Dragon Eyes

Chapter 6.

Trouble.

Sofia was walking down the path humming a tune to herself. She was in no hurry to get home, knowing Lynwood was still probably boiling mad. It has started to rain but she didn’t mind, the rain didn’t’ bother her. She had gone deep, deep into the woods to find the delicious black berries; she had also collected mushrooms and raspberries. Deeper and deeper she had gone, but at last decided to stop. Father would start getting worried and maybe he would get mad a Lynwood. As she made her way home she took her time, studying the birds and watching squirrels climbing trees.

Sofia had finally reached the edge of the woods when someone suddenly crashed into her. Tumbling to the ground, Sofia dropped her basket and spilled the contents everywhere. Annoyed, she looked to see who it could have been.

“Lynwood, you silly boy! Watch where you are going; you could have really hurt me.”

“Sofia?” Lynwood stammered. “Thank goodness I found you. Quick, quick, we don’t have much time.”

“Much time for what?” Sofia was taken aback by Lynwood’s statement.

“I’ll explain later, we don’t have time now, do you hear.”

“Lynwood, what on earth is the matter?” Sofia was very perplexed.

“I’ll tell you later, quick, they catching up.”

“Who is catching up?”

“Just run, you hear? Run!”

Grabbing her hand he dragged her behind him as he kept on running. They would have to get up the mountain; he knew they would be able to lose the soldiers in the thick forest. After all they were acquainted with these woods while the soldiers weren’t. Higher up the mountain the forests were deep and dark and it would be hard to track them down. Of course running uphill was no joke, but there really wasn’t much choice. They couldn’t go to the village; the soldiers would find them there. He knew they had captured Tristan, but what they had done with Elaine? Did they capture her to? What were they supposed to do now? He had this letter; Father had told him to take it to the nephew of the king in the capital city. He wanted him to go to Arrol! How on earth was he supposed to get there? He didn’t even know where it was, or which road would take him there.And what was he supposed to do with Sofia? Was Father gone for good? Would they kill him? Would they ever see him again? Lynwood did his best to keep such thoughts out if his mind as he ran and ran, with poor Sofia stumbling behind him.

“Lynwood, I can’t I can’t run anymore!” Sofia panted after some time. “Tell me what is going on, where’s Father?”

“Later Sofia, later, later!” Lynwood replied, gripping her harder and dragging her with all his might. “If you value your life you must keep running. Don’t look back, don’t stop; keep going.”

On and on they ran, Lynwood did even look back, he couldn’t afford to; he just knew they had to get away. Soon the voices became distant and then disappeared altogether. They had lost the guards at last, but to remain on the safe side it would be wise to run up just a little further. Just a little more and Lynwood was sure they would be safe.

But then it happened!

Sofia tripped over some rock or root or log or something, and fell down in a heap. She gave a loud shriek which made Lynwood turn around and clamp his hand over her mouth.

“Shush you!” he hissed. Tears appeared in Sofia’s eyes.

“My ankle,” she whispered, “I think I have broken it.”

“Oh no,” Lynwood groaned to himself. “This is the last thing we needed.” Out loud he asked. “Are you sure, Sofia?”

“I think so,” Sofia was biting her lip and the tears were coming down in a steady stream. “It really, really, really hurts.”

Lynwood quickly looked at her foot and saw that it was swelling. Swiftly he felt it with his hand to see if it was broken. To his relief it was only sprained, but touching it made Sofia cry even harder.

“Sofia, please be quiet,” he pleaded. “You just have to bear it, we only have a little more to go.”

“I can’t walk on it.”

“I know, I’m going to find us a hiding place.” With those words he took off, leaving poor Sofia bewildered and in tears.

Lynwood searched for a spot he could hide with his sister and suddenly fell into a ditch. The tall grass had completely hid it from view. Looking up he saw a low log, hanging over the ditch. This would be a good hiding place. The grass covered it from prying eyes and the log provided a bit of a cave they could crouch under. Getting out he returned to his frightened and confused sister, and help her hobble to the low log.

“Sofia we are going to have to hide very silently for a little while, I know your leg really hurts but you must be very quiet.”

“Okay,” Sofia answered. Together they crawled down underneath the log and sat there. Lynwood could see that Sofia was in pain, she kept biting her lip and trying not to cry, he couldn’t help but think what a brave sister he had. Putting his arm around her, he whispered, “You can bury you head in my shoulder if you want.”

