Dragon Dodgers (Wounds in the Sky Prequels Book 1) (2 page)

Cavill sighed.

“
Don’t say that. Those guys have spotted more
Dragons
than… Hey!”
Enrig had tried to run past him, but Cavill grabbed his arm. “Where
the surface are you going?!”

“
It was a Dragon,
I’m sure of it!” Enrig replied, trying to release
himself. “If we sound the alarm here, people will run in the wrong
direction.”

“
We need to worry about
our quadrant, not…”

“
We need to worry about a Dragon diving from the
sky and killing
everyone!”

That managed to silence Cavill. Enrig
could see his cousin’s eyes darting left and right, unable to make
a decision.

“
You have to believe me.”
Enrig begged. “I saw it.”

Maybe it was a moment of hesitation, or maybe Cavill just
got distracted, but suddenly, Enrig felt his cousin’s grip become
looser and slipped away.
He
dashed downhill with his heart pounding, and felt some reassurance
when he saw Cavill following him.

They entered
a field
of barley and as they crossed it, Enrig yelled at the workers like
a mad man.

“
Run away! Dragon! You
have to run away!”

The harvesters simply stared at him
with a puzzled look.

They reached
the
foothill of South by Southeast Watch, panting heavily. Enrig paused
to catch his breath and looked back. Dozens of workers were still
going about their business.

“
Idiots, run!” Enrig
said.

“
They did
n’t hear a horn.” Cavill told him. “They think you’re just
crazy.”

Enrig cursed again, but decided it didn’t matter. He was
sure that too much time had passed, so either he was wrong or it
was already too late. He reached for his horn and as he pressed it
against his lips, a long, hurtful wail echoed through the whole
plain. Someone else’s horn. It sent shivers down his
back.

It
was
too late.

Enrig looked up
, at
the top of South by Southeast Watch, and saw flames bursting out
from it. He instinctively stepped back and heard Cavill mumbling
something. Then, the shape of a colossal black Dragon covered the
sky.

“
Mighty Fyr!” Cavill said.
“Run!”

Screams erupted everywhere. The mob of workers started
running in a panic, fleeing in every direction. Enrig and his
cousin turned around, hurrying back through the field.

With barley stalks whipping his arms and legs, Enrig looked
o
ver his shoulder and saw the
Dragon dive while spitting jets of red fire. It glided a mere few
feet from the ground, interrupting its fiery breath to bite down on
escaping farmers, and then tossing them aside like useless
weeds.

The beast’s
head turned upward and the rest of his body followed as it regained
altitude.

Enrig
stopped,
admiring the impossibly large creature rising back to the
sky.

“
What the surface are you doing?!” Cavill yelled. “We need
to go. Now!”

Enrig couldn’t even listen to him. He saw the Dragon’s tail
shift and twirl, causing its massive body to rotate on
itself.

“
Not this way.” He said, and then
grabbed Cavill’s arm. “Come
on.”

He
turned right,
pulling his cousin behind him, and ran as fast as he could. Behind
them, the Dragon dived again and flew across the path they had been
running through moments before, claiming everyone in its
track.

“
How did you do that?”
Cavill asked.

“
I opened my eyes.” Enrig replied.

He looked back again, but this time failed to see the
Dragon. As large as it was, the beast was so fast it could
disappear in a flash. With his head circling around, Enrig crashed
into someone and fell. In a panic, he tried to untie himself from
the body holding him down.

When he finally got on his feet, h
e saw the Dragon again, flying straight at him. Its
mouth was open, baring fangs as large as swords. Its wings, spread
out like blades, grew larger and larger as it lunged closer. Enrig
screamed and fell on his back. He tried crawling backwards; the
whole world disappeared; when all of a sudden – a shape jumped in
front of him, placing itself between Enrig and the
Dragon.

With his mouth dropped, E
nrig saw whoever it was swirl an object the size of a
pumpkin at the end of a rope. The stranger threw it up in the air
and to his right and the Dragon reacted immediately, gliding to
catch it and then flying away from them, back up to the
sky.

“
Come on!
” The stranger screamed, holding out his hand.

Enrig grabbed it and the man’s
powerful muscles lifted him up like he was made of
feathers.

“
Let’s go. Ten steps and switch.” The man said.

Enrig had no idea what he meant, but quickly realized he
wasn’t talking to him. Scattered around them, there was a group of
strangers, about two dozen of them, all with funny haircuts, skin
covered in tattoos, and colorful clothes.

“
You… You’re Runners…” Enrig muttered.

“
Move, kid!” Was the only answer he received. “Where’s the
closest tunnel?”

Enrig point
ed at it
and the man dragged him towards it. The rest of the group
followed.

They were as precise as they were methodical. Half of the
group watched the Dragon while the other half ran. The two halves
switched roles at regular intervals without so much as a signal,
coordinating in silence like a flock of birds.

When the turn came for the man to stop and watch the sky,
Enrig crouched beside him. Cavill had apparently been rescued by
one of the strangers, too. A large man with tattoos instead of hair
forced Cavill down on his knees and screamed:

“
INCOMING!”

The Dragon was doing another one of its low altitude
swoops
, flying straight at
Cavill and his escort.

Enrig felt a cold hand squeezing his stomach
and fought the urge to get up and
run. He saw the Runner besides his cousin shoving Cavill back down
when he tried to flee, and then swirl some sort of slingshot above
his head. He would not have looked calmer if a white dove was
headed for him instead of that giant monster. Enrig didn’t even see
the projectile being shot, only the cloud of white dust that
exploded in the Dragon’s nose.

