Behind the Eyes

After I told Tain my plan, he was completely on board. But then I told him about the distraction part.
“No way one Earth am I putting myself in that kind of danger,” he said defiantly. I put my hands on my hips irritably.
“Tain,” I said. “You don’t live in the castle. You can come and go as you please. But I cannot.” I switched my upset look to puppy eyes. “Please, Tain,” I begged.
Tain struggled not to look at me once he heard the tone of my voice. But with an accidental glance, he gave in.
“Fine, fine,” he groaned. “What do I have to do?”
*****
I peeked over the wall at the lined up guards. My feet were planted on a large brick that poked out a little from the rest. The hot sunset rested on my back, making my neck begin to sweat from the heat of my blonde hair.
I had told my mother that I wanted to be completely rested for tomorrow and would go to bed early. After I went inside, I threw on one of my old dresses that had been torn at the bottom and wore my worn heels. There’s very limited casual articles when you’re a princess.
I sighed silently as I waited for Tain to do his part of the plan. He had been certainly reluctant at first, even after he told me he’d do it. He has this idea that the guards would look him up if they found out he was lying.
They would, of course, but I didn’t tell him that. He’d never have done it if I had.
Suddenly, Tain came running up the guards, looking extremely distressed. “Two of the guard horses have been stolen by a couple of men!” He announced.
I tried not to laugh at how serious he was being.
After a bit of convincing the guards rushed off to go find the horses that Tain had set free. I quickly climbed into and down the tree to Tain, who was sweating from nervousness.
“They knew I was lying, didn’t they?” He asked. I laughed. “No, you were great,” I complimented. I grabbed his hand. “Now, quick, before they come back.” And we began our adventure.
*****
The journey to Failynn mountains was a bit longer than I had expected. We made it there in the time that I knew we would, it just seemed to have lasted forever.
Tain complained the whole way about how he was going to starve or get eaten by wolves. My feet hurt so much from my heels I had to beg him to carry me a little of the way. And when he complained about that, I told him I’d stick these shoes on him and see how he’d fare. He didn’t have a reply to that but he didn’t carry me for much longer.
“We’re here!” I announced happily. “Thank God,” he gasped as he sat down on a rock near him.
“You can’t sit now!” I said, grabbing his arm. “But we just got here,” he whined.
“Yes, and we only have an hour or two to spend here,” I explained in a just as whiney voice. “Now come on! We’ll rest when we get home.”
Tain groaned as he slowly stood back up. “Oh, don’t be a baby,” I said, tugging him along.
The Failynn mountains were tall and steep. Climbing the mountain was more like hiking though. Some foliage was growing along the sides but became more scarce as moved up. The dirt was nearly black in the moonlight and it was hard to see a safe place to set my feet.
“So what are you looking for anyway?” Tain asked in a breathless voice. I shrugged, lifting the bottom of my dress to step onto the next rock. “Whatever I can find that will prove the dragon boy did exist.”
“Why do we always have to pretend?” Tain asked. “I feel like a kid again.”
I laughed. “That’s the point,” I said. “Why would anybody want to grow up? Might as well be creative while we can.”
I heard Tain chuckle behind me. “I guess that makes sense.” A pause. “So what are we ‘looking’ for anyway?” He asked.
I couldn’t answer right away as I pulled myself up a large boulder and helped Tain up as well. “Anything, really,” I replied, standing straight and continuing our trip up the mountain. “A cave, maybe some bones…” I smiled as I thought of plenty of things that could give evidence of the cursed boy’s existence.
“Fire?” Tain suggested jokingly. I laughed. “Sure, fire too,” I agreed.
“I hope we don’t get lost,” he mumbled suddenly. I stopped and turned to face him.
“We won’t get lost,” I assured. He shrugged, taking a look at our surroundings. “We’re on a mountain,” I continued. “How do you get lost on a mountain?”
“It happens,” Tain argued. “We just have to keep on the trail and we should be okay.” I shifted uncomfortably. I never thought of the possibility of becoming lost.
Of all the dangers I had thought of, getting lost was the worst of them all. Nothing scared me more than not knowing where you are or where to go.
