RUSTY

Rusty and Chul sprinted down the uneven path, trying to maintain their footing while dashing across a floor of loose shells. The hound's howl still echoed in their ears and across the junkyard, weighing them both with the sense of a predator’s approach. Each twist and turn in the trail brought them closer to safety, but though they had not seen the hound itself, Rusty felt as if it was hot on their trail.

Then they rounded a bend and found themselves face to face with Jiho, Seok, and Sooji. Chul collided with Seok, and they fell in a tangle of limbs.

“Where have you been?” Jiho demanded. “Don’t you know the hound is hunting?”

“We heard him,” Rusty said. “We were coming back.”

Sooji was scanning the environment, eyes wide with fear. “Get down,” she hissed, falling into a crouch, “everyone get down.”

Chul and Seok, who had begun wrestling, froze. Jiho instantly dropped onto his belly at Sooji’s warning, but it was too late.

Atop a nearby mound, the hound rose into view. An oversized mastiff, its fur was a cascade of dark bristles that seemed to absorb the surrounding light. Its muzzle was massive, with teeth like spikes of yellowed ivory, wet with saliva and blood. Its nostrils widened as it sniffed the air. They hadn’t been spotted yet.

"Quiet and still," Sooji murmured, nudging the others toward a pile of crates they could shelter behind. They crawled for cover, and the hound remained fixed in place, seeming to relish the scents of the junkyard.

Its nostrils flared as it caught a scent, and it began to methodically survey the area, ears pricked for any hints of movement. The gang remained silent, each holding their breath as the hound prowled closer. Rusty felt a chill run down his spine as the monstrous creature's eyes flickered in their direction.

"Don’t run," Jiho whispered, his voice barely audible. "It will only attract its attention."

Rusty nodded, trying to steady his racing heart. He let his mind drift to the treasures Chul was carrying for him, the locket and the rare shells, his sense of their presence filling him with calm.

The Junkmaster's hound continued its search, drawing ever closer to the gang. One by one, the goblins began creeping away, keeping a few battered crates between themselves and the lurking beast. Every step was slow and deliberate, placed so as not to disturb any of the detritus of the junkyard.

Rusty, distracted, struggled to navigate the uneven terrain. He stumbled over a loose plank; the noise amplified against their silence.

"Watch it!" Sooji hissed as she deftly avoided a chunk of broken glass flung up by the plank, casting an alarmed glance back at the hound. The beast perked up, its ears twitching as its eyes locked onto the gang; gleaming orbs of fiery amber, full of hunter’s cunning. It looked down upon them, and in that moment, they felt as though pressure was building in the surrounding air, the weight of its killing intent pushing like a wind.

The hound let out an ear-splitting howl that shook Rusty to his bones, and the gang knew they had no choice but to make a break for it. They raced through the junkyard, ducking beneath twisted metal and leaping over mounds of trash, each breath coming in ragged gasps.

"Jiho, where are we going?" Seok shouted as they sprinted, panic clear in his voice.

"Follow me!" Jiho hollered back, determined to play his role as the leader. "I know a hiding spot!"

Rusty kept pace with the goblins, but his awkwardness on his feet caused him to slip and falter more than once. The sound of the hound's snarls and barks grew louder, propelling them onward in desperation. How it hadn’t caught them already, he had no idea. It appeared to be enjoying itself.

"Almost there!" Jiho promised, though his eyes betrayed his uncertainty. Despite his claims, they soon found themselves cornered at a dead end, the towering walls of trash on every side enclosing them like a deadly trap.

They turned to face the hound, who padded up to block their only exit. Its lips pulled back to emphasize the jagged fangs.

"Please," Jiho begged, his voice trembling as the hound barked furiously, just paces away from them. "Eat Sooji and leave the rest of us alone!"

"Jiho!" Sooji screamed, her eyes wide with betrayal and hurt. "You're an awful brother!"

As the goblins argued, Rusty stared at the snarling beast before them, saliva dripping from its fangs like venom. He knew he was not strong enough to defeat it on his own, but he also couldn't bear to watch his friends become prey to such a monster. The dragon's mind raced, searching for any way out of the situation, but all he could think of was the hound pulling one of them down.

Seok, his face pale but determined, stepped forward to confront the beast. "Leave them alone!" he shouted, brandishing his axle in both hands. The hound's eyes narrowed, focusing its attention on him.

"Seok, don't!" Sooji cried, searching for an escape.

"Run," Seok told the others. "I'll hold it off."

“Run where?” Jiho demanded. “It’s a blind alley!”

The hound lunged forward, its jaws snapping onto Seok's right arm. He let out a scream, and the beast shook him back and forth like a rag doll before tossing him aside. His body crumpled against a heap of trash, leaving him dazed and vulnerable.

A potent admixture of fear and anger coursed through Rusty’s veins. This was his family, and he would not let the hound have them. With a fierce hiss, he leaped onto the hound's back, digging his claws into its flesh, and biting at its neck with his fangs as it loomed over Seok.

