Here be Dragons

Chapter 7

Riley didn't have time to think, she just ducked to the side, hoping that she would be able to jump far enough to get out of the path of the fire shooting towards her. To her amazement, she hadn't needed to jump to far.

Where had this rock come from?

She had landed behind a big rock, which was good, as she was already watching the blossom of flames all around her, the fire enveloping the rock she was now behind it. Had the rock not been there, she'd be dragon shish kabob. Not a happy thought, but it did give her time to think.

She needed a plan. No, she needed a weapon or better yet an army if she was going to defeat a dragon. How did they do it in movies?

It was hard to think back to all the movies and books she had read dealing with dragons. Sure, she loved fantasy books and had read more than a few that had men and woman battling the large dinosaur like creatures that could turn a cold day into a hot one... It just so happened that at this particular moment, she could t remember a single one of them. Didn't one of them have a knight get eaten just so he could stab the large creature through the roof of its mouth, driving the sword into head?

If she hadn't, it still seemed like an excellent idea. There was just one problem. There was no way she was going to let that thing eat her. Even if she had a sword to drive up.

"Riley!" Bruce was calling for her. She couldn't deal with him yet, she still needed to figure out how to save him.

That was when she noticed how much darker it had become behind the rock. Flames weren't cascading around it. No, but there was a shadow that now stretched past the rock, and it was growing bigger. She had no idea where the light was coming from, but she recognized the shape and knew what caused it.

"Riley! Run!" Bruce yelled. Riley started too. She took a step in the direction away from the rock, but stopped herself.

Running wasn't going to do any good. She'd never get away from that flame if the dragon released it at her again, and where would she run too? It was a dragon, it could fly after her and no matter how big or slow it moved on the ground, in the air it was still faster.

She only had one option. It was crazy, no way this was ever going to work, she thought. It had to work though. She started bouncing on the balls of her feet as she watched the shadow grow bigger.

"Riley? You okay?" She could hear the fear in his voice. It trembled... But so was the ground. Everything shook as the shadow grew.

The dragon...

How massive was this thing? She didn't have time to contemplate. From what she could see of the shape extending out, the thing was nearly right on top of her. She risked a peek over the rock and she was right, it was there, looking down at her. She saw the orange orb starting to form in its mouth and knew she didn't have long.

She did run, but this time, she dashed out from behind the rock and ran towards it, aiming at the gap between its legs.

The orb went dark as soon as the thing realized what was happening, and she watched as Bruce was dropped from its claws. She could hear the 'grunt' as he landed, but he rolled with it. In moments he was up on the ground and running away, looking briefly over his shoulder to watch her.

Riley couldn't see where she was going as she barely had time to dodge as both claws came crashing down. She rolled, realizing just how bad this idea was. There were no options with the river of lava straight ahead and an endless stretch of nothing in all the other directions. The dragon could easily get her and she'd obviously made the thing mad.

"Go go go!" She heard Bruce yelling. Riley agreed, she needed to go, but where? She barely missed being taken by the beasts claws. They had come down for her and now the beast was sweeping around as she rolled back and forth between its legs.

Of course she needed to go, but go where?

She saw a flash of red light that burst into the sky and suddenly felt an intense heat. She looked in the direction of its source and saw a spurt of flame shooting up from the river of lava she had first seen when she had gotten there. She had forgotten about it, having to deal with a dragon and all, but there it was. Could she run towards it and get the dragon to follow her?

And then what, was she just going to push the thing into it? Yeah, that kind of plan was only used in old cartoons and not even very good one. She remembered her dad showing her one of a coyote and it would chase the roadrunner until the coyote ran off a cliff.

That had been when her mom was still around. It had caused another one of their fights, her mom upset her dad was showing her such a violent cartoon while she was still so young. There had been so much yelling, and then she was gone.

Riley hadn't realized that she had stopped rolling around until she heard Bruce yelling for her to move. She looked up in time to see that the dragon had noticed her distraction as well and she now one of his big claws coming down at her. She had no where to go, and it came down, the talons digging into the ground around her. She was trapped.