Becoming a Dragon (27 page)

Hill thought for a minute.
It's worth a try. West, you'll be heading west, to keep things simple. I'll head north. Forest will head south, Butcher, north west and you Farmer will head south west. Remember, count to five hundred slowly before turning west, and if you're tracked, walk while counting to a thousand before running. All clear? Go!

The five of them all scattered, and it wasn't long before the others were out of sight. Pete could see the Blue Dragons circling above, screeching angrily and trying to keep track of each of them. Before he had reached one hundred he lost sight of them. He increased his pace, hoping to put as much distance between him and the enemy and knowing that reinforcements could arrive at any minute.

He reached five hundred, and still no Blue Dragons were visible. Clearly he had been one of the lucky ones. He turned to the west, continuing running at the unsustainable pace he had set. He wondered who had been the unlucky two. He knew none of them, but still felt a little sad knowing that they had no chance of survival.

Eventually he slowed, unable to keep up the pace any longer. He turned to the north east, hoping to cross the path Anna had taken. Their clawed feet left unmistakeable tracks, so if he crossed her path he should be able to track her down. Unless she was one of the unlucky ones.

Pete started counting again, wondering he would manage to find any of them in this forest. Part of him hoped not; if he could find them so could the Blue Dragons, but he did miss having company.

He reached five hundred, and saw no sign of Anna or any of the other dragons. He turned west again; she must have either ran slowly or been taken by the two Blue Dragons. He ran on, glancing up at the sky every now and then for signs of the Blues but seeing nothing. It crossed his mind to transform now that he had lost the Blues they would find it much harder to spot him as a human than as a large, bright red dragon, but he decided not to. He still had a long way to go and could move much quickly like this.

Pete ran on like this for a while, and had given up hope of finding Anna when he stumbled onto her trail. He hadn't realised quite how easy they were to follow; the broken branches and deep footprints were easy to read. He ran faster, eager to catch up with her now that he knew she was ahead, and since she was ahead, knowing that she must have evaded the Blue Dragons.

He didn't have to run long before he caught up with her.
Hey, Anna. It's Pete!

The Red Dragon glanced over its shoulder and came to a halt.
Hi, Pete. I'm glad you made it. Any sign of the two Blue Dragons?

None; and no sign of reinforcements either. We're riding our luck at the moment.

Anna looked at her broken wings.
Maybe. I'd have appreciated the luck a little earlier though.

Pete nodded.
Let's not push our luck though, we should keep moving. You can set the pace, I'll run with you.

Do you think we should transform yet? We are easier to see like this.

True, but we are faster too and have better eyesight, and they still know roughly where we are. I think we should just concentrate on moving as quickly as we can.

Anna set off again, running along the path. As dragons there was no way that they could travel on foot without leaving a trail, and Pete soon realised this running behind Anna. Still, it would be hard to spot or follow from the air, so it was worth the risk.

They had run for about four hours since they left the town now, and they hadn't seen a Blue Dragon for almost three hours. They reached the peak of a hill and could see the mountains and the pass in the distance.

That looks a long way off
, Anna observed.

It is
, Pete replied.
I think we have already covered about a third of the way though.

Maybe, but we have slowed already, and even this pace is getting to be too much for me. We will need to rest soon.

Agreed; I think we can spare a little time now. Let's transform. We will be able to hide more easily.

Anna moved behind a tree to transform and Pete did the same. She emerged wearing the standard issue lightweight flying clothes. She looked about the same age as Pete, and had an intelligent, pretty face and an athletic build.

"Not ideal for sleeping rough," she said, glancing at her clothes, "especially up on that pass."

"We will worry about that when we get there," Pete replied. "There are plenty of things to worry about between here and there."

Anna sat down under a tree with wide branches, and Pete sat next to her.

"Been serving long?" Pete asked.

"Six months," she replied. "Six months to go. You?"

"Eighteen months, six to go. How are you escaping after just one year?"

"There are not many people in my village, and we've been designated a strategic village on the basis that we produce vital supplies. Which just happens to be a high quality wine that the King is particularly fond of."

Pete laughed. "Sadly, dairy farmers aren't so important."

"Farmer by name, farmer by trade, eh?"

"Of course," Pete replied. "So many generations we've lost count."

"Although of course you're temporarily not a farmer. Maybe you should be called Pete Soldier."

"Not any longer," Pete replied sadly. "I won't be flying any time soon, or possibly at all. They'll let me off the last six months, I expect. If I make it back, that is. Your wings didn't look quite as bad. Of course it's both of them, but I think they could mend."

"They don't hurt when we're like this. Although to be honest the pain of them tearing wasn't that bad when it happened."

"The landing was much worse," Pete agreed. "I couldn't believe I was still alive after that."

"My landing is a blur. I can't have been that high or I'd have been splattered over the road, but it was enough to knock me senseless."

"At least we lived. I saw quite a few that didn't."

"More of them. The place was covered with their dead. Not enough for me though. I hate them. I hate what they do to us. This should teach them."

Pete shrugged. "I thought so before today. I'm not sure now. If anything, I think they'll want to attack us even more than before."

Anna laughed coldly. "They'll be too afraid after this. We massacred them. They now know what we're capable of and what we'll do if they attack us."

