Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (best time to read books txt) 📕

The urgency in Ranger’s voice, if nothing else, made Blacksmith drop onto his stomach.

The dragon snatched the pink unicorn which Fairy had been conversing with earlier and, oddly enough, had stood frozen and unalarmed till it was in the giant talons.

The Dreamwalkers ducked amid stormy gusts of wind as the dragon swept overhead, carrying the unicorn forward. The winds were enough to knock the unwary off their feet.

“Pinkkkkyyyyy!!!” Fairy wailed after her unicorn friend. Her high-pitched, squeaky voice crackled from all their bracelets like radio chatter.

Far ahead, they saw the dragon open its talons and drop the unicorn in the tall grass of the plain with a sickening thud.

“I’ll distract the monster while you head for the forest,” Fairy’s voice, this time with grim determination, burst from their bracelets. She seamlessly shifted to her hummingbird form.

“No, Fairy! It’s too dangerous!” Ranger shouted and his voice was also heard by everyone, which made them realize that their long-distance communication was two-way. They also noticed their Anima bracelets glowing each time they received a transmission and their crest animals shifting into the face, or at least the general facial shape, of whoever was communicating.   

Too late because hummingbird-form Fairy had already zipped forward and up, towards the dragon.

“All right, you heard her,” Warrior half-growled and half-whimpered in his bear form. “Fairy’s buying us time. Let’s get the heck out of here!”

Just like Fairy at the beginning, his snout didn’t move at all but his voice still rang from their bracelets. Incidentally, the snout was short and broad and gave Warrior the look of a bulldog; a bulldog, that is, that could tear you in half with one bite.

Blacksmith didn’t need to be told twice. He picked himself up and continued running, dirt and grass on his knees, arms and apron. He was panting and sweating hard while his potbelly bounced every which way.

Everyone ran as fast as their feet could carry them but, near the edge of the forest, Ranger slowed down and looked over his shoulder. The dragon was slithering in mid-air and then standing affronte like a heraldic crest. The hummingbird was agitating it by flitting in and out of its reach. Apparently, dragons had the visual acuity of eagles.

Don’t tell me dragons do breathe fire, Ranger thought to himself.

On cue, the dragon opened its mouth and released… phalanxes of ice, which the hummingbird only managed to evade by a hairsbreadth.

Sorry! Ranger immediately regretted his thought. I think I made it worse.

The others had reached the end of the plain and the shade of the first trees. The forest was thankfully thick. As Ranger and the others looked back anxiously, the dragon, twisting and snapping as it tried to catch the hummingbird, revealed it had a saddle strapped on its back. A rider held the bridle and was controlling the animal. But they were much too far to discern anything else apart from a human silhouette against the sun.

“That’s enough, Fairy,” Ranger communicated though his bracelet. “We’re safe. Fly to the forest now.”

“Roger that,” Fairy responded like a fighter plane pilot and streaked towards them.

The dragon gave chase and released several blasts of ice to strike down its moving target. The rest of the Dreamwalkers gasped every time it did. But by using her heightened senses to detect air disturbance, the hummingbird was able to anticipate where the ice projectiles would be.

When she neared the edge of the forest, Ranger faced north again and sprinted the last several meters to safety. The rest of the Dreamwalkers had taken cover behind the trees and were waiting with bated breaths. Peeking, they could see Ranger running hard and the dragon gaining on their miniature teammate.

Ranger made a slide like a baseball player and closed the last few feet. He neatly tucked into the undergrowth.

Fairy dove like a kamikaze plane, her hummingbird wings beating so fast they looked transparent. If she were in fairy form, she would be biting her tiny tongue in concentration. The dragon was right on her tail.  

Fairy burst into the shade of the forest canopy and shouted: “Safe!” She was thinking of the game British Bulldog, which she of course had never been allowed to join her entire mortal life.   

Like a cat outside a mouse hole, the dragon thrust its snout in the gap between two massive oak trees, hissing and releasing one last frosty spit.

The hummingbird made a sharp turn and missed being frozen by the ice spear that stabbed through the forest. It continued farther ahead and solidified an unfortunate grove of birch trees.     

Fairy, now back in mini humanoid form, zipped back to the middle of the forest clearing.

“Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah! You missed!”

The dragon let out a deafening roar, its frigid breath washing over Fairy. Spittle was thrown out of the dragon’s lip and froze the nearby spots where it landed. Fairy raised her tiny arms to cover her face.