CHAPTER 15 - LAIR OF THE DRAGONS

They were doing it. Michaelah and Koji had escaped the evils of Scary Territory. Sure, their ride wasn’t the friendliest horse in the world, but he was taking them across the sky. The flying horse bucked around in the air like a wild bronco. Michaelah could not help but compare him to the only other flying horse she knew.

“The Haveldasher was a much better flyer.”

“Excuse me!?”the Avilprancer said reproachfully.

“Oh, nothing, I didn’t mean it like that,” Michaelah tried to explain.

“That is it! I don’t have to do this.”The Avilprancer said, dropping in altitude, “This was a favor to the king but I can just go home. I don’t need this.”

“Oh, please, I’m so sorry. Don’t do this. I didn’t mean-”

“I’m dropping you off at the nearest peak. Perhaps your precious Haveldasher will find you.”

When they got close enough to the selected peak Koji began to freak out. “NOT THERE! NOT THERE!”

“What?” Michaelah asked her friend the panda, “What’s wrong?”

“I know those peaks from the legends. Those are pink peaks in the sun. That means its the dragons’ lair.”

“Oh, no!” Michaelah gasped. “Did you hear that? This is dangerous territory.”

“No,”the Avilprancer said, “This is still Scary Territory. We haven’t left.”He corrected them right before flying close enough to the edge of a cliff to jostle them off his back by practically turning upside down.

“Whoa!” They both fell and rolled onto a patch of grass on the edge of the peak.

“Please don’t leave us!”Michaelah yelled to the petty horse flying away. “I’m sorry!”

Michaelah caught her breathe and turned around with Koji. There was only one way to go. They walked into the cave and down into the tunnel.

Its a good thing they got all of their stuff back when they got their bodies back. Koji was glad he had his knight’s helmet for this. And the plunger, but he still wasn’t sure what that would do against a dragon. He even still had the two of the fruits from the magical forest that made whoever ate it grow larger. Michaelah had her yo-yo and her TV remote, ready for anything this crazy world had to throw at them.

Koji whispered back to her, “So that horse was a jerk, huh?”

Michaelah laughed. As scared as they were, she could count on Koji to make her smile. They slowly walked down the tunnel until they reached the inside of the peak. It truely was a dragons’ lair. The cavern opened up into a massive arena. It was so big it almost felt like they were outside. They walked along a long spiral path around the edge, amongst a network of intersecting spiral paths. There were clusters of dragon nests everywhere along the cavern walls and hanging from the ceiling like upside-down towers.

It was going to be very hard for them to go unnoticed. The dragons were flying all around, leaving and entering the lair, and also flying between nests. Most of the dragons were green, red, black, and gray. Every so often, Michaelah saw an orange and yellow dragon. They even spotted a violet one. Koji swore he saw a silver dragon, but Michaelah missed it.

They were like a cross between butterflies and snakes. Some of the patterns on their wings were beautiful. The closer they got, the more they could see the diversity between the dragons. Even between the same colored one, like the reds, there were all different types.

That’s when they saw him. The same evil angry dragon from the Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest. Even here, amongst his own kind, he was rude to the dragons smaller than him. He pushed them around and forced them to do things they didn’t want to do or else he would give them his fire.

“Hi.”

They both jumped, practically out of their skin. There was a dragon standing behind them on the path. He was a stout black one with white trim that led all the way up his body and gathered under his chin.

Michaelah swallowed. “Hello.”

“What are you doing?”the curious dragon asked.

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“We were abandoned here,” she answered.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”Michaelah repeated. Not sure what to do.

“I’m Jeff.”

“Hi, Jeff. I am Michaelah and this is Koji.”

“Very cool. I love pandas. They look like me!”

“He is cool,” Michaelah smiled.

“What are you?”Jeff the dragon asked.

“I’m a human. I come from a different land.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“We don’t want to be here,”said Michaelah.

“Do you know how we can leave?”Koji asked.

“Chewy will want to meet you.” the dragon walked up on them all of a sudden. Michaelah was startled. She didn’t think this chubby dragon was as big as he actually was. Not only that, but he was quick. He got the drop on them, practically charging them with his mouth open. Jeff, the chubby black dragon, gobbled up Michaelah and Koji.

