A Dragon's Tale: The Dragon's Orb

[my-star-seeker]

Torches

Cat never woke up. After I woke up, I went to check up on her, she was still sleeping. I wanted her to wake up. I hated what happened in the dream, and I decided… that maybe Cat was… right. Maybe we should go home. I wanted our parents back though, and I wanted to at least try to get them back. I mean, they’re our parents. I’ve always loved them and they always took care of us. We owe them our lives, and we need them. Without them, we won’t be able to do all the stuff we could do, but maybe…things should stay as they are. I hated to admit it, but I wanted to go home. I just want to be able to lie down in a bed, and forget all about Morrack, and elves, and hopeless causes. I would love to forget everything that led to this mess, and just let go of the weight that so steadily pours its weight on me. I wish I never chased Cat out of the house. I wish I just stayed with grandma.
I tried to think of some way to wake her up, and I felt worried until Morrack came up with his plan. He went up and dunked her head in water that we got from a creek a long walk away, and it wasn’t long until she woke up. She then jumped up, choking and coughing as if she was about to die and panted, covered with sweat. She looked at me and I could see fear in her eyes, but most of the fear vanished as she hugged me and cried. I don’t know what happened, but she was hurt, and I wouldn’t leave her side. Right now my little sister is all I have left, I can’t let her go. We have to stick together, no matter what.
When she was done crying she stared at the creek. She took off her shoes and put each into the creek. Then pulled the dripping shoes out, and laid them on the ground. She bent to one and…uh…kissed it… the other she…blew in it. I don’t know what her problem was, but it was weird. Anyway, she then poured the water that she kissed and walked away from it. The water trailed her. She then got the shoe she blew in, and dumped it to the ground. The water then raced away from her, heading towards me and the sleeping dragon. She then shook, her eyes seeing and understanding what my eyes couldn’t, and she then fell to her knees, unable to even stand.

* * *

I don’t know what it means, but I know it’s bad. All I know is that it has to do with me, Morrack, and…Jacob.. That dream and the one before…something bad is about to happen, and I fear that it has to do with my life… if I die…
“What did you do?” Jacob asked.
“I don’t know, but I know that whatever it is, it’s telling me that something bad is going to happen.”
I stared at him then shook my fears away, then captured a slight thing, something so gentle I almost missed it. I sat and stayed still listening for if I would hear it again. The I did.
I turned my head towards the west, and saw a girl and a boy, both who where staring directly at Morrack, tense with fear.
“Jacob…” he followed my eyes and soon saw what I was looking at.
“Morrack!” Jacob’s yell caused the dragon to stir as I noticed that two even taller men were running up beside the children. “Morrack!”
“Ah, Lizard Boy, it’s time to roll!” I yelled in his ear. He then opened his eyes and looked at me in confusion. “Humans!” I yelled. Humans? I yelled… Humans? He then looked up at the hill and saw people beginning to pile up, preparing to attack the treat that lay before them.
“Hop on!” he ordered. We were about to until we heard the sound of exploding bullets and he reared up in pain. We looked around and one dozen figures were up there, all holding guns. We heard loud bangs as the dragon stumbled and fell. He then rose up and blew fire in front of the people. The people were terrorized and ran for their lives, most likely to return with more people, and more weapons.
“We need to leave!” I hollered.”
“We can’t.” Morrack moaned. “They shot my wings.”

* * *

When we were flying to get the items on Harriet’s list, Morrack told me about dragons’ wing membranes, and the weakness about them. He said that dragons’ wings weren’t as strong as bird wings, and in fact they were extremely weak. If they got too damaged then the Dragon couldn’t fly until they healed or if they never healed, the dragon would never fly. The men were smart, and somehow knew this, for the first thing they did was fire at the wings. They wouldn’t even try to hit the dragon, for the guns they had weren’t strong enough to penetrate the dragon’s heart. All they need to do now to take down Morrack was to get friends and bigger guns. If we didn’t get out of here, we’d die. “How can we escape?”
The dragon replied, “We can’t.”

* * *

We sat there, helpless and wary. We were caught and they would return to kill Lizard Boy, and probably kill us too. So we waited, but they never came back. Maybe they left, I mean after seeing a dragon and almost being killed by a dragon, it would be suicidal to try to come back and attack again. After waiting half an hour, we saddled on Morrack, his wings limply hanging to the ground. We were prepared to run on foot, or dragon’s feet, whatever, and started our desperate march, once again just for our almost nonexistent hope to be demolished.

