Chasing Promises

Chapter 2 - Barnabas - 1518

Barnabas approached the forest on horseback, he did not tie Rochester up in case he was approached by a dragon - at least this way he would have means of escape and warn him. It was nearing evening when they came to the edge of the forest, it was times like these that he wished he was smaller so he could more stealthier between the trees.

The forest was dark with only little pockets of light illuminating the path before him. Barnabas realised he would never be stealthy as every single twig that could snap did under his large scaley feet, he was glad for the armour though as it did not rustle like plate armour. He thought he might need to find someone small and swift to do this in future if he was not killed bustling through the forest.

He carried on like this for the next ten minutes until the floor started to rumble, at first he did not know what was going on as he stumbled to the floor. Slowly he crawled towards the heart of the rumbling and found a large clearing.

Five dragons, one red and four green were batting the floor with their long thorny tails; the dragons were bigger than the one that had killed his father and so many others. The red one especially caught his eye, as it was at least double the size of the smaller green dragons; this ones scales were like flat hexagon rubies that shone in the last of the suns rays. The dragon lay asleep on its side at what looked like the mouth of a small cave as he shuffled closer; in fact on closer inspection all but one of the dragons were asleep. The non sleeping dragon was looking at the sky or at least that's what Barnabas thought until it turned and looked right at him.

Adrenaline started to pump through his body - he was unarmed apart from the short sword on his back - his mind however told him not to move and so his body became rigid like a stick. Barnabas remained like this until the dragon once more looked up, then as silently as his huge body would allow he rolled over behind a nearby tree and put his hood on, hoping the green scales of his armour would blend in with the surrounding foliage despite being much brighter.

"Mother." Said a voice loudly behind him, he expected to see the speaker nestled beside him but no one was there. Sheepishly he peeked round the base of the tree and saw a young bald girl stroking the red dragon. Mother? He thought, wondering what on Earth was going on, his curiosity got the better of him and he crawled further forward away from the safety of the tree, taking cover instead behind a bare bush. "Mother can I go home now?"

The red dragon woke up with a small roar and bared its teeth at the young girl, she seemed unafraid although he noticed a small puddle appear beneath her - she'd wet herself. She hurried quickly into the cave as the dragon threw fire into the air waking the other dragons.

Barnabas watched as the red dragon and three green dragons leave the clearing, flapping their wings a few times before they were high above them and in the clouds. Only one dragon remained, the one that had looked right at him. He shuffled closer to the edge of the clearing, with only one dragon left he thought his chances of succeeding had improved dramatically.

Boldly he secured his hood and unsheathed his short sword, without hesitation he jumped the small distance from him and the clearing with the sword over his head. Now was the time to test Jacksons theory of invulnerablity as the dragon shot torrent of fire at him, he dodged it with great ease and dived behind a nearby rock. It was here he realised his arm was on fire but quickly a black liquid seeped from the scales and extinguished it, Barnabas smiled.  

The dragon roared at him, before ripping the rock from the ground and throwing it high into the air out of the way. Barnabas jumped and dodged the dragons sudden snap aimed at his head, he ran circles around the beast, rolling beneath its large belly until he mustered the courage to jump onto its back. Unlike the first dragon he had killed, this one did not have a flaming arrow in its eye so it wasn't distracted and had its senses. Within seconds the dragon flapped its wings and they were in the air.