Tales of Dragon Slayers

Chapter I


“Step on the gas Fletcher, we’re gonna lose the damn thing!” I yelled from my perch in the humvee turret. Below me in the cab, our driver Fletcher looked back over his shoulder at me, “if we go any faster, I’m going to shake this antique apart; we’re already doin’ a buck-forty!”
The wind whipped my hair around my face as I scanned the sky for the dragon, or for you Latin junkies ‘hugeass lizardius’. Soon I managed to spot the beast as it soared through the skies away from us, and I let loose with the mounted gun, firing round after round at it, but we were too far away for me to get a proper aim.
“Fox, where the fuck are the harpoon trucks?” Fletcher yelled to the back seat. Fox, our resident sniper and computer nerd, who was angrily typing something into a laptop, snapped her head up and glared at Fletcher, “that’s what I’m trying to find out, isn’t it?”
Suddenly the humvee swerved around a smouldering wreck that was sitting in the middle of the road that I somehow had managed to not notice from my vantage point.
“Uh, I think that was one of the harpoon trucks…” Vek muttered nervously from the seat beside Fox.
“Should we stop and see if there are any survivors?” Fletcher asked, slowing the humvee slightly.
“No, that truck was burned to shit, no way anyone survived that!” I yelled back, “we’re gonna lose the dragon, and no one gets paid that way. We just have to hope that the other team managed to survi- son of a bitch!”
In the middle of the road was another burned out truck - our second harpoon truck.
“There’s no way that was the dragon- we’ve had our eyes on it the whole time.” Vek said. Fox lowered her window and leaned halfway out with her rifle and let a shot off at the dragon, but missed. Now, you may be wondering how I know she missed - I know she missed because if the bullet had even nicked the dragon, the round would have exploded and most likely brought the dragon down… or pissed it off, you can never really tell.
Fox loaded another round into her rifle and fired again. This time there was an explosion as it hit the dragon, and even from back where we were on the ground we could hear it roar in anger.
“What the hell Vek, I thought you said these rounds would put a hole in a rhino’s ass!” Fox yelled at Vek, who looked back at her with a haughty expression, “yeah, the key word there is ‘rhino’; that’s a fucking dragon you’re taking pot-shots at, not a rhino!”
Ahead of us, I noticed that we were rapidly approaching a street sign on Fox’s side, so being the natural hero that I am - sarcasm intended -, I quickly lowered myself into the humvee and pulled her back through the window before she was cut in half. She grumbled something at me that I didn’t catch and nestled her rifle back under her seat.
“Yeah, you’re fucking welcome,” I muttered as I pulled myself back up into the turret.
From above us came the loud thrumming of a helicopter, and it quickly soared into view.
“Is that military?” Vek asked nervously as we all looked up at the black helicopter that was quickly passing over us. I noticed the letters ‘L.P.S.’ painted on the side of it before it flew past us.
“That’s not military,” I said, “it looks like they’re going after our kill.” Fletcher thumped the wheel angrily, “then take some shots at them!”
I lowered myself back into the humvee, “are you insane? That chopper’s got two miniguns on it; if they wanted they could blow us off the road, no problem.” Ahead of us, the helicopter’s guns roared to life, peppering the dragon with holes. It fell from the sky with a loud shriek.
“Son of a bitch!” Fox said angrily as Fletcher pulled over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. We were in a rundown part of the city, many of the buildings were burnt out shells of twenty-first century buildings, and the air smelled of soot and mould.
“Who the hell is L.P.S.?” Vek wondered aloud. I had personally never heard of them, and if anyone else had, they weren’t speaking up about it.
“Whoever they are, Heckel’s gonna be pissed,” said Fletcher. He smashed the wheel two more times before calming down enough to turn the ignition off.
“Should we go after them, give ‘em a piece of our minds?” Vek asked, but didn’t sound as if he really meant it. Fox and I both looked at each other, and I could tell that she definitely liked the sound of that… and to be honest I did as well.
“They can’t be too far away at this point, couple of kilometres at most,” Fletcher grumbled, and keyed the ignition again. As soon as the humvee rumbled to life, Fletcher floored the gas and sped off in the direction that the dragon had come down in.


Chapter II


It didn’t take us very long to find the crash site. I mean, there was a helicopter sitting in the middle of the street with a giant fucking lizard lying not too far away.
