Chapter 33

“Ren. Ren!” Christopher called, bringing me back to the land of the living. “You really need to break this habit of oversleeping.”

I groaned, rolling over a bit. “It’s the crack of dawn, Christopher, and I slept on the ground.”

“Someone’s cranky,” Sarah chimed with a giggle. I sat up to see her cleaning up.

“Good, you’re all awake. I just watered the horses, but we’ll leave them here and proceed on foot; the soil around here is too loose for them to safely carry us.”

I barely held back a groan at hearing that. My legs screamed at me as I stood up and it was a shuffle to move around, the fronts of my thighs burning from riding. And yet, none of the others seemed to mind. Why was I picked for this mission? I grumbled to myself as I stretched, slowly shifting my feet around to get my step back. It barely did anything.

After eating more bread and meat, Brontus pointed out a clear stream that ran down from the mountain, the water nice enough to fill our waterskins with and I drank until I felt fully rehydrated. Then began our search. He had a map with him that marked out many of the surrounding caves, at least the ones large enough for a dragon to crawl into. Despite their height they would not shrink away from a smaller dwelling if it fit whatever standard they looked for. “What are we looking for, exactly?” I asked.

“Depends,” Christopher started before Brontus could answer. He looked to our leader who silently waited, allowing him to continue. “If it’s a larger cave, then a deep one that goes upwards; dragons know how rainfall flows down. And if it’s a smaller cave entrance, scratch marks around the opening should be extremely prominent.”

Brontus nodded in approval. “Correct. At least someone was actually paying attention to the lessons.” He made it so hard to not actively dislike him.

We kept walking, following an overall southern path that crept along the base of the mountain range. My legs did not care for the journey but I tried to focus on searching for markings. I questioned to myself why the three of us were sent with Brontus if all we were doing was walking, but four pairs of eyes were likely more useful than one or two.

“Look!” Sarah shouted around mid-afternoon. She had run ahead of us, her quicker pace allowing her to act as the first look at whatever we were going past.

“Keep your voice down!” Brontus whisper-shouted at her as the three of us caught up. “Hmm… I’d say this is a good sign.” He ran his hand over the threshold of the cavern’s mouth. Although it was a fair bit taller than he was, it was still small for a dragon, and the opening was full of grooves that looked unnatural. “These are too shallow to be from a burrowing dragon,” he commented.

“Could a kite dragon fit through here?” Christopher asked, cautious about what we might have been dealing with.

“Aye,” he answered quietly, nodding. “They may be big, but even a medium sized one can squeeze through a hole like this without issue. Now, be very quiet and stay behind me.” He motioned for us to follow, signalling with his finger.

All four of us crept in, glad the sun was to our backs and shining in for some light. The cave however sloped upward and we couldn’t see from the entrance what was further in, appearing to level out over a small ridge further in, keeping it safe from pooling rain like Brontus had mentioned. The rock was fairly smooth, unnaturally so, some bumps here and there but nothing protruding or a risk of tripping over as we went up. Sarah crawled, hands and feet on the incline while the rest of us struggled to walk up what hadn’t looked as steep as it was. As a result, she got a bit ahead of Brontus, cresting the peak just ahead of him.

“There’s nothing here!” she blurted out, her voice echoing.

“Shut UP, you imbecile!” Brontus roared at her, just as noisy as she was as he followed right behind.

I saw the cave just a second later. The light was largely lacking but Brontus pulled a torch from his belt, igniting it with a spark and waving it around. The cavern was large, expanding outwards to at least quadruple its size in the shape roughly like a dome. Some of it looked natural but other areas were covered in worn scratch, smoothed down ruts that had artificially reshaped the cave floor into something more domestically functional.

“This may be an old cave,” Brontus said with a disappointed sigh. “It was a good find Sarah, it appears that a dragon lived here before, but it must be long gone. It’s getting late though; we should head back for now. We’ll take the north direction tomorrow morning.”

The three of us nodded. I was almost relieved that we didn’t find a dragon, the thought of being close to one somewhere between unnerving and utterly terrifying. But we probably wouldn’t be able to go back until we found one, so I was overall resolved that it would be better to find it sooner than later.

