“No!” I screamed as I looked at the dagger in the creatures’ hand.

A sudden blue light collided with the creature, forcing him to be thrown at least 20 feet across the open field. I just stand there gaping, as the thing looks up, its hood falling back. Just the sight of it makes me sick. It has a face of a human, yet the planes of its face are too angled, too odd. It has ears that seem to be pointy, but I can’t be sure. My eyes are too weak from all the way back here.

I stumble forward, going as fast as I can to Eric’s side. Kneeling down, I gently take his elbow and pull him to his feet, never taking my eyes off the thing. Eric is just as dazed, hardly being able to put one foot in front of the other without falling. The Dragon, which I nearly forgot, shakes his head and let roared a mighty roar. Both Eric and me clasp our hands to our ears.

The Dragon leaps forward and starts to run in our direction, its’ teeth bared. It’s two leaps in front of us when other lights shoot from somewhere behind us. They were gold and red lights that danced dizzily around the Dragons’ head and body. Suddenly one gold and red spark bump into each other and a small explosion erupts.

“Oh, no.” I whisper. Now I’m in a real panic. Apparently Eric has the same idea, too. Together we both back away into the woods. The farther we get, the faster we go. Soon we’re running as fast as we can back towards our houses. A mighty sound erupts throughout the whole forest, making birds’ fly and animals’ race around our feet. We run along with them now, freely as if we were one.

“Cant…. Have…. To…. Breath….” pants Eric after a while of sprinting. He slows down as we near a stream at the edge of our village.
“Of…. Course….” I reply being just as tired. We both lay our backs against the trunks of some trees, trying to catch our breath. “That was…. Exciting.” I say after a while of long silence.
“Sure….” Is all he manages to say. We both get up at the same time to get a drink. Apparently he thinks this is hilarious, because he starts to chuckle.
“What?” I ask, looking at him with something like apprehension on my facial features.
“Nothing.” He chuckles again.
“Sure. Then I guess you’d just love to tell me what was so fine this morning during lunch?” I challenge him.
“Oh, that? That was just a little bit of something that Joe and I were discussing. About you, and your parents.” He admits.
“Well…aren’t you going to tell me?”
“All it’s really all about…what…we were going to do in the future. With your parents and the funeral ceremony.” He starts fidgeting with his thumbs. “We were going to not let you…um…
We didn’t want you to be too involved. We weren’t sure if you were ready to handle this so soon. But if you need to take part in this, just say so and I’ll let Joe know. We’d be happy to let you participate.”
“And why would I not want to participate in my own parents funeral?” I demand. “These are my parents we’re talking about, Eric. Of course I want to, even if I wasn’t emotionally ready with this. They would want me to and you know that, Eric.”
“Of course, Zay. Why didn’t I ask you this earlier? Sorry. Didn’t mean anything, really.” He apologizes.
“Sure. Whatever.” I turn my head away.
“Zanna.” Eric calls my name. I ignore him. “Zay? Zanna, look at me.”
“No.” and I look farther away.
“Zay. I demand your attention.” He grabs my shoulders and turns my torso towards him.
“Oh, so now you’re going to demand my attention?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“Yes, I will.” He catches something on my cheek. I look down, embarrassed. “Oh, Zanna.” He sighs. He pulls me into a hug unexpectedly and this time I don’t object. This time it feels like true friendship and this time we need each other.
After a while of this, I sighed. Of course this wouldn’t last. “Thank you, Eric.” I gently push away, trying to not hurt his feelings. “Okay, we need to get back home. See what else has happened since the thing came. By the way, did you see what that thing looked like? I mean the creature on the Dragon’s back.” I ask.
“Um…not quite. Didn’t really see anything, actually. What happened, really?”
“Dragon came, creature almost killed you, something saved us, saw it, and now where here. Any questions?”
“No, don’t think so.” he laughs at my answer.
“Good. Lets’ get out of here. I’m getting a little worried about ourselves out here alone.” I glance uneasily around.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get home okay.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” he promises.

As we walk through the forest, I was being more jumpy than usual. Every time I’d jump, Eric would look at me with an amused expression and would turn around and press his lips together. He’d jump just as often and I would laugh instead of keeping it in. When I’d do this, he’d glare at me as if he really hated it. Not like I didn’t hate it as much as he did.

“Hey, did you happen to see the lights? The one’s that saved you?” I asked after awhile of me laughing at him and vice verso.
“I only saw the gold and red ones. What do you think they were?”
“My only guess is some strange magic. It was probably a wizard or sorceress. I would hate to meet up with one of them.” I shudder at the thought.
“Right.” Suddenly, there’s this wired gurgling, growling sound coming from somewhere close. I jump and whirl around, trying to find where the noise came from. Eric laughs at me and I turn to glare at him.
“What’s so funny?” I demand.
“Nothing, its just that that noise is my stomach. No scary monster or big bad wolf to worry about.” He chuckles.
“It’s not funny. That could’ve been something serious and you go around acting like it was the biggest, funniest thing in the whole world. It’s not!”
“Your right, but it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen you do,” he chuckles again.
“Stop laughing.”
“Sure.” He strolls ahead and starts whistling.

