“Couldn’t we just walk next to you?” Sarah asked. “I mean, we don’t walk that slowly. I’d be more concerned about you.”

  “Why?” Pryllan asked, confused.

  “It can get tight in here,” Sarah told the dragon. “You’re huge. What happens if you don’t fit?”

  “Then I’ll either go around or else push my way through,” the dragon vowed. “As such I don’t want to worry about whether or not I’ll step on you.”

  “What do you suggest?” Steve asked.

  “I suggest you ride on my back. It’ll get you out of harm’s way.”

  “And if we’re seen?”

  “Then I’ll leave it to Sarah to teleport the two of you to the ground.”

  Steve shrugged. “That’ll work.”

  The three of them found the concealed dwarf door without any incidents. Pryllan sniffed the surface of the door and instantly reported smelling Aislinn’s scent. With her nose to the ground, much like how a bloodhound would follow a scent, the dragon slowly wandered off, heading slightly northeast as the child had wandered aimlessly about.

  Pryllan squeezed through two long rows of pine trees, snapping off lower limbs in the process. The commotion they were making was probably heard for miles in all directions. Steve chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Sarah wanted to know.

  “I thought dragons always moved about in utter silence. Pryllan is definitely proving me wrong right about now.”

  “Let’s see you try and navigate through such tight confines,” the dragon promptly told them. “I challenge you to do any better.”

  One dead tree, long since dried up, and as brittle as parchment, collapsed noisily to the ground as the giant dragon passed by. Pryllan hesitated only long enough to give the fallen tree a passing glance. She was about to take another step when she froze in place. Pryllan’s massive head jerked up and stared at the forest’s canopy high above their heads.

  “Get down,” Pryllan whispered to her riders. “Hurry!”

  Sarah, ready for such a command, instantly teleported the two of them off of Pryllan’s back and onto the forest floor. She and Steve began walking by her side as though they’d been doing that all along.

  “Is everything alright?” Steve asked as he looked up at the towering dragon.

  Pryllan gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of her head. Something was happening, only she wasn’t at liberty to say what. At least, not yet. A minute or two later Pryllan breathed a sigh of relief and resumed walking.

  “What was that all about?” Steve asked.

  “I had to convince my fellow dragons that I was not in peril. It’s not often winged dragons are found inside a forest. It was believed I was in danger, or else had been injured and therefore grounded. I told them I wasn’t.”

  Steve let out a shaky sigh. “That was a close call.”

  “Did they ask what you were doing?” Sarah inquired.

  Pryllan nodded. “Naturally. I told them I thought I had heard a sound of distress and I was investigating.”

  “That’s some quick thinking,” Sarah softly murmured. “Is Rinbok Intherer still in the dark about this rescue attempt?”

  “We have done nothing to arouse his suspicions,” Pryllan answered. “He remains unaware.”

  “You sure about that?” Steve asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Pryllan snorted, sending out a thick jet of smoke from each nostril. “Are you not familiar with the Dragon Lord’s temper? Trust me when I say he suspects nothing.”

  Steve gestured at the surrounding trees.

  “It’s getting rather thick in here. Think you can still move freely enough to be able to follow Aislinn’s scent?”

  Pryllan looked at the closest tree that was less than a few feet from her right flank. She reached out to grasp the trunk of the closest tree in with one of her mighty claws. She gave it a quick jerk. The entire tree snapped off at the trunk. Pryllan let it drop to the ground and gave Steve a look which suggested trees were the last thing she was worried about.

  Steve cleared his throat. “Alrighty then. No worries.”

  Sarah teleported the two of them to her back just as Pryllan headed off, following her nose southeast. The child’s path was incredibly erratic. Aislinn had wandered straight south and then doubled back to head north. Half a league later she’d turn about and head west, only to change direction yet again and head north once more.

  Watching Pryllan hesitate as Aislinn’s trail had changed direction again, Steve chuckled.

  “She really didn’t know where she was going, did she?”

  “She’s a little girl,” Sarah admonished. “She’s probably scared out of her wits by now.”

