Page 1 of Dragon Sword

CHAPTERONE

I was slidingand sliding fast. Literally.

“How do we stop?” I shrieked as the green forest flew past me.

“We stop when we reach the bottom!” Will shouted back.

“What?!”

Will and I found ourselves sliding down a muddy embankment at a pace only slightly slower than the speed of light. The bottom was hidden by the greenery, the branches of which created a dark tunnel effect, blocking out all hope of light and escape. Poor Will got the worst of the trip as I was seated in his lap and his butt scraped across the hard, swig-strewn ground. My higher position, however, meant I had to duck to avoid my face being smacked by those light-blocking branches.

After a half minute of terror, I saw light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the color was a murky blue.

“Water!” I shouted one second before splash down.

We crashed into the water and quickly discovered it was well above my height. Will discovered that I wasn’t a good swimmer.

“Will!” I gasped before my head dipped below the surface.

Will’s strong arm looped around my waist and he drew me against him. He kicked us upward back to the surface and I took in some much-needed air. I clung to him as he paddled one-handed to the shore and deposited me on the grassy slope. He wasn’t long in joining me with a sloppy flop at my side.

We lay there for a long moment catching our breath and trying to gather our thoughts. There was only one thought in my head, however.

I parted my soggy strands of hair from my face and gave Will a pleading look. “Is there an easier way to the elf kingdom?”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. They are a very reclusive people and only those most hardy are allowed into their domain.”

“Don’t they have one road?” I wondered as I sat up to look over our surroundings.

The steep hill down which we’d slid rose in front of us. The brae was covered in a thick bed of bushes and tall trees. I could just barely make out where we had stood at the top before my poor footing had doomed us to a long slide.

“I’m really sorry about grabbing you,” I apologized as Will plopped himself on the shore beside me. “It was just instinct.”

He smiled and shook his head. “There’s no need to apologize. I would not have allowed you to travel alone regardless.”

I studied our new location and found we had slid into a pond some hundred feet long and fifty feet wide. The surface glistened once more and I could see the deep bottom with its myriad of stones and rotting wood. The shadows down there reminded me of a bog and I couldn’t help but shudder.

Will stood and offered me a hand. “We should continue onward. It shouldn’t be far now.”

I accepted his help and he pulled me to my feet. A teasing smile slipped onto my lips. “Didn’t you say that a few hours ago?”

He grinned. “This time isn’t merely to lift your spirits. I would guess we are only half a mile from the edge of their domain.”

I brushed off some of the greenery from my thick pants and sighed. “Then we should get going before I start growing moss.”

Without a trail, the going was slow and rough. Will went first and I paused several times to watch him wrestle with vines and branches. These woods were thick with the smells of moss and damp leaves. Everywhere I looked there was a curtain of green. Birds sang and a few wild deer raced away from us, but outside of those we were all alone. It felt like we were the last two people on earth or the first to crawl out of the primeval sludge.

It’d been that way for almost three days.

I brushed my wet hair out of my face and winced when the tangled mess entrapped my fingers. “Are the elves good at combing hair?”

“They’re quite proficient at a great many skills,” Will assured me as he ducked beneath a thick low branch. “Their great age allows them to become masters.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “How old do they live? As long as you?”

He shook his head. “No. They ‘return to the air,’ as they say, after several thousand years. Some have been quite old indeed before their passing.”

“And you’ve known them for a long time?” I guessed.

---