* * *

“THERE IT IS!” I turned around to see a man on a hill, pointing at us with several men trailing behind him, all ready and waiting for what they saw. In the end one dozen men were at the top of the hill, and one dozen slug gun were aimed at Morrack.
“Move in!” the leader yelled. Morrack spun around, his head facing the riflemen, and reared up, forcing Cat and I to let go and take cover behind a few stray trees.
They walked towards Morrack, never letting their aim falter or attention disarray, and forced Morrack away from us.
“Max, Fred, get the children,” the leader said. Two men broke off from the group, walking towards the trees with the guns held high.
“Come on, we don’t want to hurt you.”
“Sure, you don’t want to hurt us you’re just holding a gun to my head!” Cat yelled.
“Cat! Stop!”
“I’ll stop when I-”
“Cat!”
“That’s right, listen to the boy. All we want to do is-”
“Kill us? Yea, sort of figured that out already.”
“That’s it.” One man lunged out and grabbed Cat, his arms wrapping around her front and back, tightening his grip and pinning her arms to her sides. The second man then looked at me and said, “Are you coming easily or are we going to have to beat you up too?” I then thought for a second (something Cat doesn’t do often) and then stood up and put my wrists together in front of me.
“No point in fighting men with guns,” I reasoned with them.
“Smart.”
The second man then slung his gun around his back and grabbed my wrists as he and his friend pulled us out of our small tree cover. They lead us past Morrack, who sat there with eyes like daggers, stabbing into our uninvited guests. They led us to a beat up Lion’s cage from the circus, a cage made completely out of solid steel. They led us inside and then pad-locked the door, leaving us no escape.
“If you expect me to beg and jump through flaming hoops, you’re insane!” Cat yelled tauntingly.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get rid of this dragon and then get rid of you. You don’t have to worry your pretty head over idiotic tricks. Men, reign in this dragon!” the leader yelled.
Then, all at once Morrack spread out his wings and stood on his hind legs, with his snake-like tongue slipping out of his mouth. “Don’t even try to capture me!” He then ripped his body into a hard spin, slamming his wings into their sides sending them crashing into then ground. They skidded into the dirt and before a moan could escape their lips he slammed his wings into the ground making such a blast of wind that each and everyone of them went flying into the air, then crashing into the mud several feet away.
I know see why Cat is so fearful of this dragon. This dragon, hands down, killed or injured about ¾ of the men. He could easily kill us with his eyes and mouth closed if he wanted to.
But right now that wasn’t important. He was going to kill everyone, and we could only watch. In a matter of second every man was on the ground, dead or barely alive. Then the Dragon looked at us with anger filled eyes.

* * *

I looked through the bars with fear as the dragon’s eyes softened into pain burrowed tears.
“We need to hide.”
“How? I can’t get out of here, and neither can Jacob. What do you expect us to do?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that we need to hide, and soon.”
We conversed for a minute, barely daring to waste precious time, and decided that we would have to go into the desert. We’d find a well covered place to hide and heal, and find a way to get out of this cage. The dragon sighed as he held the rope that was tied to the cage gently in his teeth and pulled the cage towards the south, beginning a hurtful day for all of us.

* * *

I sighed as I remembered everything that happened in the last three days. We rode a dragon towards the outskirts of a desert, and Cat ran away. We woke in the morning and searched for her in forest, and found her in the caring hands of a hermit. We then flew down here and took a rest to wake up captured by men. Now we’re barely trudging along, unable to fly, get out of this cage, go home, eat, drink, find a place to stay, go to the bathroom, or even stand up strait. All we can do is wait. Wait and hope, if that’s even possible.

* * *

We rode in the cage until the sun began to set, as the dragon once again explained the dropping temperatures, and the fact that we would die if we didn’t get out of the cage soon. I sighed as I couldn’t think of anything. Then, the stupidest thought flew in my head.
“Hey, Lizard Boy, bite the lock.”
“What?”
“Bite the pad lock, break it, and get us out.” It took him a second to realize what I was asking him, but then he understood and bent down to gently break the lock. He tried six times until he finally got the small lock between his large teeth and broken off. I fumbled around with the lock until it popped off and the cage door opened.
“Man…we’re dumb.”
And so we were forced to trust this dragon and slept…. for a little…

 

[my-star-seeker]

David

We woke up in the morning, hungry and thirsty, with nothing to eat. Everything was terrible. We counted 24 holes in each wing, and because of Morrack’s wing stunt, he ripped the holes longer and wider than before. It’d take days to heal.
We spend most of the day riding Morrack southern. It wasn’t more than four hours until we were too tired and thirsty to even walk. Then came help, or danger.