  “Something else is tracking her,” Pryllan announced, coming to a halt. She dropped her head a bit lower and inhaled, filling her lungs to full capacity. She waited a few moments before letting her breath back out.

  “What is it?” Steve worriedly asked. “What do you smell?”

  Pryllan growled. Both Steve and Sarah could feel the deep rumblings as the dragon’s low guttural growl rumbled across her body.

  “Shabewts.”

  Steve blinked with surprise. He glanced at Sarah to see what her reaction was to that. She was just as surprised as he was.

  “Umm, shab-whats?” Steve asked.

  “Shabewts. They are shaggy, squat, land bound predators that hunt in packs.”

  “So they’re like wolves,” Steve decided, bringing up a mental picture of one for Pryllan to look at.

  “No,” Pryllan disagreed. “They look nothing like that creature. They have thick limbs, muscular haunches, short rounded ears, and…” The dragon trailed off as she detected Steve mentally reviewing different creatures. She selected one image and presented it back to him. “It is a closer match to this one, only the tail is wrong. The tail curves upward and is just as shaggy as the rest of its coat.”

  Steve reviewed the picture Pryllan gave him and paled. She had selected the image of a brown bear.

  “That? That’s a bear. Bears don’t travel in packs.”

  “They clearly do here,” Sarah added.

  “If a pack of bears are now trailing Aislinn then we need to double-time it. That poor kid has got to be scared out of her mind.”

  Pryllan hurried through the thick forest, snapping obtrusive branches and completely uprooting several trees that were crowding too close. The resulting racket of their progress through the forest could undoubtedly be heard for miles. She had just pushed her way through two large oak trees when something flew up off the branch and began squawking angrily at them.

  Pryllan hesitated. It was a griffin. Judging by the dark red coloring on most of its pinfeathers this one was an adolescent. The juvenile griffin angrily flapped its wings as it rose up to confront Pryllan eye-to-eye. It let loose a string of squawks and trills that didn’t need to be translated. It was angry. Apparently Pryllan’s passing had disrupted the nap the griffin was taking and had inadvertently frightened away the rest of his flock. Only he was brave enough to stand his ground.

  The griffin spied Steve and Sarah and fired off a litany of insults in their direction, too. A few moments later a second griffin appeared, followed closely by a third. Soon the sky was filled with loud angry squawks as the griffins all voiced their displeasure at Pryllan.

  Prylllan, on the other hand, gave the upset griffins a quick cursory glance and decided to ignore them. She had no quarrel with them and elected to leave it that way.

  Steve, ready to come to his wyverian friend’s aid should the need arise, was carefully watching the griffins as they did their best to provoke Pryllan into creating some type of confrontation. Why would a mere griffin challenge a dragon? It’d be no contest. The dragon could easily best half a dozen griffins without even trying.

  There was a flurry of flapping wings as more griffins emerged from their roosts on nearby trees. In less than ten seconds there were no fewer than two dozen griffins, all squawking irritably and all trying to provoke Pryllan into starting a skirmish. The dragon turned to look at the two humans on her back.

  “I might have to call for help,” she softly told them. “I do not think I could handle that many by myself.”

  “You’re not by yourself,” Steve answered. He ignited both hands. “You have a fire thrower and a teleporter that will quite literally cover your back.”

  “I don’t want to hurt a griffin,” Sarah complained as she eyed the angry griffins. She quickly put her hands over her husband’s, forcing him to extinguish them. “They didn’t do anything to us.”

  “We didn’t do anything to them,” Steve pointed out, “yet there they are, trying to pick a fight.”

  “Can’t we just make them leave us alone? We’re friends with the griffins. We shouldn’t hurt them.”

  One griffin broke away from the flock and deliberately flew past Pryllan’s face. It was even close enough to brush the tips of its feathers along Pryllan’s nostrils, which both flared open in surprise. The dragon looked down at the two of them.

  “They are trying to provoke an attack. I will ask for assistance.”

  Steve rose to his feet.

  “Hang on a sec, Pryllan. Let’s see if we can get them to leave us alone.” Steve smiled nervously at his wife. “We’ll try to ask nicely.”

