Aria Ambrosia

It was the spring after our thirteenth birthday. After a long morning of never-ending classes, we retreated out the kitchen door to nature. The sun was high in the sky with a cool wind to keep the temperature right. My sister Anastasia and I fled to the canopy of the East Wood to stretch our wings a bit. The rich scent of honey suckles filled the air as we flew through the meadow that filled the space between the woods and castle. When we landed on the first few outstretched branches the damp moss was soft under our bare feet.

“Aria, I found a track.” Anastasia proclaimed as she swooped down to a lower branch. When I caught sight of the torn branch, she called a track, I recognized it was a winged animal with talons. Sharp ones.

As we followed the animals’ path of broken branches, fallen leaves, and scraped bark, we came across our second clue about what we were following. As I picked up the egg-shaped scale it glowed a green that I had never seen before and would never see again after that day. “It must be a dragon.” I said to Anastasia handing her the scale.

“Maybe it will let us ride it.” She said with a mischievous glint to her eye as she tucked the scale into her leather bag for safe keeping. We knew, from our history lessons, that no dragons let themselves be ridden, not in the last hundred years or so. As she turned back to the trail our dragon left, I saw her iridescent wings begin to shiver in excitement.

“Oh no Anya, we are not going to try to ride a dragon.” I started after her, “Find it maybe, but not ride it.” I said, as I slid between her and the path. While I would follow her anywhere, and she me, this was not something I knew we could do and get away with.

Her sapphire eyes, that matched my own, showed how torn she was about the thought. “But it’s a real dragon Aria.” She pleaded.

“No, and if you cannot understand that then I will go back home now.” I said, planting my foot in the moss. I knew she would not continue the hunt alone. I also hated crushing her spirit but one of us had to have some sense in our heads. Trying to ride a dragon was not using sense.

She uncrossed her arms, and I noticed her wings droop a bit with consent. “Fine, I will not try to ride the dragon.” She said. I moved from her path and let her take point on the trail. As she slid past and out of my reach she added, “Today.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing I would need to pick my battles with her, and this was not one I would win in the trees. I followed her watching out for signs of our dragon as we went along. After a few hundred feet, we came into a bit of a clearing in the woods where the trees had been torn out of the ground and restacked in a charred circle in the middle of it.

We both stayed frozen perched on a limb as we took in the sight. In the middle of the nest was our brilliantly green dragon, curled up tight in a ball asleep. The dragon’s bright colors meant that it was still a baby and would not be flying yet. Adult dragons were darker and knew how to hide better. As the thought crossed my mind, I began to look at the trees surrounding the baby dragon; remembering that a baby was never left alone. With my eyes adjusting, I came across the outline of the adult present, yet before I could point it out, Anastasia pointed at the opposite side of the clearing. I looked and noticed a second and larger dragon. I could feel my blood begin to pound faster and I gestured to the one I had found.

As the baby began to stir, I grabbed Anastasia's hand and we began to back away. Even we knew you do not mess with a dragon’s nest, specifically if the baby is that young still. Unfortunately, our retreat was not fast enough.

Before we could get even twenty feet from the new clearing, we heard the deafening roar of the adult dragons awakening and not happy about smelling our scent. “Anastasia, Run!” I yelled over the roar. We ran and flew over and under the branches as fast as we could. I hoped that if we got far enough away and out of their territory, we would be safe. That thought was shattered as I saw the deep marbled chestnut and emerald tail slash through the brush next to my right arm, barely missing it. Something in me knew that these dragons were not going to stop until they got blood.

I tightened my grip on Anya’s hand as I pulled her along. As twins we could often move as one. The hard part about that was that while we could often move as one, we both had a dragon trying to trip us up. While I would try to move out of the way of a tail on my right, Anastasia would be jumping to try and get away from a shot of ice at her feet. “How are they able to shoot ice at us?” I called to her after she had regained her balance from the ice.

She gave me a puzzled look as if to say, ‘that is your question right now?’ but answered any way, “They must be hybrids, one parent was an earth dragon and the other was a water dragon. That is why they look like earth dragons but have the powers of a water dragon.” I nodded as we ducked from another tail attack.

