War of Dragons (24 page)

John slowed to catch his breath. Carrying the girls was tiring and he couldn't fly at that pace again any time soon. He couldn't afford to relax though; if he was observed now he would be in trouble as he had no good reason for carrying these two prisoners over this part of the forest and if anything he was as much at risk from meeting dragons coming from the border as he was from those coming from behind him. He reasoned that he had put enough distance between him and the group and turned to the south-east, deciding to head towards the coast and continue his journey over the sea. He flew hard again, keeping low over the trees to make his outline harder to spot. He contemplated ascending high above the normal flying range of a Blue Dragon, knowing that he could avoid them more reasonably there, before realising that it might be fatal to his precious cargo. The only option was the one he was taking. Eventually, he could see the sea in the distance and unable to see any dragons ahead or in any direction, he turned to the east, taking the shortest route to reach the sea. He wasn't sure how far from the border he was, but was now anxious to reach it, his nerves worn from the stress of the operation. He flew straight from the land out over the sea, hoping that no one on the ground was there that might spot him, and continued due east until the coast was out of sight. Now he was safe and could head south and back to the safety of the Brown Dragons' homeland. He was too far from land for the Blue Dragons to bother him and he could drop to a speed that he could maintain more easily.

John had never spent much time by the sea and thoroughly enjoyed flying over the gentle waves—so much so that he realised that he had lost track of where he was and might have already passed the border.  He headed for the shore, looking forwards to landing and adopting his natural, golden form. At least the girl who was sobbing earlier had stopped, presumably haven fallen asleep. Land was in sight again and to his surprise, the forest was not visible. He must have overshot the border by some way; he had made it home.

Suddenly, he was shaken from his happy mood by a loud angry screech. He looked up and saw two Brown Dragons flying fast towards him. It took a moment to realise why they looked so angry; he was still a Blue Dragon and was now in their territory. The danger of the situation suddenly dawned on him. These dragons were fast, he was outnumbered and he was unable to flee them in this form. He was too low for a mid-air transformation without dropping his passengers into the sea. They were closing on him fast, and would impact in any moment now. He waited until they were very close before dipping into a sudden dive that caused squawks of alarm from his passengers, and managed to narrowly avoid the two Brown Dragons as they whooshed above his head. They wouldn't give up that easily though and turned quickly to follow him. The shore was only a couple of hundred metres away and they had overshot by as much behind him. He flew as hard as he could towards the shore. John glanced back and saw that they were speeding towards him, closing the gap fast. Browns were the fastest dragons after Golden Dragons and he was no match for them like this, especially while carrying his two passengers. He had to change the situation, and quickly. He took another glance behind him and saw that they were almost on him. He banked suddenly to the right, turning as fast as he could to fly parallel to the shore, and for a second time they passed him, screeching angrily as their quarry evaded them again. This was his chance, having arrived at the beach. He pulled up, coming to a halt over the sand, and placed his two passengers on the ground before taking off again. He was lighter now and free to transform. The two Browns were closing on him fast and he just transformed in time, into a tiny little dragon that they flew past without being able to take a fix on. He flew upwards, then back towards the two bundles, watching the two Browns fly on in confusion. He landed by the bundles and transformed again—this time into a Brown Dragon. John saw the two dragons fly towards him, still angry, and judging by their approach, bent on attacking him again.

Stop!
He called.
Can't you see what I am?

A trickster,
one replied menacingly.
A trickster about to die.

John flew upwards quickly, barely avoiding the two angry dragons. He had had enough of this nonsense and landed again before transforming once more, this time into the giant land dragon he had assumed earlier in the year. The two Brown Dragons were fast, but were not going to return before he had transformed and having adopted this giant form, there was virtually nothing they could do to harm him. They flew hard towards him, still bent on attacking him and oblivious to the pointlessness of this. As they approached he released two fireballs in quick succession, hitting each dragon and spinning them around in the air. His fire was hot enough to seriously harm them, but he reasoned that a single fireball shouldn't damage them. They tumbled into the waves and bounced on the surface a couple of times before sinking into the water. John charged into the water and seized both dragons in his mouth, throwing them onto the shore before pinning them with his mighty claws.

