Battledragon (37 page)

On this particular late afternoon, their hunt was fruitless. The forest was unusually quiet. Even the green lizards and smaller birds were absent.

Then, in a tangle of roots around the base of a great strangler fig, Swane spotted an enormous coiled serpent sleeping off a significant meal.

Drawn by curiosity, the boys gathered around to admire it.

"It's a beauty," murmured Jak.

"Damn, but it's huge," said Swane.

Indeed, the constrictor was two feet thick except where its dinner, a bushpig, still bulged out its stomach. The serpent's skin was glossy brown, lined with black, striped with red and spotted with yellow. From a massive, spade-shaped head, two big black eyes stared at them apprehensively while a long tongue tasted the air for danger.

"What's it weigh, d'you think?" said Swane.

"Big as a dragon," said Jak.

"Big as a big dragon," said Relkin.

"Skin looks like leatherback," said Jak.

The snake looked at them with considerable anxiety. Oblivious to this, Swane reached out to touch one of the coils.

"Feels so smooth, not like a leatherback at all. More like a freemartin green."

"Some leatherbacks are smoother than others, Swane. Now, Vlok ain't smooth at all, but some are."

Swane ignored Jak.

"Feels cool to the touch. He's gorged."

Relkin was studying the snake's eyes. The pupils were as wide as they could go.

"That may be, but he's also pretty unhappy. I'd say he doesn't care for company right now. In fact, if I were you, Swane I'd…" Relkin's warning came a little too late.

The snake's head rose suddenly, and it made a halfhearted strike at Swane, huge fangs white and visible in the big mouth. Swane leapt backward just in time.

"Damn thing could swallow you whole, Jak."

The boys shifted several yards away while the huge constrictor slid off into the undergrowth with a fervent hiss of dislike.

"Friendly fellow," said Relkin.

"All I did was admire his pretty skin."

"Thought Swane was gonna get chomped just then."

"A lot less trouble we'd have," said Jak with an impudent grin. He looked to Relkin. "I think we really would miss old Swane."

"You'll be missing if I catch up with you, little Jak."

Jak made a face at the bigger boy, but stayed out of cuffing range.

Relkin was a few yards ahead, scouting the edge of another clearing. He gave a low whistle, and they moved to catch up with him. They soon saw that this was no ordinary clearing. The trees dwindled as the forest floor was replaced by a pavement of great blocks of stone. Ruins thrust up among vines. Occasional trees had broken through the paving, heaving up the foot-thick blocks.

Stone steps rose up into man-made hills where ancient pyramids rotted beneath a covering of small trees. Farther on there were the remains of a high wall, sections of which still rose above the short forest.

"This is an ancient place," said Swane as they trod the ruins.

"Who built it?" said Jak.

Relkin shrugged. The world was old and had seen many tides of people come and go.

"Men live but for moments," Relkin quoted the prayer to the Great Mother. "Their cities but for a day. We all come to dust in the end."

"Uh-oh," groaned Swane, "the Sage of Quosh is at it again." Relkin tossed a pebble at him, and Swane climbed up onto a pedestal of stone. A wall loomed nearby.

"Hey," said Swane, jumping down. "Look at this."

They gathered beneath the wall.

Along the top of the ruin was a fragment of bas-relief depicting the bottom half of a man wearing armored boots and carrying a sword. Rich filigree had been carved below it, forming a frame for the image.

"There's more over there," said Jak, pointing.

Two high walls rose above the scattered trees. Between were the ruins of an entranceway to a huge place, a former arena perhaps with a curved interior wall that was still ten feet high in places. On this inside wall were more carvings. They gasped in unison when they saw the dragons cut into the stone.

"Wyverns," said Swane. "Here in the dark continent."

"But I thought they came from the north."

"So much for what they taught Manuel," said Relkin.

There were, however, details that made him uneasy. The beasts in the carving walked upright and were clearly reptilian, of the same general type as the wyvern dragons, but their bodies were huge, as evidenced by the human figures carved in the background. The upper limbs were small in relation to the rest, unlike those of wyverns and the winged dragons, who could all go down on four legs quite easily. The stone dragon heads were too large as well.

