Dragon Bound

Chapter 4

Ryoka woke up with a start, she had fallen asleep while tearing up and contemplating the next thing for her to do, and now she awoke after a rustling sound startled her from deep within her subconscious.

She stayed still and listened for a while, hoping to hear the sound again, but after a few seconds, all was still quiet so she stood up and decided to just keep going, staying still would be worse besides she was getting really hungry already.

She remembered that her father sometimes made jokes that he was hungry enough to eat a whole goat, now though she is not seeing it as a joke, in his dragon form he must have definitely eaten a whole goat before or something even bigger.

Moving along, she spotted a couple or fruit trees and she ran towards them with the rate at which she was hungry, she got a couple of fruits and dug into them hungrily, within seconds she was done and filled up and so she decided to take a few minutes to rest as well.

Eventually she had to keep moving, so she got up and started walking again through the forest, and after a while she started hearing car sounds, she knew then that a road must be nearby.

In excitement, she ran towards the sound, but she got to a clearing before the road, and in that clearing were men in white suits.

At first everyone was shocked motionlessly as she popped out amongst them, she counted eight altogether and she knew at that point that she was already in big trouble.

“Get her!” one of them shouted, releasing everyone from their confused and shocked state.

Ryoka ran as fast as she could, but the men were all bounding along right after her while communicating with walkie talkies.

She weaved in and out of bushes and shrubs and in between trees but the men also followed her through and through as they had set up a web like pattern to keep track of her.

The first thing that came to her mind was regret, she regretted wasting her father’s efforts to allow her escape these men whom she knew nothing about, though she is now very sure that they are the reason why she and her father had to have been moving about over and over again, and at that she felt a bit of anger as well.

Another thing that came to her mind was that, these men had guns, she had seen different types with them, even while she and her father were being chased and even just a little while ago when she had burst into their midst, so why weren’t they shooting, this must only mean that they want her alive.

'Why?' She thought getting frustrated as she ran, then she heard something whiz past her a couple of times, it was then that she knew that they were actually shooting at her, but not just actual bullets, probably darts, tranquilizers, which would be really bad if it hit her she thought and ran faster some more.

Just when she being grateful for having eaten something -which is why she had the strength to run so much such that they hadn’t caught up to her yet- at that point, she stumbled and fell and hit her hand hard on a small flat hard rock laying on the ground.

The men all caught up to her as she fell and surrounded her, pointing the dart guns at her, they allowed her a few seconds to decide if she wanted to come peacefully or not.

But as she turned around on the floor and brought her hand up, she saw that it had been twisted and was set in an odd position that arms are not supposed to be.

Pain flared all over her body and she screamed, and along with the pain came the anger and the hate, and the screaming unified and intensified those feelings for her.

Along with her screams came the heat wave again just like the time on the field, a searing heat so intense it burned everything around her as it rolled out in circular waves.

Then the men in white suit screamed as well, and their screams joined in with that of Ryoka who had to stop as she wondered why they were screaming, it was then that she saw them burning up without any fire involved, they were steaming as if being cooked on a grill, and the smell of cooked meat followed as well.

In a short few seconds all men were down, having serious burns all over them, they writhed in pain on the ground and all Ryoka could do was watch in surprise and horror.

'Had I just caused that?' she thought. Then the memory of when it happened like this on the field also came to her, so of course she must have caused it and along with that realization and acceptance came another fact, she was most likely a dragon as well, for this type of occurrence to take place.

Ryoka stood up, she swallowed her pain and remorseful feelings at what she had done unintentionally and then she moved towards the men and she took a gun that still seemed intact, she hoped the men won't die and then she headed back the opposite way, heading for where she had heard the vehicle sounds.

She ran towards the direction, her mind still heavy and her mind still full, ‘what exactly is going on?’ ‘what is causing this phenomenon?’ she thought hopelessly as she moved along, running till she got to the area before the same clearing.

She paused and tried to peak at first, looking through some shrubs and leaves, a caution that could have better served her a few moments ago.

Seeing it was clear this time and devoid of white suited men, she left her scouting point and came into the clearing, but despite nobody being there, her mind still played with her that there might still be people so she remained extra cautious.

Eventually Ryoka got to the road, she saw that it was the only bend in the road that dropped through the forest, which meant that she could have just kept on going through the bush and not find a way out like this.

There on the roadside though, was parked a white van that could only belong to the white suit men, Ryoka noticed there were still people inside though, about three of them so she turned right back and stayed out of sight while she thought about what to do.

If only there was a way she could summon that heat wave again to incapacitate these remaining ones as well, she glanced at her disfigured hand but lo and behold it was all healed, righted and healed back to how it normally is.

She was awed and unbelieving, wait, could it be because of the heat wave? of course it should be but mainly it should be because of the fact that she is now a dragon? (or at least she is eventually becoming one)