Dragon's Breath Book 2 (Completed)

Chapter 20

Grassina had told me about the ancient Greeks and their fondness for athletic contests, but I couldn't imagine how the dragons would compete. I wondered if all their contests involved fire.

After flying back down the side of the mountain, Ralf carried us into the same main tunnel where we'd met his grandfather, then turned into the first branching tunnel we encountered. Hot air met us like an invisible wall, but the ointment kept us from feeling much more than a slight change in temperature. It was dark inside, perhaps too hot for the fungus that illuminated the other caves.

Flying through a network of connecting tunnels, we entered a cave filled with bats and another that reeked so badly it gave me a headache. Eadric said that it smelled like trolls, so I was glad we weren't on foot. When we finally emerged from the last tunnel, we found ourselves in an enormous, bowl-shaped arena open to the sky. With a level floor and high rock walls, it was the perfect spot for a gathering of dragons. It was hotter than inside the tunnel, and I could see why when Ralf flew up onto a small ledge so we could look around. A bubbling pool of red liquid seethed in the center of the arena, the air above it wavering in the rising heat.

"What is that?" I asked Ralf.

The little dragon glanced at the scarlet pool. "That's lava—liquid rock. My dad likes to swim in it."

"Eadric, did you hear that?" I asked, but he wasn't paying attention. His face had turned a paler green, and his eyes looked like they were about to jump out of his head. I followed his gaze back to the floor and understood why. There must have been at least ten times the number of dragons than there are people in my father's castle, with more dragons arriving all the time.

I studied the dragons, hoping to see a green one, but none of their colors was even close. This seemed to reinforce what the Dragon King had told us, yet I couldn't stop hoping that Eadric was right, that the old dragon really didn't know everything, and that a rare green dragon might still show up.

At first, I thought the dragons were just milling about, but as I watched, I noticed a purpose to their movements. While a few dragons darted across the floor on errands of their own, most were heading toward the low stone walls that defined the fields of competition. Only a short distance from where we sat, athletes raced around an oval with other dragons standing by, watching. A roar went up when a yellow dragon passed a blue one, a sound that would have been terrifying if I'd heard it anywhere else.

A little farther away, dragons wearing armbands ran back and forth between brightly colored tents. Each tent was big enough to fit at least twenty grown dragons, although I never saw more than a few enter at once. I couldn't read the symbols on their banners, so I had no idea what they stood for, but when I saw an injured dragon carried into one tent, I assumed that it housed a healer.

I grabbed hold of Ralf's ridge when a gust of heated air almost knocked me off his back. Looking up, I saw six dragons chasing one another around the giant bowl, flying faster than any bird ever could. A pink cloud floated above the flying dragons, distorting my view of the mountains surrounding the arena, making them seem closer, then farther away. I turned to watch the dragons in the oval ring again. When one of the racers flamed, a small pink cloud formed in the air above him. The smell of boiled cabbage drifted by, reminding me of the magic miasma.

"Ralf," I said, "does anyone use this arena when the Olympics aren't going on?"

"Sure. Lots of dragons come here to practice. My mother comes here almost every day. It's one of the reasons we live where we do."

I heard shouting and glanced down at the crowd directly below us. A group of giants had arrived, carrying baskets filled with skinny brown pods and long purple peppers. The dragons seemed eager to get at the baskets, following the giants to a low ledge carved into the far wall. When the giants emptied the contents onto the ledge, the dragons lined up behind them and helped themselves to the food.