The Fifth Element

“I can’t believe it! How could I’ve ignored the obvious for so long!? He is so a charred rat when I finally get my hands on him!” she ranted to the night air. She screamed again, and yet another rock exploded nearby, a little too nearby for my comfort.

“Miss Bat, can you calm yourself please. All this noise may draw some unwanted attention,” my father pleaded, he looked a little taken aback by Miss B’s rampage.

“And to think, I helped him bury that girl too,” she continued.

I felt like slapping her across the face. Two people, really? She helped cover up two murders he had committed!? Talk about blinded by love. If that was what love did to you, then I hoped it never happened to me.

“That dwarf! Scum of the bottom of my shoe.”

“Enough,” my father snapped, suddenly growing serious, “Make one more noise and I will silence you permanently,”

Miss B closed her mouth and glared at him. I could tell she was debating if she should take him seriously or not. But judging by the look, he was giving her back. It was safe to say he wasn’t to be tested.

She turned away from Neeva and began walking back up the path to the mountain, and back towards our camp. She looked over her shoulder once and then kept walking.

I turned to my father. “Let’s go, the camp we set up is in that direction,” My father nodded and began trailing behind Miss B and me.

By the time we had finished climbing the steps leading up the mountain, I was panting hard. I collapsed at the top and laid sprawled out on the cool rocks. My father, who had been right behind me, stopped and gave me a look laced with concern.

“Are you alright daughter?” he asked.

I held up a finger telling him to give me a minute. He looked at me for another moment, before walking away.

“Ah, you must be the boy on the dragon that kidnapped my daughter. I’m I not right?” I heard my father say abruptly. “But I have to admit. You have quite a fine beast here. I just hope you don’t plan on using it to try and take my daughter again, or I might have to injure it.”

I sat up abruptly. I looked towards the spot on the ground Henry should have been laying on, but he was no longer there. My eyes traveled upwards to see that he was standing with his back to my father, rubbing Nessie’s nose with some kind of buffer pad. He was still wearing his dirty black pants and boots, and his chest and back were wrapped in more bandages than I remembered Miss B putting on him. He must’ve applied them himself while we were gone.

Without turning around Henry answered. “Thank you. She’s a blue Awidien. I’ve raised her ever since she was a hatchling. And, no I don’t plan on doing that again, kidnapping your daughter that is.”

My father bobbed his head up and down with approval “May I,” my father asked, and Henry stepped away to allow Neeva to get closer to Nessie. My father stepped forward and placed a hand on Nessie’s snout, and began to scratch it gently. Nessie made a purring sound from deep within her throat, and she pressed her snout blue against my father’s hand.

I found myself smiling at this strange, but very nice scene they had going here. Then, Henry shot me a look, and I straightened. The message that had come with that look was clear; get your ass over here now, before your father murders me. I stood and hurried over to them.

“Hey dad,” I said, once I had almost reached them. Neeva turned his head to look at me. “Dad this is Henry, Henry this is my dad.” I pointed back and forth between them.

My father was the first to extend a hand towards Henry, “I’m Neeva Jaywing, Violet’s father.”

Henry extended a hand towards my dad, “Henry Hemlock, sorry about earlier.”

“You are forgiven. I’m sure you had a good reason. You don’t seem like the type to do harm for no reason, but a word of advice never takes a child when her mother is standing only a few feet away. If I were awake when this happened, I would’ve killed you,” Neeva said in a cold voice.

Henry rubbed the back of his head nervously and looked away.

“I’m glad you weren’t awake then,” I said. Both men turn their attention away from each other to stare at me, but both had very different looks on their faces. Henry looked smug, which made my hand itch to wipe that expression off his face while my dad just looked wary. Speaking of which, when had I begun referring to him as dad?

My dad cleared his throat, and reached into a fold in his cloak and produced a gold embroidered mirror. He handed it to me. “Here, use this to call your mother. When I left to go after you, she was hysterical.”

I accepted the mirror and opened it. I closed my eyes and cast the spell to call my mother. The mirror began to glow with a soft yellow light.

