Read Online The Chronicles of Dragon Collection (Series 1 Omnibus, Books 1-10) by Craig Halloran - Free Book Online Page B

had clearly lost, not to mention losing a dragon as well. The High Priestess, however, didn’t seem worried. Arms folded over her chest, a dark twinkle in her eyes, a smile cropping up from the corner of her mouth, she said, “It won’t be long, Finnius. Nath Dragon will be mine.”

 
    CHAPTER 13
     
     
    It was dark. I smelled burning wood. Meat roasting over a fire. My eyes opened to a brilliant, starlit sky, and I felt whole again. I rolled over to where a campfire blazed and Brenwar kneeled, turning rabbit meat on a spit.
    “Dinnertime already?” I got up and walked over.
    Brenwar looked at me like I’d come back from the dead.
    “What? Has it been a day or more? You look like I’ve been sleeping for a week.” I stretched my arms out and yawned. “I must admit, though, it feels like I’ve slept for a week, maybe longer. I guess saving dragons is bound to catch up with you.”
    “Or turning into one,” he said. At least, I thought that was what he said.
    “Brenwar, is that some kind of joke?”
    I looked at him, the sky, and the moon before turning back toward the stream that was no longer there. A very bad feeling overcame me, like a part of my life was missing.
    “Say, how’d I get here? Where’s the water? Brenwar, how long have I been out?”
    He mumbled something.
    “Louder,” I insisted.
    “Three months! Three months, Nath Dragon! And I’ve been out here counting daisies and trapping furry little animals.” He rose to his feet and poked me in the chest. “Now, three months isn’t long for a dwarf, but it’s not short by any measure, either.”
    “Why didn’t you wake me, then?”
    He jumped to his feet and yelled, “Don’t you think I tried? I could’ve set you on fire, and you wouldn’t have moved! I should have let the harpies carry you off.”
    “Harpies?”
    “Pah,” he said, waving me off.
    I raked my fingers through my hair and checked the beard that had grown on my face. I scratched it with nails that were unusually long, on my right hand anyway. I held my hand out and stared. Brenwar’s downcast face stayed down, kicking at the dirt as I looked at the black scales on the fingers of my dragon-like hand.
    “Gagh!” I said, jumping away from myself.
    I looked at my other hand, the left, and it was fine, but my right—with black, glimmering scales and thick yellow claws like my father's—was a thing of beauty. A rush of energy and excitement went through me as I jumped high in the air and screamed with delight. I felt like a child again.
    “I can go home again, Brenwar! I’ve gotten my scales! Or some scales.”
    I ran my new and old fingers over my face.
    “Brenwar, is my face unchanged?”
    He nodded.
    I was relieved, but I wasn’t certain whether I should have been or not. I shed the blanket from my shoulder, and everything but my right arm was fine, or human at least, and I still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. I checked behind me.
    “Do I have a tail?’
    “No!”
    “Why so glum, then, Brenwar? I’ve gotten scales!” I said, marveling at my arm.
    He shrugged and said, “Don’t know.”
    He was being stubborn, naturally, but something bothered me.
    “What?”
    “I ain’t seen no man become a dragon before,” he said, taking the rabbit from the spit. “Hungry?”
    I gazed at my arm, its diamond-like scales shimmering in the twilight, like broken pieces of coal. I could feel power, true power, like I’d never felt before. I swore my right arm was twice as strong as my left, and my left was already stronger than most men’s.
    “Come, then, Brenwar! I can’t wait a moment longer. It’s time to go see my father!”
    “So be it then, Nath.”
    ***
    The trek through the Sulfur Marsh at the bottom of the Mountain of Doom had never gone quicker as Brenwar and I made our way through the secret passageway. Most of the time when I came home, I was either half dead, as had been the case the last time, or filled with dread because I had not gained