Longfang (6 page)

‘What’s that?’

‘There can’t be any
we
this time. I’m going to have to do this alone.’

Chapter Five

Kira had always been proud of her woodcraft skills, but in Racafi she had never had to deal with cold like this. Her hands felt worse than useless. They were clumsy lumps of
flesh on the ends of her arms. Her fingers felt weak and stiff and she had lost all dexterity. Muscles throughout her body ached with the fatigue of deep cold. Tears of frustration began to well in
her eyes. She blinked rapidly to prevent them escaping.

‘Damn, damn, damn!’ she cursed as she threw her flint and steel down in frustration.

It was almost dark. The snow was still falling heavily and the temperature was dropping fast. For all her skills and knowledge of survival learned in the Racafian savannah, she could not get a
fire to light. She knew that to stop trying now was to invite the cold embrace of death. Tired though she was, and angry at her inadequacies, Kira could not give up. Quitting was not in her
nature.

‘Why can’t you breathe fire like Firestorm?’ she muttered at Fang, glaring at her dragon with accusing eyes. ‘I bet Nolita isn’t cold. Even if she hasn’t got
wood to burn, he can always heat the rock for her.’

Her dragon did not respond with words, but she felt his love and concern flood through their special bond. The sensation triggered instant feelings of guilt.

Fang had hatched from his egg in the twilight time after the sun had set, but before true night had fallen. As a result he had grown into a dusk dragon and developed the unique camouflage
abilities of those rare dragons born between sundown and darkness. He could no more become a day dragon than he could change the colour of the sky.

‘Sorry, Fang,’ she added through gritted teeth. ‘That was uncalled for. I didn’t mean it. I just . . .’

She could not finish the sentence. Her brain felt as frozen as her limbs. With a groan she bent down and recovered her fire-starting materials and resumed her efforts, striking showers of sparks
again and again across the tinder and kindling. Every time she sprayed the stars of light across the tiny pile of sticks, dark shadows leapt, teasing the corners of her vision. Tall trees loomed
over her, crowding together like giants poised to stomp and crush. With increasing frequency she found herself looking around for signs of danger, but there was nothing to see. The black pillars of
the tree trunks stood solid and motionless.

‘What’s the matter, Kira?’ she asked herself aloud through chattering teeth. ‘You’ve been alone in the woods lots of times. Besides, you’re not alone.
You’ve got a dragon to protect you from . . .’

What? What was it that she felt she needed protection from? If the night dragons came close, Fang could conceal them both with ease. No normal predator with any sense would come near them, so
what was it that had her so on edge? The atmosphere felt heavy with black menace. All was silent. But there were no burning eyes watching her out of the darkness. She could not see or hear anything
moving.

‘I’m getting paranoid,’ she muttered.

‘No, you’re not,’
Fang said.
‘I sense it too, but I don’t know what it is that I’m feeling. I thought I felt something before we landed. There is
something bad about this place. I think we should go.’

‘I’m too cold, Fang,’
she told him stubbornly.
‘I need to warm up before we go anywhere. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay on your back unless I
get some blood circulating through my hands and feet.’

‘Well, whatever you’re going to do, make it quick.’

Suddenly it all became clear to Kira. The nervousness she was feeling was not her own. It was Fang’s. Her dragon was transmitting his discomfort into her mind through the bond. The thought
that this huge powerful creature might be afraid of a spooky old forest made her snigger. She could not help herself. It built inside her, bubbling up with irresistible momentum and before she knew
it, she was giggling like a little girl.

Fang turned his head and fixed her with a hard stare.

‘There is nothing funny about this place, Kira,’
he said firmly.

‘Yes there is,’
she countered.
‘What’s funny is you! I never realised dragons could be afraid of the dark.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Then what are you afraid of?’
she challenged.
‘I can feel your fear, Fang. I thought it was me getting the jitters. Now I know it’s you. It’s like Nolita
and Firestorm, only in reverse.’

The sound was barely more than a whisper, but with mind-boggling swiftness, Fang struck. His jaws snapped open, revealing his vicious rows of inward-curving teeth. The prominent longer fang for
which he was named flashed towards her so fast that she barely had time to register what was happening. Her reaction was to suck in a sharp breath with which to scream, but before she had a chance
to utter a sound, Fang’s head whipped straight past her and he bit down into the snow.

As he lifted his head again, Kira saw something pale and long, wriggling and writhing in his jaws.

‘What the hell’s that?’ she gasped as she began to make out details.

The creature was long and segmented like a worm, but it was as thick as her arm. She could see no eyes, but even in the deepening darkness beneath the trees Kira could make out the mouth full of
jagged, icicle-like teeth. Whatever it was, the creature was hideous.

‘Ice worm!’
Fang said, his voice in her mind now alive with fear.
‘Get on my back. Now! You must get out of the snow. Come on!’

Initially, Kira could not move. Fang’s panic rooted her to the spot. The crunch as the dragon’s teeth sheered through the ice worm’s plated exterior was horrible. He flicked
his head, casting the remains of the worm as far as he could. Where the creature’s body landed, the snow instantly exploded in a frenzy of thrashing, writhing serpentine bodies. The speed
with which they moved was electrifying. All the hair at the back of Kira’s neck stood on end.

Fang pounced. There was no other description for his movement. It was catlike. One moment he was in one place, the next he was leaping forwards. As he landed, the snow to either side of his
front feet erupted as pinned ice worms fought to free themselves from under his weight. That they had not been instantly crushed did not go unnoticed by Kira. These creatures were incredibly
tough.

‘It’s a swarm! Get out of the snow, Kira! Get out of the snow! They’re deadly!’
Fang cried in her mind, his voice carrying a desperate edge.
‘I
can’t stop them. There are too many.’

