“How many Vladykar dragons are there?!” I ask incredulously.
“Why would I know?!” Astralux asks with a growl that reverberates throughout her draconic body.
Astralux reaches out with her claws, digging into the stone of the corridor to make a sharp right turn as another blast of green-hued pale yellow acid blasts out at us. Beyond, I can just make out the bright lime green eyes of the dragon Saurentais as he chases after us. The faint light in the corridor that glints off Astralux’s bright white scales reveals that he has light-colored scales like Astralux. It’s hard to make out much else as Astralux scrambles along the tight stone corridor.
“You might be bonded, but you can’t escape me!” Saurentais roars, the sound echoing through the corridor.
“I wonder who else they’ve called?” Astralux grumbles.
“Called?” I ask. “You mean Pesokvglazu called for help?”
“Dragons can call one another, within a certain distance.” Astralux, coming up to a four-way intersection, takes a hard left so fast that I slide out from between her back spines. I quickly climb back up as the rubbing of her spines starts to tear away at my already-tattered gray slacks. “I was a fool to bond so quickly,” she mutters.
Hurt, I look back just in time to see Saurentais opening his mouth, looking at us. “He’s spitting again!”
“Hold on!” Astralux lunges upward into an opening in the ceiling I hadn’t even noticed. I cry out as I slide backwards, clinging to her spines as I hang straight down. Light filters down the tight corridor, and I squint my eyes up at the light.
Then I look down and spot Saurentais peering up. He grins as he climbs up after us. “There’s no way out!” he says, laughing. Then he opens his mouth.
Suddenly, Astralux drops. I scream in surprise as we fall, and I topple upwards, scraping my arms along Astralux’s slightly curved spines.
Saurentais wasn’t expecting it either. He gives a shout of surprise before Astralux collapses onto him, and they crash into the stone corridor. I bounce off Astralux’s side before rolling down her leg and onto the floor.
Astralux, however, clearly intended to fall—she lunges at Saurentais’ throat, her long fangs exposed, and sinks her teeth into the base of his neck. Saurentais roars and reaches up to claw at Astralux, but she ducks and throws him to the side. Instead of retreating, like I expect, Astralux charges forward, slashing Saurentais across his left side. It occurs to me that Astralux is a skilled up-close fighter, at least compared to Pesokvglazu and Saurentais.
Then Saurentais gets his head loose and spits acid onto Astralux’s left front leg. I cry out in pain with Astralux, the bond between us sending fierce pain through my left arm just like she feels. Astralux’s beautiful scales melt, and I see her glittering blood drip down. She doesn’t let up on her hold of Saurentais with her front right claw, but I can see Saurentais wriggling loose faster.
I look past the fighting dragons as I hear a noise—more claws on stone. Far down the corridor, I can just make out the bright copper scales of Pesokvglazu’s head as he peers around a turn in the tunnel, a grin on the dragon’s face as he spots us.
“Astralux!” I scream.
Astralux glances over. Seeing Pesokvglazu, she slams Saurentais’ head into the wall and turns, her claws scraping against the stone as she scrambles over to me. I start running down the corridor before I’m jerked into the air by my shirt. Astralux has picked me up by biting into the top of my white cotton shirt, and I cling to the shirt as she scurries along, my body swinging side to side.
Bright light fills my vision as Astralux bounds down the corridor. Squinting ahead, my heart sinks as I spot nothing but a golden morning sky ahead of us. “Uh, wait!”
“I see it,” Astralux mutters with a full mouth.
Just when I think Astralux is going to attempt to fly, even with her injured wing, she twists right at the end of the corridor. She launches herself overtop the entrance of the corridor—acid splashing out after her—and then claws repeatedly into the mountain side, sending rocks sliding down below her. I grab a hold of the tip of her nose where she has a small pale blue-colored nub and pull myself up higher as boulders crash into the cave’s opening. Astralux turns her head to look, giving me a perfect view of the mountainside where we had exited. Rocks have filled the opening from top to bottom.
“You did it!” I exclaim.
There’s a terrible crack from deep inside the corridor, and I see the boulder shake. “I’ve delayed them,” Astralux says, her mouth still full of my shirt. The dragon takes off running down the mountainside, shaking her head up. “Climb up!”
I manage to awkwardly swing myself up onto her face, my feet in between where her eyes are set, still clinging to the small horn at the tip of her nose, looking down at the ground many meters below us. I can see forests beyond, but I’m otherwise not sure of where we are. All I know, based on the rising sun I see peeking around the side of the mountain, is that we’re headed northwest.
