Eulia And The Butterfly Dragon

Chapter 11 Dragon Flight

David and Jacob were going through the stacks of seasoned wood and pulling out and sorting enough wood for the consignment of barrels they were planing to work on. They heard a soft "Chirrup".

"Look Jake, its a tiny dragon." The little dragon appeared to be dancing with excitement and dropped a small canvas purse that Jacob caught. The little dragon immediately vanished. "What's in the purse?"

"Letters, two of them." Jacob pulled out the letters and handed one to David. He stuffed the purse into his work jacket.

"Its a letter from Fee."

"Mines from Euly." They sat on the pile of wood and read the notes. "The girls are fine, Euly told me how to message her."

"Fee wants a daily message," David said and laughed.

"Look how Euly addressed it, 'To my Boyfriend with a capital 'B', Jake,' god I miss her."

"I guess we just leave the purse out and their little dragon will pick it up," David said. "What's the capital 'B' about?"

"Haven't the foggiest."

*****

The three dragons circled higher and higher, Eulia rode with Jo and Phoebe with Teddie. Mari and Boo flew on close pursuit. "Where we going?" Eulia said. "Mother Kate asked us to do a re con of the abandoned dragon rookery. Then we're off to our special island."

"It's been abandoned for five years," Addie said, "we have no idea what happened to the wild dragons."

As they flew over Bountiful Bay the dragons entered into airless freezing void. Eulia felt her heart stop and chill and in less that a heartbeat they were flying high over a frozen ocean. "There it is," Teddie shouted, "the volcano is on fire again." They approached slowly. "The caldera looks too hot to land in."

"Just circle, look for the cave," Addie said, "There," she pointed excitedly, "behind the cloud." The dragons flew into the enormous cavern and spread their wings to stall and gently touched down in the bowl of the cavern. Mari and Boo entered cautiously. A huge dragon lay in a corner near a group of small fires sleeping.

"LOKI!" Addie and Teddi shouted in unison and ran to the dragon. At first startled Loki sat up and then laughed as they approached and he rolled exposing his belly and growled in contentment as they rubbed him.

"Adrianna and Theodora my favorite little sass-buckets. Who are the new girls?"

"Jo, Jolene's youngest daughter you know her, and this is Eulia and Phoebe," Tedi said.

"You look just like your mom, you were just a little girl when you visited me with you mom. Who should I eat first, you all look so very tasty."

"Still trying to scare us," Addie teased.

"Hey I'm a big scary dragon. And you two looked looked scared," he said pointing to Eulia and Phoebe.

"I was scared for a minute," Eulia admitted and Phoebe nodded in agreement.

"What happened, you just disappeared?" Teddi said. Now all five were rubbing Loki's belly.

"The volcano exploded. The old rookery and most of the dragons were buried in ash. I was out hunting and heard it explode halfway across the world. Two young females also escaped. They are just coming into breeding. I'll call them here now that the volcano appears stable. I see two baby dragons, twins?"

"Yes," Eulia said, "Mari and Boo."

"They both freed the dragons from their egg," Teddi said.

"Twins always die while hatching," Loki said sadly, "We dragons are grateful. There are so few of us."