"F" (Writers of Kern A-Z Blog Challenge)

Kehlee wanted to draw a baby aerial, so that's what we get for today's post, even though it has no relation to the topic.

We were circling the top spire the castle, trying to get a bird’s eye view of the battlefield and possibly spot a weak point in the attacking army’s positioning around our walls when my dragon roared in pain and began to spiral downwards, out of control. I clutched my knees to her neck and tried desperately to gather in her reins, to reorient ourselves as we fell, but she wasn’t responding to anything I said or did. We tumbled and bounced on the wind as her wings opened and closed without cause. Amidst the spinning, I was able to catch glimpses of the ground as it came rushing up towards us. I also saw men running and scrambling away from our would-be impact point. I couldn’t tell which side of the battle they fought for, or the colors of their shields. Everything was a blur, a whoosh of sound, and then we crashed, hard into the dirt and rocks. The impact knocked me from my mount, my head slammed into the dragon’s scales, and I blacked out before even hitting the ground.

I woke up to a cheering crowd of hundreds that surrounded me. Six men reached down, picked me up and lifted me into the air as if I had just won a jousting tournament. They bounced me up and down above them, which did wonders for my head, and I struggled not to vomit while they shouted and clapped.

“Launch him! Launch him! Launch him!” Were their joyous calls and I couldn’t quite figure out what they meant. I couldn’t even remember how I got here.

As the crowd parted for the men that were carrying me, I saw my dragon lying on the ground. The sight struck me with heart wrenching anger and I started to kick and struggle against the men.

“Hey! What are you doing to her? Let her go!” Her head was tied down by a rope that was lashed around her neck. Two other ropes held her feet in place. She still had use of her wings, but from that position, there wasn’t much she could do to move around. It looked painful to say the least.

“Launch him! Launch him! Launch him!”

“What the hell, man?” I shouted as I tried to get them to put me down, but their grips held fast and I couldn’t budge. “Let her go!”

Beside my dragon was a large trebuchet – a wooden catapult with a heavy counter weight on one end of a long beam, a basket at the other end, used to launch objects, usually stones into the air as weapons. Three guys from the crowd ran ahead and started cranking the arm down, preparing to fire.

Oh my god! They’re going to put her in the catapult! I thought. It wasn’t until we got closer that I realized they weren’t going to put my dragon in the trebuchet; they were going to put me in it!

Fear gripped my mind and my twisting and writhing excelled to new heights. Still, I was unable to break free of their grips. It was like they had vice-claws for hands and there was no escaping.

When my dragon heard my voice, she started to fight and strain against her bonds. She roared and bellowed from the crouched over position, struggling to break free of the ropes. But they too held fast. We were trapped and it wasn’t looking good.

The men threw me to the ground and pounced on me, rolling me onto my back where they tied my hands and feet together. From there, they hefted me up and positioned me in the trebuchet’s basket.

They were really going to do it! They were going to fire me from a catapult!

“Launch him! Launch him! Launch him!” The crowd cheered.

The lever was pulled and the g-forces that pressed into my back and side were tremendous, but they only lasted seconds.

I was fired into the air.

            The world spun. I saw ground and sky and castle wall and sky and wall and ground. I heard my dragon roar and then there was a sharp pain in my leg as I guessed my flight was over. Time must have slowed down in those final moments. I felt the pain in my leg from the initial impact spread over and expand into a wrenching agony on my shoulder. My head whipped around. My limbs flailed. But the wind in my ears never abated. I was still moving. But I was pretty sure I had already crashed. I couldn’t be still bouncing across the ground.

           I opened my eyes to see the large, white belly of my dragon. She held me in her talons and I hung loosely below her has she flapped her wings in flight.

           “Oh my god, I love you girl!” I breathed as recognition of what actually happened washed over me. She had somehow managed to escape her bonds, fly after my catapulted self, catch me in midair, and fly me to safety. I looked down at my leg, where the first bit of pain was when I thought I had hit the ground, and it was covered in dripping blood with visible bite wounds from her teeth where she caught me. From there she must have tossed me and caught me in her talons where I lie now.

           What a ride… I thought but as we flew back towards the castle. She set me down on one of the lower ramparts and I began to wonder: Who shot us from the sky? I looked up at the tallest tower and squinted through the wind, trying to see any movement up there. Who would even dare attack a member of the Aerials? And from our within our own castle? That’s insane. Something is wrong. There’s treachery afoot.

"F is for Fired"