I stepped back, unknowledgeable of what was happening. Was she evil? Or possessed? Fear struck me like a lightning bolt as she stepped forward, her blue talon sinking into the soft, wet ground. Then she did something that I had totally unexpected.
She bent down onto her talon, bowing to me. "Master."
I raised an eyebrow, master? Me? What does that mean?
"It means that you have taken control of me and I am now your servant, Master," her voice was emotionless and it struck me that whatever that weird mist had done, it wasn't good. She had known exactly what I was thinking and responded to it. Her cold, hard expressionless eyes bore into my soul, taking away my breath as she stood up from her kneeling position. "What is your command." She said it with such a dull sound it almost made me think that she might be a different dragon and that this was all a big prank.
The dragon that I had seen before was nothing like this-this thing in front of me. "What is your command." She repeated. I shook my head, my stomach churning with uneasiness.
Please! This isn't funny! I screamed in my head.
Then I heard a voice in my head again, the voice I had heard just a few moments ago, the real RainWing, please... Why are you doing this to me? The voice was distant, faint. There was a long pause, then I heard it once more:
Help.
"No! No! Make it stop!" I cried, pushing my talon into the side of my skull. The voice in my head had been enough, I wanted back into my rock, my "egg", I wanted to escape. I had done this. I had realised the mist and made this monster. And I was going to stop it.
I lunged at the dragon just as the black in her eyes faded away like a covering of fog to reveal two bright yellow eyes, full of pure horror. I almost stopped in mid air, and I would have if I could. Because I was soaring, talons outstretched, towards an innocent dragon.
I crashed into her, accidentally slicing a bit of her neck with my bright green claw. We tumbled in a ball of blue, yellow, purple, and green, rolling along the forest floor. She screamed and tossed about as I tried to get off, but we were already rolling down a slight slope and we couldn't stop without one or both of us getting hurt pretty badly.
I ran through a list of possible options in my head, if I stuck out my wings at the right time I might be able to slow us down, but my wings would just get crushed and possibly broken. I could jump off... Maybe. We were rolling pretty fast now and her blue talons were gripping onto my shoulders in fright, so that may not work.
I could ask her, but she was just screaming continually and I don't think that I could get her to hear me in time for a solution, and by "in time" I meant before we went over a waterfall. Yes, you heard right, waterfall. Because just then I had noticed the faint (but quickly growing) sound of crashing water, the sound of a waterfall. I don't know how I could hear it over the RainWing's screams, but I could, and that's all that mattered.
We were still clutched together in a ball of scales when she finally stopped her infernal screaming, I guess she had heard the waterfall too because just then, she stared at me with worry and confusion, but mostly fright in her eyes as we tumbled into water and right over a waterfall.
I gasped for air as I was brought up to the surface for a split second, before being pushed back down again by the current. It was like giant talons, gripping me, taking me down and up, I had no control. I couldn't see the RainWing, but I had a feeling that she was somewhere almost drowning too.
I coughed and spit every time I was thrust upwards into the air, then gulped a breath of oxygen just before being pulled down into the water again. Finally, after doing that a few times, the water calmed a little and I hovered just above the surface, using my wings and talons to keep myself afloat. I just bobbed up and down a little, but nothing compared to before.
Glancing around, I found that I was still in the rainforest, with calming bird sounds and frogs croaking. I spotted flowers that bloomed every color, pink, purple, white, yellow! The breeze that blew across the water was slightly cool, but very refreshing. Everything was calm and beautiful, even though the humidity wasn't my thing. It almost felt like... Home. But I had never had a home, how could I think that this was like "home"? I had never felt a home, a place where I belonged. My home was that rock, and this was nothing like it.
But somewhere, deep in my memory, was a voice that said, "It will take time, but you will eventually see our world like it was a week ago, lush, green and beautiful."
That's what this was. Lush. Green. Beautiful. I don't know where the words came from, or who'd said them, but I knew that it was true. I would see the mysterious world like it was, no matter what. I closed my eyes just before realizing that I was still floating in the river.
I searched for a spot to reach land, but I didn't see one. I only saw a rock a little further down that would be just big enough for me to stand on with only getting my tail wet, if anything. I paddled to the right, lining myself up to where the rock would be shortly as I drifted downstream. It came quickly as I boarded the slick, wet surface and almost slipped, but I managed to stay on. I had to put my talons very close together, but using my wings to help, I could balance on the small rock. I dug my claws into the rock until I found a firm hold, then I latched on and shook my body in jerky movements to get the water droplets off of me. My wings went from soggy to damp in a matter of a few seconds. Just dry enough to fly, I thought. Flying. I had never flown, but maybe I could teach myself. Maybe It was time, time I learned to fly.