Dragon Marked

Chapter 7: the dragon literally underground

Skylar said he could take Megan, and Neil claimed that he could take Kate on their dragon. Edith looked at Kate as she boarded Neil's dragon. The light blue of the mist dragon blended in amazingly with the sky. With a few powerful wing beets, they were up in the air. At first, Kate nearly fell off from the sheer force of the air moving. Meg, Skylar, and Neil had all leaned forward when they were taking off. Now Kate knew why. When the others started to sit up, Kate found it easier. The two dragons flew side byside. "HEY, KATE!" It was Meg. Kate looked up. "YEA?"

"TIP FOR THE LANDING, LEAN DOWN AND HOLD TIGHTLY!" How did she shout so loud when she was so injured? Perhaps she wasn't as injured as she had seemed.

"OK!" Kate finally closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax. She felt the wind blowing past her, she felt the sun shining on her, she felt the rough scales of the dragon, and she felt the wind blowing by so fast. It almost seemed like she was aware of everything. "GET READY FOR THE LANDING!" With those words, the magic connection she had felt with the air was gone. She leaned down, holding onto the dragon for dear life. It felt like falling. Falling hundreds of feet while holding on to a 45-1/3-kilogram dragon. As Kate stared, the surface of a grassy plateau emerged. the dragon spread its wings at the last moment, creating enough air resistance to safely land. Neil slid down his dragon's wing and gently touched the dragon's head whispering "thank you, Wind." Kate did the same, but more gently and nervously After all, the dragon could eat her in a second. As Neil walked away, Kate fallowed his dragon as they put their wings up and followed Neil to the other side of the plateau. Niels had a small black flame tattoo on his cheek. The tattoo briefly disappeared, and a bright black flame appeared. When it disappeared, the flame tattoo re-appeared. A few seconds later, Skylar's fire dragon was hurling through the air. It did the same thing that Wind had done, and Skylar hoped off. Meg clearly was not good at dismounting, so she more or less fell off. The dragon rolled its eyes. "Now     , now, Ember. Play nice." Said Skylar. "But, still, let's, uh, let's work on dismounting later."

"Sounds good." Megan Replied. Neil waited patiently until Ember, Meg, and Skylar joined him and Kate by a cave opening. The cave opening was more of an oversized rabbit burrow. "Ok, so," Neil explained. "You're going to have to crawl for a while. Try not to mess with surrounding dirt to much. I'll go, then Kate, followed by Megan with Skylar in the back incase something happens. Any questions?" No one asked anything. "No? Ok, let's go." Neil said a little to cheerfully. Neil went in and disappeared into the darkness. "COME ON! THE TUNNLE DOESN'T BITE!" Kate took a deep breath, and went in. After a while of crawling, Kate herd Neil shouting "IT GETS NARROWER! BE READY!" Kate had never been in tight places before. The walls seemed to swell and try to swallow her up. Kate tried to breath but found no air in her lungs. It was impossible. She was gonna get stuck and... and... "ALMOST THERE! Neil's voice was barely a whisper. And... "Kate? Are you ok? KATE!" It was Meg. "Look Kate, we're almost there. Just a little farther. It won't be much longer, ok? It will open suddenly, there will be an open space, and then a ladder... when you climb down the ladder, you'll be in the underground." Kate looked up, not realizing she had laid down.

"What's it like?"

"Well," Meg's breath was labored, and Kate realized she was probably reopening wounds right now with crawling through the tunnel. "It's a huge opening, a whole town underground. Those who came here call it perfugium, meaning place of refuge. Latin. A lot of stuff is made of stone. Lots of glow dragons light up the place. When there are plans to build more houses, they often cut away leaving the walls and floors of stone that was already there. There's actually a lot more wood than you'd expect. We have a huge tree farm. The tunnel to there extends miles. Here we are! You can see for your self! Oh, I forgot to mention the limestone layer." Kate crawled out and emerged onto the cliff Meg had been talking about. Skylar crawled out, and Meg walked up to Neil, who said "and the waterfall. You forgot that, too." There was a river that the tunnel ended near. The river ran onto a few feet of cliff, and then fell directly down. The river wound through a city with the tallest buildings having a limestone top. the buildings were truly made of stone directly from the giant hole in the ground. A thought occurred to Kate. "What about oxygen?" Neil motioned up. "We have many ventilation shafts, that allow us to have a steady supply of air. Besides, the trees are good enough at that that we don't need the ventilation shafts anymore. Come on, let's get you onto our list." Neil climbed down the ladder, and Kate carefully followed. When they reached the bottom, Neil followed the river. The river wound all over the place. Because of this, the walk was very long. They reached an open area of stone where a lot of pebbles were. Neil walked over a stone bridge, and into a big stone dome. the dome was split in almost half, one side labeled very clearly FOOD STORAGE and the other labeled REGISTRATION AREA. Neil walked into the registration area. A few minutes later, Neil walked out. "Fill this out. For question 2, you can leave that blank." Neil handed Kate ink and a quill. Kate sat down and started to read.