Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (28 page)

Nixon hopped up behind me, wrapping his arms around my sides and grabbing hold of the reins. Five other horses stood close by with riders mounted on them already. I looked to Fang, and then Talon nodding my head just slightly at them. I was ready to go, whether they were or not. 

"Follow us." Talon announced in a bold voice, heading out on his horse. Everyone followed behind him quickly, making sure he didn't get too far out of sight. We all relayed the info Lorella had given us about what was going on. I could feel Nixon tensing up, and knew it was fear for his family as he took in each detail.

No one said a word for a long
time;
the silence was starting to grow, to become eerie and making me angst for someone to speak. I was thinking about it over and over again, unable to stop wishing I could find a way to stop the gods. It was
ridiculous
and frightening all at once. 

"We'll all get through this one way or another; we can't worry about 'what ifs' right now." Tom spoke to us flatly, then clearing his throat. "We need to do what Lorella told you, and work from there."

"I agree, how long till we reach Air?" Nixon asked, his muscles relaxed, and I realized he was trying to keep his head high and not worry.

"Not long, but this is going to be uncomfortable for you and Talon." Fang told him, sighing a bit.

"Why so?" Nixon asked, I looked back at him and saw he had turned his head to look towards Fang.

"The sunlight will bother you, you won't like it at all," Nickel let out a sigh, before laughing in a uneasy manner. "At Talon's age, he won't burst into flames like some. He'll burn easily though."

"The people there owe me a favor, so it's ok." Talon replied to that statement, I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"My worry is any of you in our world, it's so different…" I finally whispered, looking down and forgetting that they could all hear me perfectly.

"I'm sure you'll show us around then." Nixon replied to my statement, resting one of his hands on my shoulder in an act of comfort.

"That's the thing, we live in a big world, and you could end up anywhere."

"She has a point." Tom grunted then sighed, I was sure he was thinking it over just as much as I was. They could end up in China, or Sweden, or maybe some smaller part of New York, that wouldn't be too bad though.

"Then we'll come to you, don't worry." Talon spoke shrugging his shoulders, but never once looking back at us.

Chapter 14

_______________________

I looked down at the horse after a while as we rode on, studying the animals back intently and as quietly as possible. I watched where the brown became white and the white became a brown again. I saw how the colors mixed, beginning to let my mind wander into
its
own depths, taking the chance of having my fear attack me.

There was just so much going on right
now
and after all that'd happened I didn't know how to react. Where to begin, how to begin, how to even try to understand any of it. I needed to sort through my thoughts, and pick at what was right and what was wrong. What was necessary, and what was unnecessary.

Regardless, we were going to end up back in our world at some point in the future. Not just me and Tom this time though, no we'd end up back there with these people. The good and the bad of the bunch, plus more. We'd end up there with these foul 'Gods', who only wanted to kill and laugh as we died.

I blinked a few times so that the itching burn of tears would ebb away into nothingness once more. Just like that, I laughed, it was a silent laugh to myself
,
but I was beginning to think that this had to be some really bad dream caused by the numerous movies we watched the night before, and a bad blend of junk food.

I'd end up waking up soon on the couch with Gabriel curled up on me purring away like mad, and Mazy on the floor rolling around and waiting for either me or Tom to pet her and tell her what a good girl she was. Tom would be watching cartoons, and Christie would probably be cooking something amazing in our kitchen, even if we told her not to.

I just had to hold on a little longer and I would wake up. I'd wake up and be at home, happy and telling them about this weird ass dream I just had. Tell them about the strange people who were in it, and what was going on, and then I'd tell Tom to get rid of that book he got me because it freaked me out.

"Raine stop it!" I felt my head snap up quickly at the sudden voice, blinking a few dozen times I started looking all around. I noticed Tom out of the corner of my eye had stopped his horse and was looking around as well now.

"Chris?" He ended up calling out at the sky of all things.

"You heard it too, Tom?"

"Yeah..." He took in a deep breath,
and then
looked over at me. His expression held confusion and fear. "That was Christie, right?"

I nodded my head slowly at him, licking my dry lips before I spoke. "I do believe so."

"I can see everything you two say!" Christie called again, it sounded like she was screaming actually. "Knock it off!"

I looked around again for a split moment, till I heard Eyloff in the back let out a soft growl. From there the growl turned into his horse moving in closer to mine, and him laying a hand on my shoulder, trying to get my
attention
. "
What
is that?"

