Chapter 2: The Chase

       ‘S**t,’ he swears, mirroring my own thoughts. ‘We need to get out of here. Now.’

‘Yeah, I know. Where are you?’ I refrain from jumping off my branch to find him so the hunters don’t see me.

‘In a tree,’ he replies.

‘Very helpful, G’reth,’ I reply, scared.

‘Get out of there.’

‘I can’t. They are too close to me. They’d see me instantly,’ helplessness invades my words.

‘How high are you?’ fear has already taken ahold of him.

‘About halfway up. I can see them clearly, which isn’t usually a good thing,’ my heart begins to race with fear. ‘I don’t know what we should do. Maybe, if we don’t move, then, hopefully, they won’t notice us. How high are you?’

‘All the way at the top for the most part. Too far to help you.’ G’reth becomes panicked as well. ‘Stay still. If they harm you…’ his voice trails off and I can feel his anger boiling within me.

‘I am trying to, but your emotions flowing into me isn’t exactly helping that.’

‘Right, sorry.’

‘It’s okay, just try to keep them from my own head right now.’ I keep my eye on the hunters as they move directly underneath me and pause. My fear envelopes me as they stay still for a second; they found my claw marks at the base of the tree.

‘Grace? What is going on?’

‘They found my claw marks at the base of my tree,’ my body is shaking with fear, causing the tree to tremble ever so slightly. I feel G’reth isn’t much better and, too late, realize that he had begun to dive back down.

‘G’reth! No If they see you, they will try to kill you!’ I look up too quickly and my branch protests with a violent shake. The hunters look up as a flurry of leaves fall on top of them.

“There!” They shout. I leap off my branch and try to fly through the trees, wanting to evade their bullets. As I race through the trees, I notice G’reth joins me, flying underneath to protect me.

“Go! Go! Go!” The men yell to one another and the roar of four engines chase us.

‘Fly faster,’ he urges me on.

‘I can’t fly that fast through the dense trees like you can. We need to find a clearing and go higher, or go lower and risk flying closer to the ground and speed around the trees.’ I keep getting caught in all of the branches.

‘Well, I don’t see a clearing anywhere so the only option right now is to risk flying lower to the ground,’ He says, clearly against the idea. We start to dip into a quick dive towards the forest floor and speed up. G’reth drops behind me and, despite the burning in my wings, I push myself to fly faster in order to protect him from being too close to the hunters. I look behind me and see the headlights of four jeeps chasing us through the forestry. I look back in front of me and focus on avoiding the trees. As soon as I turn my head back in front of me, I hear a roar followed up with the sound of snapping branches and a heavy thud; my blood goes cold.

“We got it!” I hear a hunter shout.

“G’RETH!!” I fan my wings out to slow myself down and push myself off a tree trunk in order to turn myself around faster; the tree fell from the force of it. “No!” I blast fire from my maw towards the hunters as I fly back. Furiously, I try to free him from the netting, but it doesn’t give. He struggles to get free, blasting fire towards another Jeep, fury veiling his eyes. I stand over him with my wings fanned up and out to the sides in an attempt to give myself a bigger appearance. Flames are dancing around my teeth; fire clinging onto everything it touches.

“Get that one!” One of them points at me. “The other one won’t be a problem while we take this one down!” I hear the sound of two shot guns being fired from different positions and my blue wing membranes are punctured with a series of bullets from each blast. I bellow in pain as the bullets pierce through my wings causing black blood to flow in small, hot streams from the wounds; I bring my wings back down. The forest around us is on fire, giving the scene a fiery orange light, making it scarier.

I try again to free him from the netting, “Why can’t I rip through it?!” Panic and frustration fills me and I try harder, biting and pulling at the net that claimed him. I feel bullets trying to pierce through my scales behind me and I turn, charging towards the person holding an M16 " which was what they wanted me to do. I realize my mistake when, from behind me, I hear short bursts of bullets being shot from M41A pulse rifles and a roar of pain. Digging my claws into the ground, I quickly turn around to protect the fallen dragon as best I can. I blast fire from my maw and charge them, making the hunters dive to the side and aim their fire towards me.

A dangerous light sparks in my eyes while G’reth struggles out of the netting. One thing my build is good for - combat - is something I don’t use to my advantage unless I have to. The fact that I am a lot stronger on the ground than I am in the air - like G’reth is - makes the two of us together the perfect team when we need to watch each other’s backs. Usually. This is not one of those times.

