A Familiar Roar

 The bellow shook the diner as everyone knew what they had heard. There was a moment of silence, then of panic.

“What was-”

“-a dragon!?”

“Impossible!”

“-een extinct-”

The cacophonous noise filled the restaurant as everyone started hurrying, walking at first before running as soon as they saw they were not alone, pushing and shoving in a stampede for the main door in and out. Clair looked, standing on a chair to see over the heads, and realized that while many were trying to get out, just as many people were fighting to get in, desperately shoving against the ex-diners to find refuge, retreating from whatever was out there.

Another angry roar shook the restaurant, rattling the windows and all those inside.

RRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

The entrance of the diner screamed as people panicked at the sound. Clair noticed a wisp of blond hair skirting in the opposite direction of the egressing small mob. Susan had slipped from her hostess stand and was just making her way by their table as Clair hopped down from the chair.

“This way,” the staff member said as she noticed the three of them not racing to get out. “There's a back door.”

Clair, Measles, and Mumps all nodded and they quickly followed, Mumps swiping a few more pieces of toast before stepping away. They were led around a corner and down a back hallway, poorly lit with only a couple small windows occasionally in the tops of the walls. At the end was an opening to the kitchen but opposite it stood a door. Susan wrestled with the knob, grunting as it remained to turn for her, the stepped back delivered a heavy kick to the centre of it, splintering the frame as the door swung outward.

“Th-thanks!” Clair said as they followed her out. Spinning around, she found that they were behind the diner, bursting into a panicked market street as some vendors frantically struggled to pack up their wares, the smart ones already having run.

Susan gave a curt nod and sighed, taking a second to catch her breath. “I swear... this isn't normal here...” she wheezed briefly. “But go further into town. There's a few larger buildings that people will be running to. I have to go home,” she told them, pointing to the left of the market street before running in the right direction.

“Come on!” Measles yelled as she started running, grabbing the others' hands, not that they were hesitating.

“Froukle! Duck!” Mumps shouted. Clair found herself suddenly jerked to the ground between two stalls along with Measles as Mumps pulled them down, right before a massive shadow passed over them.

Clair looked up just in time to see the tail end of it, flying over the top of diner. There were screams around her, in the distance, right beside. She turned to see Mumps looking ashen and pale, his face a shade of green she'd never seen before.

“Maybe it's another dragon?” Measles spoke up. “It's roaring.”

“Why would there be another dragon!?” Clair shot back, annoyed at the suggestion. “Charlotte said they've been extinct for years, and the people inside were confused by it too,” she groaned as Measles swallowed any further remark. “It has to be the one chasing us... I thought it was stuck- I swear that blast to its face broke its jaw but who knows?”

Clair slowly stepped out, glancing around in the sky for any signs of the winged beast. “Come on,” she waved the at the twins; Measles followed quickly as Mumps hesitated. His eyes stayed nearly glued to the sky, only glancing down occasionally to make sure he was following them. Clair led them further down the market street, dodging others as they ran in all directions around her, each thinking they had the best destination.

“This way, it should-AHHHH!” she screamed as she rounded the corner, only to see the dragon swooping, only ten feet above the street, coming right for her. Its eye locked with hers and its head turned, the rest of its body following suit as it made a beeline straight for her.

RRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

“BACK! GO BACK!” she yelled, shoving the twins back down the market street as they realized where the dragon now was. It didn't stop, and as they turned away to try and out run it, there was a massive shriek and crash as it careened into a building.

In the brief silence two voices rose above the others.

“Oi! Get to the bank!” the sheriff, Monty, bellowed, turning the tide of the panicked mob as his horse galloped down the street. Coming from down the market street, he rode past Clair and past the ruined building, its rubble shifting only slightly over the buried dragon. People ran around, turning in his direction and skirting around the empty streets of the wrecked building, climbing over shattered timber and smashed rocks that lay strewn all around in a ring of destruction.

“AYE! Hurry!” the second voice rang out, another rider on the horse behind Monty. Dravis! Clair realized with a start as she recognized it. She spotted him, his head turned all around from side to side. However, unlike the crowd of frightened villagers looking around wildly for some safety, his gaze peered like a bird of prey, head moving in short, jerky motions. Clair didn't even have a chance of escaping his line of sight before they locked eyes. He stayed on the horse though, just staring at Clair as they two riders made for the end of the street.

“I guess he must be looking for somewhere safe, too!” Measles speculated hopefully as Monty and his horse rode by the building, right before Dravis leapt from it and started running back toward the building and them.

“Oh for- stop jinxing this!” Mumps yelled back at her as they all saw him jump off, almost coming their way as he stumbled into a run.

