I woke up to the sound of stone cracking. The sound jarred me awake, ripped me from sleep with a fear that I didn't know I could have after dealing with the people in the town below. Civilians, thieves, beggars were not the things of nightmares. Your home collapsing above you was.
Home was the wrong word. This was not home it was a mouth yawning from the side of a mountain, something that had been there for generation after generation giving refuge to animals and families on the run. Bianca and I never had it easy, not since our mother died, and though I was small I was not ill of the mind. Cracking was not a good sign.
My body was reacting without me, hands a flurry as I gathered up our things and shook my sister awake, trying desperately to get her moving so we could get out of here. Bianca was older than me, should be the one in a panic but she had over exerted herself over the past few days using her magic, deep sleep had taken her.
"Bianca! Bianca, wake up!" A crash. One single crash in the gullet of the cave and her eyes were open. It sounded close. My body was shaking but I hadn't even registered it. Her body was up and moving quickly, not even bothering to grab her sleeping materials and just snatching my hand to run. We were almost out of the cave, so close that I could feel the damp night air surrounding me, making it feel like I was wading through water just to escape. Cradled in one of my arms was the dragon egg that I had found only days ago.
Another crash. The walls of our temporary refuge were collapsing around us. Light from outside was dimming. Trapped. The hand in my own had disappeared but I could hear the owners voice calling desperately for me to run, "I forgot something, Nico, you must go!" came from somewhere behind me. There was no way I could leave my sister, no way that I was going to because I was young and impulsive and scared. It just had to happen that as I turned my vision was cut off by a rock smashing in my path, the walls were coming down still. Nothing would stop them.
I had to do as Bianca told me, run. My vision went black as I stumbled to the exit and then some, the earth clinging to my bare feet as if trying to slow me down and swallow me up. My vision came back, there was no sound except for the wind in the trees.
Home was the wrong word. This was not home it was a mouth yawning from the side of a mountain, something that had been there for generation after generation giving refuge to animals and families on the run. Bianca and I never had it easy, not since our mother died, and though I was small I was not ill of the mind. Cracking was not a good sign.
My body was reacting without me, hands a flurry as I gathered up our things and shook my sister awake, trying desperately to get her moving so we could get out of here. Bianca was older than me, should be the one in a panic but she had over exerted herself over the past few days using her magic, deep sleep had taken her.
"Bianca! Bianca, wake up!" A crash. One single crash in the gullet of the cave and her eyes were open. It sounded close. My body was shaking but I hadn't even registered it. Her body was up and moving quickly, not even bothering to grab her sleeping materials and just snatching my hand to run. We were almost out of the cave, so close that I could feel the damp night air surrounding me, making it feel like I was wading through water just to escape. Cradled in one of my arms was the dragon egg that I had found only days ago.
Another crash. The walls of our temporary refuge were collapsing around us. Light from outside was dimming. Trapped. The hand in my own had disappeared but I could hear the owners voice calling desperately for me to run, "I forgot something, Nico, you must go!" came from somewhere behind me. There was no way I could leave my sister, no way that I was going to because I was young and impulsive and scared. It just had to happen that as I turned my vision was cut off by a rock smashing in my path, the walls were coming down still. Nothing would stop them.
I had to do as Bianca told me, run. My vision went black as I stumbled to the exit and then some, the earth clinging to my bare feet as if trying to slow me down and swallow me up. My vision came back, there was no sound except for the wind in the trees.
