Bel reached back and clasped her hand firmly. Though they didn’t need to make contact for the magic to work, Bel had advised that they do so after what had happened in the underground ruins. Kitalia knew better than to argue when it came to magic, even if it was coming from a dragon.
The woman in blue took a step forward and it seemed to Kitalia that her leg stretched far longer than it had any right to. Either that, or the forest around them was collapsing in on them. Though she had experienced it twice before, it was still jarring. She was both thankful and regretful that she had eaten something, as her stomach lurched quite a bit, but she knew it would have been worse on an empty stomach.
Streaks of blue light trailed behind Bel and Kitalia felt herself being pulled forward by her hand. She tried to take a step to follow, but it felt like trying to pull her foot free from thick, deep mud. She expected this though, given her past experience with the “dragon stride” as she termed it. Bel had simply said it was like taking a hasty stroll through a swamp, one long step at a time, but Kitalia wondered if Bel felt the same resistance that she did. She redoubled her will to push past the physical block that seemed to be preventing her movement and soon found herself able to push herself forward. One agonizing, strenuous step at a time, she managed to keep pace with Bel.
She tried to keep count, but each step blurred into the ones before and after. All she knew was that the forest flew past them in a seeming mist of greens and browns. Comparatively, the first dragon stride hadn’t been so bad, since she had adrenaline and fear to use as a mental focus and ignore the aura of burning that seemed to be all around her. The second stride had been utterly terrible, and more than once she had stumbled and would have fallen out had she not been holding tightly to Bel’s hand.
Though it would be more accurate to say had Bel not been holding tightly to her.
She had the lights to guide her path as well, during that first run. Bright and blue they were, whereas here they were softer, and dimmer given the daylight overpowering them. Bel had also offered that their first dragon stride was less powerful, though she had struggled to find even that word and admitted that it still wasn’t quite a fit. In the ruins, the run was intended not to cover so vast a distance in as little time as possible, but rather to get them to safety, avoiding the vengeful and hungry spirits along the way.
Their second run had allowed them to cover approximately a week’s worth of walking in what felt like seconds. Bel had said it had taken the better part of a day, and it had left them both exhausted and barely fit to make a rushed camp for the impending nightfall. Kitalia was certain that it had cost Bel more in stamina than it had for her, but the dragon somehow maintained her regal composure and offered to stand watch while Kitalia slept nearly to the next afternoon.
Kitalia felt a sharp tug on her arm and her upper body went flying sideways. Though it felt like she was being ripped in two, she forced her legs to immediately change course, barely avoiding tripping herself up and crashing to the ground. At one point, she felt as if she were completely horizontal and stepping through the air. Briefly, she wondered what sort of damage that would do at the speed at which they were moving, but she quickly dismissed the thought into the part of her mind that held all the things she never wanted to think about again. Like giant talking spiders.