War of Dragons (30 page)

The little girl ran out of the tent and left them on their own.

"Do you think we can trust her?" Natan asked, looking after her suspiciously.

"Wrong question," John replied irritably. "Can she trust us, or more to the point, would you trust us if you were her? You saw how scared she was."

"I know, that's because she thought we were Blues here to hurt her. Now she knows we're Golden Dragons—"

"Who she knows nothing about," John pointed out. "Who knows how long she has been here? She may never have even heard of us. As far as she knows we could be taking her to a new prison camp of our own. None of these dragons are used to the idea of being helped by anyone other than their own race and to be honest, they'd usually be right to fear other races. There will be Red Dragons here too and they definitely haven't heard of us. Just remember that when you talk to them. They're right to be suspicious and our job is to reassure them."

Natan shrugged. "If you say so. I'd be grateful if I was in her position."

The tent flaps opened and two girls cautiously entered the tent. They were both Browns and looked a couple of years older than John.

"She said that you were here to rescue us?" one of the girls said. "Who are you and what's this about? How will you get us all out?"

John beckoned the girls to come further into the tent.

"Soon, the alarm will sound," he told them, whispering. "Many dragons are on their way here to attack this camp and take you home. When the alarm sounds, we don't know what the Blues will do, but they may try to harm you. You—and everyone else—need to move towards us when that happens. We will try to protect you, but we need everyone together so we can protect you."

"How will you protect us?" the second girl asked. "How many are there of you? Do you know how many guards there are here, and how many of us?"

"Don't worry about how many we are," John replied. "If you can all get together we can protect you."

"What sort of dragons are you?" The first girl asked. "I've never seen anyone with your hair colour."

"Golden Dragons," Natan replied proudly. "We're the fastest dragons alive."

John shook his head, realising that Natan wasn't going to be much help dealing with these prisoners. "Look, when the alarm sounds, you will see some very large dragons appear. Do not be scared of them and do not run away from them. They are here to protect you and you need to stay close to them. Get everyone to move towards the centre of the camp. Then we can protect you all."

Four more girls entered the tent, followed by the first girl.

"These are the two that you're talking about?" one of the girls asked. "Oh, but they're just little boys. How can they help us?"

Natan started to object but John interrupted him and repeated his spiel.

"What I need you all to do now is to spread this message across the camp. Be as careful as you can and if you can get other girls to help you spread the word, do so. Just don't get caught."

"How will we all get through the fences?" one of the girls asked. "We're trapped in here. We can't fly over the fence remember, not with these things on." She tapped the metal ring around her neck. "Not that many of the others in here can fly even without these on."

John shook his head. "We will take care of the fences; don't worry about that. Just make sure you move quickly and don't be scared of us when you see us after we transform. We will look huge to you, but remember, we will be there to protect you."

"Can you really protect us?" one of the girls asked. "I mean, there are a lot of Blue Dragons here."

Natan shrugged. "If we can't, you're dead anyway. What choice do you have?"

John glared at him. "Yes, we really can protect you; I promise we will keep you safe if you can all get to the middle of the camp, and we will help you get to the middle of the camp. Now go, quickly, we need to go to the next enclosure and tell them the same thing. I don't know how much time we have before the others arrive."

The girls were clearly uncomfortable, but reluctantly left the tent.

"Have we convinced them, do you think?" Natan asked.

John regarded him coldly. "I don't see why not. You were so reassuring. Come on, we need to go to the next enclosure."

John cautiously put his head out of the tent, checking to see who was there, cursing himself for not getting the girls to check for him.

"All clear," he told Natan, and they both exited the tent and transformed into Blue Dragons.

That was lucky
, Natan commented as they glided away from the tents.
It would have been easy to spot us coming out of that tent.

Yes, it would
, John agreed.
Let’s hope the others have as much luck, otherwise we'll be transforming early.

They flew towards the next enclosure and quickly chose a tent to hide in after transforming. Unfortunately, they chose an empty tent.

"Dam," Natan commented a little too loudly. "I thought I saw a girl go in here."

"Keep your voice down," John urged him. "No men are meant to be in these tents, so we can't let people hear us. We need to look in each of these tents until we find an occupied tent. Let’s try the one opposite. I'll go first and signal to you whether it is empty or not."

John walked across the gap between the tents and disappeared. Moments later his head poked out of the tent, shaking his head, pointing Natan to move to the next tent. Natan waited for a moment, before walking quickly from his tent to the next. As with the previous one, it was empty. After two more tents, Natan became frustrated.

"They're all empty!" He mouthed silently to John. "Where are they all?"

John shrugged helplessly. The tents were in use, but the inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly Natan raised his finger to his mouth and backed off into the tent, pointing to his left. John moved back as well, unsure whether to hide properly or not. He bent low and tried to peer around the corner to see who was coming and saw a single girl walking towards them, eyes towards the ground. She walked past Natan without noticing him and would have passed John as well, had she not found herself flying through the air as Natan tackled her, bundling her through the entrance to the tent that John was hiding in. John narrowly dodged the couple as they careered through the entrance, crashing onto the beds and scattering the inhabitants’ belongings over the floor. Natan landed wrapped around the girl, his hand tightly over her mouth and nose, his legs trapping hers and his other arm around his body.

"Got her!" he declared proudly.

The girl was turning bright red, clearly unable to breathe.

"Release her!" John cried. "You're suffocating her!"

Natan dropped her as if she was poisonous and the girl rolled away from him, gasping for air. John moved quickly to kneel beside her and he put his hand on her shoulder. She tried to roll away but he gripped her firmly.

"Take deep breaths," he told her. "I apologise for my friend, but he means well. I am not here to harm you, or take advantage of you. I am here to help you. Nod if you understand."