His claws dug at its hide, but they were no more effective than one of Jiho’s combs would have been. Though latched on with his jaws, his teeth weren’t sharp enough to penetrate its skin, and the hound bucked him off like a wild stallion refusing to be ridden. Rusty landed in a heap, tangled in the rat cloak, which had come loose. The beast turned on him, then paused in its assault, sniffing the air, its fury replaced by a look of almost comical confusion.

Rusty managed to get back on all fours, hissing his defiance at the hound, who retreated a pace at the display. He was a fraction of its size, but the hound reacted as if he was suddenly confronted with an overwhelming foe. With a final bark at the goblin gang, it fled the alley, disappearing back into the junkyard.

Sooji was stunned. “What…what just happened?”

As the goblins saw the beast retreat, their fear melted away, replaced by elation.

Seok sat up, wincing as he cradled his injured arm. "I did it. I scared it away," he declared, though his pale face and trembling hands told a different story.

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Chul rushed over to Rusty, filled with admiration. "You're the bravest scaly dog ever. You faced down the Junkmaster's hound!"

Sooji squinted at Rusty. "What are you wearing? Is that...rats?"

Chul grinned. "I made it myself! It's a disguise. Do you like it?"

"The hound wasn’t fooled.” Jiho said. “He smelled Rusty. He knew what he was. The scent of a dragon was what spooked him."

Sooji scowled at Jiho. "You tried to feed me to that monster. What were you thinking?”

Jiho shrugged. “I was thinking that if it stopped to eat you, the rest of us might have been able to get away.”

“But you’re my brother!” She accused.

“And I would have been heartbroken to lose you,” Jiho flapped his hands. “Let’s move on.”

“Move on?” Sooji pushed Jiho with both her hands, and he stumbled back. “You were going to let it eat me! Your sister. Your twin!”

“That’s all in the past now,” Jiho said, speaking to her like he was trying to calm a distressed child. “Nothing happened to you.”

Seok got carefully to his feet, tried to lift his broken arm, and then cradled it to his chest with a grimace. “I can’t believe I beat it,” he said.

The gang made its way back to their den, no longer in any hurry, and mostly in high spirits. Sooji cast venomous glances at her brother as they walked, but he didn’t notice them, once again in a world of his own. Chul was hopping and dancing the entire way, singing Rusty’s praises, and stopping every few paces to hug him. Rusty was a little overwhelmed by his affection, overwhelmed by the entire experience. In one day, he’d seen what Midden had to offer him, while simultaneously being given a glimpse of how wide the world really was. Midden was only a junkyard in Elswyre, and Elswyre was only one island among many. Somewhere, there were others like him, a mother who had deposited her egg far from any other dragons. He’d confronted the hound on instinct. He certainly didn’t think of himself as particularly brave, but he couldn’t deny that he’d played the hero in their encounter and deserved at least a little of Chul’s enthusiastic praise.

He could still taste its fur on his tongue, and he couldn’t help thinking how badly that situation would have gone if the hound had taken its hunt to the natural conclusion. He hadn’t been strong enough to hurt it. None of them were. It was sheer luck that had allowed them to survive.

Jiwoo was cooking up more beetle meat when they returned.

“You all look like you’ve been dragged through the mud,” he said. “What happened?”

Seok and Chul talked over each other, telling competing stories. Seok continued to insist that it was his efforts that had resulted in the hound's defeat, claiming to have struck it a mighty blow with his club before being injured. It was only then that he realized he had left his axle behind and retreated to his corner to sulk. Chul’s account was more accurate, though harder to follow, as he had a habit of speaking in circles, as well as stretching the truth.

“Rusty jumped it,” he said. “They wrestled for like five minutes, and Jiho peed himself. Then I threw a rock because there was a bird watching us and I thought it looked suspicious. It was a black bird with a red stripe on its chest. The hound didn’t like Rusty very much. He’s so strong. Seok didn’t even hit it. That’s not true. He just fell down and cried because he lost his axle. Then the bird flew away. And I watched it to make sure it wasn’t coming back, so we were safe. The dog was really loud. It hurt my ears. Rusty made it go away.”

Jiwoo listened to the entire account, a bit of grease sliding off of his kabob to sizzle in the fire. He looked at Jiho. “You spooked the hound?”

“He smelled a dragon,” Jiho said pensively, “and ran away.”

“Jiho was going to feed me to him,” Sooji spat. “The coward.”

“Makes sense,” Jiwoo nodded sagely. “You have the least value.”

Sooji slapped him, and the elder goblin laughed.

“This is big,” Jiho said. “Bigger than big. The Junkmaster’s hound is one of the most vicious creatures in Midden, and even he couldn’t stand against Rusty. We could march into the Great Goblin’s hut right now and demand to be allowed back into the tribe. Who could stop us?”

Seok, nursing his broken arm, latched onto the idea, coming instantly out of his sulk. "Let's do it," he said, wincing slightly from the pain. "Let's face the Great Goblin right now!"

