Broken Wings

Epilogue

Captain Kyle Walker raised a clenched fist above his head to signal for a halt. The sun was drawing close to the snowy peaks, so it was time to pause the march and focus on setting up camp. He waited as word spread down the long, meandering line of people he was doing his best to lead out of the wilderness.

The group was moving slower than he liked. He kept having to remind himself that they were all civilians, and from what he'd learned talking with and getting to know them over the past three days, more than half of them hadn't really cared for the outdoors. At least, not before the lights went out and left all of them with no choice.

He wished Adrian had thought to include a map and compass among the few supplies he'd planned to leave for the refugees from the camp. It was maddening not knowing how much farther they would have to walk before reaching the last ridge of mountains. Worse than that, he was growing more and more concerned about the food situation.

Including himself, Adrian, and the elf, fifty-seven people had escaped from the Skinnies' camp. The dragon had taken Adrian and the elf away, leaving fifty-five mouths to feed on not nearly enough food. Foraging was largely worthless for a group this size and would have slowed them down even more. And the huge group made so much noise that anything worth the effort of hunting was long gone before even the scouts got anywhere near them. In fact, if it hadn't been for that gryphon-

"Captain?" Anton asked, interrupting Kyle's brooding thoughts. A tall, burly man, he cut an intimidating figure which he was all too aware of. He and Kyle had been distant acquaintances when Kyle had just been a semi-regular vacationer in Pineda before the world turned inside out, but since then Anton had appointed himself as Kyle's enforcer and bodyguard. The captain still wasn't comfortable with how the man loomed with quiet menace in his shadow during most conversations, but after the riot in Pineda when the mayor and police chief were beaten to death by a mob of the very people they were trying to protect, he'd also learned to appreciate it. "I've been keeping my ears out while I've been making my rounds today. Looks like the kids are still worried about that... that thing we all saw the other night." Kyle shook his head.

"It was a dragon, Anton," he explained yet again. Some of the people, Anton among them, seemed unable or unwilling to accept what their own eyes had shown them. He understood it was shocking, but given all they'd been through over the past two weeks, he would have thought people would learn to be a bit more open-minded. "I can talk to everyone again, but it's not like I'm going to have any new information. We're on our way out of its territory. If it wants to find us, it can. If it decides to wipe us out, there's nothing we can do about it. And since it hasn't already done that, there's no reason to think it will suddenly change its mind now that we're miles further away."

"You know," Anton grumbled, "That's not as reassuring as you seem to think. Sometimes people- the kids I mean... Sometimes it's better just to tell them some happy bull just to make them feel better." Kyle shook his head again, punctuating it with a sigh this time.

"I'm not going to lie to people. I'm just not going to do it. It sucks that we don't know what that dragon might do, but since it flew off with Adrian three days ago and we haven't seen a trace of it since, I'm personally starting to believe that he was right. It only wanted him."

"You talk about it like..." Anton paused to gather his thoughts.

Kyle, observing the blatant anxiety creasing the man's face, considered that while Anton and most of the adults were quietly terrified by the thought of the dragon, few of the kids he'd mentioned showed signs of the same fear. They were scared too, of course. But for them, being cold and hungry were the biggest concerns. From what he'd seen, they were filled with wonder and excitement whenever he was pressed to give details about dragons, doubly so when he repeated specifics Adrian had told about the one they'd all seen.