Pete paused. "Did you land? Did you fight on the ground?"

Anna shook her head. "I didn't see much of the battle. I was injured quite early. No one had landed at that point. Why do you ask?"

A screech overhead distracted them. They clung to the tree for cover while peering up cautiously through the branches. High above them they saw a Blue Dragon flying past, scanning the ground. They held their breath as it flew away, not daring to move or speak till it was completely out of sight.

"He's searching," Anna observed, breathing a sigh of relief. "Reinforcements? Or do you think he's one of the first two?"

Pete shrugged. "I don't know, but I do know we'll be caught if we stay here too long. We need to keep moving. This hill is a little too exposed. We can transform further down the hill."

They travelled as humans down the hill, trying to stick to the few trees that covered the hill. The trees grew taller and thicker as they reached the bottom of the slope.

"Well that was slow," Anna declared. "Let's not do that too often. Face the other way while I transform, please." They both transformed, and resumed their journey as dragons. Seeing the Blue Dragon flying above them had renewed their resolve, and they maintained a good pace for the next hour, covering a lot of ground. They felt relatively safe within the forest, under the cover of the trees. It had now reached late afternoon, and they hadn't seen any Blue Dragons since they stopped on the hill. Up ahead of them they could that they were approaching a gap in the trees.

End of the forest?
Anna asked.

Pete shook his head.
I doubt it; we can't have gone that far. Come on, we can't stop here. It's probably just a clearing.

They cautiously headed to the edge of the forest, and found that the break was due to a fast flowing river, with a high cliff on the other side.

I'd forgotten there was a river,
Pete commented.
That's going to make things a bit tricky
.

Can't we just cross it?

Pete shook his head.
Look at the water. It's flowing too quickly, and the other side can't be climbed.

Anna pawed the ground impatiently.
We can just follow the river till we find a place to cross. It runs from the south east to the north west; let's go right, that's at least towards where we want to be
.

Pete hesitated, looking at the cliff opposite them.
Alright, but I don't like this. We are a bit too exposed here, and it feels wrong.

Stay and we're dead. We have to keep moving, remember? You keep on saying that,
she reminded him
.

I know,
Pete replied. B
ut it never felt wrong before. I wonder if we should go left.

That would be the wrong way! Right would be quicker. I think I remember this river now. It snakes its way from the mountains. If we follow it north, it will curve to the east. We may not even need to cross it.

Pete nodded reluctantly.
It just feels like we're being funnelled into somewhere we don't want to be. They would know this forest well and know that we'd eventually meet this river and bear north. They should be watching this river.

We haven't seen anyone. We must be making better progress than they thought we could make. We just need to keep up this pace to stay ahead of them.

Pete reluctantly agreed and they continued their journey, running as quickly as they could along the edge of the trees beside the river as quickly. Anna was right, the river did curve eastwards, but not for long before bending to the north again, and the cliff on the other side remaining as high and unclimbable as ever. This repeated twice, curving east, then back to north, without any opportunity to cross, before Pete noticed footprints on the ground.

Stop, look at this!

Anna stopped beside him and studied the tracks.
What are they? Blues or Red Dragons?

Peter put his foot beside one if the prints.
Ours, definitely. Far too big to be theirs.

Anna looked at the trail ahead of them.
Damn, that's pretty easy to see. That's what we've been leaving behind us?

Pete nodded grimly.
At some point they'll have a look along the banks of this river, and once they see this trail it'll be easy to find us.

Anna looked up at the sky anxiously, looking for Blue Dragons.
What shall we do?

Firstly, catch up with the others. They probably don't realise that they're leaving this trail. Then we need to get away from this river bank. Next time it turns to the east we head north east instead. Come on, we need to speed up to catch them.

Pete ran along the bank, moving as fast as he could maintain, letting Anna fall behind a little on the basis that when he caught the others she would catch up. It didn't take long before he caught sight of the others, just around a bend.

Hello!
Pete called out in greeting.

Farmer? Is that you?
It was Hill, with the two other dragons, who came to a stop and turned to face him.

It is; wow, I didn't expect to see you again.
Pete panted hard as he caught his breath, smoke streaming from his nostrils.

Nor I you; after I met up with Butcher and Forest, we assumed that you and West were the ones they followed.

No, Anna is just behind me. So they lost all five of us?

It would appear so. We haven't seen them in ages. Hard to believe our luck. Ah, here's West now.

You caught up with them. Three of them? We all escaped?

We did,
Hill replied.
You were moving quickly. Did you see something?

Yes, your footprints,
Pete replied, gesturing to the ground with a claw.
Maybe you haven't noticed, but tracking you along this trail is very easy. As soon as they look at this river bank they'll have us.

Hill looked back at the trail.
Well, well; you're right. We should have kept further away from the bank. We were looking for a crossing. We will cut into the forest here. We can travel parallel to the river, and check every now and then if there is a crossing.

Hill led them through the undergrowth into the forest, and they continued at a reasonable pace. Hill checked on the river every couple of miles, but the river was still impossible to cross.

They ran for another hour, and the sun was starting to set, yet they still hadn't found a place to cross the river. The cliffs had been getting lower along the river each time they had ventured close enough to look, so Hill decided they'd have one last look at whether they could cross the river before nightfall.