Nonexistent

FIFTEEN- Rogue

CELESTE pulls my arm so harshly, it hurts. 

"Celeste, what's the mat--" I stop when I turn back to see her state. "Mason! Get over here!"

I'm sure Celeste is exhausted from running such a long distance, but the look in her eyes says much more than that. Something is wrong.

"Rogue..." she trails off staring into the distance in horror. I wonder what she's sensing. What she sees. "Rogue! We need to help!" 

Mason and I are by her side when all of a sudden, our heads shoot to the direction of a booming roar followed by fire that explodes about fifty meters away. Mason promptly transforms into some kind of wyvern as I help Celeste onto his back. 

We take off into the sky, wind blowing our hair, headed towards the scene of wrathful flames. The route is familiar to me. I remember running into a clearing not far ahead, which means... the cliff. 

We are ten meters away when Mason dives for the ground, and he's hastily running towards the commotion. The trees are thinning, and soon, we come face to face with a dragon even larger than Mason. 

Celeste and I hop off as the two legendary animals assess each other as opponents. 

"This way!" Celeste leads me towards the ledge of the cliff that I fell from not four hours ago. I don't hesitate to run towards the precipitous rock face and lean over to find myself staring straight into striking pair of familiar blue eyes. I reach out my hand as I recall where I've seen her before. She's the Groundshifter who saved Caden's life, along with mine. 

The fierce battle has begun behind us. The beasts roar and cry as I reach down further into the treacherous cliff. "Careful!" Celeste warns as I extend my hand out to the girl. She can't remove any of her hands from the ledge. It would be too risky. I'd have to grab onto her wrists to pull her up.

The fight behind causes the unstable rocky ground to shake, and I almost fall over as the girl's first hand gives in drops to her knees. She hangs her head in acceptance and defeat, but I won't give up on her. 

I nearly jump of the ledge as I grab a tight hold of her wrist. "Your other hand," I manage to spit out in a tight voice, strained by all the effort my body is exerting. She reaches out to it, but I can't let go of my other hand, which is tightly gripping the ledge as only thing causing us both from toppling over.

Celeste extends her arm and finds a firm grasp of the girl's free palm, and together, we slowly back up, bringing her to safety. But the ground starts to tremble again and right when her whole body is nearly up, the shake causes her to lose her balance and fall back. 

Celeste hurriedly reaches out and the girl's strength and weight pulls her over... and I hear a scream.

Celeste's scream.

"No!" the girl shouts, looking over her shoulder straight at the screaming Celeste, plummeting towards the angry waves and sharp rocks. 

"Mason!" I scream in help, but he's already diving into the abyss before I even finish his name. He's a gigantic falcon when he catches Celeste in a soft swoop, careful not to make a severe impact.

The dragon is slightly injured from the fight, but still deathly as ever when it heads towards us as I aid the Groundshifter in pulling herself back up. She rotates her shoulders and cracks her neck as she positions herself for an attack. She easily plucks a boulder from its place with the stomp of a foot, and lunges it at the dragon. It dodges the attack and opens its mouth, displaying a terrifying amount of thin, silver teeth. 

Its yellow-golden eyes lock with mine as its head, with its mouth still open, suddenly advances towards me in lightning speed. My experienced acquaintance creates a stone wall to block us just in the nick of time.

Mason's falcon screech echoes in my ears as he drops Celeste off safely, and flies straight into the dragon's chest. It falls backwards as the blow takes him by surprise. Mason has damaged its wings from the previous battle, I notice, for one obvious reason. He dodges a claw and strikes it in the chest a second time. 

The worn out beast collapses over the cliff. Its useless wings are filled with holes as they flap helplessly. It does no good. 

We watch as the dragon rapidly falls from the cliff, still clawing and snapping at us, even when we're beyond its reach. And in a instant, a strange snake-like monster emerges from the deep waters of the abyss and catches the dragon with cavernous jaws. Feeling satisfied with its newfound meal, the slithery Basilisk returns to its home deep beneath the water. 

We stare at each other in silence, listening to our harsh breathing and drumming hearts. Simply content with listening to proof that we're still living. 

It's ironic how being so close to death makes you feel alive.