Inferno Legacy: Loyalty of the Dragon (Book Two)

Chapter 6

            Cody continued to fall for several long moments, the ground reaching hungrily towards him. He felt hot, sticky blood flow out of his sides where the claws continued to hold him tight. His unseen foe shrieked again in victory as his swift death approached. But one thought pressed on his mind; I won’t go down this easily.

            He thrust his arms and legs upwards simultaneously, gritting his teeth in pain as the sudden movements made the talons dig deeper. But then he felt his fists make brutal contact with the feathery breast of the attacker. It shrieked again, thrusting its wings out abruptly to slow their descent in its surprise. Then it dropped the rider, leaving him to fall the rest of the ways alone. But it was just enough. Mere moments before he could smash into the rocky ground, A black shape zoomed directly below.

            Cody yelped in surprise at his accomplishment as he slammed a bit more gently into the saddle on his dragon. Inferno let out a roaring bellow of happiness at the realization that such a risky move had saved his rider. But it wasn’t over yet.

            “Bank left!” Cody yowled suddenly.

            Inferno’s reaction was just fast enough. The bird-like creature just missed Cody’s chest by inches, but instead struck at Inferno’s right wing. The muscle was brutally torn in an instant, but Inferno battled through the pain and climbed the sky as fast as his injured wing would allow. He flew as fast as he possibly could towards the human village, seemingly a hundred leagues away. He turned abruptly to the right, both just managing to pass under the terrifying claws unscathed.

            “Inferno, we need to take the offensive. There is no way we can keep this up long enough to make it back to safety!” Cody thought to his dragon, thoroughly terrified.

            The dragon grunted his agreement before saying, “Keep a lookout for that creature. Tell me where it is at all times.”

            Cody gave him the briefest of thoughts before twisting in the saddle to get a view of the attacker. There was a blur of white, and Cody sent the image to his dragon in warning. Inferno responded immediately, flipping onto his back to land a successful blow on the surprised animal’s stomach. Cody clung to the saddle’s handle with all of his might as he realized that his legs had slipped off and were flailing uselessly in the rough wind. Another second and he would surely fall, for the second time.

            Luckily, Inferno flipped over again and the rider fell back into the saddle. He looked below to see the white thing climbing the sky towards them. Inferno saw it as well, and wasted no time in latching all four sets of talons into its feathery body, its blood pumping out onto the surface of them. The two beasts tumbled through the sky until they crashed into the ground, Inferno on top of the evil animal, his claws still clutching its flank.

            Cody couldn’t resist the urge to slide out of the saddle, and Inferno miraculously didn’t protest. The thing was unconscious. The dragon slowly unlatched his claws from its body and backed away to reveal it to his rider’s curious eyes. Cody desperately wanted to see the thing that had tried to kill him and his dragon.

            It had a long body, its shoulder probably standing a whole head above Cody’s head if it stood. It had a sharp, deadly grey beak and massive pointed ears. Its body was long and lean, ending in a feathery tail. Though its underbelly was as white as the clouds, its back was spotted with black, almost striped at its tail, and the tops of its wings were riddled with black on the edges. On either side of its furry chest sprouted two long but sturdy silver eagle-like paws, insanely long talons protruding from the fingertips. It also possessed two beautiful, but massive, white cat-like paws. The claws on its hind paws were clearly retractable, and the paws many times larger than any hind paws Cody had ever seen on cougars.