Enough!
he bellowed.
I could crush you now if I wished. This stops now!

The two dragons ceased their futile struggling, looking up at his angry face.

Who are you? And what are you doing in our territory?

Transform,
John commanded.
Let us discuss this civilly.

The two trapped dragons reluctantly transformed into two irritated-looking men, both at least ten years older than John. John transformed as well.

"I'm a Golden Dragon. We were invited here to cross into the Blue Dragon territory and find a prison camp where your women are being kept and bring back prisoners as proof. You are familiar with Golden Dragons, are you not?"

The two men looked at each other uneasily. John had assumed that all Brown Dragons knew about Golden Dragons, but these two looked at him suspiciously and he wondered if he had been mistaken. One of them gestured to the two prisoners.

"Those two bundles, they're people?"

John nodded. "Girls. Probably pretty scared at the moment. I think it's time to release them, don't you?"

He walked over to where the two bundles lay in the sand, praying that they were both uninjured from being dropped in the sand. They were tightly tied up and he struggled to untie them.

"Here, I'll do that," one of the men offered, producing a small knife and cutting the rope. His face softened a little as he began freeing the prisoner. "Let’s see what you have here."

He carefully cut the sheet and peeled it back to reveal a brown-haired young girl, gagged and bound, with tear stains on her face. She blinked in the sunlight and looked up at them with wide, frightened eyes, which were red from crying. She couldn't have been more than about fourteen years old and was very thin. The man with the knife deftly cut the gag and the ropes that bound her hands together, revealing ugly red marks that cut into her wrists.

"Free her legs too," the other man said. He spoke kindly to the girl, who hadn't moved or spoken. "You're safe now, girl. Where are you from?"

The girl didn't reply or move, immobilised by fear and trembling uncontrollably.

"She's in shock," John stated. "She'll need to see a doctor, and soon. Perhaps one of you should take her. Give me the knife; I'll free the other one."

The man passed him the knife and John set to work cutting the ropes that bound the second prisoner. He passed the knife back to its owner and began to unwrap the sheets to reveal the second girl, who was very clearly not a Brown Dragon. John stared at her in wonder, trying to work out where she was from. Her hair was dark, almost black, with pale yellow skin and facial features that were unfamiliar to him. She was striking-looking, even with her messy face and hair that was damp from her tears.

"Hey, she's a Wasp Dragon!" One of the two men exclaimed angrily. "What is this treachery?" He stood up and pulled a long knife from his cloak, brandishing it. John jumped to his feet in alarm, realising that he had no weapon and probably couldn't transform in time to stop the man, who was clearly intent on using the blade on the girl.

"Wait! She's no threat!"

The man pushed John to the side, stepping towards the terrified girl on the ground. Help came from an unexpected quarter.

"Please, don't hurt her," the first girl pleaded, speaking for the first time and drawing their attention. "She's not an enemy."

The two men stared at her in astonishment. "Girl, you don't know what you're saying. She'll kill us the first chance that she gets."

"You're just a child," the other man stated condescendingly. "Have you forgotten the wars we have fought with the Wasp Dragons?"

"She's my friend," the girl said in a trembling voice. "We shared the same tent."

"Sorry, girl, but you have no idea how dangerous she is. You'll understand when you're older. I won't take any pleasure in this but it has to be done."

John saw his opportunity now that they were distracted and somersaulted backwards, transforming in a flash of gold scales and landing behind the immobile prisoner and placing one clawed foot protectively over her body. He shot a fireball into the sand just to the right of the man who had drawn the knife and snarled menacingly. The man yelped in surprise and both men took a step backwards.

"Alright, alright, calm down," the other man said cautiously, stepping between John and the man with the knife. "There's no need to overreact. But think this through. See it from our point of view. If we let it live, how do we know it won't attack us as soon as our backs are turned? I know to you she just looks like a feeble girl, but you don't know these creatures. There is no trusting them."

John carefully lifted the girl in his claws and took a few paces back, putting some distance between them and the two men before laying her on the beach again and transforming back.

