Queen of the Dragons

Twenty one

At the sound of a loud roaring, my eyes tiredly opened. I was laying on wet dirt and rock. The long dress I was wearing was still partly in the water. I was wet and shivering..and cold. Confusion clouded my mind and I put a hand over my mouth as to not scream out of fear. What was happening? Where was I?

Memories slowly floated around my mind and I tried hard to grasp the small fragments. The wedding. The river. The waterfall. This cave!

I had remembered I was tired and wished to take a small nap...but the sun is still out. Had I only been asleep for an hour or two? Or maybe longer? Why was the sun not going down?

Taking shaky breaths, I tried to calm myself down...but I was scared. And cold! And what was in my legs? I tiredly looked down and gasped. Leaves? A vine?

A plant that I had no recognized before was curling around my foot and resting on my calf. It was like the plant wrapped itself around me. Which was impossible? When I went to sleep there were no plants here...except for a small patch little green plants that measure half of my pinky. I glanced in the direction of where they were, and gasped.

Did they grow? They grew and stretched across the path towards me. Maybe they were already there and I was just so tired that before my nap I thought they were small plants and I was wrong? Yes, that has to be it...

What was I to do? How long was I in here?

As I thought of ideas, the earth rumbled. I gasped, clutching onto the rock near me, wondering what on earth it could have been. Then I heard the roar and water sloshing around almost violently.

Through the watery haze of the waterfall I could see a large creature...that was in the water. Was it Loche?! I strained my eyes helplessly to try to see through the distorted image that the waterfall was making.

It was large and dark...resembling Loche's dragon. It was him...it had to be him! He found me...the sun did not go down yet either.

A pang of terror hit me and I scrambled up to my feet, crying out as my legs burned. I tried to run deeper into the shallow cave, pressing myself against the small cave wall. I watched in fear as the dragon neared, pushing its large head through the curtain of the waterfall.

A big black scaled head...with upturned horns...and a lot of pointed teeth. It was Loche.

I did what anyone would do at defeat. I cried. I sunk down to the cave floor and began to sob. I had done all of this just for him to find me in a cave...when they did not even like water!

The harder I cried the more the dragon would growl, I could not stop though. I bawled myself up and continued to cry, not wanting to even look at him.

"Estelle?"

It sounded like Loche....but not. His voice sounded different. More hoarse. I knew it was him though and just hearing his voice made me cry even more.

"Estelle!"

I risked a glance through teary eyes and let loose a scream. Loche was now eye level with me...those glowing eyes were the only thing I could focus on.

"Little fae," he grumbled out, trying to grab me as I noticed that most of his skin was showing, but was covered by his scales. His eyes were glowing too...was he more dragon than man right now? And more importantly, did he have clothes on?