Escape to the Forbidden Isles

Chapter Ten: The Secret is Out

Even though Thora and Tove decided to keep the dragons a secret, those pesky creatures found a way to get noticed anyhow. The next day, enough trees had been cut down and turned into lumber that house building could start. The entire tribe split into three groups to start building. Leif gathered his family and a few others and started to build his house. The other two houses were for some of Iona's relatives with all of Thora and Skye's cousins. That evening, Thora and her cousins' families all had a roof to sleep under. Thora had a great night's sleep. She didn't hear anything coming from the woods. But the dragons were out there.

Last night, the enraged dragon had gone back to its home in the caves and sulked. When all of its neighbors had woken up the next night and prepared to scavenge for food, that dragon had told the others about the strange new animals that had tried to kill him. They decided to observe these strange animals after their nightly meal.

They flew to the village and smelled the food Iona and the other women had been gathering. They must have thought it would make a great dessert, because they ran to it and began to eat. Luckily for the village food supply, Leif had woken up early and decided to take an early-morning stroll. When he came upon ten dragons eating their only food stored for the winter, his first instinct was to protect it. He drew his sword and lunged at the beast, giving it a nasty scrape on the leg. It howled in pain and flew up. Then it came down loudly, shrieking even louder than Skye could (and that was no small feat.)

Thora, Tove, and the rest of the villager got the surprise of their lives as a screaming dragon landed in the middle of the village and lit the nearest plank of wood on fire. Half of the people ran to put out the fire and the other half ran to fight the growing number of dragons. Iona told Thora to keep Skye inside. A few minutes later, Tove ran in the house bringing Dustin, Kirk, Kerr, and Kirby with him. They looked at each other. Boy, they were going to get it.

A particularly nasty dragon was following Leif. It pounced on him. If Iona hadn't been next to him, it would have been goodbye world, hello Valhalla for him. The other Viking outside fought hard too, and a few minutes before dawn, they ran the dragons out of town.

Leif burst into the house, Iona close behind him.

"Come with me," he said.