Page 34 of Prison Moon
Chapter Thirteen
Playing dead had worked. Sara released the breath she’d been holding as the dragon leapt into the sky. She scrambled off whatever it was she was laying on to run and look out, then sucked in an astonished breath. “Holy shit.”
She took a step back and grabbed hold of the wall beside her and stared out at the world from the side of a mountain, the ground so far below she couldn't make out a single feature. Low-lying clouds obscured much of her view but looking out at the horizon gave her a unique view of this alien moon and it didn’t look much different from Earth from way up here. The colors were generally the same. Trees were green, dirt was brown and mountains were tall. The sky was still a hazy blue shot with streaks of pink with pale gray and white clouds. That massive planet hanging above them was still odd to see. So were the two smaller moons. She’d seen them every single day since she got here but from here it looked as if she could touch them.
The mountain she was on was burnt reds and umber, the color of the rocks reminding her of rusted metal. In the distance, she saw the hard-packed ground of the desert-like area the aliens dropped them off at and in the very far distance, a pale teal that looked as if it went on forever.
But no sign of the dragon. The mere thought of him and her stomach clenched tight.
First aliens and prisoners, then dragons and now those wyvern. Everything here was designed to kill her. The thought had no sooner entered her mind than she thought of Toren. Remembering him falling off that cliff made her knees weak and her stomach cramp until she thought she’d be sick. She couldn’t have been with him more than a couple of weeks, but in that entire time, she’d felt safe and cared for and now—she looked out across the horizon again. Now she was stuck on the side of a mountain with a dragon that seemed to have a hard-on for her. How in the hell did it keep finding her? And why? Not that she wasn’t grateful this time. Stuck here was probably a better option than being dumped in an arena and offered as a prize for the aliens who wanted to fight for her. She had no doubt in her mind they’d be nothing like Toren.
Her chest ached as she thought of him again, tears clouding her vision. It wasn’t just the safety he provided she’d miss, she realized. It was him. As hard as it was to communicate, she enjoyed being with him. He made her feel special and wanted and he made her laugh, which was a huge plus in her book. She didn’t think she’d known him long enough to call what she felt for him love but it was more than just liking the guy. It ran deeper than that. And now he was gone. What was she going to do?
Sara scrubbed at her eyes and looked down the side of the mountain again, searching for a path or foothold—anything that would allow her to leave but saw nothing. From what she could see, she was well and truly stuck here.
She gave one last look to the horizon and turned to inspect the cavern she was in. It was huge, the ceiling high above her head. Tall and wide enough for a dragon. It was only one room that she could see. The walls were scored by rows of indentions carved into the rock as if something big and sharp had scraped along each side. The wall was warm to the touch and the further in she went, the warmer it grew.
Near the back of the cavern, she found a small crevice just big enough to squeeze through and there was so much heat coming from inside, it warmed her clean to the bone. Was this the way out? She looked to the entrance, then back at the crevice in the stone. It was so dark. Even if it was the way out she’d never be able to see and the way her luck was going, she’d step right off another cliff. Or run into something that would eat her. Without a light or a weapon, she wouldn’t dare risk it.
She turned and looked around the cavern again. The place the dragon had laid her was off to one side, a small nook nestled in the darkness. The shifting pile of whatever she’d been sitting on caught her attention and she walked back over to it, grabbed two handfuls, then turned to the light. Then just stared.
The tiny bits she’d been lounging on were hard as metal and were a dark, bright butter yellow in color. She would have called it gold but the color was all wrong. The small, thin disks were only a portion of what was here. There were other small pieces in iridescent shades of blue that changed to pink, red and purple as she turned it to the light. It didn’t look like any type of stone she’d ever seen. It was thin, almost glass-like, some pieces nearly as large as her palm. She tossed what she had in hand down and scooped up more. Small gems glistened in the sun and more of those small iridescent pieces glittered up at her. She had no clue what they were but she’d never seen anything so beautiful. The way the sun caught and changed their color was mesmerizing.
The mound was nearly as tall as she was and covered a space bigger than her tiny dorm room back on earth. The whole pile was tucked back into the small dark alcove, away from the light of the main entrance. As she stared at it she realized what she’d been laying on. It was the dragon’s treasure. A hoard. She laughed. “I’ll be damned. They really do hide treasure.”
Tossing what was in her hand down, she scooped up a few of the iridescent pieces and carried them to the cave entrance to get a better look at them. They were thin and reminded her a bit of mica but it was hard as stone and each piece was about the size of her palm.
