Dragon Dodgers (Wounds in the Sky Prequels Book 1) by V. R. Cardoso Page B

there. I wanna…”
He stopped talking and Cavill saw him frown.
    “ You want to what?”
    “ Birds. Taking off.” Enrig said absently.
    “ Birds? What? What are
you talking about?” Cavill looked around, half confused, half
trying to find the birds Enrig was talking about. “I think you should turn around and
watch your quadrant.”
    “ I saw
something.”
    “ What?”
    Enrig didn’t answer him. Instead, he scanned the distance with an obsessive
look.
    “ That’s not your
quadrant. ” Cavill told
him again. “There are Watchers on those hills, now turn
around.”
    “ There! In Southwest
Watch, a shadow.”
    Cavill jumped up and
combed the patch of sky above him.
    “ Are you sure?” Cavill asked. “The clouds are moving pretty fast
today, it could be…”
    “ It wasn ’t a cloud!” Enrig said. “And stop looking above you.” He
pointed southwest “I saw it over there, so...”
    Enrig’s finger arched
towards the sun.
    “ South by southea st.” Cavill said. “It had to be a cloud, I don’t hear
any horn.”
    “ Of course you don’t.
Those idiots couldn’t spot a Dragon if it was blowing fire up their
asses!”
    Cavill sighed.
    “ Don’t say that. Those guys have spotted more
Dragons than… Hey!”
Enrig had tried to run past him, but Cavill grabbed his arm. “Where
the surface are you going?!”
    “ It was a Dragon, I’m sure of it!” Enrig replied, trying to release
himself. “If we sound the alarm here, people will run in the wrong
direction.”
    “ We need to worry about
our quadrant, not…”
    “ We need to worry about a Dragon diving from the
sky and killing everyone!”
    That managed to silence Cavill. Enrig
could see his cousin’s eyes darting left and right, unable to make
a decision.
    “ You have to believe me.”
Enrig begged. “I saw it.”
    Maybe it was a moment of hesitation, or maybe Cavill just
got distracted, but suddenly, Enrig felt his cousin’s grip become
looser and slipped away. He
dashed downhill with his heart pounding, and felt some reassurance
when he saw Cavill following him.
    They entered a field
of barley and as they crossed it, Enrig yelled at the workers like
a mad man.
    “ Run away! Dragon! You
have to run away!”
    The harvesters simply stared at him
with a puzzled look.
    They reached the
foothill of South by Southeast Watch, panting heavily. Enrig paused
to catch his breath and looked back. Dozens of workers were still
going about their business.
    “ Idiots, run!” Enrig said.
    “ They did n’t hear a horn.” Cavill told him. “They think you’re just
crazy.”
    Enrig cursed again, but decided it didn’t matter. He was
sure that too much time had passed, so either he was wrong or it
was already too late. He reached for his horn and as he pressed it
against his lips, a long, hurtful wail echoed through the whole
plain. Someone else’s horn. It sent shivers down his
back.
    It was too late.
    Enrig looked up , at
the top of South by Southeast Watch, and saw flames bursting out
from it. He instinctively stepped back and heard Cavill mumbling
something. Then, the shape of a colossal black Dragon covered the
sky.
    “ Mighty Fyr!” Cavill said.
“Run!”
    Screams erupted everywhere. The mob of workers started
running in a panic, fleeing in every direction. Enrig and his
cousin turned around, hurrying back through the field.
    With barley stalks whipping his arms and legs, Enrig looked
o ver his shoulder and saw the
Dragon dive while spitting jets of red fire. It glided a mere few
feet from the ground, interrupting its fiery breath to bite down on
escaping farmers, and then tossing them aside like useless
weeds.
    The beast’s
head turned upward and the rest of his body followed as it regained
altitude.
    Enrig stopped,
admiring the impossibly large creature rising back to the
sky.
    “ What the surface are you doing?!” Cavill yelled. “We need
to go. Now!”
    Enrig couldn’t even listen to him. He saw the Dragon’s tail
shift and twirl,