With an earth-shattering shriek, the monster flew back up,
trying to find relief from whatever the dust had done to him. Set
against the clouds, the Dragon looked even darker, like a wound in
the sky that bled fire.

“
How far to the tunnel?” The man
asked.

“
About…” He searched for the familiar rock that stood at its
entrance. “Fifty feet.”

It was an old emergency burrow. Not even connected to the
city’s network of tunnels, but right there and now, it was their
best shot.

With the Dragon squirming in the air, the Company of
Surface Runners resumed their flight, but the effect of the bomb
didn’t last very long. The monster spun back around, growling as if
the humans fighting back had made it even angrier.

“
Break formation!”
Screamed the man besides Enrig. “Run!”

The group obeyed and the half that was standing watch got
up and fled. Then, the Dragon opened its mouth wide and fire gushed
out, leaving a trail of flames across the ground. Enrig spun his
head around, tracing the inferno, and saw it nearing Cavill much
faster than he could possibly run.

“
Cav, turn! TURN!” He
screamed.

But it was too late. The Runner that was aiding him tried
to push him from the incoming flames, but managed only to set his
right arm on fire while Cavill fell to the ground wrapped in a
blaze.

Enrig felt like everything went silent, as if all his
senses went numb at the same time. He felt an embrace, followed by
a feeling of weightlessness as the stranger grabbed him by the
waist and lifted him from the ground. He began screaming and crying
out for his cousin. The Runner ignored his kicks and screams, and
carried him over his shoulder the last few paces, keeping a hand on
Enrig’s chest after reaching the burrow, fearing that he might
leave its safety and try to reach Cavill. He did no such thing. He
just stood there, watching through watery eyes as the Dragon killed
off any remaining survivors.

“
Are you alright, kid?”
The man asked.

Enrig didn’t answer right
away.

“
They never eat us.” He
muttered. “They just kill us and then carry us away as
trophies.”

The Surface Runner removed his hand from Enrig’s
chest.

“
Dragons are
necrophagous.” He said awkwardly. “They… carry their prey back to
their lairs and… eat us later.” His voice was rough, like leather
worn for far too long.

One of the R
unners, a
short woman, approached them.

“
Captain,” She said.
“Everyone’s accounted for. We just…”

“
You raving mad lunatic!” Another voice
interrupted.

Enrig turned towards it and saw a man pointing an
accusatory finger at the Captain.

“
You order us to face a
Black Dread. A Mahari Black, fucking, Dread.”

“
Serak…” The Captain said
with a tired shake of his head.

“
We could have run straight to the tunnel, and you order us
to fucking save farmers?!” He had a green pony tail and the left
side of his face was covered in tattoos.

“
They needed help!” The Captains said.

“
They needed help? We needed help! Samir almost lost an
arm.”

“
I wasn’t just gonna leave them.”

“
Well, it was certainly worth it.” The angry Runner quipped.
“Look at everyone we saved.” His arms went wide, encompassing the
entire burrow. “One brat. Congratulations, Captain Targon. You’re a
fucking hero!”

A knife suddenly appeared below Serak’s chin.

“
Get off my face.” Targon
growled.

Serak decided
to step
back, but his voice came out like a chill.

“
Whatever it is, you
better deliver on this plan of yours, Captain. Cause you’re gonna
find yourself out of Runners to boss around unless you get us some
real gold, real fast.”

Targon
had visited
dozens of cities in the world, from the cliff caves of Awam in the
Western Sea, to the hill tunnels of Fausta in the Phermian
Mountains, but he had never seen anything quite like Saggad. Most
of its tunnels had walls of polished brick instead of naked rock
and were paved with colorful cobblestone. Abundant torches gave a
yellow glow to just about every corridor in the city. And
omnipresent incenses softened the stench of moisture, sweat and
urine that plagued every underground settlement in the world. But
what really took Targon’s breath away was its main cave. Many
cities had central hollows at its hearts. The market in Samehr, for
instance, was four stories high and as wide as a corn field, but
the royal plaza of Saggad was something out of a drunken bard’s
tale. A cavern so immense that a Dragon would have been dwarfed by
it. Dozens of tunnels, corridors and hallways from ten different
levels fed from it, making its concave walls a cascade of
stairways, balconies and terraces. The plaza was cut in half by a
black river ten feet wide, crossed by seven stone bridges, each
lined with exquisite sculptures. Two statues of the goddess Fyr,
one on each end of the river, pretended to hold the cave’s ceiling
with their left hands, while their right one’s clenched around a
fire that shed light upon the entire cave - Just like the real
goddess did with the sky and the sun, above the ground.

Targon
walked between the marble palaces the nobility had built around the
myriad tents of the market, ignoring the usual stares from the
crowd. Behind him, his Company followed in gloomy silence. He
looked across the river, where the Temple of Fire competed with the
Royal Palace for the tallest archway Targon had ever
seen.

He stopped
in the middle of a small clearing of merchant stalls and ordered
the Company to do the same. Nasur, his lieutenant, walked to his
side as the men dropped their loads, allowing themselves some
rest.

“
Are you gonna tell them now?”
Nasur always spoke in a rasp, as if everything he said
tasted bitter. This time, he was doing it in a low voice, making
sure no one else could hear.

“
Not yet. Not until I have
all the details.”

Targon
scratched his
chiseled jaw. It was marked by a burn scar that ran down to his
neck and looked almost as scary as his permanent frown.

“
Now, boys.
” He heard
someone say. “We can finally sell our precious load of cotton.” It
was Serak. He was speaking loud enough so the Captain could hear
him. “Hey, Thamet, can you think of a better place to sell cotton
than a city warmer than Dragon farts?”