“There they are,” I said, and the humvee skidded to a stop; the grille hit the side of the helicopter roughly. There were four people in black tactical gear clamouring around the corpse, pulling off scales and teeth as they went, and one sitting in the cockpit of the chopper.
“Hey fuckers!” I yelled, jumping from the turret and onto the ground, “this was our kill you bastards!” Fox had climbed from her seat in the humvee, as well as Vek, and both had their hands on their sidearms. The pilot opened his door and climbed down, regarding us with an arrogant expression that nearly made me shoot him on pure principal.
“Do you really think that you would have managed to take down this dragon with that… relic? We were simply doing our civic duty by making sure it didn’t have enough time in the sky to cause any real damage,” he said in a tone that pissed me off to my core. I drew my revolver from it’s holster and pointed it at his head. The four tactical douches stopped their scavenging and ran over to where we were standing, weapons drawn - they looked much more impressive than our ragtag ensemble, but I would never say that outloud. Fox raised her rifle, and Vek reached into the cab and pulled out his shotgun.
“Lower your weapons!” ordered douchebag number one, pointing his machine gun at me menacingly. I held my revolver inches away from the pilot’s face… or at least what I could see of it from behind his helmet.
“If you don’t lower your weapons, I’m gonna blow your God-damned pilot’s head clean off,” I hissed back. Vek primed his shotgun and put on his most menacing face - it didn’t exactly have the desired effect.
“Y’all fuckers better just get back in your whirly-bird and fly away home like good little bitches before I open up on you,” Fletcher yelled from the humvee mount. He had the turret pointed at the other team of dragon slayers who were now shuffling their feet nervously.
“Do you want to unleash a shitstorm on yourselves?” asked the pilot with a sneer, “there’s more of us than there ever will be of you. The L.P.S. is the new big boy in town,” and with that he pulled a snub nosed revolver from his side holster and plugged Vek with a round between the eyes.
“Holy fuck, Vek!” I yelled, pulling back the hammer of my revolver; Vek’s body fell to the ground in a heap, blood pooling around his head. Fletcher primed the turret and opened fire, bullets spewing around us, spraying up dirt from the ground; three of the four tactical guys fell to the ground, riddled with holes. The other one along with the pilot dove for cover behind the helicopter, but Fletcher was still firing and the helicopter ended up looking like a cheese grater. The pilot and the last tactical guy fell to the ground, looking like raw ground beef. I ran to Vek’s side, but there was nothing that could be done. The hole in the front of his skull was nothing compared to the exit wound which was larger than my fist. Fox slowly wandered over to the corpse of our late friend and fell to her knees next to him.
“Vek…” she said quietly, tears were collecting in her eyes. I had always known that Fox had a thing for Vek… or maybe it was the other way around, but I had never seen Fox near tears, and to be honest it kind of scared me.
“Fletcher, t-throw me a bodybag,” I stuttered, in shock. Fletcher tossed me the bag, and I unrolled it on the ground, “Fox, you want to get his arms?” Fox stood up slowly, and together she and I zipped our friend into the black bag, and laid him gently in the back of the humvee. Fox and I hopped into our respective seats in the humvee, the front passenger seat was now depressingly empty. Fletcher gunned the engine and spun the humvee back the way we had came.
“Heckel better have lunch ready when we get back, eh guys?” Fletcher said, trying to lighten the mood, but failing miserably. Fox leaned forward and punched him roughly in the shoulder, and we nearly swerved into a telephone pole. A loud screech resonated above us, and I quickly climbed into the gunner seat. I looked up - and I mean directly above me - and saw a dark streak racing through the sky towards the humvee.
“Uh… Fletcher… drive faster,” I said as calmly as I could manage, and basically ended up sounding as if I had seen the world ending in front of me. Fox leaned out her window and glanced up to see what had caught my attention. Her eyes opened wider than I thought possible.
“Hey fuckers, you’re in my parking spot; bloody well move!” came a familiar Irish accented voice above us. Fox leaned forward into the cab and slammed her boot down on Fletcher’s foot, mashing the gas pedal to the floorboards as if it were the button to save humanity. The humvee lurched forward even faster, and when I glanced down at the speedometer, I saw that we were now travelling at a personal record of two hundred miles per hour. I honestly didn’t think it was possible for such an old vehicle like our Beowulf to reach this kind of speed without crossing some trans-dimensional boundary. A sudden loud crash followed by what felt like an earthquake and a tension on the back of the humvee. I turned around, and saw that a dragon had crashed, and its wing claw had pierced directly through the back bumper and was stuck in the cracked asphalt, holding us in place. As the dragon bombarded roughly across the road, its head smashed against a metal garage door and tore the metal to bits.
