Page 78 of Deadwood
“Fine!” I yelled back, but it was followed up by my breath getting caught in my lungs as the dragon pinned its hollow eye sockets on me. A rumble poured from its throat, echoing through the cave.
Bowen attempted to distract it, throwing a rock at its skull before unsheathing a dagger from his belt.
“What are you doing?” I shrieked.
“Getting its attention off you,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the beast. “You want to eat someone? Eat me.”
Its head swiveled in his direction, and though it was fully made up of bones, I could tell it was annoyed just in the way it moved. And probably hungry.Veryhungry.
Its teeth snapped again, and out of nowhere, its tail whipped out, crashing into the rocks. They shattered into hundreds of pieces, flying every which way. I covered my face, pressing the front of my body up against the wall while trying to keep the fire magic tight in my grip. We were going to die, most certainly so if I let the light die out.
“Darkness has no place for mercy,” the dragon growled, its voice deep and grainy.
I looked back at it, finding its head facing me again. From my peripheral, Bowen moved toward it as the dragon took a step. The force of its talons hitting the ground shook the cave floor.
“We don’t want to harm you,” I told it, my voice trembling. I’d never seen a dragon before that day on the mountain pass, and now here I was, face to face with one that bore no scales, no skin—only bones. It was a sight to behold, watching a skeleton of a dragon prowl toward me.
Maybe my father had hidden me away for good reason. The real world was no place for someone as weak as me.
“You are in my home,” it rumbled, coming closer with each step.
“Auria, back up,” Bowen warned from the other side of the rocks. He tried to make his way over them, but loose ones prevented him from getting very far.
I stood my ground, staring the dragon in its face. Its wings were tucked close to its body to avoid hitting the ceiling, cobwebs spread wide between its limbs. Was it stuck underground?
“We got lost, and our way out is blocked,” I said, trying to keep my voice even.
Its head cocked to the side, but it continued its prowl. It filled the entirety of the cave, its body barely fitting in the tunnel. By the way the bones of its chest contracted before widening, it looked like it took a deep breath, and then Bowen was yelling, “Auria! Cover your mouth!”
A burst of green gas released from its mouth, and I ducked down, dropping the magic in my hand in order to cover my mouth and nose. Bowen lunged, making it over the rocks. He stuck his dagger directly in the center of its ribs, but it was no use. The dragon let out a roar, the gas cutting off and lingering in the air like a fog. It swiped its tail at Bowen, catching him in the leg, but he somehow stayed standing and ran for me.
The dragon snapped its teeth as Bowen sprinted by, and then he was scooping me up into his arms, running back the way we came. The beast thundered behind us, gaining momentum quickly. We turned corner after corner, but it only got closer with each passing second.
“Bowen,” I started.
“I know, Princess. Don’t look back,” he panted as he sprinted faster, harder, speeding through the tunnels. Magic was stuck to my hands after I’d dropped the majority of it, but I was thankful, as it was our only source of light to see where we were going, my hands glowing as I held on to him.
Despite his command, I kept my eyes on the dragon, my heart racing in my chest. If I was to die, I wanted to look it in the face, not hide. I was weak, not a coward.
We were close to where the rocks had fallen, and we both knew what would come once we reached them. We couldn’t fight it off, and the exit was blocked. It’d corner us.
Almost as if an invisible wall had sprouted up out of nowhere, the dragon slammed into it. Its bones clinked together as it impacted whatever was there, its body curling in on itself. It let out a frustrated roar, growling as it shook its head.
“Bowen. Look.”
He glanced over his shoulder, stopping in his tracks. He kept me cradled close to his chest as he turned, looking at the dragon, where it stood trapped in the cave. It tried to ram its head into whatever it had run into, but it had no luck getting past whatever was there. It was surely stuck.
Bowen slowly lowered me to my feet, steadying me with a hand on my back as my arm slipped off his shoulder. After another try, the dragon roared in our direction, its head outstretched from its neck, jaw wide. If it hadn’t been stopped, we’d be dead right now.
With a defeated huff, it pivoted its giant body around, swishing its tail back and forth as it disappeared into the darkness. With the sight of it, my eyes shot to Bowen’s leg—the one that had been hit. “Your leg.”
He glanced down at it, all that was left in its wake a small tear in his pants. His skin was untouched. “It’s okay. It barely got me.”
On the other side of us, a noise that sounded like a rock being moved echoed through the cave, followed by the wind whistling into the tunnel. We both turned in the direction the sound had come from.
“Someone’s moving the rocks,” I said, seeing a thin strip of dim, orange light shining on the wall beside us.
I hurried toward where the light was coming from, Bowen close on my heels. My ankle screamed with every step, but I ignored it. We had to get out.
