eyes roll back, and I donât feel myself collapse.
I just pass out.
***
I canât remember anything, but I can ~feel~ everything. When my watery eyes open, my breath is short, and my skin feels sticky.
I can barely comprehend where I amâ¦with the healer next to me, wrapping up my wounds and the ceiling so strangely unwanted.
No.
Not the ceiling.
It is the very thought of Storm and the connection to him that I make by looking at the familiar ceilingâ¦
This is the wooden cabin that belongs to my mate, and it holds so much pain for me because it was the place he told me to leave.