“Did I break my ankle?” Sofia asked at last.

“No, it’s not broken, it’s only sprained.”

“So what is the matter Lynwood, what is happening? Where is Papa, why did we have to run?”

“Oh dear, Sofia, everything is so complicated. Father was arrested for some reason, and the soldiers found this letter that he didn’t want them to find, so I took the letter and ran off.”

“And Papa, where is Papa now?” Sofia’s eyes had gotten wider and wider with horror.

“He is still there.”

“Lynwood, Papa is caught, why did you stay and help him? We have to go back and help him. We can’t leave him he needs our help. Let’s go back, oh please lets go back!”

“We can’t go back Sofia, we will only get caught ourselves; we have to stay here. What can we do to help? Those men are big and strong and will just put us under arrest as well.”

Sofia nodded silently, realizing the truth in her brother’s words. She crawled over to sit down more comfortable and Lynwood carefully took her shoe off and examined her foot.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said at last, “I suppose I’ll wrap it up in my shirt for now. What we need of course is ice...”

“Lynwood,” Sofia’s voice was suddenly tense. “Look around you very carefully.”

Lynwood noticed that her face was white and her eyes were filled a mixture of fear and wonder.

“What is it?” He asked in a whisper, almost afraid of what was behind him.

“Just turn around, but don’t do it very suddenly.”

Lynwood slowly looked over his shoulder. The sight nearly made him fall over in shock. Not far away, resting on a clear patch of forest, was a dragon.

Chapter 7.

The Dragon.

“Is that a dragon, Lynwood, a real one?” Sofia whispered.

Lynwood slowly nodded his head. “Yes. Where on earth did he come from? Dragons were supposed to have gone extinct a long time ago.”

“I guess they didn’t,” Sofia said.

“What is he doing here?”

“I’m sure I don’t know! Lynwood, you’re the specialist about dragons, I’m the one who should be asking you the questions. Do you think it’s alive?”

“I’m not sure, his eyes are closed but I can’t tell if he is breathing or not. I’m going to and take a closer look.”

“Oh Lynwood, please be careful.” Sofia grabbed her brother’s shoulder. “If something should happen to you, I wouldn’t know what do, stuck out here, alone with a sprained ankle and a dragon right nearby.”

Lynwood quietly crept up to where the dragon lay; he had often gone hunting with father and knew how to walk about without making a lot of noise. As he got closer, he noticed that the dragon was breathing. Okay, this dragon was a live dragon, that couldn’t be good news. Creeping up, he took a good look at him. The dragon was dark red in color, with golden scales blended in on his back. He had four legs, four huge paws and Lynwood could just imagine what sort of claws they possessed. Two large wings were folded on his back. The dragon was breathing heavily, almost as if it was sick. Taking a close look at the dragon’s face, Lynwood saw he had a horn on the tip of his nose, and sticking out of his left eyebrow was an arrow.

“Lynwood.”

Lynwood jumped and looked behind him. “For goodness sake, Sofia, what are you doing here? You nearly scared the living daylights out of me. What if I were to yell; then what would have happened to us?”

“I’m sorry,” Sofia looked down a little ashamed, yet at the same time feeling very pleased for having come so quietly. “Is it alive? The dragon I mean.”

“Yes, it’s alive, but he is hurt. See his eyebrow has been pierced with an arrow. This dragon was attacked by someone.”

“Oh the poor dear,” Sofia clasped her hands to her chest. “Lynwood, I thought that dragons have scales so strong that an arrow can’t pierce them. Weren’t they supposed to be like stronger that iron or something?”

“I guess they’re not.”

“How come?”

“How should I know?”

“I thought that you knew everything about dragons.”

“Yeah, well, I only know of what I have read, and that wasn’t so much. The town library can only offer so much. Come on, we should get out of here, after all, we don’t want the dragon to notice us.”

They turned to go, but Sofia accidently broke a stick lying in her path. There was a loud crack followed a deathly silence. The dragon jerked his eyes open and looked around. Lynwood and Sofia froze as the head slowly turned and the large yellow green eyes of the dragon met the terrified gaze of the children.

