Demon archers who could fly? It just kept getting better and better.

A purple cloaked figure leapt from the trees above us and flew down into the chaos. Landing and rolling forward to regain balance.

The masked archer had a black bow in their hands and was peppering the Zorg with arrows. They had already killed Jomie's Glyferno, spilling Jomie to the ground and somewhat freeing Nick. They had also hit Mr. Mom in the shoulder, making him stumble away from Hazel and fall to the ground. The archer had also killed two of the other Zorg, whose names I didn't remember.

Hazel! I thought desperately.

An arrow thunked into the neck of the Zorg before me, Smoak was his name, and he keeled over without a sound. Four down, three to go.

The archer dropped their bow and whipped out two, wicked looking swords, one silver and the other pure black.

She yelled something at the Zorg that I couldn't understand. It was a she. I couldn't tell at first glance but her voice was definitely female.

Jomie struggled to her feet, adjusting her mail, and drew both her blades. She laughed, and her laugh was the sound of a madwoman. "Come for a rematch, assassin?"

"I don't know if you recall, but it didn't go well for you before, Jomie," the archer said, her voice calm, "I am not afraid."

"I know you aren't, but you will be," Jomie sneered and without any further warning, she and her two companion who were left leapt at the archer.

Blades met with a clang that echoed through the forest.

Meanwhile, Nick struggled under the body of Jomie's fallen Glyferno.

I leaned heavily against the tree and made myself go onto my hands and knees, sending agony through my gut. I forced myself not to puke.

I crawled slowly toward Nick, rocks and twigs stabbing my hands and tried not to think that our lives might rely on whichever woman won the fight.

I reached Nick and gave a feeble shove at the body on top of her. It didn't budge.

I couldn't tell which sword was who's. The four were fighting so fast their weapons were just blurs in the air.

There was a large: clang! Jomie stumbled backward into her other two companions. While Jomie was distracted, the archer sprinted over to us, and without even straining a muscle, shoved the body of the Glyferno off of Nick.

Nick sat up, breathing hard and just had time to pant, "Thanks," before the assassin and the Zorg were at it again.

"Are you ok?" I asked her. There was a large bruise on her jaw and she was covered in blood that wasn't her own.

"Me?!" she said, surprised, "Gods, Remi, forget about me, what about you?!"

"I'm fine," I said, but it wasn't true, "I just got kicked by a mini Dragon."

She raised her eyebrows, "Are you mortal?"

I gave her a scowl, "Help me out."

Nick stood and offered me her hand.

I took it and rose to my knees, the world spinning and tilting.

"Whoa," Nick said, trying to steady me, "I think you should just sit or something."

My eyes landed on Hazel, still unconscious, and the twitching General beside her. My resolve hardened. I rose to my feet and groaned.

"Ok then," Nick said, "I don't think thats a good idea."

I ignored her and started making my way toward Hazel.

The fight between the Zorg and the assassin was very one sided. The archer was very fast, very strong, and very skilled in Zorg combat techniques. Jomie was injured after falling from her Glyferno and her companions weren't as strong as the mysterious archer.

She cut one of them down easily, and the other, maybe Vark, seeing his fallen comrade, retreated to his Glyferno and hopped on. Our archer maybe-friend was too busy with Jomie to notice or care.

Vark jabbed his heels into the side of the Glyferno and it shrieked and leapt into the sky. I grabbed my ears as best I could with my hands bound, but one of them was already deafened from before.

With the destraction of her friend's departure, Jomie managed to score a hit. Her blade cut through the archer's cloak and sliced a deep cut on her arm.

The archer bellowed, but more in rage, not in pain. She attacked Jomie again, fiercer and faster than before. I could tell this fight wouldn't last long.

I managed to reach Hazel and the unconscious Zorg General without falling over, which, I must admit, I did not think I could do.

Another wave of nausea rolled over me when I saw Hazel's arm. I tried not to panic, but tears started streaming out of my eyes anyway. The wound was so horrible and, well, weird. It was only a small, leaf shaped wound but it was bad.

"Oh my stars," Nick said as she crawled up beside me.

I made a sort of choked noise and reached for Hazel's wrist. I checked for a pulse. To my relief, there was one.

"She's alive," I said and sighed.

"And she's awake!" Nick said happily and grinned.

Sure enough, Hazel's eyes fluttered open. They were dazed with pain but she was awake.

"Hazel!" I said and took my hands away from her wrist to wipe my eyes with the sleeve of my hoodie. "You're alright!"

She winced, "Alright is a long shot. Also, don't touch those leaves, they hurt." Her voice was croaky and quiet.

I made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. I was probably going hysterical. Nick put a hand on my shoulder.

"You're alive, that's what matters," she said.

"Help me up?" Hazel croaked.

I nodded, took her hands in both of mine, and gently pulled her upright.

"Oof," she said, "I expected that to hurt more." She glanced over to her left arm. She gulped and looked at me instead. I squeezed her hand.

