Shell's Story by Leroy Clary

Author:Leroy Clary
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Epic, Teen & Young Adult, Sword & Sorcery, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Published: 2016-11-17T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Shell ran all the rest of the way. Henry lay motionless in the mud in his front yard. Shell sprinted to his side, falling to his knees. The boy breathed, but he’d been beaten. His eye was already turning color, blood ran from two places on his forehead, as if he’d been struck with a club.

The boy weighed almost nothing as Shell carried him into the house. His left arm seemed to be hurt, and as he squinted to open his right eyes, he smiled. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

“Who did this?”

Henry pointed to the north. The words came forth slow and slurred. “Smithson and his sons.”

Shell spun and walked outside to where he’d found the boy. Footprints left and headed north. Shell followed them, a cold anger growing with every step until he was filled with rage.

A man stood ahead, hands on hips. “Want something boy? Maybe sell me a farm for nothing?”

Four others stood behind him, all bearing similar features, and smiling false smiles. They held clubs, shovels, and one a pitchfork. Shell should have taken the time to grab his staff. But fighting five farmers were a task few would accept. His fists balled.

Run. The thought came from the wolf. But Shell didn’t feel like running. He felt like fighting. Then he felt another sensation. A tingling grew on his back. His eyes flicked to the sky. A small red dot approached from behind the men.

He shouted, “You beat the boy. I’m here to avenge that beating, and all of the rest that you did to him, and to his parents.”

The older man strode confidently ahead, a sneer on his lips. “You’re going to end up dead, just like them.”

“Pudding isn’t dead. Not yet. But I am going to even things up. Pay him for all the damage and I’ll let you go. All of you.

“You’ll let us go?” the man chuckled, as the others laughed. One moved ahead; his hay-rake lifted high.

“This is your last chance,” Shell said, feeling the small red dragon’s anger on his back and refusing to retreat a single step.

The hay-rake swung and missed as Shell ducked. The red dragon screamed as it attacked unseen by the farmers, knocking down one man, slashing open the stomach of a second, and landing long enough to tear at the arm of another with a mouthful of teeth. It leaped into the air and flew higher, then spun and attacked them again. On the third pass, all five men lay in the mud, broken but alive.

Shell reached out and felt for the mind of the wolf, and pulled back in shock and loathing. It raged red, as Shell’s had a few minutes earlier, as it attacked and tore the throats from every farm animal it encountered in the Smithson farm. Cows, sheep, chickens, horses, and goats all lay dead. The wolf snarled in anger and searched for anything else alive to kill.

The dragon flew higher into the sky and circled the farmhouse where smoke rose from the chimney.

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