Chapter ten

Bryony waited for Aven to take her hand, but instead, he shook his head and stood up on his own. She admitted, that kind of hurt, but she knew it wasn't his fault. He seemed to be a lot better now, she still didn't know what had triggered him to have a panic attack, but she was just glad it was over. Aven was silent as he just stood there. Bryony sometimes wondered what was going on in his head, no scratch that, she wondered that all the time.

"Let's just go save those creatures okay?" Bryony said, but Aven didn't move.

She was going to honest, she would rather go save her parents first and then the creatures. She would always choose her parents first, but she knew those creatures were in more danger than her parents. Whoever took her parents hadn't killed them yet, and they were taken since she was a little girl, and they were still alive after all those years. She knew that whoever had them didn't want them dead, they were wanted alive, and that made them more safe. The shadow monsters took those creatures to kill them, so of course they needed to get them first. She just didn't know why Aven was suddenly not going to save them. One moment he was, and the next, he wasn't and having a panic attack.

"Aven, I know you want to save those creatures, so come on. Let's go." Bryony said.

"If I do, you're parents will die." Aven said quietly.

"What?" Bryony asked. How? How would they die? They were fine. They were needed alive.

"But if I save your parents, those creatures die." Aven said, finally looking up and at Bryony.

"I don't understand." Bryony said, clearly confused now.

"You choose." Aven said quietly looking at the ground again. "I can't."

Bryony was still confused, but if she was going to choose, she was definitely going to choose her parents. They were her parents. Those creatures were not her family, she didn't even know them or even saw them. They weren't even human. But Aven knew them and they were his family. She could tell if something happened to any of the creatures in this forest, Aven would be devastated. She could tell he cared about all the living things here, no matter what they were. But if she had to choose, she would still choose her parents. Then after her parents, she would help Aven get those creatures back.

Bryony smiled. He was letting her choose which one to save first, and she felt much better. "Can we save my parents first?"

Aven winced at her words, but he slowly nodded his head. "Of course." He walked past her and followed the path they were heading on before Aerwyna had come to them. Bryony turned and watched him walk away in confusion. Why did he seem a little sad at her answer? Or was he just tired? Yeah, that was probably it. They had been busy for hours, walking and dealing with things, even she was tired.

"Wait up." Bryony called and ran after Aven. When she fell into step with him, she yawned and then sighed. "Actually, I think we should rest. I can tell it's getting darker, so it must be close to night, plus we've both been walking and dealing with stuff for hours. We should rest, I'm tired and I know you are too. We can continue to find my parents in the morning. I haven't sat down in a while, my legs are killing me."

Aven stopped walking. He turned to her and gave her a small nod. "You sleep."

"What about you?" Bryony asked him, but he shook his head.

"I don't sleep." He said.

"Um, everybody sleeps. If you don't sleep, then you definitely need to rest. That isn't healthy, how many night have you not slept?" Bryony asked, folding her arms.

"My whole life." Aven said.

"Wait, you'd be dead." Bryony said. "I am pretty sure you-"

"I'm not a human." Aven interrupted her. "I don't sleep. I don't need to, I never get tired."

Bryony remembered seeing him with wings. Plus seeing faires, mean birds, and frogs that almost ate her, she kind of believed him when he said he wasn't human. She just didn't know what he was, he certainly looked human, maybe he was some kind of weird angel. He did have wings. Or maybe a snake human? His wings weren't feathery like angels. That would be weird.

"Are you sure you don't sleep?" Bryony asked him, but he nodded. "Okay well, I'm going to sleep."

She layed down on the ground in a patch of soft moss and closed her eyes. She was so exhausted, that after just a few minutes, she fell asleep.

* * *

Bryony jumped awake to a loud screeching noice, and she sat up quickly with wide eyes. She looked around until she spotted one of those big birds fly over her. She groaned. "You woke me up stupid bird."