“Holy shit, stop trying to go forward, you’re gonna tear the tires to shit!” I yelled down to Fletcher. Black smoke had begun to emanate from the spinning tires, and was making it hard to see what was going on. Fletcher took his foot off the gas, and was quickly followed by a loud thud. As the smoke dissipated, and I swiveled the gun to face the parking garage, I saw that the dragon had managed to flip onto its back on top of the stalky grey building with its head dangling at an awkward angle, swinging like a pinata.
“So… did we just survive ground zero of a dragon crash?” Fox asked, somewhat shaken up. From the top of the parking garage, a somewhat short figure emerged from the dust.
“Top of the mornin’ to ya!” came a disembodied shout from the roof. As the dust settled, I could just make out the vague outline of a person jump down from the back - or rather stomach of the dragon, seeing as it had flipped onto its back.
“Is that… is that Ace?” Fletcher asked in disbelief. Ace had been a part of the group four years ago, but had disappeared when he caught wind of the dragon that had killed his sister. I guess he finally found it.
“I think so; I mean, do you know anyone else crazy enough to kamakazi a dragon into a parking garage?” I asked with a slight chuckle.
“I guess he still has that Red Eye Syndrome…” Fletcher said warily. Fox looked between Fletcher and myself with a confused glare.
“What in the fuck is Red Eye Syndrome? Is he stoned all the time or something?” she asked in an irritated voice, glaring out of her window at Ace, who had slid down the dragon’s neck and was wrenching his swords out from behind its head.
“No, whenever he sees a dragon he blacks out, finds a way onto its back, then crashes it into the ground. He’s a fuckin’ maniac,” I explained as I jumped from my gunner perch onto the road.
“I’m really not that bad, you know,” said Ace calmly as he straightened his dark brown leather jacket, “and who is this gift from the gods themselves?” he asked, pushing me lightly aside as he walked over to Fox’s window. Fox raised her lip and rolled the window up.
“Brrr, it just got a bit chilly, didn’t it Gabe?” Ace said with a wide grin. I sighed deeply and patted him on the shoulder.
“Don’t even bother, she just lost someone she cared about; and besides, she’d eat you alive,” I said, memories of Vek flooding back to me in a tidal wave.
“Speaking of people, where the hell is Vek? That bastard too drunk to fight again?” Ace asked gleefully. The smile fell from my face like the ball at new years.
“Wait… we lost Vek?” Ace asked, his enthusiasm draining away in an instant. I nodded soberly.
“We should probably get back, we need to bury Vek before the heat gets to him,” I said with a slight shudder.
“That does sound like a good plan, but while I was riding that dragon, I saw a recently burnt out convoy. Looked like everything was ruined except for one vehicle that was covered in the treeline, we should go get it. Just tell ‘em to put Vek on ice ‘till we get back,” Ace said suddenly. I looked at him, unsure if he was serious or not, but I saw that he was being completely sincere.
“I can’t just tell Fox, ‘oh yeah, just put him on ice till we get back’, you fucking sociopath,” I said sarcastically. Ace knocked on Fletcher’s window; he lowered it.
“Do you think you can hold off the procession until Gabe and I get back with a piece of equipment that I saw from above?” he asked. Fletcher looked thoughtfully at Ace for a moment, “Well we’re not gonna get paid for this job, that’s for damn sure. I guess we can stuff Vek in the freezer ‘till you guys get back,” Fletcher said. Fox began to protest, but Fletcher shushed her. I grabbed Ace’s shoulder and spun him to face me.
“How do you think we’re going to get to this burned out convoy if they head back home?” I asked. Ace held up a finger and strode through the shattered garage door. A moment later, the sound of an engine roaring to life echoed from the darkness, and was soon followed by squealing tires as Ace sped out of the garage in an ancient 1930’s Hudson. My jaw nearly hit the ground in shock as Ace skidded to a stop next to me.
“Hop in Gabey!” he cried in delight. I forced my jaw closed and threw a parting glance at Fletcher and Fox before they sped off towards home. I jogged around the car and slid into the passenger seat next to Ace.
“How in the hell is this beast running?” I asked nervously, “this thing still runs on bloody gasoline.”
