“Kill her. Do it!” Liy demanded.
“I…” I started, but a stuttering cough got caught in my throat. 

I couldn’t do it. No way, but it was for Liy… I… I had to. I raised my blade over my head and got ready to cleave the head of my friend off, but the weight of the steel in my hand seemed to tire out my arm way more than it should’ve. Kiri was on the dirt. 

“Please, James…” Kiri pleaded, “She’s using you!”
I stopped for a second, but took a deep breath and said, “I know.” 

My arm seemed to move without my consent and meaty slice echoed through my head. I shot up from the leafy bed Liy supplied for me and the rising sun brought me from my dark haze. A pain in my head like a migraine shuffled through my brain and rifled through my thoughts like a thief. I shook my head and tried to remember the dream that left me breathless, but it was gone. I hated nightmares. 

“James,” Liy said, as if addressing a dog who had done something wrong, but sat still after that and waited for me to answer.
“Yes?” I asked and she smiled.
“Yes…?” she dragged on.
I stopped for a second, but came back with the most obvious response, “Yes, ma’am?” I questioned, unsure in my words.
“Hmm,” she hummed with finger on her chin, “That’ll work, for now. Anyway…” she continued with a subtle note to her words as if she were singing a song. 

She crouched down and laid on one of the wide branches that supported the treetop we were so comfortably sat on. 

“How did you sleep?” she asked.
“Oh,” I was taken aback by her sudden shift in demeanor, but brushed it off, “Fine. Yourself?”
She smiled, “Please, call me Miss Liy. I didn’t raise to kids to not use the title of an adult,” she explained before adding, “I didn’t sleep. I normally don’t. I had to make sure you didn’t fall, little one, so… we’ll say you… owe me~.” 

The words themselves seemed to have such a heavy weight behind them. An implied prison, but what could I do to stop it? 

She spoke up again before I could reply, “I think I know how you could repay me. I have to go, we’ll say shopping and you’re gonna help.” 

Before I could even get a word in, I was swept off my feet by a hand that rammed into my shins and forced me to tumble backwards into Liy’s hand. A rush of wind and the roar of a hurricane later, we were once again high in the clouds, but I was being held much more carelessly than last time. I looked down over the flowing hills and valleys of grassy knolls that rolled through the meadow I had taken for granted not so long ago. What I would give to be on the ground again. 

“Liy,” I called up to her, but received a sharp glance that reminded me of my mistake, “Miss Liy,” I corrected, “What do you mean by shopping?”
“You’ll know soon enough,” she replied simply as we landed in front of the castle. 

Before I could even ask what we were doing here, Liy bashed down the outer wall with a devious smirk etched into her face. I shuddered at the mere sight. A deep fear resinated from that smirk that I couldn’t contain. It wasn’t long before knights surrounded the invading dragon, but I knew they stood no chance against this beast. With a quick flick of her tail, she isolated one soldier and dropped me roughly right next to him. 

“Be a doll and cut up my food for me,” Liy ordered as she kneeled down above us to watch the battle.
The knight looked at me, disbelief in his face, “You help that monster?” he questioned.
“I…” I started, but pulled out my sword, “I serve who I serve just as you serve the king.” 

The knight’s betrayal shifted to a steely eyed determination as he raised a poleaxe to his chest. 

“If you’ve any humanity left in you,” he started, “I’ll bleed it to the surface.” 

He charged me with the spear tip of his weapon pointed at my chest, but I got my shield between us before the hit collided. A metallic clash rang through my ears before I thrusted my sword forward and just barely missed his chest. A streak of crimson ripped across his ribs as I grazed his tunic clad chest with a wide swipe that quickly followed my stab. He backed up and my next slash was met with the wooden handle of his weapon. With a careful push, he rammed the blunt end of his axe into my exposed temple. I had almost forgotten I stripped away my armor. 

I fell back and landed hard on my ass. My eyes met the giant ones above and was frozen for a second, but quickly got back up to face the knight that circled me slowly, waiting for me to strike. 

“You don’t have to do this,” the knight insisted, “We can kill this beast. Together!”
I grit my teeth, “I watched a beast not three fourths of this beast’s size destroy an entire raid party. We are only alive because she wills it,” I explained, a somber tone woven into my words.
“You’re wrong!” he insisted, but I shook my head.
“You’re naive,” I turned my attention to the crowd forming to watch the battle and ready their weapons to the dragon, “You all need to run!”
A deep sigh from above rushed over us, nearly knocking me over as Liy said the words I dreaded, “You’re boring me.” 

With one quick flick, she knocked the knight across the kingdom with a sickening crackle and signified his death. A life extinguished in the blink of an eye. I fell to my knees as a dark feeling filled my chest. Guilt. 

“James!” a voice called and I looked up to see Liy staring me down. “Kill another. Come on, this one,” she ordered as she pushed a woman into the empty circle.
“Please!” the woman begged, “I have children!”
With tears building behind my eyes, I called up to the dragon. “Liy, don’t do this!” I begged, but it only seemed to make her angry.
“You, little one,” said as she lowered her scaly snout, “Do not tell me what to do.” 

With one quick movement, her jaws pushed unto the dirt around the poor mother in the ring with me. 

“No!” an unexpected scream broke my throat as I pushed myself forward and reached for the woman. 

My hand passed the threshold of quickly closing teeth and into the slimy tunnel that housed that snake like tongue that wrapped itself around the woman. I felt the jagged edge of enamel close in on my forearm before a crushing pain exploded through my body like hot iron. My body collided against a wall of closed fangs and was forced back into the dirt. I landed on my back and right arm as my left was now no more than a bloody elbow with a stump. Liy looked at me with no remorse, but instead… satisfaction. I watched from the ground as I bled and the town I used to love so dearly was encased in a layer of hot magma spewed from the maw of the beast above. This was it. This was hell.