Tale of the Prophet Bearer: The Dark Queen's Reign

Chapter 24: Cody Devises a Plan

^ Naris ^

~

"Sargon!" I shout in the king's ear. "Wake up!"

I look back at the dragon. He watches us and draws up to his full height, rising above the castle. He's HUGE! The castle is gigantic and he could wipe it out in one swoop. The ground shakes as the beast gets a running start. He jumps up and spreads his wings out, disappearing in the cloudy sky. The wind he propelled hits us and I fall to the ground.

Sargon topples on top of me and I shove him off. "Wake up you stupid, stupid man!" I shout. Cody and I pick him up and continue our mad dash to the village.

"I don't think he's waking up," Cody pants. "We need to a place to hide."

"How are we going to hide from that thing?!" Tucker yells.

I look through the dark windows, searching for any building or house that stuck out to me. Anything that might help us hide. But as many as we passed, nothing felt like it would work. Sargon said he knows of some place to hide, but he's unresponsive right now. Too bad he didn't tell us where it was before.

I round a corner and skid to a stop. Ahead is a hole blocked by boards, but it's impossible not to see the darkness spilling out from the earth. The doorway is a wooden post with strange markings inscribed that look like warnings.

"What's that?" Abby stammers.

"I don't like it," I shake my head, backing away.

"Let's—" Before Cody could finish a shadow falls over us. I look back and see the dragon diving towards us, another earth shaking roar ripping through the air.

Tucker shrieks and water flies past us, leaving the board splintered on the ground."Get in the death hole!" He rushes past me and into the earth.

I run in without a second thought of what could be in here. The wind hits us as the dragon swoops overhead and I manage to keep myself from falling, scrambling further into the darkness. The dragon's claw blocks the light as it reaches in and swats at us. We're far enough to keep from it to avoid getting hurt, but I could see every speck of dirt lining the sharp talons.

Shuddering, I turn back to the blinding darkness. "Where are we?" I adjust Sargon to support him better as we walk through the tunnel.

"Excuse me for not brushing up on my Lakarnian geography," Tucker says. "But I'm not sure."

The tunnel shakes and almost knocks us to ground. Something darts by, but the large figure is impossible to see in the dark.

"But I don't think we should go further in. Just a thought," Abby whispers, her voice quaking.

"Where else are we supposed to go?" I swallow hard, wiping sweat from my forehead.

"We could go back to the dragon and get eaten alive, or we could go into the darkness and also get eaten alive," Tucker summarizes. "So basically it's the choice of what we want to get eaten by."

"We might not get eaten," Abby tries to motivate us and herself. "It could be a squirrel. Looking for nuts. So he could feed it's squirrel family."

"Stay close, don't wander off," Cody orders and leads us deeper down. "And be on guard for whatever is down here."

The shadows grow in number and in restlessness the further we go in. I flinch as one moves from a few yards away, the earth quaking with its movement. My heart picks up and I try to keep my breath steady. If I could see what's moving it might not be so bad. Come on Sargon, wake up so you can get us out of here...