"Bad, are they?" he asked angrily. "Bad enough to murder your daughters as they lie tied up and terrified? Bad enough to kill without cause?"

"We have cause, Golden boy," the man with the knife replied coldly. "You don't know the history between our nations. How do you know she won't transform and attack us at the first opportunity?"

John bent down and lifted the girl into a seated position and pointed to her neck.

"Firstly, this ring. Do you see how it is designed? A ring of spikes that point to her neck. This isn't just for decoration. If she transforms, she'll lose her head. I can't remove it and neither can she. You'd need tools to remove it—tools that she doesn't have. Secondly, just the same as your girl over there, she's been fed poison continuously that would stop her transforming back into this form in the evening. If she transforms, assuming she can remove this ring, then she'll be dead by nightfall. She can't transform even without this ring for at least a week."

He untied the gag and started trying to untie her.

"Now, I don't care what there is between your nations. I rescued her, so she is my responsibility and I'm keeping her safe. Take another step towards her and I'll tear you both apart."

He transformed again into a Brown Dragon and lifted the girl from the ground and held her close to him. He darted forwards and snatched the other prisoner from the ground before taking off and heading away from the beach. He glanced back to see the two men hadn't moved and were letting him leave.

"Please, let us go," the brown-haired girl begged. "Where are you taking us?"

John couldn't answer, so just flew faster, forcing the girls to curl up to shield themselves from the wind. Carrying two girls was much harder as a Brown Dragon and he couldn't do this for long. Fortunately, the camp wasn't far, at least not at the pace he was now travelling. As he approached, he could see that the whole camp was humming with activity. He was spotted well before he landed and people ran over to meet him.

"Pass me the girls," a man ordered. John extended the clawed foot holding the Dark Brown girl, but kept the Wasp girl clutched protectively to his chest.

"It's alright, John," Theo called over reassuringly. "They won't harm the other one. She will be quite safe."

John lowered the Wasp girl to the ground and transformed back into his human form before stepping towards Theo and embracing him. "Theo, am I glad to see you! How long have you been back?"

"Not too long," he replied. "Reuben and I brought back some captives as well. I brought two Red Dragons and he brought two Dark Brown. That makes eight in total." The Brown Dragons lifted the two girls carefully off the ground and carried them to a large tent as John watched them anxiously.

"Eight?" John asked, paying attention again. "Have the Daves come back?"

"No," Dinah replied from behind John. "Two are mine. One Brown and one Sandy. We have a very representative mix, don't you think?"

"Dinah!" John cried as he turned to face her, delighted to see her. "I thought you were caught! They said that they had caught a Blue Dragon stealing a prisoner and had torn it apart. I thought that was you!"

Dinah shook her head, smiling sadly. "No, that must have been a real Blue Dragon. I suspect he wasn't rescuing her for quite such honourable purposes." She gave John a knowing look.

"So they tore him apart?" Theo said. "I'm glad none of us were caught, or that could easily have been us. That each has found the camp separately and brought back two prisoners is success beyond what we expected. Still, we can't celebrate yet. We've stolen eight prisoners, which quite frankly is a lot and would be hard for them to miss. Eventually they will notice once they've finished the move and settled down, and then they'll raise the alarm and move again to a new location, probably deeper into their territory. The question is, how long will that take? The Brown Dragons know this and I've sent Reuben back to ensure that the Sandy and Wasp Dragons also know about the camp. By taking so many prisoners, we've done two things: we've created a compelling case for attacking, as they have plenty of information about the camp and who is there, and we've forced their hand. They know that they can't wait too long or the camp will move and the opportunity will be lost. I'm hoping that our forces will arrive here quickly and that the Sandy and Wasp Dragons send forces with them. If they don't, the Browns won't be able to wait for them. I think it'll take at least another day to move all of the prisoners and then they'll do a headcount, which will take a day, and maybe a second day to check when they notice that some are missing. Three days. They need to make our move before then, and preferably well before then. If our forces arrive tonight or tomorrow, we should either attack tomorrow or the day after."