‘G’reth, find the knot if you can,’ my mind goes to him, desperately wanting out of this situation. I take up a jeep and throw it towards two men; they dodge it. ‘I can’t keep this up much longer.’ I become aware of hot blood streaking down my scales in different places and I start to slow down, becoming exhausted. My adrenaline is the only thing keeping me going.

‘I am trying,’ G’reth roars in frustration and accidentally sends a head splitting yell through our link " searing pain enters my head, making my vision go red. ‘G’reth…’ I stumble and the hunters advance upon us.

“Get the tranquilizer guns!” I hear one of the men yell.

At that moment, he breaks free into a furious blaze of fire. He roars and turns in a circle around me, fire blazing from his mouth; fury still burning in his eyes. The hunters back away and aim at the freed dragon.

I hear him growl savagely, “You all will pay dearly for hurting her.” Suddenly, there is a flash of blinding white light. Without my vision for a couple seconds, I hear two tranquilizer guns being quickly loaded and then a whizz from each gun as the syringes are shot from them. Without my ability to see, I keep fighting with fire. I let loose a jet of flame in front of me; a yell lets me know I hit a target and I smile savagely. My vision comes back and I see both syringes protruding from G’reth’s slender neck. I turn my head towards the men who shot him and I make my aching body stand up glaring at the hunters who aim their TRANQ guns at me.

“That one only needs one. We wore it out pretty good.” I hear a guy tell them " he must be the leader. I let another jet of flame towards the men with the tranquilizer guns making them dive out of the way and I raise my wings to take to the air and give myself the advantage. A third TRANQ gun must’ve been loaded because I hear another whizz and feel a sharp prick in my neck. Instead of taking to the air completely, I slightly fold my wings from their outstretched position and leap towards the spot where three men are crouched behind a Jeep; my wings help me glide the distance quickly. I smash the Jeep and blast fire onto it; the men scatter. Behind me, G’reth is fighting against the two men who had the TRANQ guns; his movements becoming sluggish as the sedative kicks in. I noticed that the men’s tranquilizer guns are replaced by M16s.

Bringing my attention back to myself, I try to get away from the Jeep as soon as I realize that it might explode in my grip. I let go of the metal and take to the air a second before it explodes. The force of the blow throws me across the fight and I slam into G’reth. I try to get up and ask if he was alright through our link and realize how much it has faded. When I get up, a net closes and tightens around me; I fall next to him. I try to cling onto what was left of our link, but it slips away as another net closes around him as well. The sedative has completed its job and the last thing I remember was the look of fear we exchanged before blacking out.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

Another very good chapter. You are using the wisdom of the talented writers. Always tell the who, what, where, when and how of every situation. Each scene was set-up correctly. Thank you Holly for sharing the interesting story and if you write more. Please send read request.
Coyote

[Aslan Gerards]

Firstly- Very good start to what seems to be a very well thought-out story. I've also read the first chapter, but I thought it would be redundant to review both. Your style is very personal and rather addicting. The voice of Grace and G'reth are unique. I love the fact that the jeeps, something you would not expect in this kind of book, come out of nowhere with no warning. I expected knights or Witcher style monster hunters, yet I was pleasantly surprised.

Secondly (Some General things)- While the telepathy is a very good function in the story, do you need to put quotes and italics around all dialog? Can the dragons even speak without telepathy? Also, the dragons' knowledge of human guns seems uncanny, especially in a firefight. Maybe have him second-guess himself as to what guns are being used/fired? It could add to the hectic nature of the fight.

Thirdly (some nit-picky things)- Grammar is very solid compared to other drafts I've read. I think you lost a symbol in translation, because one of the symbols keeps coming out on my side as " ". Also, G'reth is very close to Grace (which is the other dragon's name, right?) and feels somewhat confusing.

Final Review- Well polished and fun. I cannot wait to read more, but don't rush yourself with the uploads. I hope this review helps.

If you want to talk any more or ask any questions, you can message me. I think you can expect me to review regularly, if you upload.

[Hosimone]

So, the dragons are able to speak outside their link, the time for it hasn't come yet, though. As for the uploads, i have already written about 10 chapters in the past 6 months or so, but I am just now posting them. Im tweaking a bit more before I do, but once i get about to the tenth chapter, the postings will slow down considerably as I write more. Thank you for this awesome review. It has really pumped me up amd gave me purose to write more of this story.