The Lost Knight (Volume III) The Lost World

Chapter 40: Monsters

"Lenox!" I scream as I race through the empty corridors of my school. Why can't I find him?

"Lenox!"

Something's clawing at a classroom door. Is Lenox in there? Why won't he answer? The heat of the dragon's fire seeps through the door, burning my face.

Lenox shrieks from around the corner. If I hurry, I can reach him before he disappears. I draw shallow, unsteady breaths into my burning lungs. This is my fault. I can barely walk on the bloody stumps that used to be my feet. I'm leaving a gory trail for the dragons to follow.

I have to get him. I race around the corner. In the hallway is the white and red dragon with its mouth open wide. Its sinewy black tongue lashes out and seizes me by the wrist. It yanks me so forcefully my hand almost comes off. It pulls me across the rough ground toward its cavernous mouth.

"Lenox!" I scream. His shadow limps around the corner. He's hurt.

The dragon's sharp teeth fillet my shoulder. I peer into its deep soulless eyes as it snaps its mouth shut. Everything goes dark.

My eyelids fly open. I can't see. Am I still dreaming? I'm lost in nightmares, each one worse than the last? Why can't I see? I try to sit up, but a pair of hands gently hold me down.

"Just relax," Jonah says soothingly.

"I can't see!"

"You have bandages over your eyes."

"Get them off!" I yell and attempt to lift my palms to my eyes, but pain shoots up both my arms and into my back. "Get them off!" I repeat.

Jonah carefully removes them as I concentrate on the air passing through my lungs in an attempt to remain calm. Just bandages. Everything will be alright once they come off, I tell myself repeatedly during the unbearably long process.

As soon as the bandages are removed, I attempt to open my eyes. Pain like a bullet shoots through them to the back of my skull. I groan and ignore the pain in my arm as I lift a palm to my eye. I press hard, trying to make the light stop burning me.

Jonah removes my hand from my eye and rubs my good shoulder. He's saying something, but I pay him no mind as the pain slowly subsides and my vision comes back.

I blink a few times and gaze into Jonah's wide, sad eyes. I turn  to see the owner of the hand I was holding all night, but whoever was there is gone now. I look questioningly at Jonah. Maybe I imagined it.

He shakes his head. "Her injuries were too bad."

Dead. The word reverberates through my mind. Whoever that hand belonged to risked their life for me, and I don't even know who they were.

"How are you?" Jonah asks slowly.

"I'd like to get up."

He's uncertain for a moment. Then he assists me into a sitting position, and the pressure eases off of my shoulders. He helps me scoot back to lean on the base of a small tree.

I count my companions. "Trelix?" I ask. The fear in my voice is hard to disguise.

"He's fine. Just went to the other side of the island."

Thank God. I can't lose anyone else. I don't acknowledge his answer. Instead, I ask, "We're on an island? I thought it was a cloud." I don't know why I ask or even care, but I know I don't want to talk about who's with us, or more accurately, who's not.

"It's the name for a cloud when you're on the top. From the ground you look up at clouds, but here it's an island."

I'm sorry I asked. I look down at my hands and then quietly ask my fingers, "Lenox?"