We took a step over the edge, coming face to green scaly face with a massive kite dragon, wiggling its way into the cave. We froze. It froze, and then started wiggling backwards.

“SQUEEEEAAAAWWWWWW!!!!!” it screeched, letting out an ear piercing sound that shook the walls, or perhaps just my vision.

We were cornered, the cave inside having no other exit than the one we came in through. “RUN!” Brontus shouted at us, sliding past us with a drawn sword in hand.

Sarah and I scrambled after him. I saw her activate her magic, glowing squirrel tail and ears and claws erupting from her body as she jumped at the wall, scampering horizontally against gravity so that there was more ground for us. Christopher mirrored our leader, sliding behind him with at least three daggers floating in the air around him and a short sword in hand. One of the daggers surged forward, sinking into the dragon’s unscaled nose just as it frantically wiggled out. It screeched again, the sound causing me to stumble from how disorienting it was, reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard.

Brontus led the charge, swinging at the dragon with wide, precise sweeps, forcing it out. It hurried, scuttling backwards and barely avoiding the tip of the blade, already oozing blood from its dagger wound. Its head shook, dislodging the small blade.

The way out was clear and we charged out as the dragon backed up to the side, blocking our path further south. Christopher flicked his finger, the discarded dagger rising and spinning with the other two above his head.

“Christopher, lead the others out of here!” Brontus ordered, yelling as the dragon kept screeching. He raised a hand, grunting as mana pulsed from him like a heartbeat, and the dragon stiffened. Its limbs pulled inward and it contorted, its head sliding back while the two legs pulled in and the wings tightened around the body, cocooning it like a bat. The front talon that tipped each wing scratched at its scales as Brontus forced it to hook into itself. “Hurry, I’ll hold it off and join you on the horses as soon as I can!” The dragon struggled and I could see Brontus struggling, the size of the mighty beast pushing back against his control over its skeleton.

The three of us turned and began to run while the dragon kept screeching. Then there was a pause, and the sound changed. The scream was more shrill and high pitched, and while the previous sound was terrified, I got the strong impression that this one was frantic and angry. And it wasn’t coming from the green dragon.

We looked around, heads whirling, but Sarah was the first to point it out. “LOOK!” she shouted, pointing up. From the south, a red blur flew overhead, crashing in front of us, blocking us from running along the edge of the mountain northward. I heard Sarah whisper “...a fire dragon.”

It was smaller than the kite dragon, but its small difference in size did not detract from the terror I felt in my soul. Its head was a twisted crown of horns, and its eyes burned with yellow flaming passion as it crawled toward us. The three claws of the front arm-wings of the wyvern curled as they met the stone, like a gorilla walking on its fists. Its head swung back and it gurgled, making a gross wet hissing sound in its throat before swinging its head around us.

“Get back!” Christopher yelled. I wasn’t fast enough but he grabbed my collar and tugged, yanking me backwards. I stumbled but shuffled back, yelling as flames scorched the rock where my feet had just been standing on. I looked, seeing Sarah still with glowing tail and claws, as she scampered like a rodent along the rock wall to our right, skirting around the dragon. I felt betrayed, watching her run away on her own, but a small part of me was glad that at least she could escape.

“Get away from my friends!” she yelled as she leapt onto the dragon’s back. The spines that would prove to be a danger to any normal person were an asset to her, giving handholds for her to use as pitons as she ran up the length of the beast. She stopped at the shoulder, jumping to the wing, and clawed at it with sharp, glowing fingertips. “Run! Get out of here while I— ARG!” She grunted in pain as the dragon swung its own head at its wing, clubbing her on the head. She crumpled, falling limp to the ground below. I ran to her, failing to catch her but stopping her head from hitting the rocks. I started to drag her body, seeing her eyes closed but mouth breathing, as the dragon moved its head up from another breath of flame.

A hand grabbed her collar, as well as mine, far larger than mine of Christopher’s. “I told you to run!” Brontus yelled as he pulled us back. “Christopher! Take them south,” he ordered, reevaluating as the fire dragon blew another stream of flame, cutting off our path back to camp.

“What about you!?” Christopher questioned as he took Brontus’s place pulling Sarah.