C15

In truth, the young man was terrified by the prospect of traveling down into the depths of the woods beneath him as he hovered above them while he continued to drift slowly downward. He knew full well that it had been dangerous for them to travel along the paths that ran between the trees themselves, not to mention the dangers involved with wandering through such a treacherous terrain without the presence of a clear path to follow in the first place. And he knew as well just how deadly an accident could be down among them as they walked beneath the branches overhead.

So then, the young man wondered whether it would have been wiser for him and his companions to simply continue onward from whence they had originally departed from. Perhaps they might have eventually stumbled upon one of these villages located throughout their homeland after leaving him behind back at the edge of the forest. They hadn't traveled far enough south yet for it to become apparent just exactly where they were located within this vast country, anyway. But the young man had known better than to suggest something so foolish to his friends. Not when his friends held no love or trust in any human being as it was.

The young woman with them, for instance. Although he hadn't met her before meeting his friends, the young man had seen many women just like her as he'd grown up in his own village. Women like her, in particular, didn't deserve to live in any society that he or his friends inhabited. These kinds of people had no business living amongst decent men, and so he and his two friends would always treat them with disdain and mistrust from that point forth whenever they encountered any woman like her along their travels. The young woman with his friends was lucky that his two closest companions weren't particularly fond of her or else she'd probably end up dead sooner rather than later.

But the young man himself? Well, the young man cared about these things much less than his other two companions did. In fact, the young man doubted that the young man even realized that he was alive until he had reached his thirtieth birthday in the last year that he could remember. So then, it was hardly surprising at all to him to realize that he had little to no knowledge concerning what was right and what was wrong when it came down to such matters.

"You're right, you know," the young man mumbled to himself quietly, "we should have kept going north to seek out help for our friend. We shouldn't even be considering this option, either."

The young man's eyes widened suddenly when the ground began to drop off sharply beneath him just seconds before. There was nothing that he could do but hang on tight to the branch above his head as the wind blew strongly against the underside of his body once again. His legs dangled awkwardly down towards the rocky bottom below where it dropped away from view in the darkness, and yet it wasn't until the wind grew stronger and harder to withstand against his skin that the young man finally managed to loosen his grip enough to release himself from it altogether. Just a few more inches closer down below, and the young man would likely have been thrown free from it entirely and down upon the rocks below. And the wind whipping about him now was only growing stronger with each passing moment as it attempted to tear his clothes from their bindings altogether and blow them about haphazardly as they flapped about aimlessly at the mercy of the wind.

"What are we doing here?" the young man asked aloud in a frightened whisper, "what am I trying to accomplish?"

His voice echoed off of the walls surrounding them, but nobody replied back to him in return despite its high volume. The young man glanced down towards his fellow travelers, but both of his companions seemed asleep as they lay curled up on the ground before him with their arms wrapped tightly around each other's waists. He looked up at his own feet, too, but neither of them paid any attention to him at all save for his own reflection staring back down at him from within the waters of the pool below them. And so, he closed his eyes for a moment instead and took several deep breaths of air in order to steady his nerves once again.

The young man sighed deeply as he leaned heavily upon one hand in front of him while he lowered himself downwards ever so slightly in order to rest his weight onto a lower branch at the base of it. Then, he released one arm from the hold that he had previously clung onto and reached over with it in order to grab hold of another nearby tree before lowering himself further down into the valley beneath them as he slid sideways along one of the many branches leading upwards towards the top of the trunk itself. When his foot had found purchase onto another sturdy limb before him, the young man opened one eye to peek over at his two sleeping companions. One of them had already managed to awaken enough to notice what was taking place, but the other remained fast asleep even so despite having heard everything that the first one had said.

The young man frowned and shook his head a bit, and he wondered why he hadn't considered the fact earlier that perhaps this whole idea of theirs might be quite foolish in retrospect. After all, the two of them didn't appear capable of doing anything at all except for following behind the young woman with them all along. And he knew full well just how helpless they were down amongst these trees with no knowledge of how to survive amongst them. All of these thoughts raced through the young man's mind as he stared down at them in silence. He watched the pair of them sleep as they slept, too, and he felt sorry for them all the while for allowing themselves to fall prey to this predicament all together. And he wondered if perhaps he should have told them about what had happened to him all of those years ago. That way, they might have been able to prevent what had happened to their friend from occurring after all. Or at least, it would have given them some understanding of what was about to occur before it actually did happen. But the young man knew better than to say a word to them about it all the same. They didn't care about what had happened to him back home, nor would it serve any purpose for them to hear about it now whilst they sat there in the midst of such peril. After all, what good could possibly come of it for them to learn about it?

"We need to keep moving," the young man muttered harshly under his breath, "we've got to find a way out of this mess."

The young man stood upright with one leg propped up upon the tree behind him and reached forward to shake his friends awake. He shook their shoulders firmly, and he demanded that they stand up with him once again. Both of his friends jerked to life abruptly as though they'd merely gone back to sleep again as soon as he ceased shaking them. The young man glared down at them coldly as they sat there silently with wide open eyes, and he scowled down at them angrily for their lack of cooperation as he stepped back and folded his arms against his chest in frustration. He shook one of his companions awake again, but his second companion remained completely silent and motionless even as she continued to stare blankly ahead of herself as though nothing whatsoever had taken place in the first place.

"I'm getting tired of your constant whining!" the young man yelled in exasperation at the pair of them as he stomped furiously forward to face them directly, "wake yourself up! You two are just letting yourselves get caught up in whatever trouble awaits us further down here!"

