Wizard in the Woods

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  Something slammed into his right rear leg. He felt the slightest sting, as if he had pricked himself on a thorn bush. He twisted his neck around to see who was shooting at him. Gareth was nearby and had a worried look on his face.

  “That was my fault. I’m so sorry. Mikal, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. That was you? Is your aim just as bad as mine?”

  Gareth nodded.

  “I have tried over and over to hit the thriper with something. Anything. I never imagined being a dragon would be this difficult.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself. I can’t hit it, either.”

  “At least you didn’t hit me. Mikal, I was aiming for it and I hit you.”

  “Since we’re both useless when it comes to attacking it then the least we can do is to make sure we don’t lose it again. Come on, we need to follow Pravara.”

  Both dragons rose steadily higher. Pravara, still firing blast after blast, had just scored another hit on one of the thriper’s already blackened wings. It roared in pain and suddenly banked sharply to the east. It fell like a stone and disappeared into a nearby cloud bank.

  “Follow it!” Pravara called. She tucked her wings and dropped straight down, vanishing into the clouds seconds after the thriper did.

  Mikal and Gareth followed.

  “We’re being followed,” Gareth quietly told him as soon as they were free of the clouds.

  “We are?” Mikal glanced behind him. Two other dragons were trailing behind them. One was a brilliant white dragon and the other was a deep blood red color. In fact, Mikal could see a rider on the red dragon. It was Pheron! That meant the red dragon was Rhamalli. The captain was gesturing in the air as apparently he was having some type of conversation with Rhamalli.

  Mikal sighed with relief. That meant Kahvel, Pravara’s father, knew where they were and had sent backup to help deal with the thriper. Ten seconds later the number had grown to six, and in less than a minute had increased to more than two dozen.

  “It has to know that there’s nowhere to go,” Mikal quietly observed.

  Gareth, overhearing Mikal’s remark, nodded.

  “I was thinking the same thing. There’s no place for it to hide. We’ve got dozens of dragons trailing behind us. Look at that gold dragon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that color before.”

  Mikal turned to look back at the ever increasing mass of wyverians following behind them and saw a distinctive gold dragon at the front of the procession. It was Kahvel. Apparently the Dragon Lord wanted to be in on the thriper hunt. Mikal turned back to their adversary. They weren’t gaining on it. In fact, no one was.

  Mikal groaned. He suddenly realized why the thriper had been able to stay ahead of them. It wasn’t suffering from a loss of jhorun. Every single dragon pursuing it was, which meant no one was at full strength. Mikal detected movement in his peripheral vision and automatically looked over at Gareth. His friend was chanting!

  “What are you going to do?” Mikal anxiously asked the wizard.

  “Stop interrupting! I need to concentrate.”

  Chastised, Mikal fell silent.

  “For your information, I’m summoning a storm. We are nearing the Sea of Koralis, and I can sense there’s a nasty thunderstorm off the southeastern coast. I’m going to try and put it directly in the thriper’s path.”

  “Um, Gareth? You may have noticed, but we would also be in its path. Do you really want to do that?”

  Gareth stopped chanting and shared a look with his friend.

  “You have a point. I should probably rethink that.”

  “What else could you do to slow the thing down? None of us have the strength to overtake it.”

  Gareth was silent as he considered.

  “What about the wind?” Mikal asked, growing excited. “Remember those powerful winds you created when we were following you earlier? Could you do something like that again?”

  “Same problem,” Gareth answered. “I could do that but it’d affect us just as much as it’d affect the thriper.”

  The number of dragons trailing the thriper now numbered well over 50 and more were joining the chase every minute. Mikal witnessed on numerous occasions various dragons frantically pump their wings as they tried to overtake the thriper but ended up falling well short. In fact, it almost looked as though the thriper was pulling away from them.

  “Do something!” Mikal urged. “It’s going to get away. You’re the wizard. Think of something!”

  “No pressure there,” Gareth scowled.

