Chapter 9

            Acacia had never felt so happy in her entire life. To be able to let go of everything, hang on to Gullen’s scales and relax. And Claris had to interrupt her relaxation right then when she said, “Hey, what happened to your bruise?”

            Acacia reached up to massage her cheek. “It’s gone,” she said in surprise. “How is that possible?” Claris wondered, probably thinking the same thing as her. How did the bruise heal so quickly?

            “I…I’m not sure,” Acacia said, rubbing her cheek hard. She couldn’t have imagined the bruise, could she? She remembered the stinging sensation of the injury in the maze, but once she stepped out of the maze…

            “Annice, Annice, you saw my bruise, in the Muzzle Maze, didn’t you?” Acacia questioned Annice. “Yeah, I did. Is it hurting?” Annice was behind Claris on Gullen’s back, which was why she probably couldn’t see that it was gone.

            “It’s gone,” Claris repeated to Annice her conversation with Acacia. Annice frowned. “We should tell Mr Claus. Or Canton Hillary. Maybe they will know something.”

            Acacia guided Gullen over to the massive bloodred dragon Mr Claus was riding. “What’s wrong, girls? Are you enjoying the flight?” Mr Claus yelled to them over the wind.

            “We saw a bull with small devil-wings in the maze, do you know anything about it!” Acacia hollered. “Whaaaaaaat?” Mr Claus shouted.

            “She said, there was a bull with devil-like wings in the Muzzle Maze! Do you know anything about it!” Claris cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered what Acacia had asked Mr Claus again.

            “Whaaaaaaat?” Mr Claus yelled again. “He’s hopeless,” Annice said, patting Gullen’s side to get him to glide, causing them to fall behind Mr Claus’s dragon. Somebody ahead of them whistled loudly, and all the dragons dove.

            They snout-dived towards the Lava Lake, making their riders scream excitedly or frightenedly—sometimes both. “HOOOOOLD OOOOOOONNNNN!!!” Mr Claus bellowed to everyone. Just when the dragon’s snouts almost touched the lava, they all suddenly pulled up, much to the surprise and delight of their riders and glided above the lava.

            What happened next was something Acacia couldn’t find the words to describe. First, everything began to flicker. Like, little snippets of sky or lava disappearing then coming back. Acacia released her hands from Gullen’s neck and rubbed her eyes. Everything was normal. Then the weird flickering started again.

            Claris tightened her grip around Acacia’s waist. “What’s happening? Why is—” the rest of her sentence was cut off when Gullen roared and there was a bright flash, like lightning, and when Acacia opened her eyes, Lava Lake was gone, and they were flying over the ocean.

             In the distant, a lightning bolt hit the water, followed by a rumble of thunder that did not sound very far away. “Umm…Gullen? Where are we?” Claris asked, sounding very panicked. Gullen’s only reply was a snort.

            Acacia patted Gullen’s back. “Hey boy, let’s go home.”

            He snorted again.

            Apparently, kindness wasn’t going to work on him, so Acacia kicked him in the side. He bellowed and flexed his scales. The scales went up and down row by row, and some sort of purple wave followed, turning Gullen’s scales from green to purple. He screeched and black spikes grew out of his head, and black rings circled his eyes.

            His riders screamed as long, bloody, charred fangs grew from both side of his mouth, along with blackened, decaying, sharp teeth. Gullen, one of the so-called best trained dragons, who had won the Dangerous but Docile Dragon award, was a monster. He let out one, last roar and tilted to the side, surprising Acacia as she fumbled to get a tighter grip on his scales.

            Annice was clutching Gullen’s foot to avoid plummeting into the churning sea. Waves crashed and lightning flashed and thunder roared—or maybe that was Gullen—Acacia couldn’t hear the difference over the pounding of her heart and her fear in her ears.

            Claris was clinging by a scale on Gullen’s back, which was obviously hurting him. They were starting to climb aboard his back again when he flipped up-side down, charging in a large circle in the air.

            This caught Claris off guard and she tumbled, screaming, to the waves below. “NO!” Acacia shouted, yanking hard at Gullen’s scales. The dragon twisted his head around, giving Acacia a glimpse of his hideous face and enlengthened neck before she cried out in pain as he stabbed his long fangs onto the veiny part of her wrist, and all the purple and blue bloodstreams burst, allowing the black poison to flow into her blood.

            Acacia’s shock, pain and wrist swelling made her release her hold on Gullen, and she plunged into the ocean, screaming, a tangle of flailing arms and legs. When she hit the water, it was cold and seemed to suck her into its deathly deeps.

            She fought back to the surface for air in a panic, but waves kept slamming down on her and foam blurred her vision. Being a Water Elemental meant she could breathe underwater, but the poison from Gullen’s fangs was dulling all her abilities, leaving her stripped of powers.

            Acacia tried to grab her wrist to numb the agonizing pain that shot up her shoulder, but the stirring sea wasn’t having that. It beat back her hand, and Acacia was beginning to believe that the ocean was an actual person, when a small splinter of rock that must’ve been washed up from the seabed below sliced into her injury.

            Acacia cried out, and tried to remove the splinter, but she gave up as the waves pushed her hand away again and again and again. Her vision darkened as the poison seeped into her brain, destroying every cell and muscle.

            She screamed and thrashed as the waves washed the splinter away, but the brushing motion had scratched her now-completely black wrist. With a final splash, Acacia’s body started to shut down, telling her to sleep, sleep, sleep.

            And she wanted that, so she closed her eyes, and sank below the surface, hoping to stay there and never come back.