I hated having to turn back and walk back down the road to the McKinley's cottage, but I knew if I didn't hurry up and place one foot in front of the other, I'd be stuck there in front of Bram forever…or at least until he walked away first.

--

For what felt like the millionth time already, I walked back down the main road and over the bridge, my arms full of paper bags containing an assortment of random food I thought I might actually eat. I even managed to snag some chips—or crisps, as the bag said—and a couple of tasty looking small pies. It was all I could do to not huff and puff down the road, wishing I had some kind of golf cart or something at the very least to haul my exhausted behind back to the cottage. I didn't think I had ever walked so far to grab food in my life.

"Let's see… Meat, check. Cheese, check. Lots of wine, oh yeah, check that. And of course, junk food," I said out loud to myself, hoping I didn't miss anything on my pitiful list.

It had been three days since Bram had walked me back to that very spot, and exactly three days in which I tried way harder than I should have had to, to keep him off my mind. Bram had some sort of staying power, however, because the second I wasn't thinking about food, all I could do was think about was him.

I groaned as I dropped one of the paper bags, shifting my weight and trying to lean forward to pick it up before dropping everything else in my arms. "Goddamnit," I muttered to myself, trying to scoop everything up without looking like a total idiot. Next time around I'd be bringing the closest thing resembling a basket I could find at the cottage…

I heard footsteps coming up the path behind me, and for a split second my heart leapt in my chest, but when I turned to look over my shoulder I saw it was just an older man, a newspaper tucked neatly under his arm.

"G'day there," the man called out to me, waving. "Looks like yeh've got yer arms full there, lass."

Trying to pick up everything as dignifiedly as I could, I pushed a chunk of my hair out of my face, giving him the most polite smile I could muster up. "I do, but I've got it, thanks."

Just then, a weirdly out of place whooshing noise came from the sky, faintly fading away. I raised a brow at the man and pointed upwards. "Do know what that was?" The nearest airport I knew of was over thirty-five kilometers away, and the plane sounded pretty low for it not to be taking off or landing somewhere.

The man just looked at me, a funny little smile on his face. "Oh that? No use in worrying yer pretty little head over that, lass. I reckon yeh'll hear more of the same o’er the next couple ‘o days or so."

He tipped his hat at me before walking past, whistling to himself. Well, that was oddly cryptic and somewhat weird.

Shrugging my shoulders, I heaved everything back against my chest, hoping I didn’t drop anything else, and headed back down the road again. The same noise whooshed overhead, sounding even closer, and when I looked up in the sky I could've sworn I saw something dipping under the low-clearing clouds for just a moment, before it hid behind the hazy gray once more.

"What the hell?" I said to myself, swallowing hard. The thing was far too big to be just some bird...

Being the persistent and somewhat nosy person that I am, I decided to find out just what the hell was flying above the valley, debating on whether or not I should drop my things off at the cottage first.

I came to the realization that yes, of course I needed to put everything away, and made a mad dash for the cottage, surprised to see just how my curiosity was strong enough to get me to the cottage and back faster than the hunger that was growling in my stomach.

"Where did you go?" I mumbled, searching the skies as I walked back outside the cottage, shielding my eyes from the sun as it slowly faded back into view.

I couldn't believe how dumb I was being; what sense did it

make to go chasing after something that I probably just conjured up in my own head somehow? But I couldn’t deny that there was a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, compelling me to find out nonetheless.

Making sure I didn't make the same mistake twice, I kept the mountain to the left of me, not veering too far off the main road behind the cottages that dotted the sides of it. I probably looked like a crazy person, searching around for this imaginary whatever it was I thought I saw. At the very least, I was getting my exercising for the day, for sure.

There was the whooshing sound again, and I scanned the skies, my eyes wide as I realized that there was indeed something huge flying above me up there. How can I be the only one to see it?

I began stumbling across the quarry of rocks jutting up out of the ground here and there, so I carefully picked my way across them the best I could, trying to move fast so I didn't lose sight of whatever it was flying in the sky.

I should've been scared. I should've turned back. But I couldn't, I had to know…

I just made it over the top edge of a wide grassy knoll, practically climbing at the steep height, when I looked down and nearly fell flat on my ass, in complete surprise.

Down below me, tucked up under the grassy knoll, was the large tail of a creature I had never seen before, curling in on itself. What could have only been scales on the beast, were shining in shimmering shades of gray and white, a dappled pattern lacing up and back along the side of it. I could hear it breathing, such a huge gust of breath that the nearby grass blew around as if a sudden wind had picked up.

My heart raced. I knew I shouldn't look over, I didn't know what I was going to find, and even as good as I was with weird, this had definitely taken the cake. Whatever this animal was, it was huge—larger than some of the bigger cottages in town—and judging by its tail, incredibly powerful too.

I swallowed hard, telling myself that no matter what happened, I would be okay. It was a soothing lie at least. Something told me that I needed to look, though, and that there was no choice in the matter.

Slowly I edged my way over until I could look just underneath the knoll, and I laid down as low as I could in the grass and peeked over the edge. What I saw completely took what little breath I had left, away.

It was a dragon, simply put. It was more than a dragon, of course, but there was nothing else in the world I could’ve dreamt up that would’ve defined such a beautiful beast.

The dragon's triangular shaped head was thick and knobby, and it was breathing out huge plumes of dark smoke from its thin nostrils. Its massive limbs were easily the size of large tree trunks, and the noise that kept emitting from the back of its throat reminded me of someone quickly lighting a Zippo lighter over and over. Click. Click. Whoosh.

Tags: Alyse Zaftig Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net