CLANG! Very suddenly, a sickle came whistling past my ear and thunked into the tree behind Hazel. Hazel gasped and looked past my shoulder where the archer had a sword against Jomie's throat. Jomie was weaponless, one of her sickles in the tree and one ten feet away, next to Gen.

I looked away. I heard the archer toss Jomie to the side, I knew that she was gone. I was disgusted at the way she had to go, but felt no regret.

I turned back to the archer who was wiping her blade on the grass. Her hood had stayed perfectly over her face, masking her features through the whole fight. She sheathed her weapon and began collecting her intact arrows.

We watched in silence. I hadn't let go of Hazel's hands but she hadn't made any move to either.

The archer shoved her collected arrows back into her quiver and then started attending to the cut on her arm. She gave us no acknowledgement at all.

"Who are you?" Nick said, breaking the silence.

The woman barely glanced at her before saying, "Someone who cares if random travelers, Dragons or no, get killed for no reason at all."

She had a bit of an accent and her voice was low and powerful. For some reason, it reminded me slightly of Hazel's voice, but Hazel's wasn't that low. She also sounded young, very young, in fact, she couldn't be much older than us.

"What's your name?" Hazel asked, "We should at least know who saved our lives."

She paused for a moment, "It doesn't matter what my name is, I am an assassin, I saved you from certain doom, that is all you need to-" she stopped abruptly. She seemed to be searching for something.

"Where did the other Zorg go?" She asked no one in particular, "The one with the funny name."

I turned to look behind us and saw that she was right, Maum was gone, and so was his Glyferno.

"No!" The assassin said and assumed a ready stance with her sword drawn, scanning the sky.

"We can't follow him," I told her.

She whipped her head toward me and just for a second, I got a glimpse of a lock of blonde hair under her hood.

"I know Maum," she said, "It is not like him to just fly away and-"

The shriek of a Glyferno filled the air.

I crumpled to the ground, sending agony through my stomach but I didn't care. I gripped Hazel's hand like it was a lifeline.

The shriek stopped and I looked up just in time to see Maum and his Glyferno swooping down through the trees, blotting out the sun.

The two dropped onto the assassin like snow falling off of a tree.

The Glyferno snatched the assassin in its vice-like claws and flapped its small wings hard, trying to gain altitude.

The assassin yelled and fought like a banshee but even though they were rising slowly, they were too high up. If she dropped, she would surely be wounded badly.

I wanted to do something, anything to help. Her bow was lying on the ground not ten feet away. I could grab it and one of the arrows that were falling from her quiver and shoot the Glyferno, but I knew that I couldn't. I knew that if I got up, I would probably be sick again and, if I did manage to get the bow, I wouldnt have a clear shot at the Glyferno. I couldn't shoot straight up at more than forty yards with the sun in my face, I would more likely shoot the assassin than the Glyferno. And even if I did manage to hit the Glyferno, the fall would be fatal. And of course I was also forgetting that my hands were bound.

And so I sat and watched as our savior was carried away, unable to do anything.

It disgusted me.

After a while, when the Zorg, Glyferno, and the assassin were long gone, Nick stirred.

"Who do you think she was?" She asked, still staring sadly at the sky.

I shrugged, "Who knows. A real darned good fighter if anything."

Nick nodded, "There was something about her though. Something familiar. I can't put my finger on it."

Hazel sighed, "She probably got herself killed for us."

I squeezed her hand again, "Maybe she won't be killed. Maybe she'll live. I got a pretty strong vibe from her."

Hazel nodded sadly, "We should make camp somewhere, we can't travel with all our injuries. Tomorrow we can probably set out again."

"Anyone have anything sharp?" I asked, "We need to get these bindings off."

Nick patted down her pockets awkwardly, "Nope, nothing, the Zorg confiscated my knife. And, oh shoot, my necklace from my parents is gone too."

Hazel shook her head, "Nothing as well. Sorry about your necklace, Nick, it was pretty."

"It's fine," Nick said with a shrug, "Maybe I can get another one later."

I looked around me for a sharp rock or something I could use to saw at the rope. I found something better.

I held up one of the assassin's arrows. "Who's first?"

Once we were all free, Nick searched for our backpacks and brought them to us. Hazel set to work on our injuries. Nick apparently got punched in the jaw and knocked unconscious when she tried to fight. Hazel examined her bruise but decided that it didn't need any treatment and moved on to me.

"Where did you get hit?" She asked.

"Right in the middle," I told her, "It only hurts when I move or breathe, but I can't technically stop doing either of those."

Hazel nodded. Nick snorted. "Yeah, you kind of need to move and breathe," she said.

Hazel examined where I got kicked, "You are going to have the biggest bruise I have ever seen. You feel ok other than that though?"

I shrugged, "If you count feeling like I'm going to lose everything inside me if I even move wrong as 'feeling ok' then yeah."

She sighed, "Just keep an eye on it, If it gets worse, I need to know. I don't want you to get internal bleeding, or have any of your organs punctured, because that would be...not good."

