Read Online Dragon Island by Shane Berryhill - Free Book Online Page A

foot we drop. Then it vanishes completely, the sound of the cicadas disappearing along with it.
    Icy panic races up the length of my spine. A film of sweat blankets my skin.
    “Kitsune!” I shout. “I can’t see! I—!”
    I feel her steadying hand on my arm.
    “I can see for both of us, Raymond-sai. Do not worry. Keep going.”
    I obey.
    The farther we drop, the cooler the air around us becomes. By contrast, I feel Kusanagi growing warmer and warmer on my back. I know it’s impossible for an inert piece of metal to give off heat. But unless my senses have somehow gone haywire—which I fully admit is very likely under the present circumstances—the sword is actually radiating warmth.
    It’s not an uncomfortable sensation. Actually, it’s just the opposite, so I put it out of my mind for the time being and concentrate on the task at hand: reaching the bottom of this cave without dying.
    I’m thinking I’m making great headway in that regard when I hear several snaps sound from above me.
    For a second, I don’t realize what the noise is. When I do, it’s too late!
    I scream as I abruptly drop. The vines I’m clinging to have snapped beneath my weight! I jerk to a halt a few feet farther down when my left arm entangles within a mass of creepers. But their hold is less than secure and I feel myself begin to slide again, the perspiration on my arm acting like a slick grease speeding me on my way.
    “Kitsune! Help!”
    The echoes of my cry sound all around me, reverberating off what must be the far sides of the cave walls. I’ve no way of knowing for sure with the complete darkness enshrouding me.
    “Raymond-sai!” Kitsune calls from somewhere below me.
    “Kitsune!” I answer. I gasp as my arm slips through the creepers. My wrist catches at the last second, and I cry out in mingled despair and relief.
    One more slip and I’m a goner!
    “It is okay, Raymond-sai!” Kitsune says. “You are going to be all right—!”
    But her words are eclipsed by my scream as I slide out of the creepers to plummet through open air.

Chapter 13
     
    Some theorize that UFOs are not, in fact, of extraterrestrial origin. Rather, they postulate that these mysterious craft come from an alternate dimension of space and time.
     
    —Excerpt from Foo Fighters: Fact, Fiction, or Folly? , by Diane Shadden
     
    “U mph!” I grunt as I land flat on my back. The sound is more one of surprise than pain.
    “Raymond-sai, are you okay?” Kitsune asks.
    I don’t know.
    I sit up and pat myself down, overjoyed to find everything intact and in its proper place. When I lost my hold on the creeper vines, I’d been certain that I was going to fall hundreds of stories to my doom. In truth, I’d been dangling mere feet above the cavern floor.
    It’s been like that since I crash-landed on Kaiju Island—one surprise after the next!
    “I’m alive!” I shout. “Alive!”
    Kitsune quickly shushes me.
    “We must be quiet, Raymond-sai,” she whispers. “We have survived entering the deep labyrinth, but we will not make it much farther if you continue to yell at the top of your lungs!”
    “I’m sorry, Kitsune,” I whisper to the two luminous eyes gazing at me in the darkness. Apparently, my imagination was not playing tricks on me the other night. Kitsune will not have any trouble navigating down here, after all. “I’m just glad to be alive.”
    There’s a brief pause, then Kitsune speaks. “I am glad you are alive as well, Raymond-sai. I wish to keep it so.
    “Come. Let us be off. One does well not to linger within the deep labyrinth any longer than he or she must.”
    I feel her hand nuzzle its way into mine. She pulls me to my feet and we begin walking quickly through the pitch.
    We trek for hours. Days. An eternity. Time seems to have no meaning here within the deep labyrinth.
    I hear things moving all around us in the dark—things that slither and creep—and I’m selfishly glad that it’s Kitsune who’s able to see our