Dragon Tamer - Book 1

Chapter 8

 The cliff side loomed.

Before Marcie had not been able to tell how tall it was, but now she saw.

The rock was jagged and worn when she stood directly underneath it, it almost completely blotted out the sky.

She grabbed a fallen branch from a nearby tree and wrapped a rag around the tip, then soaked it in some of Dafne's liquid fire, she stuffed it into the opening of her pack so that it stuck out of the top and would keep her hands free. Attaching her pack, bow and quiver securely to her back, she breathed deeply in through her nose, her hands had begun to shake slightly.

She found a good foot hold and pulled herself up, her arms felt weak, she took another deep calming breath, fixed her mind on the present and away from the future, all that mattered was here, now, climbing this rock face, it mattered not what she found at the top. Her nerves not at all calmed, she began to climb.

The climb seemed to take longer than it had before, she struggled to pull herself up the last couple of metres and sighed in relief when her hand found the ledge. Pulling herself up until she was at eye level with the ledge, she peered over the top of it.

The black entrance to the cave greeted her. She waited for a few moments, clinging to the side of the cliff, but nothing stirred within its darkness, not that she would be able to see if they did, but she felt no presence or feeling of someone watching her.

She pulled herself up and crouched at the edge of the ledge, looking over her shoulder she saw that the ledge was the same height of the tops of the trees. The weak autumn sun dare not penetrate the darkness of the cave. She swallowed down a lump of fear, took her pack off but kept her bow, she used a Firestarter to light the torch and the liquid fire soaked rag burst into flames, lifting it above her head she walked into the mouth of the cave. She decided against setting the light down and readying her bow and instead held it in front of her and palmed her large hunting knife. It was the length of her fore arm and she kept it wickedly sharp. Holding it stilled her trembling fingers.

Her heart began to beat painfully fast against her chest as she stepped further into the cave, the darkness enveloped her completely and her shaking increased, she tightened her grip on the knife and held the light further in front of her, to light more of her path.

She trod carefully, placing her foot down slowly and feeling for any loose stones that would give her away like last time. The silence was stifling and again she noticed the temperature rising the further in she went.

The light only illuminated a few steps in front of her and she was vividly aware of the darkness pressing in on her at all sides.

She began to panic slightly, her eyes darting around the small area of light in front of her, she turned slightly and glanced over her shoulder at the entrance, she could barely see it, despite the full sunlight outside there was only the very faint change in the darkness to tell her that the entrance was even there.

She considered going back, her beating heart seemed to agree, but she had come too far now, she continued forward.

The flame rippled. Marcie froze, she stared at the flame, again it moved, as if blown by a slight wind, except there was no wind in here, the air was completely still.

She continued forward even slower and more cautious now. After several more steps she began to feel the breeze on her face, another couple of steps and she could make out the deep breathing that accompanied it. She counted to ten in between each breath, it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming and running for the nearest source of natural light.

Still she walked, the breathing became louder and deeper the further in she went, she had lost track of how far, the knife in her hand felt slippery with sweat, not only from the heat but also from the fear that coursed through her body like fire, and yet her curiosity was stronger than her fear and even thought she felt like her legs had turned to water she carried on.

After what seemed a life time, when the heat was almost too much to bear and the breathing was so loud that it seemed to crash in on her ears, the light caught something.

Marcie stopped and peered at the edge of the circle of light that surrounded her.

Laying in front of her and just to her right was a large shiny stone, white and the length of her arm shaped long with a wickedly sharp point, it gleamed in the flame light like polished ivory.

She crouched, still holding the light above her head and ran her trembling fingers over the stone, its surface was as smooth as silk until she came to the point which sank into her flesh as easily as if she had been made of butter and drew blood.

The stone moved, Marcie leaped back yanking her finger away from it.

The stone appeared to twitch and then seemed to shrink and curl back in on itself disappearing into a larger stone with strange glowing red scales covering it.

Marcie froze, her eyes went wide, her heart began beating so fast she felt it might burst from her chest at any moment, bile rose in her throat and she thought she might throw up.

Not a stone.

A claw.

An enormous claw, with nails the length and width of her arm and covered in red scales that glowed in the light from her torch.

She dimly remembered how to swallow, her hand shook so much that the flames leaped and danced. She held the torch over her head so its flickering light lit up more of the cavern floor.

A head came in to view. Laying on the ground its eyes closed as if asleep.

It was unlike any head Marcie had seen.

It was reptilian in appearance, protruding forwards were its snout and mouth, the lips stretching across the face and along the sides, it had heavy eye lids, also covered in scales and ears which were pinned back to the sides. The scales all over it were bright red, the colour of blood and reflected the light from her torch like the claw did.

Also the head as enormous.

Easily bigger than her entire body in length and more easily in width and its eyelids were larger than her head.

She knew exactly what it was.

Over the past few days when she had been searching for the cave, she had gone over all the monsters in Dafne's monster book in her mind, committing them to memory. She remembered this creature well, she remembered opening the book at its middle pages, the two pages where the seam was that kept the entire book together, and seeing the large hand drawn picture that covered both those two pages, with little writing and a title that she couldn't read before Dafne told her.

This creature was exactly as drawn in the book.

It was a Dragon.

Marcie blinked, was it possible. Dafne had told her that the Dragons were no more, that they had all died. And yet...here one was.

There was no mistaking it, the monster before her was an exact replica of the picture in the book, even down to the shape of the eyes and the position of the ears.

Marcie continued to stare, her eyes taking in every small feature of the Dragons enormous head, memorising it. She should have been running away screaming by now. But, her fear was overshadowed by her fascination, she was in awe of the sleeping creature.

She stood a mere four paces from it and she could feel that the oppressive heat that filled the entire cave seemed to be radiating from the Dragons body.

The knife clenched in her hand slipped from her fingers.

It clattered on the hard ground, the sound echoing off the stone walls, Marcie closed her eyes.

When she opened them it was to stare straight into the open eye of the Dragon, an enormous round glittering orb, the iris as red as the scales, the pupil slit like a cats. The Dragon blinked once and then the remarkable eyes narrowed.

The Dragon lifted its head off the ground raised it high on its long neck until Marcie's torch light didn't reach it, opened its wide jaws and roared.