He grabbed hold of the first woman by her shoulder and roughly shoved her backwards upon her rear, forcing her to roll backward onto her feet. Then, he spun her around sharply in front of him while he held onto her left wrist with one hand as he pushed her violently forward in order to drag her forcefully forward along the ground behind him as well. She stumbled awkwardly along behind him, however, due to her awkward balance as she struggled to maintain footing alongside him along with keeping an eye on her surroundings as well. And so, she nearly fell face first upon the ground beside her just moments later when the young man halted his pace and turned quickly in response to something that he'd spotted beyond his own peripheral vision. His friend staggered forwards blindly towards him, and it took a firm grip on his own arm for him to regain his composure as they came face to face again. But then, his friend's gaze shifted over towards their surroundings all of a sudden before he let go of the young man's forearm as she continued to stare down at the area before them intently. It was almost as if they had both forgotten that they were even holding each other at all, the two of them had been so focused on what they'd seen prior to them being dragged away from it all the sudden.

"Is something wrong?" the young man asked nervously, "did we see someone down there amongst the trees?"

Their friend nodded hesitantly in reply, but it was obvious that their friend was still far from certain themselves as they glanced uncertainly down at the shadows beneath them all. The two of them shared a brief look between them, and the young man couldn't help but feel relieved when his friend suddenly turned to face him and offered a quick smile reassuringly as they smiled softly together amidst their nervousness. But then, his friend tugged lightly on his sleeve and whispered urgently into his ear.

"It's okay," his friend assured him gently, "just watch for now. We can talk about this afterwards alright? Okay?"

Then, the young man gave his friend another gentle squeeze on the arm in thanks for trusting him with what they had seen earlier as his friend pulled away from him once more. The young man turned away towards his friend once again, and he noticed that his friend had stopped walking towards where they had seen something lying amongst the grassy hillside just outside of their view before them all along. Instead, the young man looked past their friend and saw that his other friend was also looking over towards where they had seen whatever it was that they'd seen down amongst the dark foliage as well. They shared a quick glance amongst themselves, and their friend nudged them both forward with a nod of encouragement. Their two friends followed suit shortly thereafter and began walking purposefully towards where they could see whatever it was that they could not. Then, their two friends hurriedly broke out into a run downslope towards wherever it was that they could make it out amongst the darkened depths of it all. A small part of the young man worried that it was a dragon, but then he remembered that dragons lived much higher up upon mountainsides all across the world rather than down here upon valleys like these. Yet still, he couldn't help but worry regardless for fear of encountering whatever it might have been that they had spied on. And he wondered whether or not his fears were justified for a moment before he realized that his own two companions seemed to have encountered something just recently enough to cause them to react in such a manner. He hoped sincerely that it wasn't anything dangerous for them to encounter, though.

Yet he didn't have much time to dwell upon such worries for long for reasons best known to him alone. For just as his friend ran downslope in pursuit after the other one, his own feet slipped from underneath him on the treacherous terrain as he suddenly tripped upon his own feet upon seeing what appeared to be some sort of shadow running towards him down below. He tried desperately to catch himself, but the slippery slope proved difficult indeed as it slid outwards beneath him at an alarming rate despite the fact that the surface beneath him was dry. And so, the young man ended up falling heavily onto the ground with one leg stretched awkwardly outward towards his right side whilst his left knee twisted unnaturally to the point of feeling painful all the while. Then, the young man rolled onto his back and lifted himself painfully up onto his elbows as he gasped sharply for breath amidst his pain while he looked up at the sky above him. In the midst of all the chaos, though, he hadn't bothered to notice until just moments ago just how large of a shadow had loomed overhead as it hovered directly over him as though waiting for the chance to swoop down upon him all at once. He felt a chill run through him instantly at the thought of it all, and the young man slowly brought his hands together to form fists over his heart to try and ward off the terrible sensation of panic that had suddenly set in over him.

He forced himself to stay calm nonetheless, however. The young man kept his eyes fixed upon the hovering shadow high above him, and he waited patiently in anticipation for it to descend upon him before it ever so gradually descended in a single sweeping motion towards him at a slow and steady pace that seemed to grow larger and larger with every passing moment. The shadow grew larger and larger even still as it neared closer and closer, and the young man braced himself against the rising wind that swept through him in the process. Then, finally, the shadow descended upon him with all of its might, and it landed with a loud thud atop him. Its immense bulk engulfed the entire landscape around it at first, but then, the shadow retracted itself inwards as though seeking shelter within the confines of the nearby trees around them all. Thereafter, the shadow moved onwards and vanished into the surrounding foliage as though fleeing into concealment all of a sudden. However, the young man didn't even notice this for all of his concerns about the looming shadow overhead as he remained fixated solely upon the one which lay upon him presently all at once.

"I-Is this...a Dragon?!" the young man whispered weakly beneath his breath as he stared up at the vast wings spread out before him all at once, "is this what I think it is..."

The young man stared up at the towering figure before him in amazement. His mind whirled as he stared upwards at the creature as though he weren't entirely sure of what he was witnessing. It was certainly true that Dragons did live in mountains all across the world throughout history, yet it was only very rare that they ever came down upon valleys such as this one all of a sudden. After all, their habitats generally lay at higher elevations all across the planet as opposed to places such as valleys like this one. And so, the young man was completely unprepared to witness what was unfolding before his own astonished eyes as he stared upwards in wonderment at what was happening all of a sudden. This wasn't exactly how things normally went down in most Dragon stories that he had read thus far anyway. He had never imagined that he would actually come face to face with one of them all at once, especially in the middle of nowhere as though this was some sort of common occurrence. But here he was, gazing up at the enormous shadow before him in awe as it rested upon his body amidst the forest all around them. He shivered beneath his blanket as though he were frozen to death all of a sudden as the strange presence lingered over top of him.