We ran in silence for the rest of the wood with exception to the occasional “Duck” or “Jump.” As we were on the edge of the forest, we saw a handful of purple streaks fly past us. Our father and some of his fighting men had come to rescue us. As we burst through the clearing we dove into the tall grass and began to let our hearts catch up to the rest of us. As we laid there, we watched our father, and his men take on the dragons with spells and swords. Flashes of lightning and fire rose from where the battle was happening. The noise that came of striking metal to dragon scale is not one I will soon forget, if ever.

We let out a hysteric giggle as we sat there, knowing we were safe now, our father was here. “Hey, Aria.” Anastasia started, “I do not think I will be able to ride that dragon.” My sister said, which only had us laughing more.

“Anya, I think we will be in so much trouble we will not even be allowed to ride our griffins.” I responded.

The noise of the fighting was getting quieter and soon I saw our father emerge from the tree line, “Anastasia, Aria!” He called over the field. We rose to our feet and half hovered above the grass so he could see us. “It’s alright girls, we are safe now.” Hand in hand we began to cross the short distance to him.

We got about ten feet from him when time felt frozen and everything happened at once. Anya yelled my name; my father pulled his sword from his sheathe and charged forward. As I turned to look where Anya was looking, I spotted the bright green of the baby dragon. Thou the dragon was young it was quick at using its tail like a whip. I ducked but too late and the tail collided with my eyes. Instantly the pain erupted from the contact point and I folded in on myself drawing my wings around me as a shield. I felt Anya incircle me as well as here her asking me question after question. My head was spinning from the pain and all I could get out was, “I can’t open my eyes.”

“Get them out of here!” I heard my father yell.

Anya helped me to stand and we half stumbled half tripped our way away from the battle. I felt my hot blood pouring from my face onto my gown, making it stick to my chest. “Anya. I don’t think I can go much further.” I said a blood dripped into my mouth filling it with the taste of copper.

“We are not far enough.” She responded; I could hear her labored breaths.

“Leave me and go to safety!” I pleaded with her.

“No! Stay here and I will go get one of the guards, and be right back, and we will go home, and be safe, and you will get better, and everything will be okay.” She rambled. I could feel her stand up again, “I will be right back, I see a guard and he is not far.”

As she left me, I grew colder, but I could hear her calling to the guard for help. I pulled my wings around me to help warm me up and listened until I did not hear Anya's voice any longer. “Anya?” I called. When I did not get a response I called again, louder with more desperation in my voice. “Anya?!” I pushed myself up to my elbows and then hands and began to crawl in the direction I had last heard her voice.

I could hear the dragon battle not far off and did not feel the fear from there. I felt the fear of losing my sister. I called one more time for her before I felt her body lying motionless on the ground. “Anya!” I screamed. As I ran my hands across her body to find her face. I knew as soon as I did that, she was no longer with us. At that point, I let out a blood curdling scream as my heart fractured into a thousand pieces.

By the time my father got to us it was over and she laid limp in my arms. From my gentle probing what I could tell was that her wings were torn and muscles from her back exposed. Her once warm blood was falling from her wounds and pooling in my lap. I did not care. My sister was gone, and I may be gone too soon from all the blood loss. I'm sure I looked like a walking nightmare as both of ours blood mixed on me. My father gingerly rolled her over and pulled her into his arms before I collapsed. When my father feared that he had lost both of us he then pulled me into his grasp as well. When I let out a rugged breath, he had his men focus on getting me back to the castle for medical help. He carried Anastasia back himself.

I awoke in the infirmary a few weeks later. Calling out for Anastasia and tearing at the bandages around my eyes. I did not want to believe it until I could see her. The healers had to put me into a sleep and pull me out slowly. It was the only way for me to deal with the loss of my sister and the loss of my eyes at the same time. After a few months I was gifted an enchanted silver circlet that would allow me to see auras and outlines. It helped and hurt because I knew I would never see my sister again.