The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Eighteen- I get into a fight with a papier-mâché ball

Serefk’na- I get into a fight with a papier-mâché ball 

No-one wanted to meet with Diantha again. We left her crown a mile inside the pass on a bed of branches that Nightshade summoned up for us and left hastily back in the opposite direction. Only a few minutes after laying the crown down we heard buzzing and the entire group tensed in anticipation of a confrontation, however nothing caught up with us and when we cautiously looked behind us the golden glow emitted by the crown had vanished.

We reached the exit once again and stared out at the path: it cut through the side of the mountain and snaked around its flank until it reached an area where the rock dented inwards to form the cavern where the dragon- Firah- lived with her gold hoard.

“Are we going to have to take the test a second time?” asked Senka, resting one hand on the shade dweller, her expression grim.

Asher smiled, “I shouldn’t think so, everything should be easy going from now on.”

“Well, you had better be right,” said Tigre, “because you all suck at dragon slaying.”

“We weren’t the ones that almost got fried,” answered Senka.

“Well, you didn’t seem to be doing much to take down the dragon before I got there.”

“Only because Serefk’na wouldn’t help me tie up her legs and started trying to gift-wrap her wings into a bow instead.”

“You’re as bad as each other.”

I chose not to comment on that, it was usually better to leave them to squabble, but Asher seemed to be fretting. I put a hand on his shoulder, “No worries Ash, this is how they bond. Shall we go?”

*** 

The cavern was noticeably empty of dragons; the gold piled against the rear end of the area was unguarded and the rock pile that blocked the path where it continued on around the other side of the Firah’s nest had been removed.

“Looks like the way’s clear,” called Asher, peering around the corner to look down the path.

“Good,” said Tigre, “because if I have to meet another dragon I’m going to poke it in the eye with the sharp end of my scythe.”

“Both ends of your scythe are sharp,” I pointed out.

“Then I can do it once for each eye, can’t I?”

I saw no reason to argue with that. We came level with Asher and he grinned at me. “We’re almost home,” he said. “It’s been forever since I saw everyone!”

“I bet I know who you’re looking forward to seeing most,” I smirked.

“Oh, do you really?” replied Asher.

“I think I do too” Gensan piped in and then mimicked the sound of Asher laughing.

There was a lull in conversation and I looked out over the edge of the mountain path. We were facing forestland now and the road was slowly winding its way down towards it. The forest sprawled into the distance, reaching further than the edge of the horizon. Flanking it in a semicircle on one side were the Barrier Mountains that Mt Caralem marked the beginning of. If I looked closely and squinted my eyes I could just faintly see the shimmer of The Barrier through the spaces between peaks: a huge and impassable wall of magical energy that formed a ring around our entire country and had done so for more than a thousand years. It’s power was so great that even when trying to escape from Siofra’s hunting group a year ago we’d only been able to open a portal that would move us through dimensions, but not space.