She turned to where Aven was before she fell asleep, and he was still there. He was sitting next to a tree, watching some small glowing creatures fly around. The sun wasn't up just yet, it was starting to come up, but Bryony knew it was probably early in the morning. One of the glowing creatures Aven was watching flew down to Bryony, and she noticed it wasn't a creature. It was a firefly.

She lifted a finger and it landed on her. She didn't know fireflies lived here, she thought only fantasy creatures did, but she was apparently wrong. She did see butterflies and bees and other stuff when she first got here. She giggled as the firefly crawled up her hand and onto her arm. It tickled. The bug opened its wings and flew off, and Bryony turned to look at Aven again. It was like he could feel she was looking at him because he turned to her. Bryony gave him a smile, but he didn't return it. In fact, he looked a little tired.

He said he didn't get tired. Maybe she was just seeing things. The sun wasn't even up yet so maybe she thought he looked tired, when really he wasn't. Bryony scooted towards where he was sitting and leaned against a tree next to him. "So, how was your night?"

Aven didn't say anything, he just kept watching the fireflies fly around. His head was against a tree trunk, and his arms were folded against his chest. He seemed to be relaxed a little, just watching the fireflies. Bryony noticed that that was the first time she had ever seen him actually relaxed. He was always tense and avoiding her a lot. Bryony rested her head on the tree trunk and just stared at Aven, a small smile on her lips.

Aven turned to Bryony and her smile grew when she stared into his beautiful eyes. She loved how they were different colored, she had always heard about that but never met anyone with them until now.

"Your eyes are the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen." Bryony said gently.

Aven gave her a small, tired, smile. He looked like he was about to fall asleep, but he was forcing himself not to.

Okay. He was tired. Why did he tell her he wasn't? She wasn't going to say anything because she knew he lied for a reason and didn't want to talk about it, but she couldn't help but to worry. Something was going on with him, and she needed to find out what.

"You know, you're cute when you're like this." Bryony said.

Aven narrowed his eyes in confusion, eyes slowly drooping shut, but he immediately opened them again to look at her. He was cute when he was tired, he looked so relaxed and peaceful, Bryony wondered why he wasn't like that all the time, instead of being tense and not talking to her. His face was always blank and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. Now she could. She could tell he was warming up to her. It might take longer to get him to warm up to her all the way, but she could wait.

Bryony reached her hand out to move some curls of hair out of his face, and she expected him to tense up and push her hand away, but he didn't. Instead, he gave her another small, tired, smile, and she smiled back softly.

Something definitely was up with him. Maybe it had something to do with the night. Maybe at night he was always relaxed. Was it the moon? Did the moon have some kind of magic that shined down on this forest at night. Bryony noticed that the forest was very peaceful at night. The animals that came out at night were all quietly flying or searching for food. The daytime animals were all nestled in their homes, sleeping peacefully. The whole forest seemed to be relaxed. Maybe it was the moon. Maybe the moon did have something to do with that. The forest was unusually quiet too, usually frogs or crickets and other animals made noice, but nothing was making any noice.

Bryony turned back to Aven. He had turned his attention back to the fireflies flying around. "Aven?" She asked.

Aven slowly turned his head to look over at her. She gave him her best smile. "Are you okay? You seem... out of energy. Like not a bad way, but you seem relaxed and you haven't been relaxed since I met you."

Aven didn't say anything, he just stared at her, but then his eyes moved towards something behind her as she heard a quiet snap of a twig. Her eyes widened and she froze as Aven just stared at whatever was behind her. His eyes slowly moved up, like whatever was behind her grew taller or something, and then Bryony heard something sniff the top of her head. Whatever was behind her seemed to be really tall if she felt it hovering over her. How tall was it?

Bryony was frozen, eyes wide, and heart racing. What was behind her? Was it going to kill her? Was she going to die?