"I don't know, look at these things. Are these really wyverns?"

There was a whistle to his right.

"If those are wyverns, then what are those?" Jak pointed to another set of well-preserved carvings on a fragment of wall farther around the curve.

Clearly represented were four-legged beasts of huge dimensions, with long necks, small heads, and long, long tails. In the background were men with carts drawn by small horselike animals, all dwarfed by these colossal reptilian beasts.

Swane rubbed his eyes.

"They had some pretty overweight dragons back when they made this."

"They're not dragons." Jak snorted. "Look at those heads, too small for dragons. Relkin, what do you think they are?"

"I have no idea, but they're big. Bigger than anything I've ever seen."

"They have to be dragons, what else could they be?" grumbled Swane.

"What about that?" shouted Jak, pointing to another carving.

This monster was like nothing they had ever seen. A large, bulky animal with a squared-off body, a long tail, and a large head dominated by three long horns.

They stood there scratching their heads in amazement.

"Sort of like an ox, but with horns that stick straight up," hazarded Jak.

"Never saw an ox that had a horn on its nose."

"An ox crossed with a unicorn, then."

"Unicorn? You and your unicorn, Jak."

"Whatever it is, it's pretty damned ugly."

There was a sudden eruption of noise nearby. A loud squealing began in the thickets beyond the immediate circle of ruins.

"Bushpig?" said Swane, reaching for his bow.

Relkin shook his head. "Never heard a bushpig sound like that."

"Could be a baby," said Jak.

"If there's a baby, then stands to reason there'll be a mother. Dragons would like that."

Suddenly the squealing took on another tone, one of terror. It ran sharply up the scale to agony and then cut off. Other similar animals were squealing now, and coming closer.

The boys exchanged looks. Something had just made a kill.

There came a loud, booming cry, a harsh sound filled with triumph. It was repeated three times and echoed around the stone ruins. The boys fingered their bows nervously. The squealing was much closer now.

Out of the brush burst a pack of small grey animals, striped with black, that resembled miniature elephants, with big ears and long, supple trunks.

These astonishing little elephants were no larger than dogs, and they ran like horses. The glimpse was brief, however, in a few moments they were gone.

"Damn, never got off a shot," said Swane.

"Good thing, too, we don't know what they are," said Jak.

"No bigger than dogs."

"There's another one."

"Oof!" Swane was suddenly bowled over.

Another small striped elephant had erupted out of the woods and cannoned into the back of Swane's legs. The impact knocked Swane onto his hands and knees, and left the stunned elephant sitting on its hindquarters.

While they stared at it, struck dumb with amazement, it staggered up onto its feet, eyes filled with terror.

"What the hell happened?" roared Swane, getting back to his feet and reaching for his bow.

"You got a friend, Swane." Relkin pointed to the terrified elephant.

"I really ought to shoot it. Take it back for the dragons."

Relkin had appraised the little elephant. There was something about the eyes that spoke to him.

"I wouldn't shoot it, Swane, and I don't think the dragons would want to eat it."

"How do you know? They like to eat anything."

"What I want to know," said Jak, "is what is chasing them?"

"Uh, they are," said Relkin, pointing over a low section of the ruined wall.

Three menacing shapes moved through the short forest.

"Uh-oh," said Swane as all three of them fitted string to arrows.

The little squealer was still getting its breath back. It tried to run, but could barely do more than hobble. Impulsively Jak picked it up and carried it up the slope of the crumbled arena. It wriggled like a greased pig, but he held on and lugged it up through the bushes that cloaked the lower part of the former gallery.

"What the hell are you doing, Jak?" groused Swane.

"Couldn't just leave him to get eaten."

"Here they come," said Relkin.

Into the arena came three enormous creatures like nothing they had ever dreamed of. Each stood ten feet tall, striding forward on long, massive legs, like those of an ordinary fowl magnified a hundred times. All resemblance to fowls ended with the legs. The bodies were remarkably bulky and covered in pale grey feathers. The heads were massive, ending in huge, cruelly hooked beaks.

