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Dave could barely see Hiszt’s head, but he could hear the dragon laboring, sucking in air in prodigious gasps. This can’t go on much longer, he thought. But his ears popped, so he knew they were still descending.
In the midst of the gloom, there was a part of Dave’s mind that encouraged him. Somehow his confidence grew that they were going to make it. The winds were so strong that he knew no other dragons would be flying in this weather. Perhaps the weather is a blessing rather than a curse?
The clouds began to thin and were replaced by a torrential rain that beat down, soaking him. Far below, Dave saw little white flecks. Waves, he thought. It can’t be! We can’t be this low. Ahead he saw a small island, perhaps about ten kilometers in diameter with a squat volcanic cone rising about five hundred meters. Hiszt banked and made for the island, his high-pitched chirping changing tone. Dave looked behind him. He could see the other dragons following them. Hiszt stopped chirping and landed on a flat, rocky, crevice-filled plain near the volcanic cone. Dave leapt off and began to remove the saddle.
“No, no,” gasped Hiszt. “Leave it on. We’re in great danger here. Too tired to go on. We need rest, but have to leave quickly. We’re on the Infernal Ocean in Sheol. Middle of dragon country. Never meant to come here.”
The rest of the dragons had also landed and discharged their riders. Dave could smell the fear in them as they cowered in whatever cover, crevice, or boulder, that they could find. Hiszt was breathing in great gasps and had lain down like a giant dog, resting.
Dave began to explore their surroundings. Two of the smaller, riderless dragons were not as tired as the others and had begun to waddle away in the storm looking for food. They wandered toward the volcanic cone, and Dave saw a flash of fire coming from the direction of the cone. Curious, he climbed a small rise and saw the green dragons had surprised some goats and were devouring goat carcasses greedily. Then another movement caught his eye. From the rocky knees of the volcanic cone, a black head, the size of a pickup truck emerged from the mouth of a huge dark cave. The head reared back and a jet shot from its mouth like water from a powerful fire hose. The stream, which was many times the size of what he had seen from any other dragon, caught fire, the flames engulfing the feeding green dragons. Dave’s shout of warning was lost in the storm and the whoosh of the conflagration. The two greens were charred instantly. The huge head of the black dragon was followed by a long neck the diameter of a sewer pipe, and forelimbs like tree trunks.
Dave watched the black dragon lumber from its lair, stop at the smoldering carcasses of the two green dragons and begin to feed, then Dave raced back to the others.
“Black dragon,” he cried between gasps, “it’s coming.” But no one moved. Several of the green dragons were so exhausted they lay sprawled on the rocks. But Al and Linder understood the urgency of their situation and implored the green dragons to get onto their feet. The creatures were too weak to fly but took shelter among some large rocks on a peninsula at the end of the small island.
Dave heard a rock roll on the other side of a ridge. The Black Dragon! He pulled Gram and flattened himself into a crevice less than a meter wide just in front of him. As he lay there he felt a wave of despair. Then a powerful compulsion assailed him, commanding him to show himself. It took his full will power to keep from standing up. He knew if he succumbed to the summons, his life would end in a fiery inferno.
He looked over his in horror as two of the smaller green dragons came waddling over a low rise, moving as if against their will.
I have to do something, thought Dave. I can’t just let the black dragon fry them.
He looked back at the black dragon as it came over the low ridge from. Its forelimbs were thick, keeping its body about two meters off the ground. Its gigantic wings were folded in. The huge dragon’s eyes were focussed on its prey. It never looked down. Its legs shook the ground as it lumbered toward his hiding place.
Sinking as far into the crevice as he could, Dave looked straight up. Dave, you’re an idiot. Only an idiot would do what you’re about to attempt. Adrenaline made him almost giddy. It’s barbeque time! And I’m on the menu.
The scaly underside of the black dragon’s head came into his field of vision, then passed by. Now he saw its colossal neck, almost two meters in diameter. He could see the muscles rhythmically contracting and expanding as it prepared to vomit more destruction on its prey.
Dave sat up and climbed out of the crevice. The ground shook with each of the monster’s footsteps. Dave ran towards it, expecting this foolhardy attack to be his last.