This time his words got through. Kira’s brain, slowed as it was by the cold, processed Fang’s fear, the speed of the creatures, the danger of the situation and finally forced her
cold-soaked body into action. She stumbled the few short paces through the snow and tried to scramble up Fang’s foreleg to the relative safety of his back, still clutching her flint and
steel.

As Kira lifted her trailing leg out of the snow, pain tore through her right calf and she screamed in agony. An ice worm had bitten deep into the flesh and was now dangling behind her as she
tried in vain to drag herself higher from the white surface. She could feel its teeth sinking deeper and deeper into her muscle, slicing through her flesh and sending a wave of icy coldness up and
down her leg.

Fang’s head twisted on his long neck and with a touch of finesse she would not have believed possible of her dragon, he twitched the tail of the great worm out so he could catch its body
between his teeth. There was another sickening crunch as he sheared the worm in two, but to Kira’s horror, the head end of the creature did not let go of her leg. It thrashed around, tearing
her flesh even more, its teeth clamping tighter and tighter.

Screaming with every scrap of energy her lungs could find, she reached down with her right hand and began hitting it with the flint. The surface of the worm was slippery like ice and hard as
steel. Her efforts proved worse than useless. Rather than let go, the worm tried all the harder to bite right through to the bone.

‘Heat!’
Fang told her, his voice frantic.
‘Use the flint and steel. Ice worms cannot stand fire.’

Kira twisted so that she could sit on Fang’s shoulder. Below her the snow was heaving in waves as a multitude of worms attacked from all sides. Despite dozens latching onto the
dragon’s body, he remained motionless for fear of tipping Kira from her precarious perch. Reaching down with both hands this time, she scraped the steel against the flint and sent a shower of
bright golden sparks across the worm’s body.

The dying creature’s response was instant. It could not let go fast enough. It released its grip and fell away from her, sliding down Fang’s foreleg only to be consumed in seconds by
the thrashing mass of ice worms below.

‘Well done. Now get into the saddle, Kira,’
Fang urged.
‘I need to move. My scales are tough, but this looks like a big swarm. Even a dragon cannot hope to survive
long against a sustained attack by ice worms.’

She turned, wincing as lines of pain shot up her injured leg. It only took her a few seconds, but it quickly became apparent that even this short time might prove fatal. Hundreds of worms had
gained purchase on Fang’s body. Having gained a hold with their teeth, the worms had then burrowed back, tail first into the frozen ground and were now holding Fang in place like a web of
living ropes. She could feel his muscles bunching and straining as he tried to lift his belly from the ground, but he could no longer move.

The pain in her leg was forgotten. Her fear was absolute. Worse – she could feel it shared and amplified by her dragon. The snowy carpet under the trees was alive with rippling movement as
more and more worms swam through the snow towards them. They were trapped and she could see no way out. Without a miracle, she and Fang were going to die a horrible death.

It was strange. Normally flying hazards served to increase Nolita’s fears, but the onset of the snowstorm had actually helped her to control her emotions. The dancing
white flakes provided a mesmerising show that held her attention and deadened her mind to reality. Perhaps it was because it reminded her of midwinter feasts back home in Cemaria – happy
times with family and friends. Perhaps it was the subtle way it played with her vision, never allowing her focus to settle at any one distance. Whatever the reason, Nolita was surprisingly content
to be flying on Firestorm’s back this afternoon.

It was cold, of course. Bitterly cold. But the rhythm of Firestorm’s wingbeats and the gentle rising and falling motion of his body had become so familiar over the past two weeks that her
fear of falling from his back had dimmed. It was the first physical contact with her dragon each time she flew that she dreaded the most. The act of reaching up and touching her dragon’s leg
in order to mount him still filled her mind with black dread.

She knew it was irrational. Through her bond with Firestorm, she could feel his thoughts and emotions. To begin with she had been convinced he was trying to deceive her, but she could no longer
deny the truth. The dragon cared deeply for her. But even her intimate knowledge of his feelings did not curb her physical reaction to his size and appearance. Nolita had learned ways to counter
her fear of heights whilst flying, but she had found nothing that could help dim her reaction to Firestorm’s size and initial proximity.

A night dragon’s screaming cry rent the air behind her. The sound struck her with a force that was almost physical. She had allowed the snow to lull her vision and detach her mind from her
situation. An attack by night dragons had always been a possibility, but she had not expected it to come so soon. Where were her friends? Elian was to her left, riding Aurora, but he was barely
visible and there was no sign of the others. In the blink of an eye her fears were back with full force.

‘Hang on,’
Fire’s voice warned in her mind.
‘It’s too dangerous to stay with the others. We’re going it alone.’

Nolita did not reply. Instead, she clung with all her might to the pommel of her saddle. Firestorm dipped his right wing, turning positively away from Aurora for a few seconds before turning
back to parallel his original course.

Another scream sounded. This one seemed to come from directly ahead. There was a short pause and then a bellowing roar unlike anything Nolita had ever heard before. Her heart was pounding hard
and fast. A huge shadow suddenly blossomed ahead and slightly above them. It was a night dragon. There was no mistaking the sheer size of it. It cut across them, angling towards the source of the
huge roar that had reverberated a few seconds before.

‘It’s all right. The roar was Fang,’
Firestorm informed her.
‘He’s going to draw the night dragons off and give the rest of us a chance to get away.
It’s lucky he got their attention, or that one would have seen us for sure.’

Nolita wanted to feel relief, but she was too scared. The dancing white curtain of snow that had lulled her mind moments earlier had suddenly become a white veil of terror. Behind it lurked
unknown horrors waiting to pounce.