CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Professor Fauna’s rock smashed into the old membership cards, cracking the plastic laminate and splintering into the machine below them. He raised the rock above his head and slammed it down again. The console crunched under the force of his blow. He brought the rock down again and again, breaking the plastic cards into pieces, not seeming to notice that he was also smashing the buttons and switches. Dials started going crazy, whirring and spinning. Lights flashed.

“Stop!” Edmund Schmoke cried. “Professor, don’t do that!”

“Please!” Milton shrieked. “You’ll kill us all!”

“LEAVE! THE! ANIMALS! ALONE!” Professor Fauna shouted, smashing the machines with the stone.

Elliot and Uchenna gripped each other, and Jersey clung to them both.

A groaning came from the walls of the cavern and then the sound of an explosion, deep in the stone of the cave.

“That’s the hydraulic support system, Edmund!” Milton was saying. “The place won’t hold!”

“Darn it, I know that, Milton!” Edmund snapped. He dove at the professor and tried to pry him away from the machines, but the professor threw him to the floor. The fat billionaire gazed up at the professor in awe and terror.

The walls of the cavern began to shake.

“Oh no,” Uchenna whispered.

A stalactite came crashing down from the ceiling. In a distant corner, another fell. And another.

Then, they all heard an even more terrifying sound. The roar of a dragon.

The herensuge emerged from her cage. Her wings were spread wide. Her eyes looked wild with fear. She staggered this way and that.

“The dragon’s escaped!” Milton Schmoke shrieked. “The dragon’s escaped!”

“Oh, save us!” cried Edmund. “Save us!”

The dragon roared and beat her leathery wings as stones came crashing down all around her.

“She’s afraid!” Uchenna cried. “Professor, throw her a fish!”

The professor had finally dropped the stone. He stood, staring at the enraged dragon. “What have I done, children?” he said. “What have I done?”

A loud scraping was now coming from behind one of the stone walls. “What is that?” Edmund Schmoke wailed.

The backpack, with the dragon’s fish, lay on the floor. Elliot dove for it, opened it, and grabbed a handful of fish. He threw them at the dragon. She ignored them.

“That’s not good,” Elliot murmured.

The scratching behind the cavern wall grew louder. As if the stone was being torn away from within. Then, there was a thunderous crash.

A huge hole opened up in one of the cavern walls.

And standing in that hole was an enormous seven-headed dragon.