I was trying to get off Morrack until I noticed something: He wasn’t moving. In fact, he was staring. I followed his eyes and noticed a figure that was climbing up the hill. It was a boy, and he was carrying a machete.

The figure had a strict look on his face, and he came up to us fearlessly. He first noticed the dragon’s wings, and relaxed a little, but his face was solid with purpose. The boy walked up to us, and spoke with his eyes: Get off of my land. No one talked for a few minutes, until the boy broke the silence. “What are you doing here?”
We looked at each other, deciding who should speak, as I got seriously got bored of waiting. I got off of Lizard Boy’s back and landed on the ground and held out my hand.
“My name is Cat, and we were on a journey, until we were caught and wounded. We’ve been trying to make our way down here and we were hoping to find water or help. I hope we found at least one.”
He looked at us with strictness, seeing if there was any threat here.
“I need help,” Morrack murmured, “and I’ll be in your dept if you help me. All I need is water. I can do without shelter or food. And if you can’t help me, at least help Jacob and Cat…”
“Please, help us,” I begged.
“Very well. Wait here.” He turned around and went towards a cactus, and he chopped the top part of the cactus off and filled a leather bag with water. He handed to me as I smiled and thanked him graciously. I drank to my fill and handed it to my brother as he drank on the lizard. He returned the bag to me and I went to fetch more water for the dragon when I was stopped by the man. He gave me a second bag full of water. My surprised expression softened as I gave him the empty bag. Soon we rotated bags, giving the dragon enough water for him to be sustained until we got to the man’s house.
When we finally left, I asked the man, “What’s your name?”
“David.”

We traveled for about two miles until we saw a small house surrounded by cacti. He looked at the dragon and said, “I’m afraid you can’t come in the house,” but then he looked at me and smiled, “but you two surely can.” I looked at Morrack to see if it was okay, and he nodded in approval.
“Thank you for inviting us.”
We walked into the beautiful air-conditioned home, and were struck with awe. This place might not have the china and porcelain doll that our grandparent’s did, but it had more beauty that my grandmother’s could ever hope to have. “Your house is beautiful.” I murmured.
“Thank you,” he said as he smiled at me, “but if you’re to stay for a while, you need to tell me all about this… journey you’re taking and help me cook supper.” So we did. We told him everything except for the Dragon’s Orb. That was a secret only we could know. By the time we finished our three day story, the stew we were making only needed to be cooked.
“Your story is very intriguing. In fact I’m impressed. I couldn’t do all that if I tried. I can barely own this house and take care of myself.” We looked at him curiously, and saw his softened expression. When at first he was a strict man, we could now see that he was only a boy. One that was a little bit older that my 15 year old brother. His soft brown eyes and tanned skin had seemed to give away the fact that he was a boy,, although his muscle and hardened expression made him seem about ten years older than he was.
“How old are you?”
“17. You?”
“14.”
“15.”
I turned my head towards him, and asked, “Why are you here? We told you our story: now it’s time for you to tell us yours.”
It ended up he was a boy whose parents drank and fought a lot, and no one seemed to care or notice him. He then ran away from Nevada to out here: northern Arizona. He’s been living here for two years and hasn’t seen much of anyone, and he feels real lonely. He has everything he needs, and the only reason he got the house was because he found it. No one locked the doors and no one ever came to claim it.
“It’s either because the owners died and never had it in their will, or because some one left and decided to never come back. I would like to go in the town and live near my job, but I grown a liking here, and if someone comes by, such like yourselves, I can help them.”
“How come you’re so calm with Morrack around?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. Supper should be ready by now, and t seems like you’ll be able to eat most of it.”
We ate that night with overly full stomachs, and went to bed in a house, on a bed. I finally slept that night. And I made a decision: I was going to stay here. Forever.  

[my-star-seeker]

meow...