The Frog Princess 07 - Dragon Kiss

by E. D. Baker

  “The sea witch who I got it from said that it would torment sea monsters and make them leave,” said Audun.

  Hugo looked puzzled. “I’d heard that it will calm sea monsters so you can talk to them.”

  “That may be true,” Audun replied. “I wouldn’t trust anything that sea witch says; she’s a notorious liar.”

  “Do you still think you should use it, Hugo?” his wife asked. “We wouldn’t want to torment them and drive them off if they have Penelope with them. They might hurt her . . .”

  “If they haven’t already,” murmured Clifton.

  His mother’s chin wobbled, but she managed to say, “Or abandon her, and then we’d never find her.”

  “That’s a good point,” said Hugo.

  Audun cleared his throat. “Maybe I can help. I’m pretty good at tracking things, even underwater. If sea monsters took her, I should be able to find her. Can I see something of hers, as well as the place where you found the prints?”

  “I’ll get something that belongs to Penelope,” said Mona, her eyes glistening with hope.

  “And we’ll show you where we found the picture and the prints!” exclaimed Tomas.

  The ground shook so much as all the giants got to their feet that Audun couldn’t stand. He was stumbling around when he finally spread his wings and rose into the air, although he didn’t go very high.

  It looked like it was going to take Mona a few minutes to get something of Penelope’s, so Audun followed the boys. When they crouched beside something on the sand, Audun landed and bent down to look. Clifton said that he had placed spindly pieces of driftwood around the marks on the beach, but there were only a few indentations and the blowing sand had made them indistinct. Audun examined them for a moment, noting the acrid scent of whatever had made them, then the boys showed him where the picture had been. Most of the shells had washed away; Tomas had stacked the rest in a pile just beyond the water’s reach. Audun picked up one of the shells and sniffed it. The shell carried the same scent as the marks in the sand. He set it down when Mona arrived with Penelope’s shoes, which the girl had taken off while playing on the beach. They, too, had a very distinct smell.

  “I think I’m ready now,” said Audun. “But first, tell me, can your daughter swim?”

  “Like a fish,” said Hugo, who had come with his wife. “We made sure all three children could swim before we set sail.”

  “Where did you spot the sea monster?”

  Hugo pointed out to sea. “Just past those rocks. There, where the waves are breaking.”

  “Then that’s where I’ll begin,” said Audun. After assuring himself that the amulet was still around his neck, he told the family of giants that he would do his best to find Penelope, and dove into the middle of a curling wave before it could crash over his head.

  Although he had hoped to find Penelope’s scent, it was the smell from the beach that Audun detected first. It was stronger than any other scent he found, as if whatever had made it had just passed by. Audun followed the trail like a hound would a rabbit, with his nose quivering and all his attention focused on that one telling odor.

  The water was colder here than where Nastia Nautica lived, but Audun liked it better this way. The water farther south had been so warm that it had made him drowsy, but the cold water rushing against his scales as he sped beneath the waves now was invigorating. The fish weren’t as brightly colored here, but there were more of them, and he would have been easily distracted if he hadn’t been on such an important mission . . . or hadn’t just eaten.

  The scent grew stronger as Audun swam and he was convinced that he must be getting close. Suddenly, he glimpsed something nearly as big as himself swimming just above the edge of a rocky outcropping. Drawn by the scent, Audun followed the creature, noting the long whip-like tail that propelled it through the water. The beast was easy to see against the browns and grays of its surroundings because its long, thin body was colored a contrasting orange and yellow. As Audun drew closer, he saw that rows of thin legs ending in suckers were tucked under the monster’s body, and its eyes, when it turned to look at him, were enormous.

  The creature blinked, as if in surprise at seeing a dragon, and began to swim more rapidly. When it looked back a short time later and saw that Audun was still following, its tail became a blur and it sped away faster than Audun would have thought possible. Sure that he had found the sea monster that had taken Penelope, Audun raced after it.

