Mortimer liked to think of himself as second in command in the village, but the truth was that he was nothing more than her uncle Narci�s errand boy. She watched as he came strutting up the hill, but she could tell he was tired from the long walk from the village, though he tried not to show it. He was wearing his usually gaudy attire. Although it was a style within the upper class to wear wide sleeves, Mortimer�s were the widest Alicia had ever seen; they looked as if they might actually burst. And because they tapered at his wrists, they made his hands look comically small. Alicia didn�t know it was possible for a shirt to look so bright and red and, well, gaudy. It was almost comical to her the way he tried to salvage his dignity by hiding the stagger in his foot steps. His thinly haired head gleamed with sweat, and she could tell that, though he tried to hide it, he was trying to catch his breath as he approached her. Alicia could ignore all of Mortimer�s obnoxiously arrogant attributes if it were not for his worst one; Mortimer was infatuated with her. She smiled a little to herself. The dragon by now was nearly invisible to the untrained eye, and Mortimer was apparently oblivious to its presence.
�Alicia, your uncle has been looking all over for you. Where have you been?� said Mortimer.
She knew he was exaggerating; she rarely missed an afternoon on that hilltop. She smiled and asked sarcastically, �Why would my uncle look everywhere save the one place where he knows I go daily?�
Mortimer�s immediate response was silent agitation. He would�ve attempted a reply, but Alicia noticed his eyes drift to her right, which is where the dragon had been standing in plain sight only moments before. There was a resounding snort and he spun around just in time to see those reptilian eyes staring at him. He screamed and stumbled backwards, landing with his head at Alicia�s feet. Alicia chuckled as she walked past him and hopped on the dragon�s back. She looked back once more before the beast took a flying leap off the hilltop and, spreading its wings, drifted in the direction of the village.
Her village had changed so much. She thought back to a time when her uncle would�ve welcomed Byrd into the village. She remembered a time when it was a cheerful place. Now everything seemed so gray almost as though it was dying from the inside out. She remembered a time when her uncle was a much different man, and they were a happy family. It use to be a lively and happy place, but now there was a strange stillness that hung in the air, as she climbed off of Byrd�s back and sent him on his way. Only a week before she wouldn�t have felt it until she had actually entered Narsi.
�It�s getting stronger,� she thought to herself, �How can the others not feel this?� With a shudder, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and made her way through the village to her uncle�s home.