"Wait!" Sooji interjected, alarmed. "Shouldn't we wait until Rusty has a larger hoard? He’s still only level one." She looked at the dragon. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Rusty said, “I haven’t gotten any experience for the stuff you gave me yet. And for the record, that hound absolutely would have killed me if it had tried.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jiho said quickly. “We don’t need you to fight anyone. We don’t want you to. Just having you with us is enough. Remember what happened when Bok and the others saw you? Now the hound. The other goblins won’t know what to make of you, or of us. We’ve tamed a dragon, that’s all they’ll see. It doesn’t matter that you’re small.”

“I tamed him,” Chul corrected. “He’s my friend.”

“What happened to keeping him a secret?” Sooji demanded. “Isn’t that what we decided?”

“The secrets out,” Jiho said. “Or it will be, he’s been seen. The best thing to do is to act fast. Before anyone has a chance to make a decision about us, we need to make it for them.”

“Bang the Midden Tribe,” Jiwoo said, dropping onto his bottom beside the fire. “What do we need them for? A bunch of mudrakers, carpetbaggers, the lot. Like I would bend the knee to that fat oaf who calls himself a Great Goblin. I was better than he’ll ever be.”

“Think this through,” Jiho said, moving to stand behind Jiwoo. “We bend the knee now, but in a few weeks, when they see what Rusty can do, we’ll have more pledges than the Great Goblin. I’ll be running Midden.”

“You?” Sooji asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Us,” Jiho waved his hands. “I mean us, of course. The gang. We’ll be in charge.”

“I’d like to be in charge,” Seok said.

“Do you really think so?” Chul asked, caught up in Jiho’s confidence.

Jiho leaned forward to massage Jiwoo’s shoulders, whispering into his ear. “Don’t you remember what it was like, to be respected, to be revered, a big gobbo? We could have it all again, just like before. The food, the treasure, the women. You remember the women, don’t you, grandfather?”

“Get off of me,” Jiwoo complained, pushing Jiho away, but he was thinking about it.

“What about the disguise?” Chul said, bending over to retie the straps around Rusty’s legs. “Do we still need it?”

“It wouldn’t have fooled anyone to begin with,” Jiho said. “Don’t be stupid.”

Rusty saw Chul’s face fall and felt a surge of animosity toward Jiho for treating his friend that way. “I like it,” he told Chul. “I don’t think it’s stupid at all.”

“Wear it then,” Jiho dismissed them. “If anything, it will confuse the tribe even more. Keep them on their toes. We go to the encampment now, while they're still hiding from the hound. They need to see that we aren’t afraid like they are. That they need goblins like us in the tribe.”

Rusty didn’t like where this was going. He’d already faced one unwinnable encounter that day, and he had a hard time believing that fate would spare him a second time.

“Why aren’t you in the tribe?” He asked. “What happened?”

The room grew quiet. Chul shuffled his feet uncomfortably, and Seok went back to his corner without another word. Jiwoo laughed, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound.

“You may as well know,” he said. “Feast your eyes, youngling. You’re looking at the former Great Goblin.” He lifted both his arms and flexed, displaying thick biceps. “I was a big old gobbo once, the biggest in Midden. They all came to me with their pledges, and I treated them right, ungrateful starfish kissers that they were. Then, when things got hard, they abandoned me, abandoned all of us, kicked out the only ones who were still loyal. They look at us like trash, but we’re not trash, you see, we’re trash kings. They envied me, they wanted what I had. The Great Goblin now was a little runt when I was in charge. A nobody. He doesn’t deserve what he’s got.”

“That isn’t exactly what happened,” Sooji said. “It was complicated.”

“Nothing complicated about backstabbing fools,” Jiho countered. “We’ll be more careful this time. We know more. Grandfather isn’t the same goblin he was, and neither am I. With Rusty as our way back in, we’ll have them under our thumb again before they realize what’s happening.”

The goblins debated a while longer, but with Sooji as the only voice of dissent, it was a foregone conclusion. The others didn’t listen to her, and Rusty hesitated to speak up himself. Chul seemed to want whatever Jiho wanted, and Rusty didn’t want to disappoint him. This was the only family he had, and a part of him was afraid that if he didn’t go along with their scheme, they wouldn’t have any use for him anymore. Chul would never abandon him, he assured himself, but the way Jiho controlled the others, he couldn’t be sure.

“Do you really think this is going to work?” He asked Chul.

“Oh, sure,” Chul grinned, “Jiho knows what he knows, how he knows it. I don’t know much, but I know that, I know that he knows. You see?”

Rusty didn’t see.

“You don’t have to worry,” Jiho said, applying his patented smile. “I know these goblins, what makes them tick. They follow the currents, like leaves and logs in the water, I’m the one rowing the boat. This isn’t going to be a fight. We’re going to talk to them, that’s all. You want more treasures, don’t you, Rusty? They have more than we could ever give you here. And a lair, a real lair, not this little den, a place for you to grow into. Don’t you want that?”

He wanted that, even if he didn’t completely trust Jiho’s assessment of the situation.

Reluctantly, he nodded.

“Excellent,” Jiho clapped his hands. “Let’s go surprise the Great Goblin.”