Here There Be Dragons
Chapter Four -- continued
“Let me at him,” I hissed into Chance’s ear. He turned his head once, in a negative gesture. Ryder noticed none of it, as he was too caught up with talking about how wonderfully smart he was.
“Oh yes, I noticed you first time you entered the tavern last night. I thought to myself, ‘Ryder, that boy has something about him that isn’t peasant-like. He’s got a way of holding himself that just doesn’t fit with a serf. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were related to nobility somehow.’ And now,” Ryder suddenly stopped and stared full-on at Chance, “now, I’d like to know just what you’re up to.”
Chance opened his mouth to speak, but somehow it was my voice that was heard. “None of your bloody business, thanks!”
A very faint squeak issued from Chance, and Ryder folded his arms. “Oh really?” he said, almost ominously. There was also a suspicious glare, as if he was wondering how Chance had managed to say all those words without moving his mouth from a slight "o" shape.
Chance shook his head quickly. “No, no, I’m sorry, that just…came out for some reason.”
I winced at Chance’s poor excuse. Ryder wouldn’t believe that, I knew.
“Idiot,” I whispered.
“Shut up!” he hissed furiously.
“You shut up, you’re acting like a fool!”
“Oh, I’m a fool?”
I suddenly noticed Ryder at that moment, staring at Chance with the sort of look that usually is followed by the words, “Are you insane?” Which is close enough to what he did say.
“Are you mad? You’re talking to yourself!”
Chance faced Ryder with burning cheeks. “Er, well, I’ve got something that I—”
The way the boy was talking, we were never going to leave this ruddy little town. So I decided to take control of the situation.
In one fluid motion, I pushed myself out of the pack and spread my wings, catching air in them before I hit the ground. All that Ryder could have seen was a vague shimmering; Chance, of course, would feel me moving out, but I was already acting.
Before Ryder knew what hit him—or, rather, landed on him—I had pinned the scraggly man down to the ground and placed a claw tip on his cheek. “Make one loud noise, and I’ll pluck your eyeballs out and fry them up for a little bite!”
The man’s eyeballs were, at that moment, seemingly going to pop out of his sockets without any help from me. He hoarsely whispered, “What’s that? Who’s on me?”
I slowly let my scales bend until I was clearly outlined. I think Ryder’s eyes bulged even more, though I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
Behind me, Chance was going off in a whispering fit. All I caught were the words, “bloody dragon!” and something like, “death of us all!” and even one, “I give up!”
“Chance,” I said, in a very calm and collected voice. The boy came closer to me and Ryder, his face twisted in frustration. “We need to find a place where we can continue this conversation in private. Let’s hop the wall and be off.”
“What?” he hissed. “I can’t just leap over, and besides, I don’t have a horse!”
At this moment, Ryder dared open his mouth. “Sir, I can easily guide you and even procure steeds for you, at a fair price!”
I flicked my tongue out; there was a distinct smell of fear, along with horse manure and something nastier. “You better be speaking truthfully.”
“I am! Indeed, I would not lie to you!” He started to shake his head, then stopped as my claw dug a little deeper into his face.
“Hear that bit of irony, Chance? He said he wouldn’t lie, but what’s he doing now? Lying down, I’d say!”
Chance failed to see the humor in this. He was still panicking about my little wall comment.
“If I’m seen by any guards—”
“Frankly, right now if you were seen by anyone, you’d be in trouble. Plotting with a dragon and a stinky ruffian? Not very good for your image. Now stop grousing and start climbing. I’ll take care of Ryder.”
Chance’s stance went from rigid to slouching; I could see the arguments building up in his head. I started coming up with arguments for him (most of which boiled down to me eating him if he didn’t get moving now), but then a sudden firm resolve formed and he nodded at me.
“Shouldn’t be too hard to scale that wall after climbing up to your cave.”