For a moment, the dragon and the children stared at each other completely motionless. At last Lynwood carefully strung his bow, after which he reached into his quiver for an arrow. The dragon became alert

“Lynwood, what are you doing?” Sofia hissed.

“Killing it before it kills us of course. Is that what you want to become, dragon dinner?”

“Lynwood put the bow away! Look at him; the minute you took the arrow out he became angry and fierce.”

“Sofia, if you don’t get the dragon first, then the dragon will get you. Everyone knows that.” Lynwood replied and took his aim. The dragon in turn raised himself to his full height, and stood, towering over them. He was big, very, very big. He took a step closer to them, hate burning in his eyes.

“Lynwood, put the arrow down!” Sofia whispered. “Don’t you realize it will do more harm than good? We have to gain the dragon’s trust, maybe then he will be willing to help us.The only way we are going to get out of this mess is if we convince the dragon we are not going to hurt him.”

“We’re not?”

“Lynwood!”

The dragon was getting nearer and it was obvious that he was headed for Lynwood.

“Lynwood, for the last time PUT THE ARROW DOWN!” Sofia nearly screamed at him. Lynwood, taken back by his sister’s uncharacteristic behavior, obeyed and lowered his bow. The dragon stopped and stared at the two children again.

“This staring contest is making me nervous,” Lynwood growled. “So what is your plan now, Sofia?”

“Plan, I don’t have any plan.” Sofia shrugged. “I just knew that if you were to start shooting the dragon then we would all be in a lot of trouble.”

Lynwood rolled his eyes.

At last the dragon started moving again, making his way to Lynwood. As he got closer Lynwood could feel his warm breath. Slowly Lynwood’s hand reached for his knife. The fire got stronger in the dragon’s eyes as he continued to get closer to him.

“Oh no you don’t!” Sofia managed to pull herself up to a standing position and stood in front of Lynwood. “Now you listen to me! We didn’t attack you, Lynwood put the bow and arrow down, and the only reason he is reaching for his knife is because you are coming to him. Keep your distance and we will keep ours.”

“Sofia, you are talking to an animal, he doesn’t understand you.”

“Maybe he does,” Sofia replied. “He has very intelligent eyes, just look at them. ”

Sofia was right; the dragon’s eyes were intelligent. And behind those eyes was the dragon’s brain and Lynwood couldn’t help but wonder what sort of thoughts were going through that brain right now. Slowly he released his hold on the knife, then, after second thought, he took the knife out and dropped it on the ground. The dragon watched his actions without moving a muscle.

“Lyn, why don’t we try to help him?” Sofia suggested.

“Don’t call me that,” Lynwood threw his hands up in annoyance. “What do you mean by help him?”

“Let’s pull the arrow out from his eye.”

“Oh no, no, no, no, there is no way you are going to get me to do that.”

“And why not?”

“Why not? I’ll tell you why not, because I don’t want to get any closer him than I have too. He may interpret it in the wrong way and attack me.”

“I will stay here and talk to him while you do it.” Sofia reassured but Lynwood was not comforted.

“Sofia, we have to go. We managed to get away from the guards, but they are probably still looking for us and we have to get deeper into the forest and find a place to hide.”

“Lynwood, you know very well that I can’t get anywhere on this foot. I think it would be the right thing for us to help this poor creature. Imagine if you were shot with an arrow and happened upon a stranger, wouldn’t you want him to help you?”

“That’s easy for you to say, seeing as you won’t be the one actually doing anything,” Lynwood grumbled and walked closer to the dragon. The dragon growled softly.

“Now listen,” Lynwood addressed the dragon,.“I want to help you, I want to take that arrow out of your eye because I know it is giving you a lot of pain. However, your head is too high, so you have to lower it. If you will put it down, I’ll try to get the arrow out.”

The dragon eyed Lynwood suspiciously for a moment then lowered his large red head. The arrow was not very large, and hadn’t actually pierced into the dragon’s head. It had gone through the eyebrow and come out the other end, so Lynwood was pretty sure it didn’t do any damage to his brain. Lynwood noticed that the arrow was slightly hooked at the sharp edge, and if one tried to pull it out, it would rip the flesh. Despite himself, Lynwood couldn’t help but feel very disgusted at this horrid sort of arrow. If the dragon had tried to get rid of it on his own, he could have seriously hurt himself. Lynwood put his hand on the scaly head as he pondered what to do. The scales felt weird, it wasn’t like touching the skin of a frog or a lizard; this was so very different. The dragon stirred violently when the boy had touched him and Lynwood could feel a shiver go down the dragon’s entire body, which sent a shiver down his spine.