  Pryllan inclined her head, as if to say you first.

  “Hey up there!” Steve called out, projecting his voice as loudly as he could. “We’re not looking for trouble. We’re just passing through. Leave us in peace and we’ll do the same for you, okay?”

  Three different griffins let out derisive trills. Two of them tucked their wings close to their bodies and dove straight at him. Steve looked over at his wife.

  “Thoughts?”

  “Just try to not hurt any of them, okay?”

  Steve ignited his hands and blasted a huge wall of flames directly above Pryllan’s head. The diving griffins screeched with alarm and hastily changed course. Both of them crashed into nearby trees and disappeared. Steve pulled back his jhorun and let the wall of flames poof out.

  “Do you guys really want to do this? You’re facing a dragon and a fire thrower. Oh, and a teleporter, too. Think about that before you try to attack us again. Let us leave, and we’ll go. Alright? There’s no need for this to go any further.”

  Most of the circling griffins fell silent as they decided amongst themselves whether or not to pursue the matter. Just then two fallen trees and one huge boulder lifted up off the ground and rose steadily higher into the air. One griffin squawked with terror as a boulder easily three times the size it was soared precariously near him. The rest of the griffins stopped circling and hovered, furiously flapping their wings, as they all spied the immense objects steadily rising towards them.

  Evidently the griffins decided they had business elsewhere. One by one they disappeared into the nearby trees. Even though they gave every indication they had vacated the area Steve felt as though dozens of pairs of beady griffin eyes were watching him. He smiled appreciatively at his wife.

  “Next time let’s open with a demonstration of your jhorun instead of mine, okay?”

  Sarah shrugged as though fending off a band of unruly creatures was something she did on a daily basis. “It would probably save some time.”

  “We should keep moving,” Pryllan informed them. “The dwarf underling’s trail is growing stronger.”

  Steve nodded. “That’s a good thing, right?”

  “More shabewts have converged on this spot,” Pryllan growled. “The child’s life is in imminent danger. We must hurry.”

  Pryllan crouched lower to the ground and hurried off. This time, Steve noted with surprise, she made no sound whatsoever. It was like someone had hit the ‘mute’ button. Steve leaned over Pryllan’s side to see for himself that she was still walking and not somehow floating along the ground. He didn’t know how Pryllan was doing it, but her movements now had an almost serpentine feel to them. She was gently undulating back and forth as she effortlessly snaked her way through the thick trees. No trees were knocked over. No branches were snapped in half. The forest was utterly quiet except for an occasional chirp from a nearby kyte.

  “That has got to be the coolest thing ever!” Steve excitedly whispered to Pryllan. “How are you doing that?”

  Pryllan shushed him.

  “Now is not the time to discuss wyverian locomotion. We must approach in stealth. If the shabewts sense impending danger they might be tempted to do something drastic. Usually when they hunt they will wait for an adequate number of their kind before attempting a frontal attack.”

  “Aislinn is tiny!” Steve protested. “Why would they need more of those bear things?”

  Pryllan shushed him again.

  We are gaining on one of the shabewts.

  Where?

  Pryllan shared her senses and looked straight ahead. There, partially concealed behind a tree, was one of the furry predators. It had its back to them, so all they really saw was a fluffy brown backside with an even fluffier tail curving up and over onto its back.

  From this angle it doesn’t look too dangerous, Steve decided.

  It looks like a cuddly teddy bear, Sarah added.

  Is Pryllan sharing her eyesight with you? Steve asked with a touch of bewilderment in his thoughts. I thought she only did that with me.

  I’m not sharing my senses with her.

  Steve heard his wife’s laughter in his head.

  Geez, take it easy. Jealous much? I don’t need to borrow her eyesight. I see it just fine.

  Showoff.

  Steve watched the shabewt through Pryllan’s eyes. The creature was sniffing the air and was shuffling about, as if it couldn’t decide which direction to turn. Sarah was right. It did look like a harmless, fluffy teddy bear that should…

  The shabewt finally turned around and stared directly at them. Its mouth opened, revealing several rows of what were presumably razor sharp teeth. Even though the creature was at least a quarter of a mile away they heard it give out a tremendous roar, unfortunately sounding very much like a bear. It left the safety of the trees and sprinted straight for them.