“See, it turns out that wasn’t a parking garage, but it’s actually an antique warehouse. Take a look in the back seat,” he said with a smirk. I turned in my seat, and came face to face with an enormous rifle.
“Is that an elephant gun?” I asked in surprise, Ace nodded merrily.
“With over a hundred rounds of ammo to go with it. What a package deal, eh?” he asked as he stepped on the gas.

Chapter III

The entire drive there, I didn’t know whether to hug him or punch him in the face. Ace had disappeared four years prior without so much as a goodbye on a personal vendetta against a dragon that had killed his sister when he was a kid.
We drove in silence all the way to the smouldering wreckage of the convoy. What Ace hadn’t told me was that it was half-way up a mountain on the edge of a cliff, or that it was next to a dragon nest that his dragon had tried to circle into.
“So where is this truck you mentioned?” I asked, scanning the treeline. Ace cut the ignition and stepped out of the car, and I followed suit.
“It’s right over there,” Ace said, pointing towards a clump of pine trees. I stared into the dark overgrowth, and finally saw the ‘truck’ that he had been talking about.
“That’s not a truck, that’s an all-terrain transport vehicle,” I sighed. Ace called everything that wasn’t a car a truck.
“Eh, whatever. Same thing basically,” he said, then tossed me the elephant gun from the back seat. I caught it and grunted under its weight. He tossed me a bag of shells that I emptied into my coat pockets.
“We just have a small matter to take care of before we go check out that truck,” he said. I threw him a quizzical glance as I loaded two rounds into the barrel.
“What? I could have sworn I mentioned the dragon nest that we need to clear out up here,” Ace smirked. I sighed even louder as I followed him into a cave that was resting between two trees. The air inside the cave was heavy and smelled like rotting meat and fire, and I nearly gagged at the scent. Skulls of small animals, as well as some larger ones and human bones littered the floor; we stepped carefully around them so as to not make any noise without much success - they were literally everywhere. A hip bone cracked loudly under my foot, and was followed by a loud roar from further inside the cave. Ace was a little ways ahead of me when something red streaked past him and clamped its jaws around the elephant gun that I had been holding in front of my chest, knocking me onto my back.
“You got that one, right?” Ace asked, falling back into his Irish accent. The Red Eye Syndrome had begun. The adolescent dragon tried to shake the rifle from my hands with rapid head movement, its gooey saliva dripped onto my face like tree sap. Thank God it was too young to breath fire. I shoved the rifle further into its mouth, then yanked it free. The dragon stumbled back, then charged full speed at me. I guess its depth perception was a little off, because it ran past me and slammed into a cave wall, knocking it off its scaly feet. I aimed the rifle at the back of its head and fired a round directly into its skull, exploding blood and brain matter across the cave wall.
“That was way too fucking close,” I muttered to myself as I loaded another shell into the break-barrel. Glancing around, I noticed that Ace had disappeared further into the only passage available, and I quickly ran off to find him. Littering the tunnel floor was the bodies of various dead dragons, all still too young to leave the nest, and all missing various body parts, from heads, tails, and even the occasional wing.
“Ace, where the hell are you?” I called into the darkness. I slung my bag off my back, grabbed a flashlight, and flipped it on, sending light splaying across the stone in faded rainbow hues.
“Quartz walls…” I muttered, awed by the beauty that could be found in the lair of something so horrible. From further down the tunnel came the sound of screeching and Ace laughing manicly in his Irish accent, “come at me you wee scaly bastards!” his yell echoed down the tunnel. I stepped over a bloody stump of tail and walked into what was evidently the egg chamber. In the centre of the chamber, Ace had a live dragon pinned to the floor with a sword stuck through each wing, and was prying its teeth out with a combat knife.
“Jesus fuck, man! What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked, averting my eyes from the bloody mess.
“It tried to kiss me on the first date laddy,” Ace grinned through the blood spattering his face. I pulled my revolver from its shoulder holster and fired two rounds into the dragon’s head, putting it out of its misery. I may not like dragons, but I’m not a heartless bastard either.
Ace gave me a sour look, pulled his swords from the dragon’s wings and shoved them in his back sheaths. I glanced around the chamber, and saw that there were three eggs sitting on a bed of embers against the far wall.
“You think we should smash the eggs?” I asked. Ace turned to where I was looking, his lip raised when he caught sight of the eggs.
