Dragon Scales

Chapter 34

Dion groaned and opened his eyes. Where was he? What had happened? He lay on lose clumps of brown earth, bushes of grass sticking out here and
there. On both sides the earth rose up, at least ten meters high. It was dusk, and the visibility was low.

“Dion, come here!” Dion jumped from fright, but relaxed. He knew this
voice.

“Dion come.” Dion stood up and without hesitating walked into the shadows where the voice came from.

“Why didn't you wake me up?” Dion asked.

“Shh. There is somebody here with us.” Thon spoke in a low urgent voice. “One of the Dragon Hunters, I think. She tried to kill me, but ran away when I had this arrow as a weapon. There is a tunnel there.” Thon pointed to the one side where a pitch black gap was visible. “She went into it.”

“What are we going to do? Can we climb up this wall?” Dion asked. He was starting to feel afraid.

“No.” Thon shook his head. “I already tried. I even tried digging hand and foot holds, but the earth it
extremely hard. Even if we came to the top, what way would we go? We would probably be caught by the other Dragon Hunters, and killed.”

“What about Aresa? And Regorn?” Dion's voice quivered.

“They will have to manage on their own to kill the king.” Thon's voice was grim.

“And what about us?”

“First, we catch that huntress, second, we get out of these tunnels, third, the huntress will take us to the Ror river, and then we go to Denereth. If we are
lucky, we can reach it the same time as Aresa and Regorn.”

“What if the huntress won't tell us what way to go?” Dion asked logically.

“Nothing is going to stand in my way from getting away from this cursed forest.” Thon's voice was grim.

Riv sat with his eyes halve open, staring at the dying fire. It was dark, and somewhere in the tall grass
crickets chirped. He was thinking about Tyem, and if he had escaped or not.

Sighing Riv tried to get a more comfortable position. How could he ever sleep while being tied to a tree?
Somewhere grass crunched.

Riv immediately stopped squirming and listened. What if that Leapcat
had followed them?

CRUNSH, CRUNCH. No, that didn't sound like an animal, it sounded like boots. The noise stopped.

Riv sat rigid against the tree and closed his eyes. He needed his eyes to be used to the dark if he wanted
to see who was sneaking up to them.

Riv thought hard who it could be. Not a soldier, or anyone that was friendly with the king, they would have come out by now. Riv heard another footstep, this time much closer, and much softer. The person, whoever it was,was probably trying not to be heard.

Riv was curious as to who it could be, but kept his eyes closed. Riv heard the footsteps go toward the wagon where the provisions were in. He heard some shuffling and then a thump. No longer able to keep his curiosity
under control, he opened his eyes and turned his head in the direction of the wagon.

He saw a small, cloaked figure climbing out of the wagon. The person picked up a big bag that lay on the ground, glanced around and spotted Riv staring at him. Quick as lightning the person dropped the bag and ran.

Surprised Riv stared at where the person had disappeared between the long grasses. Why had he run? Maybe he had feared Riv would wake up the soldiers or Eurin.

Riv closed his eyes and tried to get
comfortable again. Later in the night Riv woke up. He opened his eyes and was startled to see a face very close to his.

“Who are you?” Riv asked, a bit to loudly.

“Shh. That is the question I would ask you,” came the muffled reply. “Who are you, and why are you captured by the soldiers? What did you do?”

Riv was flabbergasted.“I uh, helped an old man,” Riv said honestly. “Now
who're you?”

“Ain't mattering. Who is that old man?”

“A friend of my father,” Riv answered.

“No, I mean what is his name.”

“Sinnek Gravenshield. Why?”

“Curious,” the person muttered. Then he stood up and without a further word disappeared into the darkness.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Riv whispered loudly, but there was no answer.

Eurin moved and opened her eyes. She sat straight up and looked around. Her eyes fell on Riv who had forgotten to close his eyes.

She quickly stood up and walked to him. “Who were you talking with?” Her voice was low and dangerous.

Riv widened his eyes. “What?”

“What did you speak, don't try to fool me, I heard you.” Eurin glowered at Riv.

“I don't know.” Riv shook his head. “I had a nightmare.”

Eurin did not look convinced, but she walked back to the coals of the fire and started it up again. “You'd better not be lying, I have a way of finding things out.”

She stared at the fire for a second before standing up. She looked around, as if she was searching for
something, and her eyes stopped on the wagon.

Slowly she moved that way, and Riv suddenly knew that something bad was going to happen if she found
out things were missing.

“Do you want to know what my nightmare was?” He called after her. Surprisingly she stopped and turned
his way.

“What was it?” she asked, and Riv could see interest gleam in her eyes. He thought it a bit strange, and
quickly thought up something.

“I thought I was awake, but I was sleeping. Somebody was coming closer to me but weirdly enough I couldn't see who it was, even though the moon was shining brightly. Then...” Riv thought very hard what horrible thing could have happened, and something came into his mind. “I saw the person's shape changing, it's clothes tore and suddenly it didn't look like a human any more.”

While Riv had been speaking Eurin had approached him and now she stood in front of him. “What did the man change into?” Her voice was strangely tense.

“It was a...” Riv breathed in deeply. He needed to think about something terrible. Then it came to him. “Dragon.”

Eurin's eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly open. She snapped it closed and brought her face very close to Riv's. “You tell nobody what you
dreamt. You hear?! Nobody!” She took a step back and there was a deep frown on her face. “Never tell anyone what you dream, got it? Even if it doesn't seem to make any sense.”

She paced up and down and suddenly stopped. “We need to move. We need to get to Denereth now. Hey!” Eurin stared at the soldier that was supposed to guard through the night.

The guard had been hidden behind some bushes, so Riv hadn't known he
was there. She briskly walked to him and gave him a hard shove.

“What do you think your doing?! If that Leapcat came, we would have had no warning! You stinking
rat!” She yelled many more horrible insults at the sudden wide awake guard.

The soldiers and Sinnek were soon all awake. Eurin pulled her sword out, and Riv was sure she was going to kill the soldier. The soldier seemed to have the same opinion, and he
sprang up and ran away as fast as he could.

“Should we go after him?” one soldier asked a bit uncomfortably.

“No.” Eurin was calm again. “We journey on now. We will be in Denereth within two days. And anyone who causes delays will be executed immediately.” She shot a pointed look at Sinnek and Riv.