I just roll my eyes. He’s such a jerk sometimes it can be really annoying.

We walk out of the forest not half a mile from Heidi’s house. Eric’s house is close by, so he explains that his mother will need him and he still has to get some chores done. I’m all by myself now and utterly bored. Now I remember the forgotten rabbit somewhere in the woods. Hopefully an animal would prosper from it. We still need some meat for the stew so I find my beginning place of snares and start working.

The first couples of snares are empty and still have some fur and blood on it, so I know that I was robbed. But then on the next one, I hit the jackpot. A large rabbit, and nothing even touched it. It was fresh so no bugs has had anytime to invade it, so that’s plenty good. On the next three I got two squirrels and a large field mouse, all at least a day old.

I stroll through the woods, not really in a hurry to get anywhere. Eventually I walk out of the forest near Heidi's house. I let myself in and set the carcasses on the table. I start to get them ready for the stew. After a while, I set a pot of water on the stove to boil, cut up some vegetables and chop up the meat. When the water started to boil, I put in all the ingredients.

There's a knock on the door and I go to answer it. It's Heidi and Joe. "Well," I say, "your home earlier than usual." Oddly, Heidi is leaning heavily against Joe.
Heidi stretches and winces as Joe sets her down on a stool. "Yeah. I guess the king was feeling some sympathy for me when I fell and twisted my knee. To bad he didn't feel enough sympathy to send for one of his won chiropractors." she jokes weekly.
"Oh, no, Heidi!" I exclaim. "We need to get you to a doctor right away." I hurriedly wipe my hands and roll down my sleeves.
"Ah," sighs Joe. "I still need to work. The king told me to come straight back as soon as she was in the house. I'm passing by Eric's house on the way, so I'll see if he can run to get a doctor." He starts to head towards the door.
"Wait," I stop him. "Have you eaten?"
"No, not yet, but he usually gives us a little bit of bread for supper. I'll be alright." He comforts me.
"Okay." I say
"Hurry back." Heidi tells him. "The fireworks won't be much fun without you"
"I'll try." He gives a week smile then slips out the door.
"Okay, Heidi. I need to see that leg of yours. Roll up your leggings." I instruct.
She winces as she shifts in her chair to better roll up her pants. "Gah!" she exclaims as her hand brushes against her leg. It was beet red and beginning to swell. "How bad is it?" she asks.
"This doesn't look good." I caution her. Where was Eric and that doctor? "Hopefully he'll be here soon."

Just then Eric bursts through the door, gasping, causing both of us to jump. I feel Heidi wince from the pain. "Dr. Bilgert's on his way." He says between breaths. He comes in and sits down on the stool next to me, looking over my shoulder at her knee.
She chuckles a small laugh,"Ah," she sighs. "I feel like an exhibition on display." she explains.

The doctor comes in through the already opened door from Erics' entrance. He comes over to replace me and looks at Heidi's leg. Immediately he starts to sigh and shake his head. "This is bad, this is very bad." He'd mutter to him self now and then.
"What?" Heidi and I ask. "What is it?"
"Well, first of all, I need you," he looks at me, "to give me a cold wet rag, if possible."
"Sure." I go over to the washtub and grab a dry clean rag and soak it in the cool water. "Here." I say as I bring it to Dr. Bilgert.
"Thanks," is all he mutters to me as he leans over Heidi’s leg. “We need to get her to my hospital.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do?” I ask as he straightens. “Couldn’t you just pop it back into place? It’s not that bad, is it?”
“Um, Ms.…?”
“Oh, Ms. Dean.” I say.
“Can I speak to you somewhere else?”
”If you have something to say about me, why don’t you just say it here?” Interjects Heidi.
“Of course. Ms. Dean? Mrs. Noll? If the signs are right from what I’m reading, then you’ve fractured some very important parts of your knee. These parts…they take a tremendous time to heal. But even then, they do not heal properly and you can never use your leg again. I need to take you to the hospital to make sure my assumptions are correct.” He looks at Heidi with deep concern in his eyes.
“Well, then I guess that I should.” She shrugs. “Eric? Will you help me up?”
“Of course,” he leans over as she wraps an arm over his neck. “Come on, Zanna. Help me get her to the hospital.”
“Alright.” I shrug away from the counter that I’ve been leaning against and follow them out the door.

We head away from the house with Eric carrying Heidi and the doctor and I trailing behind towards the hospital.