“N-No!” Clair yelled as she realized, already turning to run against the crowd, away from the dragon and Dravis, only to look back quickly. “He's running to the building!”

The three stopped and stared in confusion as the hunter hoisted his net, ducking a boulder of stone rubble that came flying his way as the dragon burst from the wreckage.

RRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

“Miss Clair, we have to go!”

“Clair, run! This might be our only chance!”

The twins each echoed each other in desperate bid to get her away.

“...No,” Clair slowly said, struggling to hold back from their pulling on her arms. “Don't you see? It came for us! And it won't rest until it finishes its job!” She yanked her arms back and looked around at all of the destruction, taking in the panicked screams. “We have to stop this!”

Mumps clenched his fists, staring at the ground for a moment, while Measles wrung her hands together, head turning back and forth between the dragon and the empty street. “But... it's a giant dragon!” she finally argued. “What are we supposed to do!?”

“It's already in that big pile of rubble, we can bury it like before!”

“But miss Clair, there's no rune or anything like in the field!” Mumps protested this time, yelling over the chaos as he was nearly bowled over by someone not watching where they were running.

“Look!” Clair said, kneeling and pulling them in. “We escaped that beast! We fought it, and we won! We can do it again! I won't live my life on the run!” She rose back up.

The twins took a quick look at each other, fear written all over their faces. “We're with you, Clair!” Measles spoke up as Mumps stiffly but boldly nodded. The faced the building, running after Clair as she ran ahead of them.

The dragon yelled, roaring as Dravis leapt on its back. In the fifteen seconds it took the trio to reach it, he had already managed to swing his net over its head and around its jaw. It anchored in some of the teeth, one of the corners inside its mouth. Dravis' hands switched quickly between the net and the horns, barely dodging the dragon's claws while simultaneously avoiding being gored by the horns.

“Now what, Miss Clair!?” Mumps yelled, unsure of what to do.

Both the dragon and Dravis appeared to hesitate at that. Dravis opened his mouth and yelled something at them, waving to follow the crowd and get away. The dragon bellowed, drowning out any of his words and nearly shaking him loose with just the one hand. It started to rear its neck, reaching back to swipe a claw at Clair, but a jerk and yank by Dravis with the neck steered its face to the side, diverting its aim. It scrapped the rubble that Clair could see was pinning its tail and flung bricks in their general direction.

Measles and Mumps each dove behind two small piles of rubble just large enough to cover them. Clair had no such luck as the airborne rubble pelted her, scuffing and cutting her arms and legs as she put her hands up to protect her head. She grunted in pain.

“What now, Clair?” Measles echoed her brother's previous question. “We have to do something or run, but it's clearly trying to get you!”

Clair looked around, unable to figure out what to do and unable to fight it directly. Wait... the rubble! she thought as she saw it all strewn around. “Measles, Mumps, we need to make a ring around it with the wood! Like in the field!”

“But I don't remember the shape?” Measles bleakly protested as Mumps grimly nodded.

“That... that's fine. Just make a ring with the lumber and I'll figure out the rest,” she instructed. They nodded and immediately started right there, pulling the ruined lengths of wood that used to form the skeleton of the structure into a crude circle. Clair did the same, back to back, working in the opposite direction, while the dragon swung and roared, Dravis fighting for his life to distract and stay on it.

“'EY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” he yelled at Clair as she got a quarter of the way around. “GET OUT OF HERE! YOU NEED T-oof!” he grunted as the dragon managed to clobber his side, threatening his grasp as he swung around on its head.

“Just buy us some time!” Clair yelled back as she continued her work. The circle was rough, crude, nothing like a proper rune. The occasional boards that Clair placed perpendicular to the circumference almost looked faintly like one of the most basic fire based runes. At best, it would go wrong, and that was unlikely enough as it was.

The twins joined her as she finished a little over half of it. “Ok, give me a hand here!” she ordered as she run around their side, adding the other half of the perpendicular wooden beams as they quickly realized what she was doing. The pattern was quickly complete as they stood back in their original spot, facing the dragon again.

RRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!

“Stand back!” Clair waved the two back as she took a deep breath. The dragon roared, rattling them all to their cores. Dravis was clearly at his limit, struggling to even hold on, much less steer or distract the beast. His hands were scrambling for the corner of his net, hooked in its teeth, as his feet barely caught on the beast's iron collar.

