The dragon looked different. It was hard to articulate exactly how since she had never seen a dragon before yesterday, but it looked different.

Not digging into it any further Zara quickly got back to her feet and made a beeline. The drawbridge lined up with a long road that led to Hillspack. On either side of the road, there were forests that extended in all directions. She turned her head for a moment to see what the dragon was doing. She saw that the dragon had closed its eyes and was conjuring the orb of fire as it had done at the cathedral. Unwilling to be captured a second time she ran deep into the forest.

After several minutes, her lungs felt as if they could burst. She stopped and hid behind a tree while taking deep breaths, trying to collect herself. She had to keep going, she doubted the dragon would just give up, looking up at the sky she saw that she had maybe six to ten hours at most to get somewhere before darkness came and her situation really grew perilous.

The forest was full of trees she had never seen before. The ones without leaves had grey trunks and scraggly branches. Whereas the other trees had white and black stripes along the trunks and blue needles instead of traditional leaves. The bottom of the forest was covered by shrubbery and snow. This forest further reinforced how unfamiliar she was with her location. How had she never known about this place?

She could no longer see the road, she had run too deep inside the force. She would have to make her way back in that general direction. As she started to get up her stomach emanated a sharp pain, clenching she hobbled over. She realized that she hadn't eaten anything in who knows how long. Damn, I should've picked up some food at the castle. Out of all skills she liked to learn survival was not one of them. She was always provided for and thus never needed to know how to survive in a situation such as this, or so she thought. She tried to remember anything for anything she read that could help her at this moment. Her mind turned up blank.

She slowly stood up and looked around to see if there was any fruit on any bushes she could eat. Catching an animal was not only beyond her skillset it also took too much time, which she did not have. She just needed something until she found Hillspack. She eventually found a bush with little white berries on it. She knew it was unwise to eat wild plants but what choice did she have. She picked them off and ate them whole. They had a bitter flavor but they did not taste inedible. After eating several handfuls of berries she headed in the general direction of the town.

After some time, her stomach pain was slowly ebbing away, she was hoping it'd stay that way. At least until she found herself back at some sort of civilization. After twenty minutes of walking, she heard a large crunch of a branch. Jerking around, she looked for the source of this, and her eyes met with the creature that made the noise.

A wolf, but not a traditional wolf. It had the same glasslike qualities as the dragon's orb of fire. Underneath the surface of the wolf, the insides slowly moved as if the wolf's fur sliding underneath. Was this a magical wolf sent by the dragon to recapture her? It started snarling. it certainly sounded exactly as a wolf would. they stared at each other for some time not wanting to break the stalemate.

Until the wolf broke into a run. Zara saw her life flash before her eyes, she turned around and sprinted as hard and fast as she could. She kept running and running, uncaring of anything except getting the hell out of there. Eventually, she found herself on the road, and she dove behind a tree. Her lungs were burning and her muscles were on fire. She saw no wolf as she looked around the woods. Had she outrun it? Did the wolf give up on her? Questions she had but knew there was no time to find an answer.

She looked back down the path towards the direction where she came from and she saw the orb of fire following the bath. except it was bigger and it was getting closer. Bolting back into the woods to hide from it, she decided that the road was unsafe, as it would give the dragon too easy a vantage point to attack and subdue her. She was getting tired of all this running, jumping, diving, and hiding. She really wished she took better care of herself. Unsure of how much more her body could take she sat and rested. what the hell was going on. A wolf made of some magic, a giant orb of fire chasing her. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen. The closest thing she'd ever seen to magic was in books, where artists would draw what magic looked like them. However, they always failed to give an accurate description of what it really looked like. Mother and Father had always chosen to neglect talking about magic with her as if it was nothing of her concern.

She gritted her teeth, of course, those two were worming her way into her brain at a time like this, where she was running for her life, all she could think about was how badly mother and father had done with preparing her for a moment like this, a moment of actual danger. When she got back she would get an answer for all their secrecy. Turning back to the sky she saw that the fire orb had stopped moving. across the surface of the fire, she saw little bumps appear all over the surface and suddenly hundreds of tendrils fell out of it and once they hit the ground they lurched in one direction. The tendrils moved in all directions and looked as if they were feeling out the forest trying to find something.

Zara didn’t want to get caught, she moved away from the tentacles, however, they were slowly gaining ground on her. She frantically looked around to see if there was anything she could do. A lake! She could possibly find something there to hide in. Maybe the fire tendrils would not find her if she hid in a place out of the way. Breaking into a sprint she made it to the clearing.

Panning her head around the lake she saw a tree that had some of the dirt hiding its roots eroded away. Leaving behind a little covering that she could hide in. Checking on the progress of the tentacles, she saw that they were only a few yards away. she ushered the last of her energy and sprinted towards the tree.

Almost there.

When she got near the tree she dove, making it under the tree. She rolled into the tree where the roots had created a small opening. pressed herself as far into the space as she could. She looked out and watched as the tendrils spread across the lake and slithered on the surface. one Tendril was getting very close, was it going to get inside? As it approached the tree it stopped as if it bumped into a wall. The fire tendrils surrounded the covering but didn’t get any closer.

She stayed there for some time waiting for the threads of fire to move away or to give up. Without warning, they suddenly began to vibrate and with a bright glow, they dissipated into the air. Unsure of what had just happened Zara just sat there unsure of what to do.

Her body was exhausted. She had overexerted herself four times over, she was emotionally overwhelmed from being overstimulated from all of the new experiences. It was warmer under the clearing than it was outside. She needed to rest before she could continue. She didn’t want to rest for too long so she could get going. She sat there for a few moments before her body gave out as soon as the adrenaline wore off.

***

Waking up suddenly she saw that it was significantly darker outside. It was approaching dusk and the sun would be gone within an hour. Dammit, she couldn't believe that she fell asleep, her body was aching and in great pain. She would have to figure out a way to make camp. Her thoughts were interrupted by a low growl.

Looking up she saw the wolf from earlier, now glowing in the dimmer light. Her body froze. How did it find her? Why didn’t it get her the first time? Her instincts kicked in causing her to scramble to her feet and run away. Unwilling to let the wolf have the chance to catch her, she needed any head start she could get no matter how slim. She heard the wolf on her tail this time and she could hear it getting louder. The wolf was surprisingly large and, she assumed, heavy. The lake they were running around was very large. From what she remembered about how ice and lakes work was that the ice might be thick enough for her to move across it, but not for the wolf. She immediately changed her direction to the left, heading across the frozen lake. As she took several steps she heard the wolf start to give up their pursuit.

Her plan had worked! She had outsmarted that damn magical wolf. As she approached the middle of the lake a resounding crack resonated through the air. Maybe her plan didn’t work as expected. The ice under her had cracked immensely, it seemed it was thinner than she thought. God, she was not at all prepared for this. The Ice gave way and she let out an enormous scream. As she screamed she saw the air start to glow bright orange, as if she were breathing fire. Then she felt the bitter cold of the water.

She ferociously tried to swim to safety but the ice gave way whenever she put any weight on it and it gave away far too quickly for her to get a solid grip on anything. Her muscles were also far too weak from being overexerted. After struggling and screaming her body eventually gave out. She felt the cold getting colder as she sunk deeper and deeper.

This isn’t how she wanted things to end, she just wanted to make a difference.

She closed her eyes and resolved her fate.

She heard the sound of something big impacting the water along with the loud cracking of ice be destroyed.

With her last bit of energy, she opened her eyes. The sight of gray scales was the last thing she saw before going unconscious.