But I couldn’t just walk back now…I hadn’t even found the ‘evidence’ I was searching for. So, with a fisting of my hands, I continued forward with Tain following behind.
Certainly we wouldn’t get lost. As long as we stayed on the trail, it should be a highly improbable possibility.
*****
“I knew we’d get lost,” Tain said as I sat on a rock with my head in my hands, “but I didn’t know it’d be so fast.”
“Oh, this is horrible,” I mumbled into my hands. “I didn’t mean to get us lost.”
“It’s not your fault,” Tain assured. “This could have happened to anybody.” “Maybe,” I said, biting my lip nervously.
“What should we do?” I asked, removing my hands and looking up to Tain. “If we keep going up maybe we could find the trail below us, you think?” He suggested.
It sounded like an obvious plan that would end up not really working, but it was all we had to go on at the moment, so I nodded. “Sounds great,” I said, standing.
This time I followed Tain as we climbed over rock after rock. We were both tired, but I couldn’t help but feel excited about all this.
I was still scared of course, but this seemed like a problem the hero would have in the books I’ve read. I smiled at the idea of me having a similar situation of one of my favorite characters.
Finally, Tain stopped, his lips pressed closed as he forced himself to breath through his nose in regular breathes so his mouth wouldn’t dry. I was doing the same. He bent slightly to look over the edge as I craned my neck up to see how tall the mountain was. Though I could not look far as the mountain peak disappeared into the steamy clouds that misted around the rocky formation.
“My idea was stupid wasn’t it?” Tain asked, standing straight again and looking at me.
I tried to hide my smile as I shrugged. “At least you had an idea,” I said kindly.
Tain sighed and looked up at the moon, the white reflection making his green eyes a bright gray. “Well,” he said, “we’ve done our extra two hours and a little more, I think.” I bit my lip as I too looked up the moon. It was frozen more towards the west than the east, which meant it would be dawn not too long from now.
If we could find our way back onto the trail now, we could certainly make it back in time for the dawn. But this did not seem likely.
I swallowed the guilty dreading feeling in my throat and took a deep breath.
“Come on,” Tain said, taking my hand and leading me back the way we came. “If we keep searching it’s bound to turn up.
I didn’t answer but nodded in agreement. The guilt became a bit too hard to swallow now that Tain wasn’t acting angry at me. This whole ‘adventure’ may have been his idea, but I just had to choose the mountains at night. I just had to press him to think I’d die without some little adventure.
And now we’re lost and we may be in a lot of danger. All because of me.
These thought blurred my vision with tears and with my free hand I wiped them away, trying not to sniff so that Tain wouldn’t know I was crying.
In the short instant that I had raised my hand to wipe the tears, my foot had it’s path blocked by a jagged stone. I tripped suddenly into Tain, who lost his balance and accidentally let go of my hand.
I had mentioned before that these mountains were steep. And as far as we were, it was extremely declivitous. Tain and I rolled down the pathway until Tain quickly grabbed a stone that had been sticking out, stopping him from rolling off the edge. I, however, was not that lucky or smart to do such.
I continued to roll until my body was in the air. My hands sprung for the edge and I just barely caught the jagged edge. Tears rolled down my face silently as I struggled to pull myself up.
“Ori!” Tain called as I heard him stand. For the moment that he had called me, my foot had caught the side of the mountain, and I thought I could push myself up.
But instead the stone under my foot slipped out of its place and shock made my hands loosen for an instant. And in that instant, I released the edge and was falling.
Tain swiftly grabbed my hand and held the mountain with his other. I didn’t mean to cry, but I was sobbing hard now from fear.
This was definitely worse than getting lost.
“Ori,” Tain said, sounding as if he was struggling…which he was. “You’re going to have to push your weight up and I’ll pull you.” I tried doing what he said when I noticed Tain’s left leg was nearly dangling off the side.
“What if you fall?” I cried. “Damn it,” he cursed, “if you don’t help me, we’ll both fall! Now push!” And I did as he said.
When suddenly, the unexpected happened.
Just I was gripping land again, a screech was heard. A low, mysterious screech.
Tain and I snapped our heads in the direction of the sound and we both almost lost our balance at what we saw. A red dragon was flying toward us. We could see his mouth drool from where we sat in shock.