“Definitely,” he said, grabbing a loose rock from the floor of the cave, “batter up!” Ace tossed the rock at a red egg, the one closest to him, but it bounced off without so much as a crack. I had never personally interacted with dragon eggs before, and had no idea that they were so resilient. The red egg began to shake in place, and cracks began forming in the shell. Ace and I watched in silence as the egg burst, and a mottled red and black scaled hatchling hopped out of the bed of embers.
“Top of tha morning to ya,” Ace said as he raised his boot to stomp the hatchling, but hesitated. The baby dragon was staring up at him with bright green eyes, and chirped happily at him. I rushed toward him knocked his legs out from under him, and he fell to the ground with a thud.
“Gabe, get this little fucker off me, it’s trying to kill me!” he cried, and I laughed at the situation that was unfolding in front of me.
“I don’t think it’s trying to kill you. I think it’s playing with you,” I said as the little dragon nuzzled Ace’s chin with its head, “I think it thinks you’re its mother.”
“Well I don’t want the damn thing,” Ace huffed grumpily. The baby dragon sat down heavily on his chest and wagged its tail like a puppy.
“Aww, it wants pets,” I said as as I stroked the back of its head. The dragon bumped my hand contentedly, chirped, then bared its teeth at me in a wide grin, “oh come on, look at ‘im, he just wants some loving,” I said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake fine, we’ll take them back with us. Who knows, maybe having some dragons on our side for once will be a good thing,” Ace sighed, defeated, and I noticed that the Irish accent had dropped from his voice.
“Yeah, they might even be good rehabilitation for your Red Eye Syndrome,” I said sarcastically. There was another sound of shells cracking, and I saw that the last two eggs had just hatched, “hey Ace, how do you like kids?” I asked with a laugh as the latest hatchlings dove onto Ace as well. The new additions were a black dragon with green edging on its scales, and the other one was completely jet black, which had taken a sudden interest in trying to pull the laces out of my boots.
“Gabe, let’s get the hell out of here before we decide to adopt more kids to the cozy little family,” Ace said as he stood up. The red and black dragon climbed its way onto his shoulder, and stood there proudly with its chest puffed out, as if it had just climbed Everest. We began our walk out of the cave, Ace was lagging behind a bit because of the dragons, and they would cry out if he got too far ahead of them.
“Go check out that truck, I’ll catch up,” Ace said as he threw me one of his swords.
“God, don’t throw these damn things at me,” I said after I caught the sword by its dragon-tooth pommel. As I exited the cave, I noticed a disturbing lack of sound; no birds, no cicadas, nothing. Unnerved, I approached the ‘truck’, and walked around to its back carrier, and I noticed that the door was locked shut. I stuck the dragon-tooth between the lock and the handle and used it to pry it off. The lock fell to the ground with a metallic thud. I reached for the handle, but before I could turn it, the door burst open and a pissed off girl with almost white hair charged out at me.
“Holy fuck, Ace - Ace, get out here!” I said, panicked. I side stepped her first swing, but her second caught me on the jaw and sent me sprawling into a tree. I took a clumsy step towards her, but fell on my face in the dirt.
“You bastards, I told you not to lock me in there!” the girl screamed at me. She kicked me roughly in the stomach, and the air quickly left my lungs. I held up my hand, wheezing, and she stopped her assault.
“We’re not… we weren’t with you. My buddy saw a burnt out convoy while he was on the back of a dragon,” I managed to say in between sharp breaths, “I think you might have cracked a rib.” The girl regarded me suspiciously for a few seconds before she reached down and pulled me to my feet.
“I think I like this girl already,” Ace called from the entrance of the cave, wiping the blood from his face with a handkerchief.
“Wait, you were watching this whole time, and you didn’t even think of stepping in?” I asked, only slightly angry. I didn’t really expect any better from him after all.
“What do you think I am, some sort of monster? Of course I thought about helping you, but she is just a kid after all; how much trouble could she really be?” Ace asked with a snicker. He sidled up next to me and grabbed his sword from where I had dropped it, “I mean look at her, she’s what, five nothing?”
The girl threw Ace a disgusted look, “I’m five-four you asshole,” she said, looking as if she were trying very hard not to throw Ace off the side of the cliff - I personally think he would have enjoyed that a bit too much.
“Ace, be nice. I think she could give you a run for your money in a fist-fight,” I said, taking a half step away from my attacker. Ace seemed to consider this for a moment, “naw,” he said, “I think you’re just a weakling.” Akida took a half step towards Ace, but stopped and swiveled her head towards the cliff. She ran back towards me, and before I could take a step back, she pulled my revolver from its holster just as a helicopter rose above the cliff’s edge, which was followed closely by a blood red dragon with some sort of collar around its neck.
