And yet I could still see that woman from earlier being devoured. Bile rises in my throat. Was that hours ago? Or a lifetime?
The image finally prods me from my paralysis. I turn and run.
At this point, it’s a hopeless impulse, but instinct. The thing you do when monsters come at you. Even as I know I can’t outrun them, I still try, desperate to escape. I make it a few pumping strides, and then I’m face down in ash, gasping, the pain in my back so bright and burning and astonishing, I choke, my arms flailing, hands scrabbling in the dirt, grit sliding deep beneath my nails.
I can’t move, can’t get up.
My voice catches in my throat, trapped there. I work to spit out words, twisting my neck, craning for a glimpse behind me to confirm the unbelievable. The impossible. Theno, no, no, no, noof it.
A dragon looms above, its massive, clawed foot pinning me to the earth while it glares down at me, head tilted, one elongated eye, with its vertical pupil dark and shuddering around its silvery iris pulsing like a heartbeat.
I see myself there, in that demon eye. My reflection as caught and trapped asIam beneath its crushing weight.
Comprehension chugs through me.
It sees me with sharp intelligent eyes.
Sees. Me.
It’s shocking to absorb.
My village razed. My people dead. Dragons real, and not only that.They see me.
I scream.
Finally, what I’ve most wanted, what I’ve desperately craved—to be seen, to be visible, to be heard, to be known again—is a reality. I finally get my wish, except it’s not my family or friends seeing me. It is this predator. A monster.
Everything inside me squeezes, waiting to be devoured. Two others emerge, crowding behind the one holding me down.
“Let me go!” I cry as though they can understand my words—or care to honor my request. Blood stains their talons, but I think they might sparemylife?
Bitterness pierces me like a lance. The pressure on my back eases and I scramble away, jumping to my feet, facing them, not daring to present them with my back again. Whatever is coming, I will confront it. I will not turn and run and die with my spine ripped from my body.
They surround me, three towering beasts.
I brace myself, waiting for the inevitable, for the end.
“Go on,” I fling out, defiantly lifting my chin as the hulking giants circle me, closing in. I reach for the sword strapped to my side, unsheathing it in a fluid move.
They huff and stomp the ground with their great weight, looking from one another to me, making low, guttural sounds.
At least it will finally end. The last ten years. The monotony. The loneliness.
I’ll join Da and the others. Cold comfort, but I wrap myself in it, my death shroud.
They growl, lifting and tossing their immense heads, continuing to communicate with one another in their rasping tongue.
Not one of them could I battle successfully, but I hold my sword out in front of me in a tight, bloodless grip.
“Come on, then!” I challenge, with far more bravado than I feel.
I will go out fighting, and who knows? Maybe I would injure one.
I’m not so delusional to think I could defeat them but hurting even one would give me great pleasure in my last breath.
The large silvery dragon who held me down, its skin iridescent as a pearl, steps forward and bends its head, snapping its jaws menacingly close to my face. I flinch but hold my ground and swipe my sword at the beast, refusing to dwell on just how puny the iron blade appears next to this creature. Its eyes sweep over me with the fury of a storm.
There would be no sparing me.
