Dragon Eyes

Chapter 9. Down the Mountain and Up Again.

"We need ice!" He stated. With that he turned to the dragon.

"The top of the mountain is not so far away. Could you take me up? I need ice for my sister. She hurt her ankle and I have to treat it, otherwise it could be very bad for her foot."

The dragon shook his head and turning departed. Lynwood turned to Sofia, who shrugged. About half an hour later the dragon returned, covered in snow, with a huge chung of ice in his claws. He set it in the corner, and proceeded to break off a piece with the help of his claws and teeth. The two children watched speechless.

"Wow!" Sofia muttered. "He sure is strong."

Lynwood went over to collect the ice. "Thank you," he kindly said. "Thank you very much."

Once the compress had been made, with the help of Lynwood's second spare shirt, the dragon sat in one corner of the cave while the children sat in the nest. Lynwood reached into his inner vest pocket and pulled out the letter. Except for the seal there was nothing on it, it was simply plain white.

"I wonder what's in here that is so important, and why the soldiers were after it?" He thought to himself as he fiddled with it. He wanted to open it and read what was inside, but he knew he should not. How would he be able to deliver a letter with a broken seal? Carefully he put the letter back into his vest pocket and turned towards his sister.

"Sofia we have a problem, I have to get this letter to the capital, but at the same time we can't go on living like this, living in a dragon cave won't make us dragons."

"So what are we going to do? You know I can't go anywhere, not on this foot. I'll be stuck for at least a week."

"I know that." Lynwood became deep in thought. "I wonder, Sofia, the captain said that they had arrested Tristan..."

"They took Tristan away too!" Sofia gasped in horror, "oh dear, why, why?"

"I haven't the faintest clue. All I know is what I heard. No one said anything about Elaine. What if she is still at her house, maybe she can help us somehow."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Well, I was thinking, what if I was to sneak down and try to find out if she is okay. Perhaps we could stay with her for now. Or at least she could fill us in on the what and why."

"I think it is very dangerous, but at the same time I want to know what happened to Father, and if there is any way to get him back. It's just I am afraid of you going down there."

"You don't have to be. I'll sneak into the village, and see if Elaine is still at the house."

Sofia frowned. "I can't see how you are going to get down the mountain."

Lynwood shrugged. "Climb down I guess."

"Why don't you ask the dragon to take you down?"

"I don't feel comfortable asking him."

"You didn't have a problem with the ice."

"Well, no, but that was because to get the ice we would have to go up. To get to Elaine we have to go down and that will expose him to people."

"So you would rather risk death? Come on, Lynwood, he is a dragon. All he has to do is spread those wings, swoosh down, drop you off and swoosh back up!"

"I don't know," Lynwood grumbled.

At this point the dragon came up and nudged Lynwood, he then motioned with his head to the cave entrance, almost as if to say. "It's no problem, I'll take you."