She held one to the light, turning it and saw reflections shine off the stone walls. The sun was casting small prisms of light through them and flashing in streamers of rainbow colors. She smiled when she realized what she was holding. “Dragon scales.” She was so entranced by her new find that she didn’t see the dragon until he was right in front of the opening. The wind picked up, the swoosh his giant wings made as they cut through the air loud in the enclosed cavern. She screamed and ran to the back wall, the light blotted out as he came inside.
Sara pressed her back flat to the rough jagged stone, her heart racing as she stared at the dragon coming toward her. His body fit inside the cavern, but just barely. His neck was angled down to keep from banging his head on the ceiling at the entrance and he filled the space from one side to the other.
He shifted and lowered his head enough the light flooded back in moments before he dropped something near her feet. It made a sickening wet slosh of noise and the smell hit her soon after. “Ugh, what is that?” She buried her nose in the crook of her arm and stared at the thing at her feet as the dragon took a few steps back.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t moving, and judging the smell, she assumed it was dead. It was covered in dirty gray fur that looked thick and natty. She realized a moment later it was the same type of creature the dragon had by the river. Whatever these things were called, he apparently liked them. She peeked up at the dragon. He was staring out the entrance. Sara relaxed, her shoulders lowering as she flicked her gaze from him to the dead animal. As revolting as it was, her stomach growled. She’d not eaten since she woke and had only had a few of the roots and berries Toren had found her.
The instant she thought of him, her heart ached and those tears she hated were burning the back of her eyes again.
The dragon looked back over at her and made a rumbly sort of noise deep in his chest before once again jumping out of the cavern into the sky. She was left alone with the carcass of an animal she had no idea what to do with. Was it even for her? Maybe it was the dragon’s lunch and she was just assuming he’d brought it for her. But—he’d dumped it at her feet. Surely he’d meant it for her. Or he was just putting his fresh kill next to the meal he hadn’t killed yet.
She groaned at the thought. “Stop being so glum, Sara. If that dragon wanted you dead, he would have killed you by now.”
* * *
Toren swept low over the trees, looking for the cliff the wyvern had knocked him off.
Spotting the teshen when he’d gone to retrieve the baskets had been a stroke of luck. It was large enough to feed them for days but spotting one of the flying orbs had sent him racing back to the lair with his kill without grabbing their other things. He’d not taken the time to explain to Sarra why he was leaving again so soon after dropping the animal near her feet and he wished he had. She’d still looked terrified.
He circled low after seeing the cliff, their baskets of belongings still where they’d set them. He landed on the cliff’s edge, looking near the tree line for stray limbs large enough for a fire, then scooped them up, along with the baskets, and soared over the treetops before banking right and heading back to the mountain his lair was hidden. He scanned the sky for wyvern, breathing a bit easier when he didn’t see any. If he were lucky, he’d go undetected by those who would kill him on sight.
Of course, luck had never been in his favor. Toren climbed higher into the air as he neared his mountain. Something to the left caught his eye as he started to climb. It was one of the flying orbs that roamed the skies but this one was much larger than the ones he usually saw. The sun reflected off its surface and glistened in every color known. It took only seconds to realize it saw him.
What he thought was one large orb suddenly broke off into many, speeding across the sky and closing in on him. They made no sound and moved fast, circled his head and darted at great speeds. He dipped his wing and plummeted toward the forest to draw them away from the lair. As he hoped, they followed.
Toren spent unknown amounts of time climbing into the air and dipping down again in order to lose them. A few flew so close to his face he could hear a slight buzzing noise as if something inside of it was moving. He inhaled deeply, let the heat in his chest build, then blew fire at the ones closest to him. They sizzled and fell but more flew back into his line of sight a few moments later. He circled around, the mountains now in the distance as he let the things chase him until he had a trail of them following close to both of his wings.
He barrel rolled in midair and turned to face them, waiting until they were all within range and scorched them, burning them to the point they started falling from the sky in clumps of black char. The largest of them was still in the distance. No other pieces broke off from it and he needed to keep it from his home.
Winging into the air, he sped across the sky, the oddly shaped, shining cluster of pieces still hovering. He didn’t give it time to break apart again. He blew fire on the entire thing, watching as the individual pieces turned black and fell one by one. They were nothing but smoking trails of falling debris when he turned back toward the mountain. He swooped low enough to avoid being seen again and headed back to Sarra.