Dragon Talker (40 page)

Thrinbin’s body shuddered as the enchantments started seeping into his neck. If she hadn’t been knocked unconscious, they wouldn’t have had a chance, but she was. Her eyes fluttered, and Perante watched as the green eyes took on a darker shade as the spells took control. To Thrinbin, the world had turned into a much darker place.

Perante still held the pendant in his hand, but it was no longer the bridge between a dragon and its talker. Now, Perante was the one in charge and with the power.

“Get up!” he commanded.

***

Yuri had finally dug himself out of the collapsed hut. Covered in dust and chips of wood, he stood and looked for the mage. There he was, standing in front of the dragon.
Why is he still alive
, Yuri wondered? When he heard the mage command the dragon to stand, and the dragon did, Yuri knew things were very wrong.

“Hey,” he shouted at the mage. “You can throw all the huts you want, but I’m not done here.”

Perante turned towards Yuri, “Well, you are resilient. And you get to be the first test of my new pet.” Turning back to the dragon, Perante commanded, “Kill him.”

Thrinbin, eyes black and dull, started walking towards Yuri, his tail destroying what was left of the hut he had crashed into. Perante stepped out of his way to give him a clear path towards Yuri.

“Um…This isn’t right,” Yuri said to himself, backing up as the dragon approached.

The dragon moved slowly at first but picked up speed quickly. Yuri turned and ran as it came towards him. He raced around the first hut, hoping he could corner faster than the dragon, but as soon as he got out of the dragon’s sight, it took to the air. It flew to a height of a hundred feet, looking for Yuri. It only took a second to spot him and Thrinbin was diving down towards Yuri, mouth open emitting a roar that turned to a jet of flame.

Yuri heard Thrinbin and turned his head up in time to see the dragon diving towards him and unleashing a torrent of flame towards him. He crossed his arms over his face as the flames engulfed him. Even as he felt the heat, he knew that he would be okay. His own dragon scales seemed to easily absorb the heat, though his clothes were not so lucky. Everything above his waist had been burned away.

As Thrinbin circled around to make another pass at Yuri, he looked around, wondering what to do. His eyes first went to the dragon that just attacked him, but he wasn’t that fearful of Thrinbin flying through the air. His calm surprised him, and it helped him realize he trusted his scales to keep him safe. This downgrading of Thrinbin’s threat led his eyes to the real source of danger: the mage.

That had been the whole point since the beginning, but a jet of flame does have a way of distracting a person. Still not sure of what he was going to do but unwilling to wait, Yuri started running at the mage. Perante immediately sent a massive stun spell at Yuri, but it only washed over him like a strong wind. Yuri was rapidly closing the distance. Yuri was close enough to see the realization on the mage’s face that his magic sphere wasn’t working against Yuri.

Yuri savored that look as he came within striking distance. Only, during the last few steps, the mage seemed to relax, as if he knew something Yuri didn’t, and he did. Just as Yuri was leaping to tackle the mage, Thrinbin arrived and picked him out of his dive at Perante with its massive hind legs. Yuri felt pressure like a vice dig into his sides and his view of the mage changed into one of the village from above. Yuri wasn’t feeling quite as confident about his armor now that Thrinbin had him firmly in its clutches; still, any normal person would have been crushed to death in the first moments of being grabbed. He pushed against Thrinbin’s talons, but to no use. He was not forcing his way out of its grasp. He tried to reach out to it, contact it like he had contacted Samora.

When Thrinbin looked at him, he thought, for a moment, that he was getting through. “The damn tail,” he cursed, as he realized the dragon wasn’t looking at him because it heard him, it was looking at him because it was going to eat him. He watched in horror as Thrinbin opened its mouth wide and bent its neck down to bite Yuri in half.

***

“DON’T DIE,” the command reverberated through Yuri’s mind even as his eyes saw a flash of blue as Samora flew past Thrinbin and Yuri in a rush to kill the mage. It was clear to Yuri that Samora’s first task was the mage and it was up to him to stay alive long enough to give Samora time to do her work.  