"Don't move." Aven said quietly, slowly sitting up. He really did look out of energy, something definitely was up. Aven tried to stand up, but he couldn't. He made a noice of frustration and then pulled something out from from under his shirt, tucked in his pants. A dagger? Where did he get a dagger? Why did he have a dagger?

Aven lifted the dagger up, but his arm fell to the ground as soon as he lifted it up. He was too weak. Why was he too weak? What was going on?

"Aven." Bryony said as she stood up.

"No." Aven said a little too quickly. He lifted his head up to look at her. "Don't move."

The thing behind her grabbed her shoulder and she gasped and ran forward to where Aven was. The creature was taller then both of them, way taller, and it was all black, blending in with the shadows of the moonlight. It was floating off the ground, and had huge razor sharp claws. It was dressed in black tattered clothes that barely covered up anything. Its long black hair was floating above its head, and its eyes were a glowing red. It looked like a creepy old woman. She was so skinny that Bryony could see her ribs. Red liquid was dripping from her claws and Bryony's eyes widened as she knew what it was. Blood. The creature smiled, showing her razor sharp needle like teeth. There had to be about a hundred teeth in her mouth. The creature shrieked and both Bryony and Aven jumped and covered their ears at how loud it sounded. It sounded demon like and it sounded like fifty people shrieking. Bryony's ears hurt and her head wss pounding at how loud it was.

Bryony felt the ground shake with how loud and long the shriek was. The fireflies and all the other creatures had disappeared by now, probably hiding from whatever this ugly creature was. The creature stopped shrieking and Bryony slowly lowered her hands from her ears and just stared at it with wide eyes.

"Run." She heard Aven say, but she shook her head.

"You run with me." Bryony said back.

She felt him grab her hand and then she turned to see him standing next to her, watching the ugly creature.

"On the count of three." Aven whispered to her, and she nodded. "One... two..."

"Three!" Bryony exclaimed as she saw the shadow creature lunge forward, and she yanked on Aven's arm, pulling him along with her as she ran. Aven was stumbling, trying to keep up with her, but he was having a hard time. She was always told she was a really fast runner, people told her she should participate in school races, but she never did.

The shadow creature suddenly appeared in front of them, reaching a claw out towards them, and Bryony screamed, turning around and running the other way while pulling Aven with her. She heard the shadow creature make a noice like it was laughing. Its laugh sent chills down her spine, she had never heard anything scarier.

"Wait." Aven said and suddenly his hand was yanked out of Bryony's.

Bryony immediately stopped running and turned around to see Aven running towards the creature. He was stumbling as he did, probably still a little weak, but the sun was coming out now so he wasn't as weak as before.

"Aven, are you crazy?!" Bryony exclaimed as she watched him run towards that thing, running her hands through her hair and shaking her head in worry. She cursed under her breath. "Aven!"

The shadow creature stopped running when it saw Aven running towards it, and its eyes widened in... was that fear? Why was it suddenly scared of Aven? Before the creature could do anything, Aven suddenly jumped in the air as he ran, growing bigger as he did and Bryony saw him turn into... a dragon? No, no no no, she was obviously seeing things right now.

The dragon roared at the shadow creature, and it turned to run into the shadows. The dragon followed it, opening its mouth to grab it, but it disappeared into the shadows. The dragon exhaled, smoke coming out of its nostrils as its eyes narrowed. It turned to Bryony, and her eyes widened in fear.

Aven was a dragon?

She saw that the dragons eyes were a bright gold as it stared at her. His eyes changed.... Its scales were a red/orange color and it was huge, Bryony felt like a bug compared to it. The dragon didn't seem to want to attack her and that made her feel a little better. It tilted its head to the side as it watched her take a step towards it.

"Aven?" Bryony asked, but the dragon lowered its head to the ground. Bryony watched as it folded its wings around itself and then started to shrink. When the wings were removed from around its body, Aven was standing there. He folded his wings behind his back and made them disappear as he looked up at Bryony.

He took one step forward before he collapsed onto the ground.