Work Hard In Silence Let Success Be Your Noise
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“You got a plan?” I asked him. “We can’t just leave her to die.”
The other dragon looked down at us with a sad, regretful expression. He shook his head.
He knew we couldn’t help her in the end and he was right. But that didn’t stop me from feeling guilty about leaving someone so helpless out here, all by herself. Especially when she looked so young and beautiful…
My hand reached for hers on instinct and she looked up at me in surprise. The dragon’s eyes were soft as they gazed upon her, but I still felt like an outsider looking in on some kind of personal moment between these two. It made my stomach twist.
I tried not to stare too long. But she was pretty, wasn’t she? Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders, tousled and full of life. And her big blue eyes seemed wise beyond their years. She wore it well—that innocence and charm…and those lips.
If you didn’t know better, you’d think she was one of the girls back home. Like a friend of yours. Someone who lived next door, maybe? Except there were no girls in the middle of nowhere in the middle of fucking nowhere. Nothing even remotely normal could exist out here where I found myself. No matter how hard I wanted that unbelievable to be true.
But this girl had a smile on her face despite what she must’ve seen over the past few days. Even if she didn’t look much older than me or my friends at fifteen. She had the strength inside her. That much was plain to see. Strength enough to make it through anything. Even death by being buried alive while surrounded by a pack of wild dragons.
I wondered what she’d been before coming out here. What her last name was and whether or not her parents were still worried about her. Would anyone ever hear from them again? Or would she go unmentioned forever, as though she never existed at all?
I wished I knew more about her. Not just her name and where she came from, but about what kind of person she was. How she’d become involved with dragons—a species we hated with a passion.
She blinked up at me and smiled as she realized I’d come to stand beside her. “Hello,” she said politely.
“I’m sorry…” I cleared my throat, feeling stupid. “What’s your name?”
“Liliana,” she replied and then looked around for something else to say. A way out of our uncomfortable silence.
And then the other dragon spoke first. He gave Liliana’s arm a gentle squeeze. “It is nice meeting you.” His voice was warm and sincere, yet somehow distant. As though he was trying very hard to put her at ease, to keep his distance.
As if he didn’t really want her to get close to him either.
“Well, uh, thank you, Luka,” she managed after a pause that seemed to stretch for an eternity. “For stopping us. For rescuing us.”
His smile widened, showing off his white teeth and giving Liliana the courage to step closer. “It was nothing really.”
“Nothing? You saved us! We owe you. So don’t call it ‘nothing’ again.”
Her words caught him completely off guard. He opened his mouth, perhaps wanting to tell her how wrong she was. To point out the truth and show her why she should feel grateful for his assistance. But the words never left his throat. They didn’t need to. Because he already knew it himself.
There was an awkward silence as Liliana and I looked at each other, both unsure of what to do next. I glanced around the woods again, searching for some kind of path or trail to follow. There weren’t any branches that bent in a certain direction.
Only dead trees scattered across the floor in random places, as though something tore them apart without leaving any signs behind. Everything was so dark and cold, it felt like winter had set in permanently and not just temporarily. Maybe that’s what killed those animals. The snow. Frozen ground. And a lack of sunlight.
And now Liliana and I were alone. Alone, except for the dragons.
A thought occurred to me then, something that might be helpful, although it seemed too risky. Too dangerous. I wasn’t sure how far away we were from the others. From the humans. If it took us several hours to reach the road, or if we needed to hike through the night…
But what choice did we have? It seemed inevitable at this point, the only option we had left.
The other dragon was waiting for me to speak. He didn’t seem anxious or scared by whatever was going on, as I was. He stood there, calm and relaxed, as though he had no concerns whatsoever.
He was confident because he was right—it was his land. And he wasn’t afraid of the dragons, despite their power.
We had to go forward. We had no other options.
I glanced at Liliana and nodded, indicating that we’d talk later once she recovered. She didn’t protest, but her gaze remained steady on the dragon beside me. Waiting patiently for me to say more. As though she expected something important.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into this,” I told the young girl, who looked down at the grass beneath her feet. “You have no idea how much trouble you’ve brought upon yourself and your family, but you’re still safe. For the time being.”
She shook her head slowly. “My father will be angry when he hears about this.”
“Your father won’t find out. He has no way to track you.”
She hesitated and then nodded.
The dragons moved closer together. One landed lightly behind me while the other took shelter on top of a huge fallen tree trunk, leaning over the other side so he could watch Liliana.
Neither of them spoke again until Liliana reached the end of her rope.
She turned back toward me and whispered, “Do you know how long it’ll take us to return to civilization?”
My answer was immediate. “Maybe a day.”
“That’s all?”
I shrugged. “Could be sooner, depending.”
“No. We can’t leave yet.”
I tried to understand why she insisted we stay behind. Why it was so urgent to get her home before she fell asleep. She would surely be exhausted, but there was still enough energy in her to move and walk around freely.
But she wouldn’t elaborate, not even when I asked her directly if someone was coming for her and how badly they wanted her back. She kept repeating that we shouldn’t wait. Not for anyone.
After a few minutes of trying to get her to explain herself, I lost my patience. “Fine. Then let’s get going.”
I pushed myself up with one hand, feeling the blood flow through my veins as warmth returned to my body and I stood tall once more. When I reached the opposite branch of the fallen tree, Liliana followed suit, stepping cautiously over the jagged edges.
The young girl was shaking her head, saying nothing as I made my way across the thicket of trees and boulders and onto the other side.
Then, as though she finally remembered she wasn’t alone, she said, “Where are you taking me?”
“Back to the road.”
“I don’t want to leave the forest.”
I glanced at her, noting the fear in her eyes. She was clearly terrified of something, though she couldn’t quite figure out what exactly frightened her. I didn’t have any answers either, so we continued walking in silence for a bit longer before she broke our uneasy truce with a question that had been on my mind since the beginning if I was honest.
“How many of these dragons live here?”
I paused. “Several.”
Her eyes widened slightly, but she said nothing further.
The wind picked up its pace, swirling snow around us, sending droplets of ice flying into my face and causing the leaves above us to whip against the ground.
It was getting darker, which wasn’t surprising given how late in the evening it already was. And Liliana was still shivering uncontrollably. But we weren’t moving any faster than a snail, even though I knew we’d eventually come up to the highway if we walked straight ahead.
It wasn’t like this place contained any roads or landmarks to guide us along, and I had no idea where we were supposed to go anyway. It was possible there was nothing but wilderness for miles and miles around us.
When we stopped, Liliana didn’t bother to look at me or respond to the comment. Instead, she leaned heavily on a large boulder to steady herself, pressing her palms flat against the stone. I didn’t think she was cold anymore. Or that the wetness on her cheeks had anything to do with snow. The only reason she was shivering was because of what I did … or rather, didn’t do.
Because she was asking for it. That’s what she wanted from me. And I couldn’t give her what I didn’t have.
I had no intention of letting Liliana freeze to death while she slept, especially after the unnecessity of her existence, but it just felt wrong to bring her with me and allow her to die of hypothermia. If that happened, we would both lose everything we ever dreamed of.
All of this was a risk I was unwilling to take, so I did the only thing left for me to do: I made her sleep.
If only it was so easy for me to forget.
The End