"That is my ex-girlfriend somehow talking to us. What's going on Christie?" Tom told him then called out, his horse was starting to pace in small circles as he looked around about as confused as I was at that moment.

"Listen, I'm reading that book - Remember?" She asked us, in an uneasy voice. My eyes grew about twice as wide as they normally were, the others moved in closer to me and Tom, but there was just an eerie silence until Talon of all people decided to speak for us.

"Go on..."

"There's something coming you guys!" Christie's voice sounded suddenly urgent. "I read it a moment ago, something bad that'll pretty much destroy the world you're in... I don't know what is going on. It said something about a black hole, listen, you need to get to the next area as fast as possible, it's coming and it's coming fast!"

"Instead of sitting here like ducks, we need to go!" Talon snapped, kicking into his horses sides and riding quickly. Everyone followed after him in a line not even questioning what had just happened. We followed every turn Talon took. That was until Talon suddenly stopped and we followed when we hit a strange ledge, as if the world had just fallen off here and ceased to exist.

All of the horses started to pace around on
their own
a little bit, whining loudly as each of them did. Talon let out a sigh then jumped off his horse and looked back at us with bright red eyes ablaze, it was creepy to see. I wasn't sure what had set him off like this, but I didn't want to argue with him no matter what he was about to say. "Get off your horses."

Following suite I got off my horse, moving quickly over to Nixon and Tom. I followed where they went and watched as the others looked between Talon and us suddenly, then straight up into the air. I let my own eyes follow where they were looking and felt like throwing up anything that was left in my stomach.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me." I whispered to them. I knew this was the air region, but this just wasn't cool.

"Not at all." Nixon spoke without an ounce of emotion in his words. It was strange to hear from him, since that was normally Talon's thing.

I kept staring straight up at the floating building above us in fear and wonder. I felt Tom grab hold of my arm tightly, he was about as disturbed as I was, and I knew it. The whole thing was huge, and literally floating in the middle of the sky. That wasn't something you saw
every day
,
at least
not where I was from.

"The Chosen?" There was a new voice that called out from behind us, I jumped
at least
a foot and felt every hair on my neck raise as I spun around quickly, nearly falling off the cliff. Nixon grabbed hold of me before I could fall, and when I looked down I almost lost my lunch completely. That was a drop that didn't seem to have
an
end, just a long black hole that kept going and going. 

"Yes, the chosen..." Talon said, his eyes were on me as he watched me with interest.  "How do we get up there now-a-days?"

"Sadly, we have to send some of the shifter's down, they'll be much more efficient in getting you." The boy said to us, then without any warning wings sprang out from his back. They weren't small either,
at least
thirteen feet, maybe fourteen feet wide, and pitch black. "I'll send them down in a moment."

"Alright, make it fast Angel boy." Eyloff growled at him.

With that the boy nodded his head, turned, and walked off the edge of the cliff we all stood near. My eyes practically
bulged
out of my eye sockets as I watched him disappear over the edge. Suddenly he came flying back up, wings pressed in around his body and moving fast.

He went straight up until he was a good twenty feet up, and let his wings snap back open and soared over to the building that hung in the air above. I didn't know whether to believe I'd just witnessed a miracle, or to think that it was the most awesome thing I'd seen in a long time.

We waited there for maybe three minutes, before the one thing I didn't expect to ever see landed in front of us. I swear, I almost passed out upon seeing it. A dragon landed in front of us, it towered over us all. Bright yellow eyes stared at each one of us, then landed on me and stayed there.

Spikes were rising on
its
back, and the tail swished back and
forth
as if he was waiting for something. His nostrils flared
once
and then slowly but
surely
the dragon bowed down. Talon was the first to start forward, saying something to the dragon and then looked back at us.

"This is our ride, get on." He announced then started to smile wickedly at us. I really couldn't move from where I was standing, and ended up being lifted and carried over to the others. My body was in shock, and well… could you blame me?

My body was literally passed from Nixon to Talon, and then set onto the scale covered back of the dragon. I was held in place there, though I really don't remember anyone holding onto me. I just remember staring at the back of the Dragon.

Black scales covered it, though every now and then there was a scale that was silver or iridescent on
its
back. It wasn't hot to the touch, but actually cool feeling, as if it lacked any fire inside
its
body. I didn't stop scanning the back until I saw
its
wings flare up from the sides and start to beat against the air.