“Where do you think the dragon is hiding?” I asked Cadmus. He looked around and shook his head.
“I don’t know. We’ll smell it before we see it, though.”
“That sounds pleasant,” I mumbled.
The scenery here was beautiful. I had never ventured this far into the mountains before. Jagged rocks, pine trees, multi-colored layers of shale and resplendent greenery covered the hillsides. It was a nature lover’s paradise.
“I haven’t seen Ortrera yet, either,” I mentioned off-hand. “I wonder if that means that we are off course?”
“I don’t think so,” Cadmus said confidently. “Look.”
I followed his pointing finger to find giant claw-tipped footprints embedded deep into the ground. Each print was longer than I was tall.
“Sweet heavens,” I breathed. “It must be enormous.”
“Yes,” Cadmus agreed as he reached around his back and withdrew a thick arrow from his quiver and loaded it into a bow.
“No,” I cried out. He looked at me in alarm. “We can’t kill it. We have to capture it. We have to deliver it to my father.”
Cadmus nodded. “And we will. If we can. But if we can’t, I’m not going to let it eat us for dinner, either.”
A sudden feeling of panic overtook me. It had never occurred to me that we might not succeed. In my head, we captured the dragon, led it to Ares and lived happily ever after. Killing the dragon instead didn’t enter the equation.
But I realized now that we might face an impossible feat. A dragon this large would not be taken quietly. We only had the weapons that we could carry. We had no horses. No magic. We didn’t have anything that we needed to be successful and I felt my shoulders droop.
“Don’t get discouraged,” Cadmus said, noticing my sudden quiet. “I never give up, Harmonia. That’s something you should learn.”
I gestured toward the giant tracks. “But this… this is crazy. I don’t know what I was thinking. We’ll have to think of another way for you to get into my father’s good graces. This was not my best idea.”
Cadmus studied me for a moment, his dark eyes thoughtful.
“Harmonia, do you think that I can’t get into your father’s good graces on my own? Do you believe that I have no redeeming qualities already?”
I startled and shook my head quickly.
“No! Not at all. I just wanted to help. I know my father and—“
Cadmus smiled patiently. “I know that you know him better than I do, Harmonia, but I’ve been with him for seven years now. I’ve gotten to know him and I’ll admit, I like him. He’s rough around the edges, but he is true to those important to him. I have no doubt that when the time comes, he’ll see the situation for what it is. He’ll recognize that I can make you happy and that you want to be with me.”
I watched him, mesmerized.
“I do?”
He nodded. “You certainly do. And I will make you happy.”
“Will you love me?” My voice was small. He smiled slightly.
“I will. Eventually.”
I squeaked at his answer and he smiled, but before he could say anything else, a shriek resounded from somewhere very near. Cadmus’ head snapped up and we whirled about, trying to locate the source of the scream.
Shoving me behind him, Cadmus once again drew his bow and held it tautly as we searched for whoever had screamed. We felt certain that when we found it, we would also find the dragon.
We weren’t wrong.
After ten minutes of downhill hiking, a horrible, acrid odor assaulted my nose and I clamped my hands over it.
“By the gods,” I muttered. “It smells like…it smells like…” I wracked my brain but couldn’t think of a word bad enough to describe the foul smell.
“I know,” Cadmus agreed. “It does. We’re close.”
We rounded the edge of thick greenery and spilled out into an open meadow. And when we did, we found Ortrera and her one warrior circling the most enormous beast I had ever seen. It was bigger than any chimera I’d ever seen, even bigger than the underwater hydras. It was a massive, massive beast. Red scales larger than my head covered its body and it had enormous black claws that scratched the dirt in agitation.
I was speechless as I stared up at it. It sensed our movement and turned its large head, its orange eye rolling to look at us. It exhaled quickly in a puff of steam and Cadmus shoved me to the ground behind him as he held his knapsack in front of his face. Fire scorched the earth around us and caught fire to his bag. He dropped it and grabbed me by the arm, yanking me to my feet.
“Run!” he told me, pointing to a large boulder on the other side of the beast.
I did as I was told, thinking that Cadmus would be right behind me. But when I got there and turned around, I found that he was still with the dragon.
“Cadmus!” I screamed.
The beast twisted around and stared at me with a glittering glare. I screamed again and dove behind a large stone.
I trembled for a moment before I realized that I couldn’t hide. I was here for a purpose and hiding behind a boulder wasn’t going to accomplish it. As I scrambled to my feet, I heard Cadmus and Ortrera calling my name, but not before I realized why.
As I peered over the boulder, the dragon’s face was staring directly into mine. It had come to seek me out and was waiting quietly for me to move.
I froze, unsure of what to do. With one fiery breath, he could burn me alive. I stared into its orange glassy eye and saw a reflection of my terrified face. The quick glimpse was all it took to bolster my courage. I didn’t want to see myself like that…like a frightened child. I wanted to be brave. And people weren’t born brave. They made themselves brave by acting boldly in the face of their fear.
I took a deep breath.
In response, the dragon took a deep breath. My heart speeded up. All it would take would be for the dragon to sigh one small sigh of fire and I would be toast. Literally.
I could hear Ortrera and Cadmus in the background, yelling to me, but I tuned them out. I focused on the dragon’s face, on his fetid breath, on trying to decide what to do. And before I could think of a good plan, I acted.
Like lightning, and with almost a will of its own, my hand shot out and my fingers jabbed the dragon in its giant eye. The beast roared and reared back on its hind legs and I ran for cover as fire rained down around me. Cadmus and Ortrera motioned for me to join them so I ran with everything I had to reach them. They were huddled behind a large wall of rock and I rounded the corner and flew into them.