How to Slay a Dragon - Bill Allen [56]
As if some giant hand had ladled out a coal black soup, a swath of darkness flowed down one of the distant hilltops and spread toward the field. Gradually the stain grew closer, and suddenly Greg realized it was not solid at all, but comprised of thousands of the most enormous birds he’d ever seen, so tall they towered over the very same grain Greg struggled to see over now.
“Falchions!” shouted Lucky. “Run for your lives!”
Lucky and Priscilla tore off toward the safety of the twisted oak, but Greg couldn’t find his legs. He stared at the raging stampede, his walking stick held high. Already the falchions had closed half the distance.
“Get out of there, Greg,” Nathan cried. “You’ll be killed!”
Rake popped out from under Greg’s tunic, screeched, and leapt for safety, digging his claws deep into Greg’s shoulder. Greg was literally spurred into action. He began to run, and while a normal boy would have stood no chance at all, no normal boy had Greg’s experience at fleeing from danger. He sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him, and when he could move his feet no faster, he lengthened his stride.
Greg’s ears pained from the many panicked shrieks, not the least of which were his own. He couldn’t believe the falchions weren’t upon him. Ahead Nathan stood atop the ridge, framed by twisted branches.
“Run, Greg. Run!” Nathan screamed, and Greg squeezed out a tad more speed as he covered his final steps. No, not final steps, his mind screamed, just the last ones before safety.
Nathan rooted him on until the last possible second, then turned and dropped out of sight. Greg hit the ridge three strides later. He leapt over the top without slowing, lost his footing and tumbled down the incline toward the old tree, certain of his fate.
Rough hands grabbed his tunic, yanked him to one side. He cringed and tried to roll into a ball half his size as the front line of falchions whooshed by amidst a choking cloud of dust, shrieking and gnashing the air with their sharp beaks.
The roar of the birds’ passage ruled the air forever. The ground shook, and the dust swirled, until finally the herd thinned, the rumbling diminished, and with the exception of a few scattered falchions, darting over the ridge and scrambling to join the others, the danger looked to have passed.
Only then did Greg pull his eyes from the spot where he’d nearly been trampled. He was crouched next to Lucky and Priscilla at the base of the twisted oak. Nathan remained poised in sensen position, ready to fend off anything that came within reach. Amazing he could stand at all, what with Greg shaking so badly against his knees.
Greg felt Rake’s cheek bump reassuringly against his shins. Nathan exhaled slowly. He planted his staff in the ground, barely missing Greg’s boot. “Odd,” was all he said.
“That was a close one,” breathed Lucky. “Hey, great idea about running through the field, Prissy.”
“Sasha! And it’s not my fault the falchions went berserk. They’ve never done that before.”
“No, I’ll bet they haven’t,” Nathan said as he helped the princess to her feet. “Oh, I can see one or two of them getting spooked if you happened to startle them, but nothing like this. I’ve never seen more than a half dozen together in one spot in my entire life, and then they were too concerned about fighting each other to worry about much else. Very territorial birds, falchions, not sociable at all. To find them traveling in a herd like this . . .”
“What was that?” asked Priscilla.
Nathan’s stick instantly shot back to sensen position. Everyone listened to the silence.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Greg.
“Shh,” said Priscilla. “There it is again.”
“Wait, I think I heard it that time,” said Nathan. “It sounded like music.”
Greg strained to hear, and finally, when he held his head at just the right angle, he caught the faintest of sounds drifting upon the wind.
“Yeah, I hear it now, too,” said Lucky. “Well, that explains what spooked the falchions.”
“It does?” said Greg, feeling rather stupid for not being able to see how it explained anything at all.
“Where other