No Such Things as Dragons by Philip Reeve

Author:Philip Reeve [Reeve, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4071-2921-1
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2009-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

14

“I’m not sure any more that it is a dragon,” said Brock, some time later.

They had climbed back from the place of the landslide and were looking out across that high valley again, towards the shepherd’s cave with its worm-breached wall. They had found an overhanging crag which gave them a faint sense of shelter, but they all knew that if the dragon wanted them it would have no trouble taking them.

“It has only two legs, and breathes no fire, and whoever heard of a dragon with feathers? Perhaps it is a wyvern, or some other, lesser kind of worm.”

“Who cares what it is?” Else said tetchily. “All worms are much alike, I’d reckon, when you are inside their bellies, and that is where we’re going to end up, isn’t it? The next time it comes it will take us.”

Brock ignored her. He was studying the mountain, looking up past the rocky crags around the valley to the snow and ice of the heights above. “Where does it make its nest?” he wondered.

Ansel sat trying to stop shaking, and wondered how long it would take Brock to understand that he was not a dragon hunter any more, but a dragon’s prey. He kept thinking of Father Flegel, and how surprised the friar had looked when the creature’s jaws clamped round him. And Brezel, who had simply vanished, probably carried away down that slow river of stones. Poor Brezel! Ansel felt that he could have saved him somehow, or at least tried to save him. He should have done something…

They were a miserable sight, the three of them. The horses were gone, and so was their road home. When the dust of the landslide settled they had seen how the track they had hoped to travel down had been swept away: only sections of it remained, interspersed with deep fissures where whole sections of the cliff face had collapsed. Among the rubble they had found the smashed body of Flegel’s horse, and had retrieved the rope and a few blankets and one of its saddlebags. Otherwise they had only the clothes they sat in.

Brock said, “Well, we won’t be going back down by Knochen, that’s for sure. The landslide has seen to that. We must go higher before we go down. That is what God wants of us. No doubt that is why he spared me at the landslide, and let the worm take poor Flegel, who was so full of doubts… If we’re to get off this mountain we’ll have to take the path you spoke of, Else.”

The girl was pressed tight against the rock wall they sat beneath, shivering faintly, watching the after-image of the dragon which had not yet faded from her eyes. Her hands kept kneading the fabric of her dress into tight bunches, smoothing it out and then kneading it again. But she felt Brock’s eyes on her, and looked at him, and saw his smile. It seemed to warm her a little.

“Your father’s path,” he said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.