“Hello?” my mother said loudly on the other side. “Have you found any signs of her yet?”

“It’s me, mom,” I said.

There was a slight pause from my mother, “Are you alright baby, did they hurt you at all!?” she asked, her voice was urgent.

I shook my head, and then realized she couldn’t see it. “No, I’m perfectly fine.”

“Oh thank goodness!” she answered, “Oh and Violet, I know we both liked to make fun of those overly clinging moms, but I think I’m going to be one of them after all this is over!”

I laughed, “Then I’ll be your overly suffocated daughter.”

It was her turn to laugh.

We talked for another hour, and I heard the cheers of the Howl family in the background when my mom told them I was alright. I also found out, that Emily’s mom was going to be fine after a couple of days of rest. The rest of our conversation were updates on how the other members of the Howl family were doing, and about the amazing vacation, we were going to take, as soon as this mess was over. But one person my mom strangely failed to say anything about was Danny.

I was almost tempted to ask her about him, but something held me back. I wasn’t sure what it was, but that something told me not to ask if I didn’t want to hear bad news.

By the time I was done talking to my mom, Miss B had gotten a nice fire going, and the smell of something delicious cooking filled the air. I told my mother I would call her later and went to join them around the fire. Nobody spoke as we ate, so we all sat in silence.

Miss B had calmed down by this point, and now she just looked really sad. Her devastation put the rest of us in a somber mood.

After we had finished eating, we all agreed it would be best if we all went to sleep. We would come up with a plan of action first thing tomorrow morning. I volunteered to take the first watch, while everybody else got some rest.

It wasn’t long until three sleeping bodies laid on the ground around the fire. Everybody must have been pretty exhausted. I was pretty tired myself, but I kept myself awake by counting the stars, so was I was startled when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Henry.

“Hey,” I said and scooted over to give him some room to sit.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said and sat down beside him.

“Are you worried about your sister?” I took his silence as my answer. “I’m sure she’ll be alright. You’ll save her.”

He nodded absently, “I hope you’re right.”

I leaned over and put my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. I reached over and took his hand. I gave it a gentle squeeze, and he squeezed it back. We lapsed into a comfortable silence.

I must’ve dozed off, because the next thing I knew, I was curled up in a ball beside the dying fire. I sat up and rubbed my eyes and stretched. Nobody was lying around the fire anymore besides me, but I soon found them after a quick sweep of the ledge with my eyes. They were all standing at the edge.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, my mind still foggy from sleep.

Miss B looked at me with a grim look, and without saying anything, handed me a telescope she had been holding in her hand. She pointed at the horizon, and I followed her finger to a cluster of shapes steadily drawing closer. I put the telescope to my eye, and what I saw in the tiny circle made my heart sink.

There had to be at least a hundred of them, dragons with riders on their backs. All the riders were dressed in the blood red government uniforms with golden trim. I lowered the telescope to my side.

“Is there any possibility we could fight them all off?” I asked hopefully.

Miss B shook her head. “I might be able to off a couple before they off me, but I don’t think Henry could take out more than two in the condition he is in right now. What about you, Mr. Jaywing?”

“I would need a human sacrifice for me to be able to take out that men many, but we all know that isn’t going to happen.”

We all went silent. Then an idea came to me, an idea nobody was going to like in the least bit. I began inching my way towards Nessie. Nobody noticed me. They were all staring at the approaching army in the sky,”

“They’re after me right?” I said once I had reached Nessie. I scrambled onto Nessie’s back

Henry’s head snapped around, and when he saw me on Nessie’s back, he paled. “Don’t,” he warned and took a step towards me. The two adults turned around, and they both paled too.

“It would be useless if they caught us all. Try to save me before it’s too late, or I’ll mess with you when I’m a ghost,” I half joked and tried to force a smile, but failed. I cracked the reins hard, and Nessie began moving forward. From behind me came screams for me to stop. They were the last things I had heard before Nessie leaped into the empty air.