Coward Ryan - Chapter 3 (Part B)

Ryan opened his eyes slowly. His body was aching and bruised and his head felt terribly stuffy but on some distant level he realised that he was only half as scared now as he had been. Odd, that distant level thought. It felt – different. But then his consciousness caught up to him and he saw Strago looking down on him with what Ryan thought could only be alarm on his dragon face.1

As soon as the boy’s eyes focused, the dragon’s expression subsided into one of thoughtfulness. “You’re awake? Good. I apologise. I may have overdone that a little. I didn’t quite like to tempt fate, you see.”2

Ryan blinked. He didn’t see at all. “Wha-” His voice came out as a croak. He swallowed a few times then tried again. “What happened to me?”3

“Come now. It was nothing more than what I did with your fear before.”. 4

“No I mean what happened at that big meeting thing? I don’t remember anything after I got my hearing back. Where did all this-” he gulped “-blood come from?” 5

Strago waved a claw. “No need to worry about that. The blood’s all mine. And now you’re awake, I’ll need you to give it all back to me.”6

Ryan looked down at his torn and bloodied clothes in disbelief. Even he could tell that the blood was stained well into the fabric of his shirt – the places where the blood was thickest had dried completely solid and now the strips of fabric hung off him like stiff cardboard.7

“I don’t think I can,” he said. He flicked a finger against the stiffened fabric. It made a hollow thock sound.8

Strago suddenly reared backwards. “Of course you can!” he roared. “I know about humans and their clothes, boy. I’m not ignorant like those youngsters out there!”9

Ryan cowered. Out of pure fright, he waved his flapping cardboard sleeve and said uncertainly, “C-Can you really reuse it like this?”10

Strago blinked. He gently blew away a few strands of Ryan’s fear then he settled himself to his original position and laughed. He should have known this boy wouldn’t have trickery in his heart! “I don’t intend to reuse it. I intend to destroy it.” 11

At Ryan’s puzzled expression he added, “Dragon’s blood is a dangerous concoction. We can’t afford to let even a drop of it out of our sight.” What he didn’t mention – the dragons’ well kept secret – was that it could even be used against the dragons themselves if they weren’t careful. It was part of the reason Strago had made sure to set his blood-mixed-drool alight, even long after the flying creatures had left him in peace.12

“Come. I’ll take you to a spring where you can wash.”13

The dragon turned and entered the tunnels leading into the volcano. Ryan stared. Embedded into the surface of the stone walls were what looked like the veins of some large creature – a creature that would have been much much larger than the dragon. The substance within the veins was a dark reddish colour, marred at various places by darker, blackish splotches and, as if that wasn’t enough, it was moving. Very slowly and sluggishly but it was most definitely moving. Ryan could tell by the splotches. 14

It was also glowing, casting an eerie reddish light all the way down the tunnel and it was by this glow that Ryan saw Strago’s tail sliding further away from him by the minute.15

He jumped up, wincing a bit at the aches and pains still in his body, and chased after the dragon as fast as he could. He supposed as he went that the glowing vein things were some magic the dragon had cast to give the tunnels light and, if he’d asked, he would have been told that he was in fact right.16

But by the time he’d caught up to Strago – who’d been waiting for Ryan a good few minutes by then – he was so out of breath he could only bend over panting and wheezing. 17

“I will try to walk slowly for you,” Strago said and when they set off again he certainly did try. But when one creature is three times as high and about ten times as long as the one he’s trying to walk with, no matter how hard the bigger creature tries there’s just no way it will work. 18

Especially when one creature is trying to cast a spell of cooling around the other at the same time. It was a difficult spell to maintain because Strago had to balance it exactly with the amount of heat that was coming from the volcano – an amount that kept fluctuating depending on which tunnel they were in and how far away they were from the volcano’s core. He also had to make sure that the disturbance didn’t bust this spell as it had the others.19

The dragon creased two parts of his brow in concentration and one part in thought and before he knew it he’d almost left Ryan far behind for the fourth time in a row. He growled in frustration. It annoyed him immensely. He had to keep stopping and it was taking far too long to get down the tunnel. 20

Ryan was so afraid of being left behind and of having his terror overwhelm him as it almost had before that he was fairly sprinting to keep up with Strago and it still wasn’t enough. Never mind that he’d never been much of a sprinter to begin with. He had a horrible stitch all down his insides and he almost thought he might die from the exertions if they didn’t stop soon.21

He didn’t even have the breath to beg Strago to stop.22

Luckily, the spring Strago had spoken of wasn’t too far away. They came out into a cavern full of mist and the gushing-bubbling sound of water colliding with water. Even with Strago’s cooling spell – which Ryan knew nothing about – the air felt humidly warm yet the air was crisp with the smell of pure, fresh – Ryan blinked – icy cold water. 23

“All right you water elementals,” Strago’s voice commanded out of the mist. “Drop it back a little. The human won’t harm you.”24

~~~25

To be continued... 26

Start: Chapter 127

Previous: Chapter 3 (Part A)
Next: Chapter 3 (Part B continued)