Stronghold City Draft

Chapter 10

Aviary had taken the chupacabra out of his cage and slipped a collar around his neck, complete with a metal chain acting as a leash. The chain had been offered by a member of the crowd who apparently had a very vicious dog. Lucien, who had been padding through the crowd, took an interest in the animal that looked much like himself. He ran circles around the leashed chupacabra, barking like mad, much to the annoyance of the prisoner. The chupacabra tried to take several swipes at Lucien's nose. "Please tell me that isn't a dog in a chupacabra costume. That has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in all my life." Aviary lifted up the chain so the chupacabra dangled at eye level. "Do not attack my dog or else. Understand?" The chupacabra nodded, and Aviary gently set him down. "We're going to go outside the wall," Aviary said. Holding the chupacabra and Lucien tight, he spread his wings and with a powerful wingbeat lifted up into the air, several dragons flying behind him. Both Lucien and the prisoner whimpered as the air rushed past their faces, the ground looming below them. The dragon landed in the soft yellow sand on the other side of the wall and set both his passengers down, gripping the chupacabra's chain-link leash tight. "Lead the way," Aviary said. The chupacabra began walking, and the dragons that had flown behind Aviary began to follow the large blue dragon. "Imagine how funny it would be if I led you the wrong way," the chupacabra said. "Imagine how funny it would be if I swung you around like a mace until you threw up." The chupacabra shut his mouth and continued walking. "What are you going to do to Anarchy once you find him?" asked the chupacabra. "We don't know yet. We're going to decide when the time comes." The ominous response sent a small chill down the captive chupacabra's spine. They would without a doubt destroy the budding kingdom. He laid down in the sand, panting. "I'm very thirsty. Does anyone have water?" One of the dragons in the party behind Aviary pulled out a canteen and handed it to Aviary. "I can't drink from that. Do you have a bowl you can put the water in?" Aviary shook his head. "Just drink from the water as it pours." He tipped the canteen downwards and the chupacabra lapped from the stream of falling water. The chupacabra noticed Aviary's grip on the leash had loosened, and with a strong tug, pulled the leash free of the dragon's grip. Taking the end of the chain in his paws so Aviary couldn't grab it, he bolted across the sandy expanse. "Ha-ha! Loser!" Aviary spread his wings and soared after the chupacabra, but the doglike animal was zigzagging like a rabbit to throw Aviary off. Aviary continued to chase the chupacabra from the air until the once-captive prisoner noticed an entrance to a burrow in the ground just the right size to fit into and dove in. Aviary hovered by the entrance for a few moments before the other dragons caught up to him. "It's not worth it. He's gone. Let's head back."

Aviary sat curled up on the couch, his eyes glued to a copy of Helena Flier's Guide To The Fauna Of Syntar he had borrowed from the library. Leafing through pages on the chapter about Solaria, he got to the section on chupacabras and started reading. "Aha! Chupacabra... Canis brutallicus... eats small animals... hmmm, interesting... has a venomous bite..." Maya, who was playing with Lucien on the floor with a small stuffed chupacabra looked up at her father. "What are you reading, daddy? Can you read the story to me?" Aviary squinted, trying to read a paragraph of especially small text on the page. The book had been formatted from the original notes of a great explorer, and Helena's handwriting wasn't the neatest at times. "Daddy?" said

Maya. "Hm?" asked Aviary, still with his beak in the book. "Can you read me the story please?" Aviary looked up from the book. "It's not a story. It's a guide." He resumed reading. "About what?" Aviary lowered the book below his eyes. "Animals. Please, I'm trying to focus." Maya continued to play with Lucien. "Go get it!" she said, throwing the stuffed animal across the room. Lucien blazed after it, nearly knocking over a table with a vase on it with his tail. "Can you please move to a different room?" Lucien trotted back over to Maya and dropped the toy chupacabra. "Not until you tell me what your book is about." Lucien flipped the book around so Maya could see the page. She flinched a little at the super-detailed full-color illustration of a snarling chupacabra taking up both pages. "Ooo, scary." She threw her stuffed animal again, and this time Lucien barrelled into the table at full speed, knocking it over. The vase fell to the floor and shattered noisily. Aviary cringed. "Oopsies," Maya said. "Please get out." Aviary pointed a wing to the door, and Maya and Lucien walked out. Aviary sighed and continued reading. Hopefully this book would have some useful information about chupacabras. He turned the page and began skimming through. "While for the most part, chupacabras are solitary animals, they have been known to form alliances in times of need or when they unite for a common cause. Usually these groups collapse after some time, but there has been and always will be exceptions." Good to know. However, on the other hand, Aviary was sure the passage on how chupacabras have been known to get high on the venom of a certain species of scorpion was irrelevant. While the handwriting and layout of the pages were a bit messy, and some of the information a bit outdated (When Helena wrote this book, chupacabras apparently were scared of dragons and stayed away from Solis) the book really did have everything anyone could possibly need to know about the animals of the continent of Syntar.

Anarchy yelped in alarm as a chupacabra nearly bowled him over. "Watch it!" he hissed. Looking at the chupacabra, he looked like had a dog's collar around his neck, with a long metal chain connected to it. The chupacabra was holding the chain in his paws so it didn't drag behind him and trip him. "The dragons caught me. They forced information about you out of me. They know now." Anarchy got a particularly murderous look in his eyes. "Did you lead them to the city?" The chupacabra shook his head. "They tried to make me lead them here, but I tricked them and got away. I hid in a burrowing kiuet's burrow for a good long time to make sure they were gone." Anarchy snarled. "Do you know what would happen if the dragons discovered the burrow? They'd kill us! Kill us all! You put the entire city's safety at risk!" He swung his claws at the chupacabra, but he jumped out of the way. "Thanks to the saurian, the dragons already knew who you were. It's not like what I told them was news." He turned around and padded off. Anarchy sat down and tried to calm himself by watching the numerous other chupacabras skitter around, working on the construction of his kingdom.