  The skies cleared and they could see that they were rapidly approaching the gentle curve of Lentari’s eastern coast. The great sea stretched out endlessly to the east while the coast curved northeast on their left and southeast on the right. The passing countryside quickly transitioned from trees to open grassland as they approached the cliffs bordering the Sea of Koralis. Without the ample clouds to provide cover the thriper dropped low, descending to an altitude of less than 100 feet.

  Mikal watched the thriper barely skimming above the ground. He watched it pass over several large boulders when an idea occurred. He turned to Gareth but was startled to see him chanting once more. The wizard had also seen the large stones and was busy chanting a levitation spell into existence. Three boulders, each a quarter of their size but more than adequate to inflict serious damage if they made contact, hurled into the air and sped straight towards the thriper. The brown dragon, sensing movement, swerved to avoid the formidable projectiles.

  They passed over a farm that was situated near the cliffs, complete with a barn, livestock, and several hay stacks. One of the stacks lifted from the ground and was flung straight up. The thriper collided with the hay, causing the stack to explode. Undeterred, the brown dragon flew on.

  “Might I suggest something a little firmer than a pile of hay?”

  “Like what? One of that flock of bolgers? Dragons eat bolgers. The last thing I’m gonna do is feed that thing. I didn’t see anything else to throw. Besides, I don’t see you doing anything to stop it.”

  The thriper jetted out over the cliff’s edge and dropped out of sight as it fell towards the water. Mikal, Gareth, and the rest of their wyverian posse followed as closely as they could, determined not to let the evil creature out of their sight.

  The thriper leveled off and headed out to sea. The huge group of dragons following behind growled with exasperation. None of them had their full strength and no one, not even Kahvel the Dragon Lord, wanted to risk trying to fly too far over the great sea without having some type of recourse to fall back on should any of them get too tired and have to turn back. The dragons all knew that there was at least ten hours of solid flying before they would encounter the desolate western shores of Culargel. Game was scarce and there was a severe lack of fresh water. As a result, all wyverians viewed the great sea as the eastern boundary to their natural territory and rarely, if ever, ventured further.

  “Someone needs to get out in front of it,” Pravara announced, being the closest dragon to the thriper. “We should see if we can force it into the water.”

  “How?” Mikal demanded. He and Gareth were the next closest wyverians. “Gareth and I are nowhere near strong enough flyers to pull that off.”

  BUT I AM.

  “Who said that?” Gareth wanted to know, peering anxiously about. “It sounded like it came from within my head.”

  “That’s my father,” Pravara answered. She was now continuously beating her wings in an attempt to pace the thriper. Unfortunately, the brown dragon was slowly, but steadily, inching away.

  “Your father?” Gareth repeated. “You mean that’s the Dragon Lord?”

  “Aye.”

  You mustn’t overextend yourself, Pravara warned her father. There is nothing but water below. You would lack the strength to extricate yourself from the sea.

  I KNOW WHAT I AM CAPABLE OF, YOUNG ONE.

  My Lord will not be alone, a new voice mentally added.

  Mikal and Gare
th simultaneously twisted their heads around in midair to see who else might have spoken. They noticed Rhamalli and his rider were now flying side-by-side with Kahvel.

  We can do this, My Lord.

  AGREED. ARE YOU PREPARED?

  Aye. We will go on your command. We… wait a moment. My rider has given a suggestion. If we are able to push ourselves a little bit harder then it stands to reason the thriper would be able to, too.

  YOU ARE IMPLYING THAT THE THRIPER WILL STILL BE ABLE TO AVOID US?

  Rhamalli nodded.

  Aye. We need a diversion.

  AGREED. TO ALL THOSE PURSUING AND IN RANGE, GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. NOW!

  Over five dozen dragons let loose with huge bouts of flame, fireballs, and anything else they had in their arsenal. The thriper, having already sensed the impending attack, tucked its wings, executed spins and rolls, and easily avoided the vast majority of the strikes. A few fireballs managed to make contact on its abdomen but bounced harmlessly away.