Even though Thrinbin was smaller than Samora, it was still a dragon, and that meant size and incredible strength and speed. A mouth of large teeth clamped over Yuri, putting him up to his waist in Thrinbin’s mouth. The pressure grew tighter, but the scales were protecting him even where they didn’t cover his body. Yuri started punching everywhere: the dragon’s tongue, the roof of its mouth, even its teeth.

Samora would have swallowed him whole now if she were trying to eat him, but Thrinbin wasn’t as large, and swallowing a fighting Yuri without cutting him into a few parts would be a good way to choke. Even though Thrinbin was under the mage’s control, Perante’s magic couldn’t overcome a dragon’s self-preservation instincts.

Thrinbin landed so it could concentrate on the task of eating Yuri. The first thing it did when it landed was try to reposition Yuri, get him across its back teeth. Yuri wasn’t so sure his scales could protect him from that much pressure, so he did everything in his power to either get out or stay at the front of Thrinbin’s mouth. He held its tongue when he felt himself being pulled back. Whenever the dragon paused to try something else, he tried holding onto a tooth to give him leverage to pull himself out of its mouth.

Thrinbin was throwing its head, and Yuri, around and around to get a better grip. Twice, Thrinbin’s movement flung Yuri out of its mouth, but both times he was snatched back before he hit the ground. The second time, Yuri went back in feet first, but he was able to grab onto a nostril with each hand. Thrinbin’s front teeth were pushing into his waist from both sides, but he was able to hold his position with arm strength alone.

“Hah!” he shouted. “What are you going to do know, green bean?”

Thrinbin shook its head violently.

Yuri actually laughed. “You are going to have to do better than that, and when Samora gets done with the mage…”

Yuri remembered that the dragon wasn’t the enemy. And, now that he believed he would survive, he remembered how easy it was to offend a dragon. Not only that, their memories were legendary. Yuri pulled himself up in between bites from Thrinbin so he could see into its eyes over its nostrils.

“I didn’t mean that green bean comment. You are a fierce, forest green dragon, without peer.” He looked into the darkened eyes and wondered if the dragon was hearing any of this. Just to be safe, though, he added, “I apologize for that earlier comment. Heat of the battle crazy human talk.”

Thrinbin responded by snapping its head up causing Yuri to lose his grip with one hand. He felt himself being sucked deeper into Thrinbin’s mouth before he was able to reestablish his hold. He didn’t want to find out if the scales around his neck were strong enough to keep his head attached. He didn’t dare try to connect with Samora for fear of losing hold if his attention was elsewhere. He was also sure that Samora’s command included a don’t bother me clause.

He could talk to himself, though, and he did, encouraging himself by saying, “hold in there Yuri. You get out of this one and Hental will love this story best of all.”

Thrinbin stopped shaking Yuri around. He felt its tongue go still against its legs. The next thing Yuri felt was Thrinbin leaping into the air, wings thumping against the air. This wasn’t a circling of the village flight. After one turn, the dragon flew straight. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a lake in the distance. Yuri understood that the dragon had a new plan. “Oh tail,” he said, “you’re going to try and drown me.”

Chapter 56

Samora flashed past Yuri and, after giving him the command to stay alive, thought nothing more of him as she flew towards the mage controlling Thrinbin. Diving towards him, she blasted a torrent of ice that stopped short of the mage and created an ice dome over Perante and his protection spell. Samora landed right on top of it, causing the ice to break and crumble down the sides even as she forced Perante and his sphere two feet into the ground.

Perante struggled to keep his balance after the blue dragon landed right on top of him. This, he knew immediately, was a dragon worthy of Perante. And he didn’t have this one’s talker’s medallion. In a flash, he realized why the young villager was so impervious to his spells; he wasn’t from this village. He was the blue dragon’s talker, and he had him in his own dragon’s grasp.

It wouldn’t do to drown him before he got the scale that would allow him to control the blue dragon. He closed his eyes and commanded Thrinbin to return with his prize.
Now
, he thought
, to stay alive until I can get that scale.

