*
Instead of bringing fire and mass destruction, the dragon silently swooped down on the outer perimeter of the forest at the backside of the giant’s castle. Queen Una carefully watched the guards walk the borders of the castle as she shivered in the cold night. The icy wind from the flight had nearly frozen her armor once again, and she thawed out her fingers and arms by leaning up against the dragon’s warm midsection. She was looking directly at a huge wooden door, one that was large enough for the dragon to pass through easily. After a long inspection of every guard that passed for several hours, she discovered that the giants patrolled regularly and completed a walk from one corner to the next on a count of three hundred taps of her foot. When the guard disappeared around the corner, she could then equate a count of one hundred fifty taps until the next guard came into sight. That allowed plenty of time for her and the dragon to sprint across the open yard and break inside the door. They would then get a good look around the interior of the castle, and maybe even find her father while they explored. At any rate, if she found the king of the giants first, she would have the dragon execute him on sight. As she studied the dragon, she understood that with him tagging along, she was not going to be able to go unseen for long. This turned out to be the one major problem with her plan which she acknowledged quite readily: the dragon could not be easily hidden.
“Dragon, when the guard passes around the far corner, you will need to open the door for me so that I may enter,” she whispered. “I will be able to search for my father alone. I fear that if you enter the palace, we will have no chance at finding the king.” The dragon understood her concerns, and he nodded his head once that he agreed. They watched from the cover of the shrubbery at the edge of the forest, and when the guard had passed out of sight around the corner, they ran across the field to the locked door. The dragon arrived at the entrance first, and he wasted no time in ripping the door from the hinges with his arms.
“You’ve made a mess of the door, beast! The guards will see it for sure,” she whispered vehemently. The dragon leaned his mouth down to her head so that he could whisper his reply.
“Find your father, princess,” he hissed and licked her with his forked tongue. The dragon had two varieties of saliva, the kind that he used for protection and the kind that he used to dampen his scaly mouth. Luckily for her, he smeared her face with the non-lethal type.
“What did you do that for?!” she replied and wiped the dragon’s saliva from her face.
“Don’t worry, Princess. I was only marking you so that you would be easy to find in the dark,” he explained. “I would not eat you, my Queen. You taste like you look: horrible.” She scowled at him for the comment, but he did not let that deter him. “When you have found the King, come back to this door and knock five times, then stand away from the frame. Leave the giants outside to me,” he explained as a glow of light emitted from his midsection. “When I have finished digesting their bones, it will not matter whether they have discovered us or not.” Una smiled at the wickedness of the plan and darted through the open door frame to search for King Payton. The dragon placed the door back on the hinges lightly, and with a small but focused breath of flame, he heated one of the claws at the end of his fingertips to a hot white inferno. Satisfied with the temperature of the glowing talon, he placed it against the center hinge and welded it together. No one was going in or out of that door, and the dragon slithered down to the end of the wall to wait for the next guard to turn the corner. It had been eons since he had enjoyed giant for dinner, and the delicious thought of a home cooked meal warmed his heart.
Uncanny Tales of Crush and Pound 10 Page 4