Lifting Gram, Dave threw his full weight behind an upward thrust, into the beast’s throat. He expected resistance. To his utter astonishment, the blade sliced through the ten-centimeter-thick scales as if they were soft butter and slid, effortlessly, into the dragon’s neck, right up to Gram’s hilt. Black blood oozed out around the blade. The monster roared, twisting and lifting its neck upward. Dave, still holding desperately onto the hilt with both hands, was lifted upwards. Gram sliced through the dragon’s neck bone and muscles like soft tallow. More black blood spewed out of the gaping neck wound.
The monster reared onto its hind legs, freeing Gram. In its death throes, the dragon began to topple.
I’m lost, Dave thought. I’m going to be crushed by tons of dragon.
__________
Al was just putting his saddle away when he heard a shout. In the distance he saw Dave stumbling toward him down the side of a ridge. Black dragon? What is Dave shouting about? Doesn’t he know we are trying to maintain a low profile? Then the words began to make sense, and a wave of fear stirred him out of his torpor. Al went over to his green dragon and worked hard to rouse it out of its sleep. The dragon rose slowly and began to move away from Dave’s shouting. Al ran alongside it, urging it to move faster until it moved out of sight behind a pile of rocks.
Al turned back to help Dave, who was still waving his arms frantically, while occasionally looking back to the top of the ridge. Al saw Dave look at his feet, and then disappear into the ground, just as a monstrous black head appeared in a cleft of the ridge. It fixed its stare on two smaller greens, which were off to Al’s right, and only now were moving to follow the other greens to safety.
Al could feel despair engulf him. Amid his powerful sense of hopelessness, he also felt a strong urge to walk toward the black dragon. No! Lord, help me! A voice inside him was urging him to take cover. He saw the two greens change direction and amble back toward the black. The black’s forelimbs came through the ridge cleft, and it lowered itself close to the ground, its concentration fully fixed on the two greens stumbling reluctantly toward it to their doom.
Al dove for cover just as he heard a loud whoosh and felt intense heat. He looked up, unable to move. He knew he was going to die, but he couldn’t take his eyes away from the black dragon. I’m sorry Pam. I didn’t do enough. I should have seen Bigelow coming.
A figure rose out of the ground as if out of the grave underneath the dragon. He thrust a bright sword thrust up to the hilt into the neck of the black dragon. The black roared, twisted and lifted its neck high, dragging the sword bearer into the air. But not for long. As he was lifted from his feet clinging to Gram with both hands, the sword cut a long gash across the dragon’s neck and the figure fell back to the ground. The dragon rose on its hind legs, its partially-severed neck flopping, as black blood rushed from the wound spraying everywhere. The monster fell forward, its bulk covering the ground where Dave had fallen.
Arlana rushed by Al with a cry, followed by the others. Coming to his senses, Al raced after her. Arlana skirted the pool of dragon blood, and tried to push on the monstrous carcass to get to Dave, but to no avail.
A moment later, Arlana cried with delight, as Dave crawled out from under the beast, dripping with its blood. He had managed to dive into his crevice just as the dragon had fallen.
Between sobs, Arlana kissed Dave’s face repeatedly, saying “You fool, you fool ...”
“Honey, I’m a mess and I don’t even know if this stuff is dangerous. Look what I’ve done to my living cloak. It’s soaked.”
Holding him at arm’s length she looked at Dave critically. “Your cloak will be fine. By tomorrow it will have cleaned itself and the dragon blood will provide some much-needed nutrients to keep your cloak healthy. But your buckskin is ruined. You will have to bathe and change into your other clothes.”
Hiszt ambled up to them. “I have never heard of a black dragon being killed by anything other than another black dragon. Your sword, little one, has a mighty bite. Still we must leave soon. The other black dragons will know that one of theirs has died, and they will come.”
Hissa approached them. “We can’t fly in this weather and neither can they. Should we not rest while we can, and then leave with the small ones as soon as the weather breaks?”
As if to underline her words, the rain began to fall again in torrents. They did not want to stay near the black’s carcass but moved back to the peninsula where the green dragons curled up like huge cats and fell asleep.
Al was just about to fall asleep when he saw Dave walk into the surf and wash the dragon blood off of himself as best he could.
Al was hot, even with the rain. He stripped down to his shorts, and rolled into his blanket, wondering if he would wake up before the other black dragons arrived.