It was the wings that were the final, chillingly ludicrous touch, for they were tiny, and held close by the body— useless appendages, no more.

The huge birds stalked forward with a cautious mien, pausing now and then to peer upward at the boys and the little striped elephant. There was food, but there was something unusual about it. The birds were cautious.

"I don't like the look of these," muttered Swane.

"Right. And if you don't like those, then what about these?" Relkin indicated two more of the terrible birds, which were stalking along outside the sunken arena wall.

"They're all around us," said Swane.

"By the breath, they're as big as trolls," said Jak.

"You know, now I've seen everything," grumbled Swane. "This elephant fellow is the size of a fox terrier, and that bird is as big as a troll."

The birds had completed their survey of the scene. With chilling nods to one another, they separated and began to edge up the rows of eroded seats.

"They're coming after us."

"Looks like they know what they're doing."

With shocking suddenness the central bird sprang toward them, its beak agape.

Three arrows studded its chest in a moment, but hardly seemed to slow it.

They scrambled upward, firing the while. The little elephant led the way, accelerating ahead of them.

On either side the other birds mounted the steps.

They hit the bird in front of them again and again to little effect until at close range Relkin finally sank a shaft into the monstrous avian skull, right through the eye. The bird halted, just a few feet from them, and with a mournful croak toppled backward and landed with a thud.

"Quick, onto the wall," said Relkin, seeing the other two birds begin their charge.

They scrambled. Fortunately there was a fragment of the exterior wall, eroded at the top but still ten feet higher than the top of the former seating area. Onto this ruin, a mere three feet wide and twelve feet long, they scrambled. During the scramble, Swane twisted his ankle and was barely able to get up to safety before one of the giant birds snatched him up. Jak had tossed the little striped animal up ahead of him. When Swane threw out a desperate hand and missed a handhold, the elephant caught his hand in its trunk and held him for a crucial moment as he regained his grip.

Then they sat there, they only had two dozen arrows between them. There were a lot of these birds, and they could not afford to waste a single shaft.

Soon the birds slipped into hiding, and they wondered for a long while if they had gone on, leaving them behind in favor of other prey.

Some antelope passed through the ruins.

With a shocking suddenness, one of the great birds burst out of concealment in some short bushes and kicked one of the antelopes right off its feet. In a moment its huge head had ducked down and seized the antelope, which was as big as a man. It lifted the struggling antelope and threw it down against the stone. Shaking its huge head from side to side, it battered the antelope to death. Then it picked it up head first in its bill and swallowed the entire animal.

The pygmy elephant gave a mournful hoot at this sight, and then sank down on its haunches and tucked its head into its shoulders.

Swane sat beside it and ventured to stroke its head.

"Changed your mind about him, then?" said Jak.

"Yeah. Saved my life. By the breath, I owe this little beast my life."

"I told you there was something about these fellows. You shouldn't shoot them."

The light of day was fading.

"One of us has to go for help," said Relkin. "I think it had better be me."

"What about the birds?"

"I'll go when it's dark enough."

"What if those things can see in the dark?"

"Then I won't make it. So you'll have to hope a search party comes out this way. But you know how they keep going on about making time. We've been in a hurry since we landed at Sogosh. I don't know if there'll be too many search parties."

"You better make it, Quoshite, or else ol' Swane is gonna be food for these damn big chickens."

After a last handclasp with the others, Relkin slid from the safety of the wall and slipped quietly into the undergrowth. He moved slowly, cautiously away from the walls. There was no sign of the huge birds. Yet the memory of that sudden charge from concealment kept returning to haunt him. So he moved on tiptoe with many pauses to examine the way ahead. The light was almost gone from the day, and in the dimness it was easy to imagine things lurking in every patch of bushes.

And so he took his time, forcing himself to move slowly, and not to give in to the urge to just run as fast as possible for the forest. A panicky run could easily end in disaster. It was all too easy to imagine being hammered by those massive feet, and swallowed whole, head first.