Audentis Fortuna Iuvat

"Get up!" Someone was screaming, pulling at my arm.

I shot awake, emerging from the dreamworld to see the owner of the voice frantically trying to get me to my feet. I pushed up from the ground and onto my jelly-legs that were still very much asleep, the boy that had awoken me started running, leading me through the trees frantically. My legs ached and wobbled, but I couldn't stop, I was already sprinting to try keep up.

"Crunch!" Someone was crashing through the forest behind us, feet snapping swigs. An animalistic roar echoed from behind us. Not someone, something.

"Not far now!" The boy called over his shoulder after what seemed like forever, I began to hear the sounds of traffic.

"To where?" I asked, but he didn't answer.

We kept sprinting, branches whipping across my exposed skin and reopening all the cuts that had scabbed-over in my sleep. My legs began to ache more and more, I knew that they were going to give out on me soon and I was almost thankful when we skidded to a halt.

Almost thankful... But almost about to kill the stupid boy for leading me to the top of a steep hill, the kind steep enough to kill. But even better, it ended in a highway, perfect for pushing idiodic boys down after they led you to your death.

The crashing and roaring got nearer and nearer, closing in on us. The boy cursed under his breath before screaming "Jump!" And grabbing me as he plummeted down the hill. The dirt bruised my already shredded and bleeding skin, and I screamed in pain and in fear as the traffic grew closer. Rubber tyres were hot near my face as we suddenly stopped.

"What?" I asked in confusion. We sat sprawled on a concrete sidewalk, bleeding and filthy, but miraculously not dead. "How-?"

"Come on." He said, yanking my arm and forcing me to follow him up a service ladder above a tunnel. We scrambled up to the ledge and edged our way towards a maintenance tunnel where two very oddly dressed teens were standing guard. Who would want to guard a service tunnel dressed like a museum display?

"Jason, what have you done this time?" A girl about my age asked him, hair falling in her face.

"Quest for Brachus, angry drakon, very angry drakon." He puffed out the words.

The other teen spoke, a tall boy. "Go." He nodded his helmed head curtly.

The boy - Jason, the guard had said - led me through the tunnel and when we emerged out the other side. "Woah." Was the only word to describe the view from the hill; a huge green field was adorned with Roman-style buildings and more teens dressed as museum-displays, a river twined around the maze of streets, and what had been starting as a miserable day earlier had turned into one filled with sunshine.

"'Woah' indeed." Jason said. "Now come on, I don't fancy being eaten before breakfast." He started off towards a small bridge that arched over the river, me behind him.

Notes