After some thought Lynwood decided that the best way to do it would be to cut the skin and take out the arrow. It was the safest way he could think of doing it. Any other way he might do some damage to the dragon’s eye. Fetching his knife from where he had dropped it and wiping it with his shirt, came up to the dragon again. The dragon gave a low growl at the sight of the boy with the knife.

“Gently, gently,” Lynwood tried to reassure. “The knife is going to cut your skin so that I can take the arrow out. It’s the only way. You must bear the pain quietly, we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, do we?” With those words, he proceeded to cut the flesh. The dragon gave a bit of a wheezing sound, yet other than that he made no noise.

It was not a pleasant task, but Lynwood tried to just focus on the urgency of the matter. Soon the arrow was in Lynwood’s hand, but there was now an open wound and was bleeding. Lynwood searched for something to stop the blood flow. Noticing the bag he had tossed aside, he rushed to it and looked inside. Pulling out his shirt he ripped it, handing one half to Sofia.

“Sofia you wait here with the dragon, press this to the cut. I’m going to wet this shirt and then be back to wash the wound.”

“Um...” Sofia didn’t seem too happy with the idea of Lynwood walking away, but Lynwood had already run off.

The one nice thing about this mountain was its abundance of streams, and there was one not far from where the children and the dragon were. Lynwood dipped his shirt in the cool waters. Not bothering to wring it out, he ran back all the time not believing what he was doing. All the books he had ever read it always said to kill a dragon on sight, and here he was, treating a dragon’s wound. This was beyond all common sense.

Upon returning, he pressed the wet cloth to the dragon’s head. It was a small wound, but cleaning it was not easy. He had no proper tools, and when he did get the bleeding to stop, it didn’t look to promising. They had to somehow ensure that the wound wouldn’t get infected, and without any linen or ointment, Lynwood went for the only option he had.

“Sofia, listen to me, I don’t have any way to bandage the wound, so I am going to sear it. Your job is to the keep this monster calm while I am doing it. The wound is small, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

Sofia’s eyes got wide. “Oh, Lynwood, do you have too?”

“Yes I do. Keep him from freaking out, I’ll handle everything else.”

“Lynwood, how are you going to make a fire?”

“I have a flint in my bag.”

“You have a flint?” Sofia was confused. How strange that Lynwood had a bag with all sorts of things; almost as though he had known beforehand that they were going to be raided.

“I’m going to hunt around for some dry wood to start the fire.” Lynwood continued. “You sit here with the dragon and hold the remnants of my shirt to his wound to keep the blood from flowing.”

“You’re going to leave me alone? What if those soldiers should come and get me?”

“Sofia, you are sitting right next to a dragon. I don’t think anyone stands a chance with him. Don’t you worry; I’ll be back real soon.”

Sofia wasn’t exactly comforted but Lynwood didn’t give her any room for argument and ran off again. How glad he was his father had taught him what to do if he should get lost in the woods. After some diligent search, he managed to find some wood that was pretty dry and gathering it he ran back to where Sofia was sitting.

“Lynwood, this wound looks ugly and I don’t like touching it.” Sofia was obviously disgusted with her task.

“I know,” Lynwood nodded. “That’s why we are going to sear it.” With that he pulled his book out of the bag and with a grimace tore out some pages which he used to help him start the fire. Making a fire in foggy, drizzly weather is not easy, but Lynwood worked diligently and managed at last to get a small flame going. Quickly he wiped his knife, washed in the stream, and then carefully he stuck it in the fire. Once it had turned white from the heat he turned and placed it to the dragon’s wound. This process was repeated several times. He worked quickly and carefully, not keeping the knife there for too long so that he wouldn’t burn the dragon’s skin.

“How do you know what to do, Lynwood?” Sofia loudly whispered.

“I read about it in a book.” Lynwood hurriedly replied, concentrating on the task at hand.

“But you’ve never actually done it before?”

