This isn’t supposed to happen.
Not here, not ever.
But there’s a fucking massive one—in this goddamn square right behind me, now. No one taught me how to survivethis.I don’t know how to fight something like this.
Teeth grit tight. Doesn’t matter that I’ve never done it before.
Ihaveto.
A shaky, hammering rush rolls through me, but I risk a glance back, gaze darting across the square. Through the smoke, I spot the dragon about three hundred metres behind me, sniffing through the wreckage of a storefront like it’s hunting for something, someone. But it’s not looking this way.Yet.
Okay, I need to move quick, get away from this overgrown lizard with a built-in flamethrower before it spots me and turns me into a scorch mark with a tragic backstory.
To my left I spot a half-standing stall—barely intact, but upright enough to count and close. If I can get there, I might be able to slip into one of the alleys behind and disappear.
If.
But fuck... if I move, will it see me? If it sees me, I’m dead. Simple as that. Still, if I stay here, it’s just a slower execution.
My body’s screaming to stay frozen, to hold still, but I move anyway. Fingers push into the stone beneath me as I try to hurl myself up, but the second weight hits my ankle, pain rips through it, sharp and searing, like the bone’s tearing loose. I gasp—loud, too loud—then bite it back.
Fuck, okay, well, walking isn't an option but I don’t have time to complain. I drop down, elbows scrape stone, knees catch on uneven cobbles as I drag myself, hands and knees, toward the stall.
Every shift makes my ankle wince, every drag of air fills my lungs with the taste of ash and copper. Smoke clings to my mouth like a gag, I choke, eyes burning, but the stall’s just a few metres off.
By the time I reach it, I’m half-blind and wheezing.Slamming myself into the splintered frame, my chest heaves, trying to suck in air that won’t go down clean.
God, there’s no way I’m making it to the alley, not with that thing so close. Not when my ankle won’t hold and my chest won’t settle, fluttering like a fucking moth.
My mind scrambles, hands shake, looking, searching for a new plan, any plan, but?—
Thump.
It’s not just sound, it’s something deeper. Heavier. The stone beneath me pulses like a heartbeat, causing a trickle of dust to slide from the beam above, drifting in a lazy spiral to the ground.
A vibration. A warning.
Then—another.
Thump.
The market stall jerks faintly beneath me. Tiny pebbles near its legs jitter, dancing for half a second, then fall still.
I don’t breathe, don’t move.
Another pulse. Another vibration.
Thump.Closer. Stronger.
Is it coming this way?
I don’t know. I don’t want to find out.
Thump.Louder.
I go still. Utterly still. It stops.
The silence thickens, but the pounding in my chest floods through every part of me, a violent rhythm sparking in my fingertips, pulsing at my temples. If it gets any fucking louder, it’s going to give me away.
