Today’s story a day prompt was to write a story in 604 words. I did it!

She stood at the side of the highway. The wind was whipping her hair into her face and sending her knee length coat flying out behind her like a cape. Rain was falling all around, but her eyes were afire, power dancing across her outstretched palms. She roared her fury and the sound cut through the wind and the rain and echoed off the rocks on either side of the road.
***

She had left home in sunshine, angling the Mazda through traffic as she made her way to the highway. She was a woman on a mission and that mission was to collect her mother from her quilting retreat on the Salmonier Line. It was a straightforward task and she had left in plenty of time, so there was nothing between her and her Mom but highway. She pressed her foot to the gas and bellowed along to the radio.

At first she thought that something had been spilled on the road ahead of her- a perfect circle of oil or paint that had somehow tumbled out of a truck and had splashed on the pavement. She slowed down in case it was slick, she didn’t want to hit something slippery at 100kms per hour.

Her caution saved her. This was no circle of paint in the road, it was a crater, a dent in the pavement deep enough to be filled with shadows. If she had hit that at her top speed…she shuddered to think of what would have happened. She pulled over onto the shoulder a little ways before the crater and put on her hazard lights. Hopefully, that would at least make people slow down a little as they approached.

Once she was safely parked, she called the police and then assured them that she would wait for them to arrive. She was probably going to be late for her mission, but hopefully her Mom was trying to quilt until the very last minute and wouldn’t notice. She didn’t want to send a text that would worry her mother.

She settled in to wait for the police, keeping an eye on the rearview mirror for any incoming traffic. When the mini-van came around the corner, she panicked at first and then calmed as the driver pulled in behind her. It was just starting to rain, so she grabbed her coat from the seat next to her and put it on as she got out to explain the situation to the other driver. She was almost back to the van when she heard the roar behind her, she looked into the other vehicle to see a woman so terrified that her face was all eyes and open mouth, her hand reaching towards the baby in the seat behind her.

She stopped walking towards the vehicle and turned on her heel to face the threat. A dragon was lumbering up the road towards her, flames spewing from its mouth. When she talked about it afterward, she wasn’t sure what made her try it but, given the presence of a dragon, magic seemed to be the order of the day.

Instead of running like a sensible person, she merely held her hands out in front of her and shouted ‘BEGONE.’ A sort of electrical charge shot from her palms and the dragon backed away. She shouted again, and he retreated further. She continued to walk forwards, driving the dragon further way from the woman and her baby. He was going to have to get through her and whatever the hell she was channelling through her hands before he got to that van.