When at last Wesser ceased his affections she sat up quickly to watch him go. She thought she'd heard something, a whistle perhaps, but maybe it had just been the wind.
Returning home she was quick to hide her tattered clothing. She would have to get rid of it somehow, though, and she wondered if she might be able to use it as nesting material for the barn animals. The rest of the day was relatively normal, and it seemed like none of her family had been aware of her temporary absence.
Days passed without further incident. The cattle seemed safe, she was healing, and life seemed to be getting back to normal. The season was slowly changing, too, but the crisp air before the winter's first snow was making the animals restless. So too was the lurking black dragon that had left them in peace since Lyra's return.
The beast returned to taunt and tease them endlessly through the night and it was their cries for this that roused the young woman from sleep. The glowing, green eyes watching her approach from the sky were unsettling. It was like he was waiting for her.
The young woman had no weapons this time. She carried no sticks and had no wolves to protect her, though what they would do with a dragon she did not know.
'You would be wise to leave, human child,' he spoke in her mind, startling her for the intrusion.
"I'm not leaving. This is my land?" It shouldn't have been a question, but she was nervous. Xibalba could tell.
'And your boundaries mean nothing.' He dove to snatch one of the cows in defiance of her, easily flapping his mighty wings to carry it off.
"No!" Lyra screamed, the sound pained more than anything as she winced for the innocent animal's cries. The dragon paid her no mind and crossed the field with it to dine in relative privacy, spooking the rest of the herd to the treeline. Lyra watched in horror as they pushed into the trees and she gave chase without thought to get them back into their field. She did not follow, though.
She watched, frozen in horror for what little she could see in the darkness of the monster, the dragon. He was cruel and slow and she was helpless to stop a painful death for the animal he'd chosen. How were they to lure a dragon away from their farm? Away from their cattle?
Stepping back out into the field towards her home proved a mistake as a sudden, sharp roar echoed across to her. The dragon's eyes were upon her again and with a few quick flaps he was off and racing straight for her. He thought the defiant little human would be a nice toy. As far as he was concerned everything was his.
Knowing she had no chance to outrun him in the open Lyra ducked back into the trees and darted away blindly into the darkness. The dragon's roar shook the very ground beneath her feet as she ran, the trees loud as they were buffeted by his wings. He kept trying to find an opening to dive in and grab her, but he wasn't finding any.
'Why do you run?' he taunted her.
Why? He was going to kill her and tear her to bits just like her poor animals! She didn't know how to communicate that without wasting her breath, but suddenly that choice was taken from her as she was yanked up by her hurt arm into the air.
She was tense and just waiting to be eaten, waiting for the searing pain of being bitten, but it never came. Instead he dangled her to drag against the treetops, bumping and bruising her along the way. When it seemed he'd tired of that, though, he dropped her and once she was on her feet she wasted no time in sprinting away blindly again despite the aching of her arm and cuts upon her body.
He let her get a bit of a lead, the chase was fun after all. He spurred her on by setting fire to a tree every now and then and causing the girl to shriek as they sizzled and popped. She was unknowingly being herded by the dragon, albeit lazily for he could have easily caught up to her.
With another roar he spouted a cone of fire that set a decent patch of trees ablaze. It was enough to make room for him as he dove once again to scoop her up. Lyra was left hanging and clawed at the dragon's paws even as he lifted her higher and higher. "Let go of me!" she growled fiercely, not realizing just how high above the trees he'd taken her.
'Let go? Are you sure?' He laughed and lowered his tormented little doll so she might turn and look down at the forest below her. She had but a moment to see the distance before she was thrown down and falling, the ground suddenly rising up to meet her before she skidded and rolled across it painfully.
All she felt was fire in her left leg as she struggled to stand with the wind knocked out of her. Xibalba lowered down to hover and watch, amused that his little toy was still alive and fighting to get up. Of course, he didn't warn her that she was crawling towards nothing and let out a cackling roar as Lyra once again fell. She was back in the hunter's pit, but she was far too dazed to realize it as that same flash of fire shot through her leg and a low burning coiled all around her. The hot wind buffeting across her back from the retreating dragon was the last thing she felt before she lost consciousness to the dark.