Meredith's Dragon

Chapter 4

The dragon's lair was several hours away. Landis carried a torch and pointed out some of the clues they'd used to find it, such as trees with only the higher branches broken, deep scratches in the ground, scorch marks. Mostly we walked through the forest in silence.

It was just the three of us. One of the farmers had been killed, Osgar was busy trying to put out the fire, and the other farmer simply refused.

I avoided looking at the others. My chest ached so badly I could barely breathe. Sometimes I couldn't believe Ebba was gone. Then the truth would wash over me in gusts and I would clench the grip on the shield Landis had let me carry since I didn't have my own. I didn't believe we could kill the dragon, but I was angry enough to try.

Just after dawn, the woods thinned and gave way to a wide clearing. At the other end rose a cliff with a round cave opening rimmed by trees.

Gwen strode into the clearing. "Come out, beast!"

At her command, a golden head indeed slowly emerged into the light. The dragon regarded us for a moment, then retreated, as if we weren't worth fighting.

"For Ebba!" Gwen shouted. She pointed her sword and charged.

The dragon reacted immediately. Gwen lifted her shield, and I hurried to raise Landis'. I closed my eyes against the flash, but the shields managed to protect us. My face tingled from the heat, but a moment later it was gone. I dared raise my head above the shield and saw the dragon's tail whip past us as it whirled and reentered the cave. I blinked and she was back. Landis and Gwen raised their weapons and I tensed for another attack. Instead, the dragon crouched, flapped its wings, and launched into the air above us.

"Meredith! Gwen!"

Dangling from the dragon's claws was Ebba.

"Ebba!" we cried, but once again, the dragon disappeared over the trees and was gone.

Gwen started running in that direction. I ran after her. "We'll never catch her!"

"We have to try!"

And we did, running into branches and stumbling over roots as we pursued with faces to the sky. I caught the shield on a limb and lost my balance, tumbling to the ground. Landis tripped over me, but Gwen kept running. "Gwen?" I called. She paused to look back at me. It was hard to talk between gasps for breath and all the questions and fears seeing Ebba alive had unleashed in my head. "We need a strategy. Chasing the dragon will just wear us out before we even fight. The dragon will come back to its cave, won't it? Let's wait and catch it when it returns."

With the dragon long gone and all of us breathing hard, Gwen couldn't very well argue. We walked much more slowly back to the cave. "Should we hide inside and surprise it?" Landis asked.

"Of course not," Gwen answered. "We'd be trapped when it decided to blast us."

"So we wait outside for it to blast us."

"We have to catch it when it lands to go inside, then attack the wings first," I said. "Our only chance is fighting it on the ground." I glanced inside the cave. "I want to have a look. Wait here and shout if you see anything." I waited for Gwen to nod, handed my shield to Landis, then climbed over some boulders and into the cave.

It was just bigger than a pair of large cottages. I could imagine the dragon fitting snugly into this cave with just enough room to turn around, its scales rubbing the rock walls smooth over time. I most certainly did not want to be trapped in here when it came back. Half the cave was covered in a heap of pine boughs laced with fleece and littered with . . . were those large pieces of shell? I moved closer, hoping the dragon didn't return any time soon. They were pieces of shell, pale yellow and speckled with bronze. Some were also spattered with the brown-red of dried blood. Oh, Ebba! But there was too much of it staining the fleece in the center of the nest. Ebba had looked dirty and her dress was ripped, but I didn't remember noticing wounds capable of spilling so much blood. It had to be from the dragon Gwen had killed.