Page 30 of Monster's Melody

Seeing that hole, we were faced with a choice.We could go back or we could go through it.

Even knowing it was probably a bad idea—who knew what creatures made their homes inside it—we swam straight into the bowels of the ship.

It was dark inside, darker than it’d been in the maze, and even my spelled ball of light wasn’t enough to fully penetrate the darkness.

Vorzak stayed close as we swam through what appeared to be the bottom level of the ship.

We were deep inside, swimming toward a gap in the ceiling when I saw the dragon.

He was directly above us and appeared to be sleeping.Unfortunately, his head was resting right beside the hole we were aiming for.

Vorzak caught my arm and pulled me back.

Unfortunately, it was so dark, we couldn’t really see whether there was another exit somewhere else and we’d already been working this challenge for a good amount of time.

We could go back, but this was only the first challenge we’d tackled and we had no idea how many more there would be.Some days, there were as many as ten in one class period.

When Vorzak motioned that we should go back, I shook my head and pointed up to where the dragon waited.

When he shook his head again, I tapped my wrist in the universal sign for time and pointed up again.

He looked frustrated, but finally nodded, but then pointed to himself and held up one finger.Then he pointed at me and held up two.

I rolled my eyes and made a sweeping gesture toward the ceiling.

If he wanted to be first, I wasn’t going to stop him.

His snakes waved at me as he swam by.

I blew them a kiss and followed.

As we got closer, I could see the hole was nowhere near as big as I’d originally thought.

We were going to have to swim entirely too close to the dragon’s head if we were going to make it out.

Vorzak didn’t hesitate though.He aimed straight for the hole and I quickly followed, keeping pace as he powered upward.

I was watching the dragon, so I didn’t see what caught Vorzak and dragged him away.

All I know is he was in front of me one moment and the next, he was gone.

And the dragon beside me was stirring.

I swam as fast as I could, then ducked instinctively when something swung at my head.

The dragon’s tail whipped through the water where my head had been not moments before.

Shit.

I powered back away from the dragon, looking around frantically, trying to see where Vorzak had gone.

The dragon came around and hurtled toward me.

I darted to the side and barely missed losing an arm to the sharp teeth he snapped at me.

I hated to use my powers against creatures of the sea, but clearly this water dragon was not going to stop.

I opened my mouth and sent out multiple notes ringing with power.The magic of my song reverberated through the waters around us, lighting them up and calming every creature of the ocean close enough to feel its vibrations.