I blinked in surprise as he stepped to the stone barrier and started to—well, climb it. I do have to admit that he was impressive at it; fingers and boot tips acted like little anchors for the rest of his gangly body, and like a large, ugly spider, he scurried up the wall. Once he was at the top, I saw him peer over the side, then swing his body over the top, no doubt swarming down the outside in reverse of what I had just seen.
“Our turn,” I whispered to Ryder, and at the same time that I grabbed his upper arms, I launched myself into the air, changing size and simultaneously turning invisible. It was quite a good feat, I’d say, and in an instant we were skimming over wall and dropping away on the other side, gliding to a distance away from the walls before we landed. Anyone watching would have seen a man simply levitate with a muffled scream of horror and then go flying off, his arms held at an odd angle, probably to help him fly. Nothing too suspicious.
Chance came running over the grass to meet us, and with some subtle prompting jabs from the horn on my nose, I had Ryder jogging off toward a nice stand of trees a little ways off.
“You climb like a climbing-bug,” I commented to Chance.
He didn’t reply, except for a sort of huffing sound as he trotted alongside us. We reached the trees shortly and I hunkered down, shrinking back to my cat-size and becoming visible again. Chance made sure he and Ryder couldn’t be seen, then motioned for the man to sit down.
“All right, Jot,” he said, eyeing the out-of-breath Ryder, “what are we doing now?”
“I don’t know. This is your mission.”
“I thought you had a plan.”
“Yes. It was called, ‘Don’t let anybody see us as we deal with the smelly bum.’ Now what’s your plan?”
He made some strangled sounds, then started pacing in front of Ryder, who watched with a wary look.
“What are we going to do with this man?” Chance asked. “Obviously, he’s seen you now, and if we let him go he’ll start spreading word, and the last thing I need is to have people following me in the hopes of slaying a dragon.”
“That would be the last thing I need, you mean.”
“Yes,” Chance said impatiently.
“I could always eat him,” I suggested brightly. “After he’s had a bath, of course. I’ve had bad before, but I can’t think of anything worse than that.”
Ryder’s face had gone an interesting pasty color, and his eyes were almost as wide as Chance’s normally were. “Please!” he cried. “I’ll do anything! I promise I will not tell anyone! I do not go back on my word!”
Chance rubbed his head, and I was reminded of how young he really was. “Look here, let me just handle the man and then we’ll continue on.”
“No! Please!” Ryder was getting frenzied; he had risen to his knees and was looking up at Chance, very nearly clasping his hands together.
“Keep it down,” I said with a yawn that happened to show my teeth.
Chance was looking at the man with a thoughtful, calculating stare. “You said you were a guide?”
Ryder nodded frantically. “Yes, yes! I know my way around!”
“And you said you could get us some horses?”
“Well, for a price—”
I coughed, sending a small puff of smoke into Ryder’s face. “Ooh, sorry about that. All your talking made me itchy inside.” Ryder shut up.
Chance deliberated; finally, he announced, “We’ll bring Ryder with us.”
My groan was quickly masked by Ryder’s, “Thank you, sir! Thank you!”
“On the condition that he stays true to his word. He will provide us with able steeds for our journey, and take us to Rale the quickest way possible.”
“I shall!”
I snorted. “One more thing. If, at any time, Ryder tries to break this agreement, or harm me, or escape, I get to eat him.”
Chance eyed me shrewdly, narrowing his buggy eyes. “Add that no harm shall come to me, either, and I shall agree wholeheartedly.”
“Fair enough.”
Ryder looked at our faces and sighed. Already the terror was diminishing, as no immediate threat to his life was apparent. “Why’d I ever take any notice of you? Why couldn’t I have left well enough alone?”
“Funny,” I mused aloud. “That’s the same I thing I ask myself whenever I think of Chance.”
You might wanna PM us when you post these chaptas, RH, 'cause my attention span will not notice that ya have, or else. And if my sista don't see it, then we gonna miss out on a good chapta. *nods in agreement with self*
*sighs in relief*
Damn! With her hubby gone, I'm the one that gets stuck given her the anti-crazy pills! -_-
