"What's wrong? Ever since we came back from that place yesterday, you both act like you saw a ghost," Abigail asked her companions. "You haven't even said a word; and you drove the car like something was chasing us."
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Eric asked, looking at Susan.
"l think so," the short girl replied.
"Saw what?"
"Abby, you won't believe this, but I think they are dragons," Eric said. "That girls eyes..." "So you're still thinking about that girl and her eyes!" Abigail snapped.
"You don't understand; her eyes turned orange. I saw it too," Susan said quickly.
"It could have been a reflection of the screen that shone on her eyes."
"Yes, but how would it glow orange? There wasn't anything of that colour; and then we felt heat coming from her," Eric said thoughtfully.
"So now she's giving off heat."
"What the hell is wrong with you!"
"There's nothing wrong with me. Ever since you saw her, you're....argh. Never mind."
"No! complete your sentence. I want to know what I'm doing wrong ever since I saw her."
"Stop it, both of you," Susan stepped between them.
"Stay out of this," The other two snapped.
"Why don't you understand. Arguing won't help us. We need to work together to solve this thing," Susan said, hoping it would help.
"Well, I'm not the one who broke things off and ran away without giving any reason. So now I'm just living my life with my own rules. Why is she getting insecure?" Eric said, staring at Abigail with venom in his eyes.
"Eric..-" He walked out before she could say anything.
***
"Are you OK?" Tyrone asked his mate.
Trinity had been so quiet ever since the meeting last night. She was still thinking about the smirk on the dragon lord's face. Should she tell Tyrone? Would he even believe her? "Trinity? You with me?"
"Yeah... I...". "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
"I saw...think I saw... I think". A cool hand touched her shoulder. She felt calm. "I saw the dragon lord smirking while the other dragons were panicking while watching the video."
She thought he was going to laugh or hush her, but he just stood there, looking at her.
"Look.. I know it sounds obsurd... but-" "I believe you," Tyrone said. "I also felt something was off."
"What do you mean?" Trinity asked, turning away from the window to face him.
Tyrone took a deep breath and let it out before answering, "As a water breather, I can also sense the heat and coldness of a dragons body. He gave off the same heat as the knights black dragon."
Trinity held her breath, "Does that mean he is... "
"I don't know for sure, but I had suspected it. Anyone who confronts him about this is sent off to the war, and doesn't come back.
"Why don't we tell someone?"
"No one will believe us; and by luck, if someone would, we're not strong enough to fight him. We can't tell anyone until we have some solid evidence, or else the council will sentence us to die."
Just the thought that the leader of all dragons could be the same dragon who is killing off the strongest dragons one by one just gave her the shivers. She had to talk to someone about this. Martha? Stacey? Maybe Tyrones cousins? They couldn't just sit by idly and watch every dragon fly to their doom.
"I know what you're thinking, but I can't allow you to tell anyone; not even Marth or Stacey."
"Wait! how'd you..?" Trinity asked, confused.
"You just told me. I was guessing; you confirmed it," Tyrone replied, smiling. Then, with a straight face, he said, "Don't tell anyone now. We'll figure something out."
Afternoon came, and Tyrone and Trinity made their way to the training arena. Training had now been moved from the morning to afternoon so that everyone, even children above five years could attend.
The severity of the dragon lord could be felt while working out as their instructor had been ordered to be harsh and use a whip for dragons who weren't listening or slacking in their training.
The children learnt hand to hand combat and how to make their own weapons, like traps and slings. They also learnt how to ambush.
The adults learnt how to run fast, turn and fly suddenly while fighting, launch a surprise attack and of course weapons and hand to hand combat. Anyone who felt tired was beaten up, until they were sent to hospital, and no one knew why. No one except the council members.
Trinity saw Stacey running and remembered their last encounter. She ran and met up with her and while still running, apologized to her on behalf of Tyrone. "It's OK, you don't need to apologize; and neither does he," Stacey said, breathing heavily.
"How's Martha?" Trinity asked.
"She's well. She volunteered to help Dr Elise in the hospital today; speaking of which, do you know what's going on?" She asked looking around.
Before Trinity could answer, a whip missed her by inches, as she came to a surprise halt; but her friend wasn't so lucky. Stacey gave out a scream as she fell backwards clutching her chest.
"STACEY!!" Trinity immediately bent down to help her up, but before she could, she felt a sharp pain jolt through her back. It was as though someone hit her with hot iron bars.
She straightened her back as her hand touched where it pained. She saw blood on her fingers, and she felt every muscle in her body shake with anger as she looked towards the direction of the man holding a long whip in his hand, laughing.
"YOU SON OF A BI....." The whip came flying towards the brown eyed girl before she could finish her sentence, but this time, she caught it mid air, much to everyone's surprise.
"Trin!" Tyrone called out as he made his way to her. "What happened here?" He saw her back and looked towards the tall, muscular man in front of her. By now, everyone felt hot. Tyrone knew he had to do something quickly.
***
"You OK?" Susan asked her friend.
"I....I..." Tears of pain and sadness rolled down Abigails' cheeks as she fell on her knees in a crying mess.
Susan sat beside her, not knowing what to do. She just wanted to be by her friend. She didn't exactly know what happened between them, but she remembered the first time they'd seen each other.
Mr king had called them and as soon as Eric and Abigail saw each other, they just stared.
"What is she doing here?"
"What is he doing here?"
They had asked simultaneously, looking at each other.
"You're all working together on this project. Eric's in charge."
"Eric..." Abigail tried saying something, but he was out the door.
"We dated in college and we got along well," Abigail began, still sitting on the floor, her eyes wet, her face showing tear marks and the eye liner all over her face. "I didn't know he was seriously considering being with me, and then a letter came from my dream university, and I broke up and went there. A friend of mine told me later that he was going to propose that same day that I broke up... I loved him and if I would have known... I...I.. " with that she broke into tears again.
"Do you want me to talk to him?"
"No. I don't want to sound desperate." Abigail shook her head, still sobbing.
"I know it hurts to see him flirting with another girl, but you being insecure shows him that you are desperately trying to win him back," Susan said thoughtfully. "The more you show your insecurities, the more he'll enjoy it. It's time to tell him that you can and will move on if he doesn't love you back. Women are strong. Dry your tears and promise yourself you'll never cry over him again. We've got work to do."
Both girls made their way through the woods, camera in hand recording everything. They had made up their minds to find prove of the existence of those mighty beasts, or at least try.
"What are you doing here?" came a voice from behind. Both girls jumped as they turned around, only to see a familiar face.
"Eric? Thank God. Don't ever do that. You nearly gave us a heart attack," Susan said between breathes.
"That doesn't answer my question," the young man said, staring at them with a blank expression.
"The same thing you're doing here; looking for dragons," Abigail replied.
"Then it is our duty to help these humans look for dragons, isn't it," came a loud voice from above them. The trio looked up to see three men sitting on a tree branch, looking at them; with a weird smile.