Heatwave

Part 7

I slept fitfully that night. Partly because I was frequently frightened by the mountainous figure of a great grey dragon hovering over me, but mostly because a slightly damp, uneven ground does not make a very good bed.

My things were dry by morning, but my match sticks were beyond saving.

"I've got potato chips for breakfast." I offered feebly, giving the dripping yellow bag a glare of disgust.

Rahn laughed, his bright scales shaking and throwing sparks of morning sunlight over the trees and bushes. "I'll hunt for you, Eamon; your soggy matches are no match to dragon's fire." He tilted his head to one side slyly, twigs and leaves rustling under his larger scales and the little furs swaying on his head.

I beamed up at him, laughing lightly at the silly joke of the grey beast that was covered in nature's left-overs.

Rahn caught a rabbit for me, roasting it slowly on a turning stick and then caught and ate a whole deer for himself. The rabbit skin was dark and crunchy, but the inner meat was steaming and moist, I glared again at the potato chips and took another bite.

I finished eating the last hind leg of breakfast as we started moving again, we were diving deeper and deeper into the trees yet the foliage was thinning and more and more light was draining down onto the forest floor. Rahn's large footsteps turned every leaf and twig to powder and left pools of dead grass behind him, but they were soft and careful for a beast of his size.

Leaving the coverage of the last tree, the sun was hovering just inches over the horizon turning the sky a deep, dramatic red. There were wispy clouds of rain as the wind pushed the storm in the same direction we were moving and the air would often turn bitter for a few hours, threatening another storm, before warming up again.

"Ever been to Wormster?" Rahn asked as we crested a hill of crispy, yellow grass.

"I don't think so, I've never really been anywhere but Ironmark." I admitted, a little ashamed of my seclusion.

"It's a crowded, dirty place." Rahn shuddered, the wide grey spikes shaking all the way down his spine.

"We have to go through it, don't we?"

"It's the fastest way to the coast."

I sighed, nodding in agreement without even knowing why the coast was our destination.

I slept leaning up against Rahn's great grey belly that night, the grass was cool under my back but the fire in Rahn's gut warmed the ground for yards around us.

"Why didn't you do this last night?" I asked dreamily.

"Warm water turns to steam, and steam makes a great mess of things under my wings." Rahn clarified, ruffling his large, leathery sails against his body in example.

"Mm-hmm." I dozed off.