  Mikal swallowed nervously. Dozens and dozens of speeding fireballs whizzed by frighteningly close. One false move on his part would no doubt end up with him getting struck and, knowing his luck, get the one part of his wyverian body burned that wasn’t protected by scales. His wings.

  Mikal pulled his wings a little closer to his body and struggled to keep up. Gareth, he noticed, was trying to match Kahvel and Rhamalli’s pace but was failing miserably. His wizard friend had now fallen behind him and was continuing to drop away.

  “Stop trying to catch up to them,” Mikal scolded. “Look at the Dragon Lord. He and Rhamalli are gaining on the thriper.”

  “It destroyed my village,” Gareth groaned miserably. “I want to make it pay for what it did.”

  The thriper dropped even lower. Being one of the closest dragons to their adversary Mikal decided to try another blast. His fireball, while significant, spiraled harmlessly away from the thriper and slammed into the surface of the sea. Sprays of water flew in all directions. A second fireball made contact with the sea a few seconds later, sending up more sprays of water.

  Mikal eyed Gareth. The wizard was still just as bad a shot as he was. He was about ready to crack a joke when he detected movement in his peripheral vision. The surface of the sea had turned choppy. Mikal’s jaws snapped closed. He cast a quick glance at the thriper. If only they could somehow force the thriper closer to the surface.

  “That could work,” Mikal whispered.

  Gareth struggled to catch up.

  “What? What did you say?”

  “Gareth, we need to get the thriper to fly lower and we need to do it right now. Where’s Pravara?”

  Pravara’s sleek dark green form appeared by his side.

  “I am here. What is it?”

  “Pravara, get word to your father. We need to get the thriper lower, by at least another fifty feet. Hurry! I don’t know how much time we’re going to have!”

  Confused, Pravara relayed the request. Kahvel and Rhamalli immediately struggled to not only inch closer to the thriper but rise above it so that they could force the creature down. However, no matter how hard they tried, the two dragons were only to able inch forward. Every time they tried to ascend higher than their adversary they were dismayed to see the thriper would also rise accordingly.

  “They are unable to rise above it,” Pravara glumly informed Mikal. “Every time they try the thriper rises higher, too. Somehow it knows we’re trying to force it down.”

  Mikal looked down at the churning waters and growled with frustration. He noticed that the churning, roiling waves were becoming gradually less so. They were running out of time!

  He fired off another shot at the water. And another. Gareth, unsure what Mikal was doing, followed suit.

  “What are you two doing?” Pravara asked, bewildered. “What are you trying to accomplish?”

  “Shoot at the water!” Mikal cried. “Don’t argue. Just do it!”

  Pravara added her shots to those of Mikal’s and Gareth’s.

  “We’re trying to buy them some time,” Mikal explained between shots.

  “Time for what?” Pravara wanted to know.

  Before Mikal could answer they heard a deafening roar. The skies darkened, as though the sun had fallen behind a cloud. Mikal looked up and gasped. A dragon larger than he had ever seen before was directly overhead. It was descending fast. Mikal watched the thriper try to evade but the gargantuan dragon was quicker. It folded its wings flat against its back and it plunged straight down.

  The huge dragon landed directly on the thriper and together the two of them fell towards the surface of the water. Mikal was finally able to get a good look at the new dragon. It was easily three times the size of him, was a lighter shade of green than Pravara, but had black stripes all across its abdomen and wings.

  “It’s Rinbok Intherer!” Pravara exclaimed, shocked. “He’s the former Dragon Lord!”

  “Pull up!” Mikal cried out, hoping the big dragon could hear him. “Don’t go near the water!!”

  At the last possible moment Rinbok Intherer snapped his wings open and sailed out over open water. He lazily beat his great wings as he steadily rose higher into the air. The thriper, Mikal saw, had somehow managed to avoid splashing down into the water. It was flapping like mad and was struggling to put some distance between it and the surface of the water. It ended up dragging its wings along the surface half a dozen times before it was finally able to rise a couple of dozen feet into the air.