She looked up at him, suspicion written all over her face, breathing heavily to try and catch her breath. She was pale with dark hair and her eyes narrowed as she gazed up at him.

John realised that he wasn't convincing her. He bent his head lower to draw attention to his hair. "Look at my hair; I am not a Blue Dragon. Why would any dragon be here other than a Blue Dragon?"

He moved closer to her, looking her straight in the eye, but she still didn't reply. "We're here for one reason only: to protect you, and you will need that today. Please nod if you understand me."

She glared at him, but after a long pause, finally nodded.

John breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you hurt? Can you sit up?"

Her face softened a little and she nodded before sitting up.

"Good, you're not a Dark Brown Dragon, are you? Are you a Wasp Dragon?"

She nodded, still eying him suspiciously.

"I thought so. I met one of your country folk yesterday. I stole her from the camp in the woods, the one you were in yesterday, and took her out of this land before coming back here. She'll probably be on her way home now. Would you like to join her?"

She looked at him questioningly and shrugged before nodding. John nodded too. "Good, then I need your help. There's an army on its way here, one large enough to kill all of these guards. But you've seen this camp. It's not hidden like the last one and just as anyone can see the camp from a long way away, people in the camp can see dragons approaching from a long way away. As soon as they see that army arriving, what do you think they'll do? What will they do if they think that they're going to be defeated and that they won't be able to keep you here any longer?"

She looked down for a moment, before looking at him again with wide eyes. "They're going to kill us all."

John nodded. "That's what they'll try to do, yes. That's why we're here ahead of the others, to try and stop them. But we need your help. If you don't do as I ask, we can't protect you."

She looked at John and Natan scornfully, sneering at him. "What could you and this other boy do? You will get us all killed."

John shook his head. "The army is approaching, as is your death unless we can protect you. There are no other choices for you. Either work with me, or die. Even if you don’t trust me, what choice do you have? Besides, we are not alone."

She shook her head, regarding him bitterly. "Tell me, boy, what do you want me to do?"

John sighed. "It's simple. I need everyone in this camp ready for the alarm call when it comes. I need you to spread the word and keep it simple. Tell them this: there's an army coming to rescue everyone, but when the Blue Dragons see them approaching they will try to kill you all, and safety can only be found in the middle of the camp under the protection of the very large dragons." John shrugged. "Can you spread that message?"

The girl regarded him suspiciously. "Very large dragons? How large? What are you, boy? How did you sneak in if you're so large?"

John smiled and shook his head, before reaching for her hand to help her up. "You will see what we are, don't worry about that. Now, just spread the message and do it quickly. We will not act until the alarm sounds, but when we do, you will know it is us as we will appear from this tent and you mustn't be afraid of us. We will guard you. Understand?"

She nodded and walked towards the tent entrance. "Wait!" John commanded. "I need to move to another tent. We can't both transform in here. Can you check that it is clear outside?"

She shrugged again and nodded before cautiously leaving the tent. "It's clear," she said after a moment.

John poked his head out and then hurried towards the tent that Natan had been hiding in. He turned to face her. "Thank you. Now quickly, tell everyone."

The girl nodded, but walked calmly away rather than hurrying. John frowned and retreated inside the tent, lying down in the entrance to wait for the alarm.  He wasn't sure how long he would have to wait, but he hoped it would be when the Browns arrived. Unfortunately, Natan didn't share his patience.

"John!" he hissed quietly.

John looked up to see him lying in the entrance of the other tent, leaning on his elbows. "What?" he mouthed.

"What are you doing over there?" he asked.

John frowned at him. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm waiting."

Natan nodded, silent for a moment before replying, "So, how long do you think we'll have to wait?"

John glared at him in frustration. "I don't know! Just wait, will you? Quietly. And concentrate on the task ahead of us."

Natan nodded and began looking around at the other tents, clearly a little bored. John relaxed, hoping that he would stop bothering him.

"John!" he hissed again.

John glared at him. "Keep your voice down," he mouthed.

"Alright," Natan whispered back. "Hey, John, that girl, what did you think?"

John looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Natan shrugged. "She—she was pretty attractive, don't you think?"

John stared at him open mouthed in disbelief. "What's wrong with you?"

Natan nodded. "I've never seen a Wasp Dragon before. But I guess she didn't really seem to like you, did she?"

"Will you just shut up and wait quietly," John whispered.

"What was that?" Natan asked. "It's hard to lip read when you talk quickly."

"Shut up!"

Natan shrugged. "Do you think she liked me?" He clearly had forgotten that he had almost suffocated her and was clearly not thinking about why there were there but was reminded seconds later. A loud bell sounded continuously from the centre of the camp, which could only be an alarm.

John looked to the sky, trying to see if he could see any of the raiders. "Can you see them coming?" he asked, realising that his tent was facing the wrong way.

Natan frowned and shook his head.

"Never mind. We don't have a choice, the plan is set," John told him confidently.  "Transform now. I'll head towards the first enclosure we went in, you head towards the middle ahead of me. And try not to step on any prisoners."

John retreated into the tent and began the transformation. His eyes flashed to the dark green of the Teradon and scales began to form over his head and body. He dropped to all fours, urging the transformation to happen as quickly as possible. He began to grow, his neck extending, snaking away from his body. He turned his neck, trying to stay within the tent as long as possible to remain hidden until the transformation was complete. He watched as his tail emerged, a simple reptilian tip at first, but it slowly evolved into the fearsome weapon that it was. His legs changed into the mighty pillars that would support his growing bulk and although he had bent them to stay low, he found that he now filled the whole tent and was beginning to rip the fabric. He stood up as he grew, tearing the tent apart, before lifting his head off the ground as he enlarged to reach his full size, towering over the tents. Just opposite him, Natan's tent was bulging and moments later he stood facing John, two leviathans that towered over the enclosure.