Amelia

	Amelia slammed into the muddy ground hard. Son of a bitch, there was a hand on her ankle. She wrenched her body around and quickly spun onto her back, twisting her ankle around in the cold grip. The bastard wasn't gonna let up, she could tell that much by the rapid fog of breath and the pissed off look on his face. She grunted uncomfortably and placed a hand on the handle of the knife protruding from her thigh. The dark red liquid had long since coagulated, forming an outline around the hole in her black leather pants. She exhaled, and swiftly yanked the knife opposite from her thigh. Her scream only echoed.
	Her head swimming from the pain, she reared up her free leg and planted the ball of her heel squarely in the offender's face. Staggered him. She had all the opportunity she needed. She pulled her body forward into an upright position and drove the knife straight down into the assailant's skull with both hands. His grip went dead limp. Warm red ooze came spilling out over the knife blade and the bottoms of her palms as she tore it loose from the newly deceased. She pulled herself free from the corpse and muttered a curse while cutting long strips of cloth from the man's shirt. The pain in her leg was pretty bad, but thankfully starting to dull, at least for the moment. She didn't have any disinfectant on hand, so this would just have to do until she could get somewhere safe...
	She wrapped the stab wound carefully, making sure to tie it very tightly. She flinched as she finished wrapping the last piece of cloth. Bastard probably hit the bone. Making her way anywhere useful had just become a massive pain in the ass, especially if her guess about the bone was correct. She stumbled up onto her good leg, pushing off the muddy floor with both her arms. She placed a little weight on her other leg. “Ow. ow. ow. ow.”
She exhaled a sigh of relief. It hurt like a bitch, but the bone didn't feel broken, or at least not very badly. Silver linings. The blood loss would be a problem though, and currently her leg was in no better shape than a gunshot wound with a band aid on it. Shit, where was she even? She came into these woods once she realized she was being tailed but...through the ambush and the panic she couldn't quite remember which way she came from. Fuck. The Ambush. She had almost forgotten. There were others, and they were still looking for her. She needed to get moving, and fast.























	Amelia stood silent, facing the large set of stone slabs before her. The intricacy of the engravings were an eerie reminder of the place she was about to be setting foot in. A sanctuary, left behind by time, and the last refuge of her bloodline. One that supposedly ended with her. She cracked her knuckles, dusting off the caked-on dirt and blood covering her palms. She laughed a bit, realizing she looked a mess. The black leather slacks were near shredded completely, and what wasn't was covered in dry blood and dirt. Her feet were completely bare, calloused, and just about as filthy. Her torso was only only partially covered by a mess of various strips of cloth, leather, and gauze cross-stitched together. The tribal tattoos ran across every inch of her exposed abdomen and back. Completing this visage was a mess of short black tufts covering her head, which seemed almost contradictory to her sharp yet soft facial features and level brown eyes. She had nothing on her except for a pair of knives and an empty 9mm tucked in the back of her waist band.
	She stepped past the archway and descended the stairs to the area below. It was divine, and haunting. Lush green grass rolled beneath her toes for miles to her south. A thin fog hovered like a specter over the ground around her. Dim blue light poured down from the ceiling above like hail, lighting the area. She stared up, awe struck. “Where is this light even coming from?” she wondered silently. The ruins of the architecture dipped into the highest parts of the light, framing the whole scene. This was the last place anyone had seen her people...and it was dead silent for all its glory. With a start, she snapped out of her gawking and began heading towards the ruins.
	When she got up close, she wasn't disappointed. The architecture was even more breathtaking than she'd imagined. The radiant marble figures rose tall into the dim blue light, giving off a pristine air and faint white light from each one. The structures went on for miles each one somehow more splendid and luxurious than the next. The soft whites and bright golds stood out sharply against the inexplicable light source of the old ruins. She walked down the main street of the long abandon sanctuary, her eyes still taking in everything around her. She'd be walking for several minutes before she stopped and noticed an odd noise. Almost like...eating...? No, much louder.
	 She froze, instantly noticing the change in temperature...this was bad. The shadowy silhouette rose from the far reaches of the ruins ascending madly into the sky like wild fire. Wings unfurled at least twenty feet a piece, and what Amelia feared that she was seeing was now illuminated in the blue lights from over head. A fearsome creature as old as the dirt beneath these ruins, and one that commanded respect with its mere presence. Awe inspiring. Nauseatingly terrifying. She backed away feebly, staring at the creature. As it grew closer she could make out the details. It was quadrupedal, with a long tail swaying in the air behind it. Its face and body were covered in almost metallic looking scales that seemed to absorb the light from the area, not reflect it. Despite this, she could tell it was battered. The face was scarred in several places and it was an eye was short on the left side. Nasty wounds from previous warriors. Those fangs were still more than functioning, though. The son of a bitch was huge and barreling straight towards her. The fearsome red eye of the beast cut sharply through the blues and whites of the area, nostrils flaring up small crimson flames that stood out even more. No getting away from this one.
	 She wasn't thinking any longer, simply acting. Her eyes narrowed and her expression hardened. She was focused. No, more than that. Hungry. She drew her knives wordlessly and dashed full sprint behind the cover of the tall masses in the ruins. Previously irrelevant details of the surrounding architectures flooded her peripheral, her mind instantly grasping and noting even the slightest things that could prove useful tools. Ledges, sills, cracks. Anything she could use to gain higher ground. She'd need it. If she was going to stand any chance of realistically killing this thing, she would need that other eye gone first. Nasty business, and not exactly the easiest surgery to perform on a live dragon. It was her only real option though, because she knew she didn't stand a chance against this thing in a fair fight.