I straighten up. “I guess we’ll be going there- shit!”
To my astonishment, Clyde reaches out to me and touches me, making me jerk with the coldness of his fingertip. In his other hand he holds a piece of bark the size of a tablet.
I gingerly accept the piece, not sure what to do with it. “Thanks.”
Then I notice that one of the sides is lighter than the other, like the bark of a birch tree. And someone has carved letters into it, angular and hard to read.
Ice settles in the pit of my stomach. That’s English!
TO THE PLOOD BOSS
WE 5 EARTH GIRLS
CAVGHT BETWEEN TRIBES
NEED HELP VRGENTLY
“It’s a message,” I explain as the world spins around me. “Five girls. They need help. I think they’re surrounded by tribes.”
Vyrathion chuckles. “I’m sure the tribes will enjoy that. Now, we can be at this village in two days, walking at your speed.”
“‘The Plood boss’,” I ponder out loud. “The Plood must have sent some kind of telepathic image to whoever wrote this. And they see us as their bosses.”
“What?” Vyrathion snaps. “Stop speaking nonsense and finish your eating. We have a long way to go, and we’ll be walking fast.”
I hold up the message. “These girls need help. I have to go to them. They need you, too.”
“Where are they?” he asks. “If they’re on the way, we might look in on them.”
Another Plood comes forwards and points in a very different direction than Vyrathion’s gold tribe.
“The tribe won’t get rid of their gold just like that,” I state. “But the girls need our help now. We can help them first, then go straight to the village. If they ever had gold, they still have it now.”
“Gold first,” Vyrathion snaps. “Nothing else matters. Have I taught you nothing?”
“I will come with you,” I promise. “But we have to go to the girlsfirst. If they’re caught between tribes, they will need both of us. Only you have the strength to fight off tribesmen!”
“I need gold now,” the dragon says. “And I may need you if I am to get hold of it from that tribe. There may be some trickery needed. Once I get the gold I need, I will be infinitely stronger and I can completely eradicate any tribe that displeases me. I now deem that you have kept me back for long enough. Come.” He strides into the jungle, and the crowd of Plood splits in front of him to let him pass.
But I stay. “Please, Vyrathion!”
He turns. “What, you need more time? Eat while you walk. I will slow down.”
“I can’t go that way,” I tell him with a voice that’s about to crack. “I have to help these girls.”
“This was settled. You are to come with me, help me get the gold from the tribe, and then perhaps I can help these silly girls of yours.”
“Do you know that you will?” I ask. “When you become a full dragon, will you be the way you are now?”
“No!” he barks. “That’s the whole point! As a full dragon, I will be myself again. I will be powerful and beautiful and perfect! All will tremble before me! Don’t you understand? I am adragon!”
The last word echoes between the trees and the Plood pull away in terror.
“So you can’t promise,” I try as the echoes die down, “that you will want to help me when you… when you Change?”
“No dragon promises anything, and those who believe a dragon’s promises only deserve to be cheated,” he drawls. “This discussion is now over. Come here.”
“I can’t.” Yikes, meeting a dragon’s gaze like that isn’t for the weak. But I manage, because this is bigger than me.