The dragon did not chew them, and he did not swallow. He was such a large dragon that he could comfortably carry them in his mouth, carry them to Chewy. The same could not be said about Michaelah and Koji who sat in the dragon’s saliva as they were taken to an unknown part of the lair. Comfort was the farthest thing from their minds.

Jeff spat them out and it was not a gracefully landing like she was back on the gymnastics mat. Michaelah and Koji were covered in smelly, gooey dragon spit.

“The folks back at the Goo Zoo would love this,” Koji said.

Before them was a dragon five times the size of Jeff. He looked more like a classic dragon. He was green with red eyes and a long mustache. Whenever he breathed or talked a little bit of fire came out of his nostrils and mouth. It was pretty cool if not utterly terrifying.

“Check it out, Chewy,” Jeff said casually, “Its a human.”

“Hello,” Michaelah waved awkwardly.

The giant green dragon moved up toward her so he could get a closer look and Michaelah freaked out.

“PLEASE DON’T EAT ME! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!”She screamed.

“We’re not going to eat you,” said Chewy. “We don’t even know where you come from. Would you eat food that you didn’t know where it came from?”

“No, I guess I wouldn’t.”

“There’s no reason to fear us, human. We cannot say the same for our brethren though.”

“Can you help us get home?”asked Michaelah.

“That’s up to Jeff,” said Chewy. “Thank you for coming to meet me. I do not get out much because of my size. I am glad to have said I met a human.”

“My name is Michaelah.”

“Thank you for extending the courtesy of your name, Michaelah. Please take this as a token of my appreciation.”

One golden whisker from the dragon’s mustache floated down into Michaelah’s hands. She bowed in thanks and Jeff showed them the way out. This time they got to walk on their own, instead of being carried in the dragon’s mouth.

“What am I going to do with this?”Michaelah asked Koji quietly.

“I have no idea!”he whispered back.

Jeff led them out of Chewy’s nest, and they appeared to be on one of the upper echelon nests along the spiraling paths. Jeff the dragon reached the path and then got on all fours, shaking his rump toward them.

“I think we’re supposed to get on him?”Michaelah said.

Koji followed her on.

“Want to see something embarrassing?” Jeff the dragon asked them.

“Sure.”

The dragon closed his mouth and then his cheeks imploded, all of a sudden his black ears shot out of his head. They were so huge they leaned over. Jeff stood up on his heind legs and used his front claws to pull his ears back so they would cover Michaelah and Koji.

The dragon’s floppy ears felt so funny on Michaelah’s bare skin. It was like a cross between an iguana and a whale. Jeff jumped off the ledge of the spiral path and they were flying. Michaelah and Koji were both able to peak out and look at the dragons’ lair. Now feeling some semblance of safety, they were able to really appreciate the beauty all around them.

“See we’re not all that bad,” Jeff said back at them, smiling.

“You’ve got that right!” Michaelah said, patting him on the back.

That’s when they saw the Evil Angry Dragon again. This time he was picking on a couple of youngling dragons. He was flying over them and dropping rocks. They were too young to fly away.

“What about that guy?”Koji asked, pointing at the evil angry dragon, “He’s pretty bad.”

“Oh, that guy,”said Jeff, “He’s just mad because his name is Julian.”

“What?”asked Michaelah.

“His friends called him Jules the dragon and he didn’t like it, so now he doesn’t have any friends.”

Koji laughed but Michaelah felt bad for him. Jeff was cool enough to show them out of the dragon’s lair and luckily they were not caught in the process. He brought them out of Scary Territory. The only problem was what waited for them on the other side of the border, nothing but desert as far as the eye could see.

Jeff took them as far as he could before he got too tired and too thirsty to keep going. “I’m sorry guys, but if I go any further I won’t be able to make it home.”

“It’s okay,” Michaelah said. “Thank you so much for helping us get this far.”

“The other side of the Lit Desert is the biggest city in Pandamomium. It is not much farther if you go in that direction. Jeff the dragon pointed in a direction towards the only cloud in the sky. Michaelah and Koji both looked and made sure to remember which way before saying goodbye. Part of Michaelah wanted to go back with him. The other part wanted to ask the friendly dragon for some water, but chances were he would’ve just spat on them.