“Holy mother fuck,” I said as I dove for cover behind a tree. Ace had already begun to sprint towards the dragon when the girl fired my revolver; the bullet shattered the window and hit the pilot in the side of the head, which sent the helicopter into a downward spiral. The back rotor hit the collar of the dragon, which shrieked in what almost sounded like joy, and dove after the rapidly descending helicopter. Ace dove off the cliff, and just managed to grab onto the spines on the dragon’s neck. I stood up, brushing myself off, and walked back beside the girl. She looked at me with the most confused face I had ever seen, her jaw slack.
“What the hell is your buddy thinking?!” she asked as we quickly made our way to the edge of the cliff and peered over.
“Ah, he’ll be fine,” I said without much conviction. A sound of thunder followed by a ball of fire rose over the cliff’s edge, along with some debris from the helicopter. I slowly walked towards the all-terrain vehicle and peered inside the trailer; it was filled with canned food and army rations, as well as a rack of guns running along the far wall. The girl was on her knees at the edge of the cliff, still looking over.
“Thinking about jumping?” I called to her, jokingly. I immediately wished that I had kept my mouth shut, because if looks could kill, I would have been six feet under.
“Your friend’s dead, and you’re making jokes?” she yelled at me angrily. I held up my hands in surrender, “I can almost guarantee you that son of a bitch is sitting at the bottom of that cliff with a bottle of whisky in his hand right now,” I said, “he’s a hard one to kill.” I walked back over beside the girl, “I’m sorry about your team, but you’ve got some pretty nice lookin’ hardware inside that trailer. You mind if I take a look?” The girl gave me a look of wide-eyed terror before she sprang to her feet and sprinted for the ATV as if something more valuable than her life were inside.
“Look, if you’re worried about the food, my mom always taught me to share,” I said jokingly. When she reached the ATV and stuck her head inside the trailer, she fell onto her back with a scream.
“What the hell happened?” I called to her as I sprinted to her side, revolver at the ready. I aimed my sights inside, and once my vision adjusted, saw Ace lying on a bed of rations, eating one with a knife.
“Ace, how the hell did you get back so quick?” I asked, holstering my revolver. Ace regarded me with a wide grin, “I cut off a wing, used it to ride the explosion up and paraglide down; it’s sitting behind the trailer,” he said around bites of rations.
I turned to Akida “sorry kid, I was wrong; he wasn’t sitting at the bottom drinking. He’s sitting up here eating rations,” I said as I helped her to her feet.
“My name’s not kid, it’s Akida,” she said haughtily, stuffing her hands in her pockets.
“I guess you’ll be needing your rifle then, Akida,” Ace said. He had stood up and grabbed musket from where it had been leaning against a shelf of supplies. He tossed it to Akida, who deftly caught it.
“How did you… how the hell did you know this was mine?” she asked, bewildered. Ace smirked at her, “only a teenager would leave a weapon in such a state of disrepair. Clean your shit properly, or I’ll have to take it away until you learn to clean your equipment properly.” Akida took a step forward, looking as if she were about to punch Ace’s lights out, but I stepped between her and the trailer.
“Right, so before this gets more bloody than it needs to be, how’s about you explain to me how the hell you managed to take down that helicopter with my revolver. I couldn’t even see the pilot behind the reflection on the window,” I said, attempting to dissipate some of the tension. Akida looked at me as if I was an idiot.
“It’s called being a good shot; you should try it sometime,” she said as she slung her musket over her shoulder, “you don’t look like you could hit the side of a barn with a rifle.” From inside the trailer I could hear Ace cracking up as if he had just heard the funniest joke ever told. I glared at Akida momentarily before a horrifying thought came to my mind.
“Wait, so if the L.P.S. had a helicopter sent here, obviously looking for someone, who’s to say there aren’t more of ‘em on their way?” I asked, my eyes felt like saucers. Akida spat on the ground, “I think the more obvious question you’re missing is what the hell were they doing with that dragon? That thing didn’t even try to attack them until the helicopter blade smashed that collar off its neck,” Akida said with a nervous look to the skies.
“Well if they’re trying to train them, they’re doing a pretty shit job at it,” Ace said, pushing past me from inside the trailer. Akida held up a hand, motioning for us to be quiet. Ace looked at her questioningly before we saw a cloud of dust racing up the road towards us.
