Page 47 of Dragon Outcast (Age of Fire 3)

He wrapped himself around the bow as comfortably as he could.

“M’feel like a bit o’ flushed dwarf-waste,” Thernadad said. His face was wet from being splashed.>“All roads in the lower world lead to the Lavadome, if y’follow them long enough,” Enjor offered, after much thought. “Don’t dragons have homing sense an’ all that?”

“Mine doesn’t seem to be working,” the Copper said.

Enjor scratched his tailvent and sniffed at the residue before continuing: “The best route would be the rivers. Only problem is the Sou’flow be a weary and uncertain trip from here. You might have to go the wrong direction a’ways, then cut across, though that would take you near more dwarves and their works a’following the river.”

“And then what?” The Copper felt a weight on his tail, found the white-flecked bat at her usual spot, lapping up blood.

“Old caves full of nothing but dark and bad air.”

“So good y’be to us, sir,” Thernadad said as the Copper’s teeth ground against one another.

“Perhaps I could engage you as a guide,” the Copper said to Enjor.

“Oh, m’be too old for such a fearful journey. Besides, there’s old Mum.”

Bats fluttered down from the roof.

“Oooo! A party!”

“There, open him up just under the knee; e’flows so nicely there—”

“I’ll feed you along the way,” the Copper said. “You and your mother both.”

Enjor’s eyes brightened. “That’s a generous offer, m’lord.”

“Faaaa! E’s our host!” Mamedi said, leaping on Enjor’s back.

“Off me, y’daft sot!”

But just as Thernadad shouldered his way into what was working up into a fifty-bat brawl, a bat let out a terrified death screech. A snake had reared up, biting a low-flying bat heading for the Copper’s tail and dragging it to the ground.

“Sons o’ Gan!” Thernadad shouted.

The Copper hugged rock, protecting his belly, and heard a pained squeak.

The cavern came alive with white shapes, pink tongues flicking as they rushed forward, coiled, struck, and rushed forward again. The greedier bats, stuck on the floor by the Copper’s open wounds, fell first.

The Copper found himself eyeball-to-eyeball with a great white snake, almost a rival to King Gan himself. He felt his griff lower and rattle, and the snake pulled back, gathering itself for a strike.

It would flash like lightning when it hit, so the Copper preempted the fangs with an openmouthed rush of his own. The snake, for all its size, wasn’t used to a dragon dash and seemed to slide in all directions in panic. The Copper bit for the neck—anywhere else on the snake would mean a counterstrike of venomous fangs.

The snake whipped its head sideways and the Copper went with it, clinging with claws and teeth. He struck the cavern wall, saw stars at the impact.

Blindly, he bit down hard, pulling with teeth and pushing with sii. The snake rolled and rolled again. The Copper found himself ensnared in coils. But they didn’t crush; they just twitched.

He dropped the dead snake’s neck and pushed away from the still-writhing body.

“Kill that one! The burning lizard!” the Copper heard. He turned his good eye to the sound and saw the great snake with a black-flecked face. King Gan’s smooth nose was peeled and cracked.

Snakes dropped dead bats and crawled for him.

The Copper doubted he had the strength left to fight another such snake, let alone several, or King Gan himself. He ran for the river. A snake slipped sideways to intercept. He jumped over it before it could do more than snap at his legs.

He looked up. The surviving bats were fighting to get into holes too small for snake heads.

“I’m leaving! Enjor?”

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