"Nice," I said sarcastically, deciding not to ask what internal bleeding was, or what would happen if one of my organs were punctured. All I knew was, if it was bleeding, it was bad.

"No, not nice," Hazel said, "If one of those happens, I don't think there's anything we could do. It would be fatal."

Now that was scary. Not the fact that I could get internal bleeding or something else horrible, it was the fact that Hazel wouldn't know what to do about it.

Hazel examined my arrow wound which I had pretty much forgotten about until then. She rubbed some healing ointment on it and put on a fresh bandage.

I tried not to get too squeamish as I attempted an examination of Hazel's burn. It was about a centimeter deep and shaped exactly like the Choros leaf.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Hazel said sadly when she saw my face. I must have looked pretty tragic.

"At least it's not bleeding," I said pitifully.

She nodded, "There's that. It hurts though."

"What should we do?" Nick asked, "Is it poisonous or anything? Is there another treatment we have to find?"

Hazel shook her head, "No," she said, "We shouldn't have to walk across the continent to find some mystic cure for this. As far as I know, and if the book I read on choros was correct, It's just like any other burn but it heals slower."

"But what should we do about it?" Nick asked again.

"I don't know," Hazel said and inspected the burn herself. "I can probably just wash it and put some ointment on it. I think thats all I can do."

"I'm going to try and find our weapons," Nick said and got up. She began making her way toward the fallen Glyferno. I watched as Hazel did her best to clean and bandage her burn.

Nick didn't manage to find our daggers, so we gave up looking for them and just packed up what little we had. We all changed clothes, as all our previous garments too torn and bloody to keep wearing. It made me kind of sad to get rid of my green hoodie, but the t-shirt Hazel gave me is green as well, so that was a plus. We decided to leave Gen in her clothes, partly because we didn't want to have to change her and partly because she didn't need to change. Her tan half-sleeved shirt wasn't ripped and neither were her gray pants.

Hazel volunteered to carry Gen because she was the least injured of us. I tried to help as much as I could in tying Gen to her. At first I was certain that Hazel wouldn't be able to carry Gen, but I had learned never to doubt Hazel's strength. Gen had always been very small too, so that helped.

Then, tired and injured but alive, we continued our trek throughout the day, stopping more times than I could count. We had covered many, many miles from the edge of the Piran forest and would arrive at the mountains mid-afternoon the next day. Getting through the mountains themselves would be a whole other story though. We stopped for the night in a small copse of trees.

"Tomorrow we are going to have to somehow get around Panta. If they spot us, we will either be thrown in prison, dragged back to Pira in chains, or worse case scenario, they give us a choros test, figure out what we are, and hand us over to the Zorg to be...whatever the Zorg do to Dragons," I said to my friends as I attempted to pace back and forth. I knew I should have been sitting down, muttering ominously about the perils to come or some such, but I couldn't sit still.

"Cheerful," Nick said and tossed me a slice of bread. I caught it easily and sat down to eat it. I wasn't hungry at all, but maybe food would help settle the searing stomach ache I'd had all day.

"But shouldn't we stop at Panta?" Hazel asked and swallowed her own bread. "We could use some supplies."

I shook my head, "No, we can't risk getting caught again. Besides Hazel, you know so much about plants, I don't think we would ever go hungry."

Nick bobbed her head in agreement and Hazel looked flustered.

I bit into my bread, but it tasted like nothing so I stopped and set it down.

"Eat something." Hazel ordered me.

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled.

Hazel sighed, "Fine, but you will eat something soon."

I nodded, "Yes doctor."

"Oh shush," she said and rolled out her mat to sleep.

I stayed awake for a long time, long after Hazel and Nick were asleep. I watched the sun become a half circle on the horizon and get smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

I watched their backs rise and fall smoothly and marveled at how we were all alive. I thought about how Hazel took the Choros and Nick got knocked out. We had all endured more pain and suffering in a week than most fifteen and sixteen year olds would in a lifetime.

I stared at the moon in the sky, just a silver sliver. I wished I could tear it out of the sky and smash it down on all the Zorg so they could feel what they had done to the Dragons. No one even knew exactly why they were trying to wipe us all out and nearly killed us all in one huge war, back when me and my friends were only five or six years old. The only thing I knew was true, was that the Zorg all of the sudden became power hungry and started silently taking over smaller Dragon civilizations in the night. They moved on to the larger ones and eventually, the Dragons realized what was happening and got angry. Their most important General met with the Zorg and tried to negotiate a peaceful solution. When that didn't work, the Dragons demanded that the Zorg stop. The Zorg representatives in that meeting ended up killing the General and starting the war.

I laid back on my mat and closed my eyes, trying not to listen to my thoughts rampaging back and forth in my brain. I wished I had Hazel or Nick to talk to, they would know what to say.

Eventually, my brain shut itself off and I drifted into sleep.

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Written by justasnarky_sandwing on WATTPAD