  Steve readied his jhorun. Even though he knew there’d be no way Pryllan would be concerned about a single shabewt attacking her, she had mentioned the fuzzballs traveled in packs. Where there was one there was bound to be others. He had to be certain there weren’t any more of them hiding in the trees.

  He fired off a warning blast, fully expecting the shaggy bear creature to flee. The jet of fire slammed into the ground less than a foot from the shabewt, only it kept running. In fact, it appeared to double its efforts. The monster’s black eyes were trained on the dragon and it was salivating so much that flecks of drool dripped off its fangs and were whisked away by the blowing wind.

  The creature was now less than twenty feet from Pryllan. Steve worriedly looked at his friend. What was the dragon going to do? Was she concerned that she was about to be bitten? He ignited a hand and generated a chaser. Even though Pryllan didn’t appear to be concerned he wasn’t about to let his friend be bitten.

  Just as the shabewt leapt for Pryllan’s closest foreleg, Pryllan snatched the snarling monster from the air. Holding the shabewt firmly in her left claw she brought the creature up to her face and studied it. It was snarling and gnashing its teeth as it struggled to free itself so it could sink its fangs into Pryllan’s flesh.

  Pryllan’s slitted eyes narrowed. For a few tense moments Steve was certain that she was going to simply bite the monster’s head off, thus eliminating that particular threat. Sure enough the jaws opened and the growling shabewt was brought closer.

  “Umm, Pryllan? Are you sure you want to do that?”

  The dragon ignored him. Right about then the struggling shabewt noticed what was happening and instantly ceased its growls. All traces of ferociousness vanished in the blink of an eye. Two black eyes widened with alarm as its sense of self-preservation kicked in and it realized it was in trouble. The shabewt moaned pitifully. It was afraid and it showed.

  “I think you scared it,” Sarah quietly observed. “You’re not going to hurt it, are you?”

  “I have every right to,” Pryllan growled. She eyed the creature a few moments longer before lowering the shabewt back to the ground. She opened her claw and dropped the shabewt as though she was discarding an insignificant rock she had picked up from the ground.

  The shabewt scampered off just as soon as all four legs were back on solid ground once more. It disappeared into the woods without another trace. Steve looked appraisingly up at the huge dragon.

  “I thought for sure you were going to bite its head off. Let me guess. It doesn’t taste very good.”

  “Not hungry,” Pryllan nonchalantly told him.

  “Ah.”

  Satisfied that the threat had been removed the trio continued to head east. During the next fifteen minutes they encountered – and scared away – two more of the shaggy shabewts before Pryllan came to a stop.

  The child is near.

  How close is she? Steve wanted to know.

  Less than a hundred feet.

  Good job, Pryllan, Sarah happily told her.

  The child isn’t out of danger yet. At least a dozen shabewts are converging on this very spot.

  Steve quietly looked around from his vantage point on Pryllan’s back. He couldn’t see a single one. Do they know you’re here yet?

  The shabewts suspect nothing.

  They all heard the shrill scream of a young girl. Sarah teleported the two of them to the ground just as Pryllan surged forward. Husband and wife watched as the dragon pushed her way through a thin line of trees and roared her challenge to the bear-like creatures milling about. A large dark gray stone hill, devoid of any type of tree or plant life, was directly before them. The narrow mouth of an ominous cave was also visible. Unfortunately, they still couldn’t see Aislinn anywhere. Had she chosen to hide in the cave?

  Steve ignited both hands just as five shabewts rushed to attack Pryllan. The mighty dragon squished one flat and snapped her jaws at two more who had tried to dart in close to her abdomen. She would have eliminated the two of them with one bite only the uncanny creatures darted away at the last second. One of the two that narrowly avoided being bitten in half saw an opportunity to attack Pryllan’s long, serpentine tail but was blasted by a well-timed jet of fire from Steve.

 

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