Colemine, the Prince by Clayton Smith

Author:Clayton Smith [Smith, Clayton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Dapper Press
Published: 2019-04-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7:

In Which a Monster is Viewed From a Distance

The Stranger shouldered his way through the batwings and stepped into the sandy desert floor of Reaper’s Gulch. The air on this side of the gateway was hot, and dry, and it felt a little like home.

He’d come across just behind an old, rickety barn on the edge of some poor prospector’s land. A clapboard house of sun-bleached boards stood off to the side, near the main roadway. The land was expansive, but sandy and barren. There were a few dozen oil drills set up out on the desert hardpan, and not a single one of them was churning.

The Stranger heard the creak of an opening door from the other direction, and he turned toward the sound, seamlessly pulling his six-shooter from its holster. He leveled the barrel at the source of the creak, then realized it was just a small boy exiting the outhouse back behind the clapboard home. The boy stopped when he saw the cowboy with the gun and threw his hands into the air. His trousers, which he hadn’t quite managed to re-fasten, fell to his knees, exposing two scrawny legs clad in a pair of dirty long Johns.

The boy hadn’t expected to see a new swinging batwing door set into the side of his pa’s barn, or a dangerous man with a drawn pistol stepping through it.

The Stranger frowned and motioned the boy away with the barrel of the gun. The boy gratefully hiked up his britches and stumbled quickly toward the house.

“Come on out,” the Stranger mumbled over his shoulder. “Coast is clear.”

The children stepped through the doors and shuffled into the bright, hot desert afternoon. “Did we make it?” Cole asked warily. “Is it Reaper’s Gulch?”

The Stranger gave a curt nod. “I believe it is.” He motioned off to his left, away from the nearby town, over toward the horizon, where a gargantuan, seven-headed creature perched atop an outcropping of stone jutting up from the sandy floor, its massive black talons clutching the pale, white rock. The stone opened up into a cave just beneath the great beast’s leathery wings, and before it stood three people, engaged in a heated discussion. “Something tells me that’s where we’ll find Polly.”

“In there?” Cole asked, his voice swallowed up by the tightness in his throat. He could hear the beast breathing, even from this great distance, and could see the sunlight reflecting off its long, curved teeth, each one the size of a grown man’s forearm.

He hoped Prince Colemine had a little more magic up his sleeve.

“I should have stayed behind,” the prince whispered, instantly snuffing out Cole’s hope.

The Stranger gritted his teeth and pulled the brim of his hat low against the blowing sand. “Best I handle this one alone,” he decided.

“Aw, come on!” Willy whined. “I want to slay a dragon!” He picked up a plank of wood from the side of the barn and slashed it through the air, just barely missing Etherie’s nose.

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