  Mikal groaned. It didn’t work. He was so certain that there was an osk…

  Something erupted out of the depths of the water. Something huge, even larger than Rinbok. It was dark, it was long, and it moved impossibly fast. The front of the creature emerged out of the water and they could see what it was. It was a serpent, but one that was ridiculously large. It was an oskorlisk, a great sea serpent. As Mikal had surmised, the huge serpent had been attracted by the lights from the numerous blasts of fire happening directly above the water. The wyverians might have been the top predator in Lentari, but the one disclaimer to that fact was that it didn’t apply to the sea. Not where the oskorlisk were concerned.

  The thriper made a last ditch effort to escape but simply wasn’t fast enough. The oskorlisk clamped its jaws down on the thriper and pulled it, still struggling, into the sea. Then the water started frothing even more angrily than before as more of the surface turned choppy.

  The dragons hastily returned to the safety of the skies. Mikal watched, transfixed, as not one but three different oskorlisk appeared and fought with the first great serpent for a piece of the prey. They fought, they shrieked, they hissed angrily, and just as quickly as they had appeared, it was over.

  The thriper was no more.

  Epilogue

  “How did you know that the former Dragon Lord was in the area?” Lissa asked, raising her voice so that she could be heard over the howling wind. “How did you know that he’d appear when you needed him most?”

  “I didn’t,” Mikal answered, turning his long serpentine neck back so that he was looking directly at his fiancé.

  This time Lissa was wearing the cinch sack. He could see the back of Peanut’s head as the playful corgi had spun around in her sack and was facing the opposite direction. Gareth was flying nearby and was earning himself several warning woofs as Peanut hadn’t decided whether or not to invite the colorful dragon to be a member of her pack. Gareth turned his blue head so that he could smile at Peanut. In his wyverian body, it looked like he was growling. Peanut growled right back.

  “You’re telling me that the thriper was destroyed because of a bit of good luck?”

  Mikal shrugged, nearly dislodging Lissa from her place on his back.

  “He told me why he was there,” Mikal said, angling south to avoid flying through a large bank of clouds. Dipping below the fluffy cumulus clouds he spotted the large castle he called home in the distance. “He was trying to protect Valkira.”

  “Who’s Va
lkira?” Gareth asked, coming up beside them. Peanut switched back to her warning woofs.

  “I asked him that. He said Valkira was one of the dragons that had joined us back in the valley and was with us all the way to the Sea of Koralis,” Mikal explained. “And it just so happens that Valkira is Rinbok Intherer’s only daughter. Didn’t you hear what Pravara had said? This is the first time Rinbok Intherer has made an appearance since he abdicated the position of Dragon Lord several years ago. Apparently he still didn’t want to surface but he is very protective of Valkira and was trying to stop her from joining the pursuit. I guess she is just as stubborn as her father.”

  “Which one was she?” Gareth asked. “Did we see her?”

  “I asked him that, too,” Mikal admitted, “only he refused to answer. However, I did catch him watching a green and tan dragon longer than any other. That had to be her. Anyway, once we flew out over the water and saw how low the thriper was flying he suspected we might try to get an oskorlisk to attack. The problem was, no one could catch the thriper and force it down. His jhorun, while still affected somewhat by the thriper, was nowhere near diminished as the rest of the dragons. He was able to overtake the thriper, descend from above, and force it down to the water. That’s where the oskorlisks were waiting and they took care of the thriper for us.”

  Lissa’s brow furrowed. “Rinbok’s daughter is green and tan? I don’t think I’ve seen that combination before on a dragon.”

  “Think of it like this. If she were lying flat on her stomach, and if viewed from above, you’d see only green scales. However, if viewed from directly beneath then you’d see only the tan.”

  Lissa nodded.

  “Got it.”

  “And that huge dragon used to be the Dragon Lord?” Gareth wanted to know. “I’ll bet he never had any problems getting his subjects to behave.”

  Mikal’s head nodded.

  “I would agree. Anyway, he really didn’t go into too many details with me. Quite frankly I was surprised he was willing to talk to me at all. I don’t recall ever meeting him before.”