The Heart of the Dragon
Chapter 8

Still shivering while hyperventilating, Angie began to feel a sharp pain on her right leg. Remembering the cut she received from the river, she hoisted herself up and examined her leg, and just as she thought, there was a deep gash on her lower leg, and blood was still seeping out from it.

“Dammit” she hissed in pain.

Having no medical care with her, she scooted over to the river where she splashed the water onto her wound as she flinched from the burn. And using the bandana she had in her pocket, she wrapped it tightly around the gash and secured it with a knot. With her wound now wrapped, she pushed herself up and examined her surroundings, surely she knew she was far from the crash site, and nobody knew where she was. Heck, even she didn’t know where she was.

Having nowhere else to go, Angie spotted a hill as she began going up while having to hoist her leg behind as she winced in pain. Once she found herself in the jungle again, she noticed there were barely any trails to lead her anywhere, just trees, vines, and bushes. If she could recall, if she kept going east, that should be where the crash site is. So turning east, she began down the jungle while stepping over rocks and logs and pushing leaves out of her face.

Water squished in her shoes and her clothes were soaked making her shiver from the coldness as she pushed her damped hair back. Hopefully, nothing will get in her way, and hopefully, her friends were already looking for her. She remembered Jackson calling her name before she slid down the hall, so everyone most likely knows she’s missing, but she doubts they’d be able to replace her, so she knew she was on her own.

Crack!

The sound of a twig snapping made her freeze in fear as she turned around, expecting to see a dangerous animal, maybe even a cannibal. She saw nothing, but she wasn’t satisfied. She knew there was something there, something watching her, ready to strike any second. Not wanting to stand still any longer, she turned around to run, only to freeze again when she found herself looking into the eyes of a large snake that hung from a tree branch.

Without thinking, she let out a terrified scream before fleeing in the opposite direction. Not knowing and caring where she was going or even bothering to stop to rest her injured leg that was burning on every step, she continued to run while swatting leaves out of the way. Snakes have always been one of Angie’s biggest fears, and she wasn’t going anywhere near that snake. All she wanted to do was get back to her friends, but at the moment she just kept running until she misplaced her steps due to her wounded leg as she ran straight into a thick tree branch that hung in front of her.

The pain struck her instantly as her vision began to blur. Without any power to steady herself, her knees gave away as she collapsed to the ground motionless. All was still and quiet for a moment, that is until movement came from some bushes as four large clawed paws dug into the dirt while replaceing the unconscious girl. With its purple scaled body with green here and there, the figure of a large lizard, teeth as sharp of a shark’s, and a long tail covered in spikes, the creature stared at the girl with bright yellow-green eyes while studying her.

After a few sniffs of her blood from her wrapped up cut, the monstrous being opened its large mouth above her head while raising its body up, ready to devour her. But its meal plan was suddenly interrupted when it was pulled back by its tail by a strong force.

After witnessing Angie’s disappearance, Jackson hurried back to the crash site where he told everyone what had happened.

“She fell into a river?!” Tammy gasped.

“Well I didn’t see it happen” he explained while breathing heavily “But I heard her scream followed by a splash. I ran down to the river but I didn’t see her, she must have flown away.”

“Oh man,” Eli responded worriedly “What do we do?!”

“Well, we can’t just stand here!” Tammy declared “We gotta go get her!”

“But we don’t know where she is” Jackson put in.

Still passed out, Angie had no idea what was going on near her as the monstrous creature fought against a being who may appear human, but was also not quite human. With its sharp claws that clawed the beast, fit human body that stood tall, and growls loud as a tiger’s, the being fought against the monster with all its might to get the beast away from Angie. Knowing he needed to end the beast, using his arm to keep the monster from attacking him, he grabbed the nearest rock he could replace as he banged it against a boulder with all his strength, causing the rock to break into a form of a sharp arrow.

And with the now sharp rock, the being thrust it up into the monster’s chest as the beast gave a loud roar in pain that echoed across the island that everyone on the beach froze when they heard it.

“What the hell was that?” Tammy gasped with her eyes widen.

Everyone was too paralyzed with shock to even reply, wondering and fearing what could have made a roar that loud.

Leaving the rock up the monster’s chest, the being let it drop dead on the ground while letting out heavy puffs of air. Even though he was covered in scratches, the being stretched out his muscles before turning to Angie who had not yet woken up. Walking over to her and bending down, he observed her body for a moment, checking for any other injuries.

After peeking at the gash on her leg behind her bandana and spotting the bruise forming on her forehead, he scooped her up into his muscular arms and began down the jungle, leaving the beast behind to rot.