What was it!? East! Explosions! Clair hastily thought, trying desperately to recall what Charlotte had taught her. It-it's all wrong! This rune shouldn't work, it's barely even a ring! Panic rose up as she tried to figure it out. Her fingers buzzed with magic, a raw tingling vibrating through them. Concentrate! Focus! she yelled at herself as the feeling because prickly, crackling with power, sharp and almost stinging, like she had felt Charlotte show her. Just think...

“EXPLOSION!!” she screamed aloud as she grabbed the wood in front of her, driving all of focus and willpower into forcefully polarizing her magic.

Fire and lightening crackled and erupted along the ring as the wild magic coursed through it. It screamed, noisily thundering all around. Clair felt like her spirit was being torn and drained away, no restraint or holding back, no slowing down. She screamed defiantly as she struggled to force the magic to bend to her will.

The power circled the ring, spreading quickly but still taking time due to the sheer size. She barely saw Dravis look wide eyed and leap from the dragon, rolling on the ground and out of harm's way. The dragon shook its head, loosing the net and flinging it aside. It turned to Clair and howled angrily, shifting its whole body to face her as it flapped its wings, beginning to charge.

It was too late.

BOOOOOOOM!!!

The earth shook with the shock of the explosion, dust and stones and dirt flying in all directions. Clair turned her head down and shielded her eyes from the blast, a wave of heat washing over her painfully.

And then, it was quiet.

Clair slowly looked up, unable to focus. She couldn't fully make out what she was seeing, the air thick with dust and dark spots that she had trouble identifying, moving with her head as if they were a part of her vision.

“...air...Cl...kay...!?” she faintly heard as she felt a few small hands on her back while the world spun around her. She tried to turn, down on her knees, but her body didn't listen properly. The last thing she saw was a man running toward her. A man carrying a net.

§

“...out...day...ome to...”

The words spun around incoherently as Clair felt herself laying down. “...hmmm...?” she groaned weakly, confused and disoriented as she slowly opened her eyes.

“Clair!” “Miss Clair!” the twins said together as she saw them, leaning in way too close.

“Geh~!” she startled, trying to crawl back but finding she could barely flinch. “Wh...why can't I move... or see right...?” she slowly croaked, her voice gravely and faint as black spots appeared to pass in and out of her vision.

“Hmm... you used too much magic. You're going to be down for a day but should be fine.” A young man stepped into view, standing over her. He only slightly glanced down such that Clair couldn't get a good look at his face, only seeing that he was tall and had poofy hair. “Oh, Gibbon,” he gave as a brief introduction, stepping back without another word. Clair felt too tired to ask any more of him, other questions pressing more on her mind.

“What about... Dravis?” she asked, pretty sure she saw him looking fine as she passed out.

“Oh, uh...” Mumps started, trailing off.

“...He actually carried you here,” Measles finished.

“What!?” Clair panicked, trying to sit up, though only her shoulders shook. “We have to... get away.”

“Actually, I'm in your debt.” The voice came from just beyond her sight, but she knew it well enough by now. She grunted as she slowly craned her neck, staring down her nose until she could see her feet, peering out of the wooden bottom and cloth top structure she was in, and seeing his upper half just beyond her shoes. “I cannot let you escape... so I will see you later. But as thanks, I will give you a head start,” he smirked, patting his net, though Clair could see the conflict written on his face.

“Oh, you're up. Well, awake, I mean,” Sandra said as she came into view, passing Dravis and climbing in. “My father said you're welcome to join us, so just lay there. We're all packed up and ready to head out.”

Clair slowly looked from side to side, realization of where she was dawning on her. “So... we're in a-?”

“Yes, Clair, we're in a caravan,” Measles finished for her, grinning as she nudged her shoulder with an elbow, though Clair could barely feel it.

“Ah... I'm in the caravan,” she repeated, not as a question but with a pleased sigh.

“Aye, those things don't move very fast,” Dravis remarked with a toothy grin. “I'll be seeing you, Cla-oof!” he grunted as he suddenly doubled over as Mumps head-butted him in the gut.

“Come on! Let's go! Before he changes his mind!” he urged them. He threw a fist sized rock at the rear of the horse and it let out an angry grunt before quickly trotting forwards just as he scurried in.

“Hey! You can't do that!” Sandra let out a sympathetic, panicked cry, unclear if it was for Dravis, the horse, or both; not that there was anything she could do now as the caravan lurched forward, carrying them on.

Clair grunted as she slowly rolled her arm slightly, tipping her hand against her side. She sighed with relief to feel her bag of books still tied in place under her cloak.

“You okay, miss Clair?” Mumps asked as his sister quickly crawled to the edge of the waggon, looking queasy.

“Yeah...” Clair groaned, a look of happy contentment on her face. “...I finally get to ride in a caravan.”