Chapter 13

          There.  Before my eyes.  He stood a mighty dragon as tall as the heavens.  He didn’t have scales, no, but he did have millions of jagged crystals covering him from the tip of his lip to the very end of his serpent like tail.  His eyes held the vicious glare of Medusa, glowing, yet never turning anything to stone.  He wore a crown of ten golden, perfectly pointed stain glass spears with a twinkling oval shaped sapphire holding them together.  The sapphire was surrounded by more gold stain glass which was built into his crystalized skull.  He had wings at least a sequoia tree in length per wing.  Each wing also had a pine needle length crystal spine on their tips, held by the thinnest of glass wings.  There was none, if little color to the dragon.  His body was completely clear with no veins, muscles, bones, or heart, as was his head.  How could he be alive?  

“G-Gwen?” I asked, shaking.

“Yes?” she replied.

“What do I do?” I whispered, my voice cracking underneath my breath.

“Nothing-only he does what he wants,” Gwen sighed, curtsying slightly.  I too followed her lead and curtsied, but instead I found myself with a mouthful of ground.  I sat up immediately, rubbed my face, and stood next to Gwen who had her stomach sucked in and chest broad.

“Don’t even try Annabelle,” Gwen whispered to me, folding her hands neatly across her skirt.  I nodded, knowing I had obviously embarrassed Gwen.  Heaven knows what she was thinking of me at that moment.

            The dragon growled slightly before letting out a deep groan, sounding of disappointment.

“My daughter,” The Keeper growled again, specifically at Gwen, eyes cold.

“H-huh?” Gwen asked in nervous confusion.

“My daughter, give her to me.  Now!” He roared, like the winds of a hurricane.  Gwen quickly blinked back tears which the dragon’s short temper had brought to her eyes.  That’s when her fists clenched and her face turned scarlet.

            I backed up into the bush again knowing something was going to go down and I didn’t want to be in the midst of it.  I peered out through a hole on one of the leaves as Gwen walked over towards the dragon, her head held high.  Then that’s when things went downhill.  Fast!