“So I take it that’s more of ‘em,” I said as I quickly made my way to the driver’s side of the ATV and climbed in. I flipped down the sun shade and a set of keys fell in my lap, and I quickly stuck them in the ignition. Akida climbed in the seat next to mine and look at me with a mixture of concern and disdain.
“So do you actually know how to drive this thing, or are you just winging it?” she asked. I look in the mirror and saw Ace was quickly grabbing the baby dragons from underneath the trailer and was stowing them in the trailer.
“Ace, get the fuck in!” I yelled out the window as I keyed the ignition. Ace finally hopped in the trailer and slammed the door behind him. Akida grabbed her armrest tightly as I floored the gas and spun the ATV in the direction that lead back down the mountain.
“You’re going to drive right at them?” Akida asked, squinting out the front window at the convoy that was headed towards us. They looked much more heavily armed than us.
“This is the only way of the fucking mountain, unless you want me to drive over the cliff,” I said as the first humvee raced past us. It’s mounted turret roared to life, and I could hear bullets ricocheting off the armoured plating. A second humvee slammed on its brakes and spun to a stop directly in front of us.
“Hold tight,” I said as I braced myself. Akida leaned as far back into her seat as possible and shut her eyes. The ATV slammed into the side of the humvee, and spun it clear off the cliff. I looked in the mirror, and saw that the humvee that had driven past us had turned around and was giving chase, the gunner was firing volley after volley after us in a desperate attempt to get us to stop.
“Akida, you know how to drive this thing?” I asked as a plan began formulating in my head, she nodded with a confused expression, “switch places with me, I’ve got an idea.” Akida and i awkwardly climbed over each other, during the process the ATV nearly went over the cliff about six times before we managed to situate ourselves properly. Akida clenched the wheel.
“So what’s this plan you have?” she asked. Two more humvees were approaching us quickly, and the one behind us had ceased fire for the moment.
“I’m gonna get Ace, and we’re gonna employ a bit of car piracy. Keep your eyes on the road,” I said as I opened the passenger door and climbed my way out so I was holding onto the top of the roof rack. I looked down at the ground racing under me and my stomach did a barrel roll. I slowly began edging my way towards the trailer, moving only a few inches at a time. The metal under my fingers was cold, and it definitely did nothing to help. When I finally reached the trailer, I used all my force to kick the door, but it didn’t budge - damn armour. Ace must have heard the sound, because a few moments later the door opened and he poked his head out warily.
“Gabe, what the fuck are you doing? Death-defying heroics are my thing!” he said with a maniacal laugh. The ATV hit a sudden bump in the road, and I lost grip on the rack with both hands.
“Oh fuck!” I yelled as I fell backwards. I had nearly hit the ground when i felt a tension on the front of my shirt; I looked up and saw that Ace had saved me from becoming road kill by grabbing my shirt.
“Looks like you owe me one!” he said as he pulled me into the trailer and slammed the door shut. I stood up slowly, my knees were shaking underneath me and I thought for a moment that I may black out. Outside, I noticed that we had just managed to pass the two humvees I had seen before my precarious climb.
“We need one of those humvees,” I said. Ace looked at me as if I had just won the ‘idiot of the year’ award - I had been nominated twice, but never won.
“You don’t fuckin’ say? You don’t think I would have thought of that myself?” Ace asked snarkily. I glared at him, “well did you?” I asked with an equally snarky tone. Ace shook his head. I grabbed the pure black dragon and looked it square in the eye, “you hungry buddy? I think it’s time you learned how to hun-” I cut myself off, because I was no longer holding the baby dragon. I looked down at my hands, then around the trailer, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Holy shit, where the hell did he go?” Ace asked incredulously. I shrugged and peeked my head around the door, and saw that the black dragon had somehow managed to get itself onto the side of the humvee closest to us, and was in the process of ripping the driver’s door off. The humvee swerved to the left, then right, but the little dragon kept a strong grip on the door.
“Ace, you need to check this out!” I said as I watched the dragon as it tore the humvee door clean off the frame. Ace had poked his head out and was watching the chaos with a slack jaw. The driver screamed bloody murder as the little dragon pulled him out of his seat and tossed him casually over the edge of the cliff; then the dragon disappeared for about a fraction of a second ,and reappeared on the roof of the humvee that was closest to it. I turned to Ace, “I think that dragon can teleport.”