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“YOU KNOW, JON, THIS is starting to feel a lot less like a coincidence and more like a deliberate occurrence!” Gunter said.
The massive dragon was on the far side of the Undernest, but it's evil red eyes had us locked in for an attack.
“I agree,” I said, watching the dragon fly towards us. “It's almost as if someone knows what we're up to and is trying to stop us!”
“My thoughts exactly. We'll discuss this more later, but right now we need to get off this ledge or we're going to end up a dragon's breakfast!”
Alone on this tiny ledge, our only viable option was to fly back the way we came. However, that meant floating helplessly in midair while a dragon was trying to eat us. Therefore, our jump needed to be timed perfectly. We needed to wait until the dragon was close enough that he wouldn't have time to change his course quick enough. With legs trembling, we stepped to the edge once more and readied our umbrellas as the dragon came swooping down at us.
“Well, here goes nothing!” Gunter cried.
We leaped from the ledge and out into space. The dragon saw what we were doing and swung his neck violently in an attempt to catch us in his teeth, but was too late!
CRASH!!!!
The massive lizard crashed into the ledge we had been standing on, knocking a giant chunk free and sending a shudder down the entire system. He let out a roar of pain and fury while trying to regain his bearing before resuming pursuit of his prey. In the meantime, Gunter and I had floated safely back to the original root system where the Undernest town was located. Upon seeing the dragon, the town had fallen into a complete panic, with people dashing for the nearest portal in an attempt to escape the pending carnage.
“Jon, that dragon is going to destroy this whole town if we don't do something! And I don't know if we can get back to our portal before that happens!” Gunter shouted.
I glanced at the chaos and panic swirling around us. As crazy of a situation as it was, I felt an odd sense of peace and clarity. It was at that moment when a sudden flash of brilliance struck me.
“Gunter, the egg!” I said, excitedly.
“What about it?” he asked, quizzically.
“Professor Booker said that they can contain special items. But what if they can contain special creatures too? A creature like, say, a dragon!”
A light bulb went on in Gunter's mind. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the part of the egg he had taken from the professor's office. In his other hand, he had the piece we had just found. It appeared as if they were a perfect match! Across the open space, the dragon was circling again, preparing for another attack on Gunter and me.
“Well, I suppose now is as good a time as ever to test your theory!” Gunter said.
He placed the final fragment on the top of the egg. The pieces clicked together like magnets and a blinding flash of light exploded from the egg! We both stumbled back, shielding our eyes from the assault. Just outside my consciousness, I heard the sound of a dragon's roar. But this time it sounded as if he was screaming in panic rather than anger!
An instant later and the light vanished. Opening my eyes I saw the completed egg sitting before us, except that it had grown significantly in size! And the dragon? The dragon was nowhere to be seen!
“It's the same egg,” Gunter was muttering. “This is the egg that the professor brought into the library. I should have seen it right away.”
“Well, it seems to me that Professor Booker has a lot to explain when we get back to the library!” I said.