***

Yuri had been underwater for two minutes. His lungs were burning for air as the dragon sat calmly on the lake bed. Its own head and nostrils were above the water, but Yuri was held just inches below the surface. When he opened his mouth to finally breath, he knew those inches were enough to kill him.

Two minutes turned to four, and Yuri realized he was still holding his breath. Not only that, the cold water was rejuvenating him like it had done the first time he went swimming after the gift from Samora. He wasn’t strong enough to break the dragon’s hold completely, but he was able to move and get himself in a better position where he could use his legs to push off against the dragon’s mouth.

Before he could, though, the dragon took off into the air. Even inside of a dragon’s mouth, the air smelled great to Yuri as he took deep breaths of cold air. “Where are we going, dragon?” Yuri reached out with his mind and felt Samora getting closer the longer the green dragon flew.
That’s nice
, he thought,
you’re taking me right to Samora
. Yuri wondered if that meant it was over. Why else, he decided, would the dragon stop trying to kill him if Samora hadn’t killed the mage? Relaxing a little, he patted the outside of the dragon’s mouth and said, “I’m ready to go home.”

***

Samora was circling Perante. Her tail knocked down what was left of the huts around her. After circling for a while, she stopped when she was facing Perante directly. Perante suddenly thought of Xeron. Was this what Xeron felt like when Perante was attacking him? More importantly to Perante was the memory of the sphere moving. Could he use the sphere to move?

Basic levitation didn’t take much effort, but levitating while keeping a dragon at bay was more complicated. All he had to do, though, was keep the blue dragon from killing him long enough to get its scale from the dragon talker. His mind reeled at the thought of controlling two dragons by the end of the day. Samora snapped at his shield, returning his focus to the present.

He watched as the dragon’s eyes narrowed and it placed a clawed foot gingerly on the edge of the sphere. Its claws dipped into the sphere. The claws held the sphere as Samora brought her arm down, rotating the sphere while Perante stood unaffected in the middle. The dragon stopped when the sphere was held against the ground.

Perante moved two steps back, but the sphere didn’t move with him. Somehow, the dragon was holding it in place. Perante added more magic to the sphere, but it only sparkled around the dragon’s claws. He was stuck. He watched as what he swore was a cruel smile form on the dragon’s lips. The dragon placed nostrils on the sphere. He could see magic bleed off as the dragon inhaled.

The dragon pushed its face into the sphere. First, it bent inward, but soon the dragon’s nostrils were breaking through.

“No!” Perante was outraged at the change of fortune. “I am Perante, for the dragon’s tail,” he shouted. He took the pendant and placed it around his neck. He felt its heat against his chest. He used that heat to power his own magic, creating a fireball in his hands before sending the flame at Samora’s face.

Samora had no fear of fire; still, the force of the fireball pushed her back, out of the sphere. As soon as her foot left the sphere, Perante levitated one hundred feet off the ground. He was not going to get pinned to one spot again. He could feel Thrinbin approaching with the talker. He was too leery of the blue dragon to wait for Thrinbin to arrive. He used his connection to Thrinbin like a rope, pulling him through the air as he flew over frightened villages that cringed at the sight of the mage flying through the air surrounded by a shimmering magic sphere.

After being knocked down, Samora had started bleeding again, both from her nostrils and from the still not quite healed wound where she had given Yuri some of her scales. Her tail dragged through a few huts as she slowly gained height as she followed Perante. The villagers who remained, unaware that the spell that kept them trapped had been lifted, raced out of the way of her tail. More than one villager was knocked down by either her tail or flying bits of the remaining huts her tail was knocking down.

***

Yuri was craning his neck to see where they were going when he saw the man floating through the air in a sphere. He saw it, but he didn’t believe it at first. When it finally dawned on him that this man was, in fact, somehow carrying himself through the air, Yuri swore. Samora hadn’t killed the mage just yet and he was not out of danger.

Both Thrinbin and the mage started descending as they neared each other, meeting in a clearing circled by oaks. The sphere disappeared as the men touched the ground. “Well, if it isn’t the blue’s dragon talker,” Perante called to Yuri, who was still trapped in the dragon’s mouth. “You are going to make this momentous day even greater for me.”