  The creature twisted and turned, swimming around obstacles as it tried to lose the young dragon. When it sped through a school of fish so quickly they didn’t have time to get out of the way, so did Audun. When he raced through a gap in the side of a shipwreck, so did Audun. They passed islands and a peninsula that jutted out into the sea without Audun losing sight of the monster.

  The water became deeper and colder. They circled the peak of a mostly submerged mountain, startling huge fish that flashed blue and silver as they changed direction. Every so often the sea monster would turn to see if Audun was still behind him, and each time the dragon was a little bit closer. Audun wasn’t aware of how far they had traveled until they entered a trench that split the floor of the sea in two. He had heard about the Mary Alice Trench, named after two mermaids who had entered it on a bet and never returned, but he didn’t know anyone who had actually gone there. Loathsome creatures supposedly inhabited its depths, which ran deeper than Audun had ever gone, but he followed the monster, not wanting to lose it.

  The water around them grew even darker as they traveled downward, and Audun began to feel pains in his chest and limbs. When the sea monster’s swimming became more labored, the dragon was sure that the creature was feeling similar discomfort, but they continued to go deeper until Audun could scarcely see. Strange creatures swam past, illuminating their way with lights they carried on their bodies. Some had little lanterns dangling from their heads while others had rows of glowing spots on their sides. A few darted away at Audun’s approach, while one with ferocious teeth set in huge, gaping jaws swam a little bit closer, but none were brave enough to come after a dragon.

  It was so dark now that Audun was following the sea monster by its scent alone; and then he encountered a strong mineral smell that nearly overwhelmed all the other odors. A few minutes later, he spotted the glow of a fire in the water ahead. Thinking he’d seen the sea monster pass in front of it, he swam toward the light, but it was so bright that it made him blind to everything beyond it.

  Enormous plumes of fire and gas were erupting from a hole in the seafloor, heating the water. Clusters of tall tubes sprouted from the ground around the hole and Audun wondered what they might be. A slim, wormlike creature poked its head out of one of the tubes and eyed him. When he did nothing more threatening than look back at it, the worm said, “Hello!” in a cheery voice.

  Instantly, a hundred other worms popped out of a hundred other tubes.

  “Who are you talking to?” some said.

  “Are you talking to me?” asked a dozen others.

  “Look, we have company!” said the worms who had noticed Audun.

  “Are you a fish?” asked three or four, while twenty wondered aloud what he could possibly be.

  “I’m Audun,” replied the young dragon, who had been taught to always be polite. “I’m a dragon.”

  “Ooh!” exclaimed nearly every worm. “A dragon!”

  “What’s a dragon?” only one was bold enough to ask.

  “I’m sorry. I’d like to stay and chat, but I’m looking for someone. Have any of you seen a sea monster with a whiplike tail who passed by here just a moment ago? We were together, but I seem to have lost him.”

  “What’s a sea monster?” asked some.

  “What’s a whip?” asked others.

  “What’s a tail?” asked the smallest worm in the shortest tube. When the rest turned to look at him, snickering, he disappeared into his tube and refused to come back out.

  “We saw something big go that way,�
�� said the first worm. It jerked its head in a direction Audun never would have guessed. “It wasn’t nice like you. It didn’t stop to say hello.”

  “They rarely do,” said another worm.

  “How true,” said at least a dozen, sounding mournful.

  “Thank you very much,” said Audun. “You’ve been very helpful.”

  “You’re welcome,” said all the worms at once.

  “Good-bye,” Audun called, as he turned to follow the sea monster.

  “Good-bye!” they all called back.

  “Such a nice dragon,” said one of the worms, as Audun swam away.

  “What’s a dragon?” asked a chorus of wormy voices.

  Audun swam into the darkness, hoping the worm had been right, but he didn’t have to go far before he picked up the sea monster’s scent again. Soon light began to relieve the gloom enough that he could see the walls of the trench on either side. A few minutes later he spotted the sea monster in the distance.