Lynwood shook his head as he placed his knife back into the fire. He tried his best to be careful, but did burn the dragon’s skin a bit more than he should have and the dragon gave another violent shudder, and yanked his head in the opposite direction. Apart from that, the dragon sat quietly through the whole procedure and allowed Lynwood to sear his wound. It had hurt him greatly; but he did not utter any sound. It was as though he understood Lynwood was helping him.

The dragon was rather puzzled, he had always thought that humans were evil and cruel, but this young human was doing something completely unheard of, he was trying to help.

At last Lynwood was finished and placing his knife down, surveyed his work. There would be an ugly scar, but the wound was closed and with good hope it had not gotten infected. Lynwood got up and washed his hands, then taking the dirty shirt he ran off and hid it among the thick shrubbery, after which he put out the fire and covered it with fallen branches and wet pine needles.

“Come on, Sofia,” Lynwood said when he was done. “We have to get out of here. We’ve wasted way too much time as it is with this fellow. It is almost dark and there are all sorts of animals in these woods, not to mention those soldiers might still be on the lookout for us.”

“How are we going to get anywhere, Lynwood? I can’t get very far with my sprained ankle.”

“But we can’t stay here either; we will get caught sooner or later.”

“What makes you think that they will come looking for us.”

“I have this letter,” he pulled the envelope from his pocket. “And they really want it.”

“What is in the letter?”

“I don’t know, the envelope is sealed. Father said we have to take it to the nephew of the king.”

“The king has a nephew?”

“Well obviously. I don’t think Father would lie to me at that moment.”

“How are we going to get it there?”

“I have no idea! At this moment, I’m just as confused as you are.” Lynwood threw himself on the wet ground next to Sofia and sighed. “I just don’t know,” he repeated.

The entire time the dragon had been watching the children, listening to their conversation. He had hated humans his entire life, they were the reason he had been wounded. They had killed his kind, and in his mind they were nothing more than bloodthirsty parasites. But these little humans were so very different. They had taken the time to stop him and now they were both very sad, and it seemed very lost. It was not normal for human children to wander deep in the woods at sunset. Something must be wrong then. Perhaps they had nowhere to go. It must be that way, after all, if they had some place to stay, they would have left and not just remained sitting there on the wet ground. He moved his head and nudged Sofia a bit. Startled, she looked at the dragon.

“Lynwood, I think the dragon wants to tell us something.”

“Dragons can’t talk,” Lynwood replied.

“I know that, but still, I think he wants to tell us something.”

Lynwood lifted his head. “Alright dragon, what do you want to tell us?”

The dragon turned his gaze towards Lynwood. He didn’t really like this little human, and he knew that the little human didn’t like him, but the little human had gone through quite some trouble to fix his wounds, and had done it as carefully as he possibly could, and the dragon was determined to repay the debt. He nudged towards his back, then stared straight at Lynwood for a few minutes. Lynwood didn’t feel very comfortable looking straight into the dragon’s eyes, but the dragon held his gaze. It was almost as if he was talking with his eyes. They seemed to say, “Climb on my back, I can take you somewhere safe.”

Lynwood was sure he was imagining. Dragons couldn’t talk and they most certainly couldn’t talk with their eyes. The dragon once more tossed his head and nudged toward his back, Lynwood felt certain that the dragon wanted them to climb on.

“I think he wants us to get on him,” Lynwood whispered to Sofia.

“I think so too,” Sofia nodded. “Okay, then let’s go!”

“Now just wait a minute, Sofia, how do we know we can trust him? He may just decide to take us somewhere and eat us.”

“Lynwood, don’t you think that if he wanted to eat us he would have attacked us earlier?”

“Well, maybe he wants to keep us and then eat us, you know like catch us and eat us for dinner.”

“Then he would have just grabbed us and flown away. Come on, this fellow is like six times larger than the both of us. Really, Lynwood, stop being so skeptical about everything.”

“You do have a point I suppose,” Lynwood shrugged, and seeing no other option helped his sister hobble to the dragon and lifted her onto his back. “Anyway, it’s not like becoming dragon dinner is any worse than staying out here, left to the mercy of the elements and in danger of being captured by the soldiers.”

“Oh, Lynwood, you are so pessimistic.”

Lynwood smiled and was about to climb on the dragon when he stopped and ran back to the place where he had dropped the arrow. Picking it up, he hurriedly placed it in the bag he had brought with him, wondering who had shot it at the dragon, and why of all places, had he aimed for the dragon’s eye?