There’s a massive crash, and I look back and up to see half-melted boulders fly out of the cave opening, followed by two dragons. Now I can tell by the bright light of day that Saurentais’ scales are a pale yellow that fade into a green at the tip of his spikes. He and Pesokvglazu give a unison roar that thrums through my being.
“There’s nowhere to run!” Vladykar Lochan shouts. I can just spot his sandy brown-haired head overtop Pesokvglazu’s back as the dragons come flying toward us.
Astralux flinches underneath me. “I hate the Vladykars so much,” she mutters.
“Can’t you call for help too?” I ask.
“The other dragons have to be close enough. And I….” Astralux takes a gulp of air, still sprinting down the mountain. “I ran off by myself.”
“Why?!”
“I was angry,” Astralux says. “And now my mistake has cost your village. I pray to Ariadna that I can rescue at least you.”
Struck by Astralux’s deep regret, I give her the smallest hug on her nose. “We’ll get through this,” I say. “Together.” Mom always said that when we had a patient who was scared or in significant pain.
Astralux exhales, and I feel a tremble through her. “Thank you.”
“Estelle!”
I look up to see Vladykar Lochan peering around Pesokvglazu’s head as they fly our way. He has that wry smirk on his face again, the crossbow in his hands once more. “Jump off Astralux, and we will spare you!”
I cling to Astralux. They had wanted me alive before. Nothing has changed, except that now they threaten death to me along with Astralux. I look ahead as Astralux levels onto the ground and sprints for the forest. With the momentum built up from her run down the mountainside, we’re going to reach the first line of trees soon.
I hear the sound of wind whistling past something, and look back to see Saurentais is close—close enough to breathe. He opens his mouth, his lime green eyes glinting with victory.
I sit up, lift my right hand, summoning as much energy inside me as I can, imagining sending fire at Saurentais’ face. A ball of yellow-tinged orange fire bursts from my hand, its force so strong it causes me to slide down Astralux’s nose. The fire lands square across Saurentais’ chest, and the dragon gives a roar as he twists, using his legs and wings to bat at the fire on him. He tumbles through the air, no longer diving, and crashes into Pesokvglazu, who had been following behind him.
“Yes!” Astralux exclaims.
I stare as the two dragons and one human fall as a tangled ball toward the ground. Just before they hit, Astralux dives into the trees, impeding my vision. But I hear a thundering boom—the dragons hit the ground. I wonder if Vladykar Lochan survived the fall. Somehow, I have a bad feeling he did.
“Estelle! That was brilliant!” Astralux doesn’t slow in her run, but continues sprinting through the forest. “That’s the power I knew you had!”
I struggle to right myself on Astralux’s nose. Clearly, dragon’s faces were not made for riding, and after a little Astralux pauses and sets me on her back before continuing to run. I’m back to balancing between her spines, trying to avoid her scales which rub as she moves.
“I still don’t like it,” I admit.
Astralux is silent, and I wonder if she’s angry at me again. An hour passes, the sun glinting through the beautiful green leaves of the trees, when she slows to what I would describe as a trot, or a jog—she’s still keeping up a quick pace, but this seems to be much more sustainable for her.
“I don’t want you to think that I like to hurt the Vladykars,” Astralux says.
I look up as she glances back at me with one dark blue eye. “You don’t?”
“No. I hate them, because of the evil they have done. But I don’t enjoy harming them.” Astralux steps over a fallen tree with ease, making good time through the forest despite her size, or perhaps because of it. “What I like is being able to defend other people against those that would do evil. That’s why I’m one of the Wards.”
“Why don’t you use your ability, then?” I ask.
“My breath?” Astralux growls. I don’t feel like it’s directed at me, however. “Because, it’s stupid.”
I frown, confused. “Your breath is stupid?”
“Very. Oh, how I’ve longed for a breath of fire, just like your magic!” Astralux sighs heavily as she climbs up a small incline onto ground that’s ten meters higher than where we were. Because of her size and yet apparent litheness, she has the speed of a horse on the open ground in this forest. Still, I can imagine that if we came to a part of the forest with thick underbrush, she might have more difficulty. “Really, anything, besides my breath.”
“What do you…breathe?” I ask. I don’t know if that’s how one asks the word, but it sounds right, since Astralux has called it a breath.
“I’d rather you not see,” Astralux mutters.
“I want to know,” I say.
“It’s humiliating.”
“Humiliating?” I try to imagine what sort of breath would be humiliating. Perhaps a cloud of gas that isn’t poisonous and smells bad? That’s my best guess, and that’s based on Saurentais’ strange sharp-sour smell that seems to linger around him. “What is it?” Astralux bares her teeth. “You want to know how pathetic I am?! Fine!” She stops at the edge of a short drop down to where a small stream trickles, rears her head, and opens her mouth—
Tamara Rivers 
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