  Audun had just left the trench when he saw bubbles from a channel of water rushing by faster than the sea around it. He watched as the sea monster hesitated, then plunged into the current and was swept away. Determined not to be left behind, Audun darted forward and dove in after the already disappearing beast.

  Although the current carried him forward at an amazing pace, it was carry ing the sea monster just as quickly. Audun was exhausted, but he’d have to swim even faster if he wanted to catch up to the monster. It wasn’t long, however, before the monster glanced behind him and saw the advancing dragon. With a swish of its tail, the beast slipped from the current. If Audun hadn’t been watching closely, he would have been carried far past the monster, but he reacted quickly enough that he dropped out of the current only yards behind the monster.

  The sea monster looked tired now, too, and didn’t go far before turning to face Audun. Gathering his strength, the young dragon closed on the beast who met him with a slash of his tail. Audun bit the tail and the monster turned to grapple with him, fastening its suckers onto the dragon’s scales. The beast pulled and would have ripped some of the scales from Audun’s body if the dragon hadn’t bitten one of the monster’s legs, hard.

  “Wait!” shouted the sea monster. “I have to know— why are you chasing me? What have I ever done to you? I don’t even know you.”

  “You took a little girl,” growled Audun. He was surprised to hear the sea monster laugh.

  “Is that what this is about?” the beast said, relieving the pressure on Audun’s scales. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”

  Audun shook the monster until its teeth clacked. “This isn’t a joke,” he hissed.

  “Of course it isn’t,” the monster hurried to say. “If you mean that giant hulking girl, we didn’t take her. She followed my friend Blooger. We’ve been trying to send her home ever since.”

  “What do you mean by ‘followed’?” asked Audun.

  “We were over by the island where the tastiest seaweed grows, resting after we’d eaten,” said the monster. “Blooger was asleep in the shallow water when something grabbed one of the growths on his back and tried to pull it off. He swam away, of course, and it wasn’t until he was almost home that he realized something was following him. He heard splashing and an awful wailing, and when he looked back he saw an enormous child floundering in the water. Blooger couldn’t just leave the child there to drown! Anyway, he called to me and together we took the girl to our home, which was much closer than hers. That child weighs too much for either one of us to carry by ourselves and it was a struggle for the two of us.”

  “And so you just kept her? You didn’t even try to take her back? Do you know how worried her parents are about her?”

  “We tried to tell them! I went back to the seaweed island and left a picture of her on the sand. I drew arrows, too, pointing the way to our home, but they never came. Blooger and I were beginning to think they didn’t want her. I’ve been back there every day hoping to lead them to her, but those people are always throwing stones and I can’t get close enough to talk to them. I was on my way home after stopping by there when you started chasing me.”

  “Take me to the child,” said Audun, releasing his hold on the monster. “Perhaps I can carry her.”

  “You’re welcome to try,” said the sea monster. “My name is Squidge, by the way. And you are . . . ?”

  “Audun,” he replied. “I’m from the Icy North.”

  “Well, Audun from the Icy North, let’s hope you’re a lot stronger than Blooger and I. The sooner we get that girl back with her parents, the happier we’ll be!”

  Audun wasn’t sure how far he could trust Squidge, so he stayed close to the sea monster all the way to the entrance of a tree-shaded lagoon. The young dragon saw the giants’ child right away. She was seated in the shallow water, playing with something that she held in her hands. Not wanting to frighten the girl, he climbed out of the water and walked toward her along the beach so that she’d have plenty of time to see him coming.

  “Penelope,” he said, as he got closer, “my name is Audun. I’ve come to take you to your parents.”

  The girl glanced up at him and smiled. It was obvious from the clean tracks on her cheeks where tears had washed away the dirt that she’d been crying, but she didn’t look upset now. “We go see Mama and Papa?” she asked.

