Blackness. Taraah could see nothing. Smell nothing. Hear nothing. Feel nothing. She couldn't move. It frightened her to the core. She felt like she was falling, and her chest felt like being impaled by a giant spike. She shrieked in fear and anguish, until something reached out to her and banished the pain, allowing her to breathe. With the nightmare gone, she sunk into a dreamless oblivion. Unaware to her, she was screaming from her sleep.

When she came around, she was relieved her senses returned. There was ground beneath her. The bubbling of a river soothed her ears. But it wasn't all nice. There was a copper taste of blood in her mouth, and the air smelled of smoke that carried the disgusting stench of death. The dragon slowly remembered what happened and jerked awake. As she tried to jump on her feet, she was reminded that not all was part of the nightmare, as her chest was still full of stabbing pain, although it was now manageable. Tilting her head to see, the light hurt her eyes for a while before they adjusted. She saw somebody patched her wound up.

Taking a strong whiff of the air, she found from the scents she was not alone. Lifting herself on her hind legs to turn quickly, she lowered herself slowly to ease her front ones. It was the two she rescued from the village, although she doubted rescue was the word for it. Releasing the breath she didn't know she held, she looked at them. Stupid girl! She told them to run! But her anger dissipated as quickly as it came. They were the first two that didn't fear her in her natural shape. Well, the girl. The boy still seemed a bit scared or shy. "Thank you." she said with s small bow of her head. "You shouldn't have stayed." she reprimanded, looking towards the village worriedly, but no ghouls pursued them. Her last attack must have scared the mad creatures off.