How to Slay a Dragon - Bill Allen [75]
It didn’t take long to bring the book up to date, and then when he still couldn’t get to sleep, Greg kept on writing, making up his own adventure as he’d done so many times back on Earth. It was a crazy thing to do, really—jotting down the end to his tale before the outcome was known—but Greg had seen the dragon. The story would never be told if he didn’t do it now. After Greg’s incineration, everyone would be so disappointed, even Bart would stop singing his ghastly ballads.
One would have thought that writing about Ruuan’s long talons and serrated teeth couldn’t have been worse therapy, that dwelling on the dragon’s enormous, leathery wings and fiery breath would have made Greg feel all the more uneasy about his fate. But the Greg Hart of his story cared little for such trivialities, and somehow that made them less horrible in real life, too.
The storybook Greg thought nothing of shouldering his way through the spirelings below and storming into the cave at the base of the spire. He found the secret passageway in seconds and marched with fearless determination into Ruuan’s lair while the dragon lay sleeping. Quickly he untied the princess and very nearly escaped without even waking the beast.
But then Ruuan’s head rocketed upward and swiveled atop the dragon’s long, sinewy neck. His jaw dropped, and out rushed a jet of scorching steam. Boldly I pulled the princess to me and raised my shield. The air roared for an unbelievably long moment. Finally the danger was past.
I laughed in the dragon’s face. Ruuan punctuated the steam with a jet of fire that nearly knocked me over backward in spite of my shield.
Again I laughed.
Ruuan leveraged himself to his feet and lunged, but my superior speed and lightening quick reflexes kept me from harm. Like a hero from some old swashbuckler movie, I scrambled behind the dragon and up its back, using its scales like a set of steps.
Ruuan struggled to reach me, to clamp me in his jaws and crush me, but I slipped up his neck and behind his ears, where the beast could not reach. As Ruuan’s head jerked about, trying to dislodge me, I held fast with my knees, raised my sword high.
With all my might I drove my blade home and felt the dragon stiffen. Like a collapsing building, the beast fell. The trip down was more fun than any amusement park ride. I leapt off at the last instant and landed nimbly at Priscilla’s side.
“That was amazing!” she cried.
“Yes, well, I hope I’m not late.”
As Greg finished, his eyelids grew heavy, and he started having trouble holding his pen. The journal slipped from his lap and toppled to the ground. The next thing Greg knew, something sharp clamped down on his wrist. “Ow!”
Rake jumped away. The shadowcat had returned from hiding and apparently felt, if it was awake, Greg should be too. The air hummed with a droning rumble that sapped all of Greg’s strength and made him want more than anything to go back to sleep.
But Rake looked determined to keep him awake. Greg blinked and looked about the campsite, then jumped to his feet and stared at the valley below. “Lucky, wake up. You’ve got to see this.”
The Infinite Spire
Lucky was nearly impossible to wake. “What are you doing?” he asked.
Greg stuffed an acorn into each of Lucky’s ears. “Come on, I’m not kidding. Wake up and look around you.”
Lucky lifted his eyes and scowled. He pushed himself up on one elbow and surveyed the campsite. On one side, Nathan lay sleeping with Rake curled up next to his face. On the other, Bart and Melvin lay snoring, with Rake snuggled between them in a ball of blue-black fur.
“There’s two of them!”
“Not just two,” Greg said. “Look around.”
Lucky finally spotted the many shadowcats scattered about, one to every three or four men in the campsite. “What’s going on? Where did all these shadowcats come from?”
“Quiet. You’ll wake the others.”
“But what’s going on?” Lucky demanded.
“I don’t know,” Greg said. “But it’s not just up here. The spirelings are asleep too. There’s shadowcats all through the valley.