  “That’s right,” said Audun, relieved that she seemed to be unharmed. He walked closer, wondering where the other sea monster was, and aghast that they would leave a young child alone in the water. Then he saw that she wasn’t alone at all. What he’d thought was the sandy bottom of the lagoon was really an enormous oval of sand-colored flesh that rippled at the edges. Penelope was sitting on it, playing with a flower, although when he got closer he realized that it wasn’t a flower, but a fleshy growth sprouting from the monster’s back. A veritable garden of the growths dotted the monster, but most of them were too short to reach above the water.

  “This is my friend Blooger, who I was telling you about,” Squidge said, swimming to the shore where the dragon stood. Sticking his head under the water, the sea monster spoke to his friend. Although Audun couldn’t see its eyes, he was sure that the beast was looking at him.

  When he’d told Squidge that he would take the girl back to her parents, he hadn’t even thought about her size—she was almost as big as Audun.

  “So you’ll tell her parents that it was all a mistake?” asked Squidge. “We didn’t take her, she just sort of came to us.”

  Audun nodded. “I’ll tell them as soon as I get her there. But that might be a problem. I thought I could fly her back, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to lift her. She looks awfully . . . solid.”

  Squidge sighed. “I was afraid of that. I suppose Blooger and I could help you. We might be able to get her all the way there if three of us carry her. Although I don’t know how . . .”

  “I have an idea,” said Audun. “Are there any vines on this island?”

  “I don’t know,” Squidge said. “I haven’t gone past the beach and Blooger never leaves the water.”

  “I’ll go look,” Audun said, already on his way to the trees.

  He was back a few minutes later, laden with long, thick vines. Squidge helped him make a sturdy net big enough to hold Penelope. They were able to convince her to sit in the net only after Squidge told her that she could keep one of Blooger’s flowers, much to his friend’s dismay.

  When everyone was ready, Blooger swam out of the lagoon with Penelope on his back, while Audun supported much of her weight from above and Squidge pushed from behind. Progress was slow as they crossed the sea between the islands, and they had to wait once for a whale to pass, but they eventually had the island in sight and could even see the mast of the giants’ ship.

  Audun was already thinking about taking a quick leave of the giants when the first stone hit the water, narrowly missing Squidge. “Penelope!” screamed the girl’s mother from the shore.

  “I
’m coming, Audun!” bellowed Hugo, as he waded into the water. “Leave them alone, you miserable beast!”

  It occurred to Audun that their little procession might not look quite right from the island. He doubted that the giants could see Blooger, so it probably appeared as if Audun was carrying Penelope in a net while another sea monster chased them.

  “It’s all right!” he shouted, ducking as another stone flew over his head. “The sea monsters are helping me!”

  The barrage of rocks stopped as suddenly as it had started. While the giant family stood on the shore anxiously awaiting Penelope’s arrival, Audun and the monsters labored to push, drag, and carry the now-laughing child through the waves to the beach.

  “Mama!” she shouted. Pausing long enough to rip a flower from the monster’s back, she hopped to her feet and scrambled onto the shore, where her family waited with open arms.

  The sea monsters had no intention of sticking around, but Audun convinced them to wait long enough to tell the giants what had happened. Hugo and Mona listened, skeptical at first, but with growing belief when they saw their little girl’s fascination with the flowers.

  “And remember how she wandered off when we were cutting logs to build the boat? We found her in that meadow filled with wildflowers,” Mona reminded her husband.

  Hugo nodded and bent down to speak to the sea monsters. Keeping his voice soft out of consideration for the smaller creatures, he said, “I don’t know how to thank you. My family is everything to me.”

  “We’re so sorry for ever thinking that you had carried her off,” Mona told them. “Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?”

  “Just don’t throw stones the next time you see us,” said Squidge.

  Although the giants promised never to throw anything at the sea monsters again, Squidge kept eyeing them warily and he and Blooger left soon after. It wasn’t until the monsters had gone that Hugo turned to Audun and said, “Thank you for everything. You came so far, and helped us so much. How can we ever thank you?”

  “There’s no need,” said Audun. “I’m happy I could help. I came on behalf of King Stormclaw and his council, so you can thank them if you’d like.”