Dragon Battle: A young adult epic fantasy dragon rider adventure (Riders of Fire Dragon Masters Book 9) by Mueller Eileen

Author:Mueller, Eileen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phantom Feather Press
Published: 2025-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

Skirmish

Ustoria surged from the ocean, shaking salty droplets from her hide. Flapping her wings, she headed over the eastern edge of the city toward Tonio’s stables. Suddenly, she twisted in midair and angled down toward the peach orchard. “I smell tharuk,” she mind-melded.

A scream rang out.

“Someone’s in trouble,” Ustoria snarled.

Before Rusty could answer, the elegant sea dragon had furled her wings and was diving for the peach trees.

Rusty snatched her cutlass from its sheath as Ustoria jetted flame down through the trees at a huddle of dark-furred monsters. Three tharuks bellowed as flame engulfed them.

The wind from Ustoria’s wings blasted the peach foliage back, revealing a chilling sight. Between the trees, tharuks were shackling a young girl.

Rusty’s hammering heart skipped a beat. By the flarking fleas on a bilge rat! “Ustoria, it’s Rosita!”

“How dare those beasts infiltrate our orchard!” Ustoria growled. “How dare they harm our friend.”

“Warn Antonika!” Rusty bellowed as Ustoria landed in the clearing at the end of the orchard and Rusty slid from the saddle, running toward the monsters with her cutlass in hand.

§

Tonio was holding Rosita in his arms, kissing her tenderly and murmuring sweet nothings against her dark fragrant hair when a snarl ripped through his head. He woke with his arms empty and the hay beside him cold. Rosita was not there.

“She’s in the orchard fighting tharuks,” Antonika snarled, landing on the roof of the barn and shaking the shingles.

Tonio scrambled into his clothes and grabbed his weapons, thrusting them into his belt, and opened the small door at the back of the hayloft. “I’m ready when you are.”

Antonika dived off the roof. Tonio took a running leap out of the hayloft, leaving the door flapping in the wind. The breeze tugged at his hair as he plummeted through the air and landed in his ruby dragon’s saddle. The impact shuddered through his sit bones and spine, but he didn’t care. “Fly like the wind.”

Antonika was already airborne, her powerful wings beating toward the orchard. “I’ll fly faster than the wind,” she snarled. “How dare those beasts attack your lover!”

“How did you know?” Tonio barked.

“Captain Rusty’s sea dragon.” Antonika soared across the meadows and the road, landing by the peach orchard next to Ustoria before Tonio could ask how Ustoria had known. He dropped from the saddle and raced into the trees.

A tharuk leaped out from behind a peach trunk and swung its claws at him. Tonio ducked. Shards, the beast had limplock dripping off its claws. Tonio lunged and swung his sword, hacking off its clawed hand at the wrist. Was Rosita hurt? Where was she? The beast dived at him, trailing inky blood, and lowered its head, ripping upward with its tusks.

Tonio leaped backwards, hunching and pulling his stomach back as the tip scraped his jerkin. Close call. But the beast had made a fatal mistake lowering its head like that. Raising his sword with both hands, he hacked through the tharuk’s neck, severing its head from its body in a fountain of dark blood.

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