Read the start of this story Here <-- click
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
No title yet, sorry. Working on this in between Zack's story, Bouncer and a few other projects... as well as the mentorship programme.
As ever, FIRST DRAFT spelling, grammar, punctuation etc will not be changed or altered until I go over it as a whole after the story is finished.
HOWEVER, if there are any plot-holes, things that don't work or even suggestions on something I may use, please feel free to pipe up and let me know.
I don't really want 'good post' comments, but rather genuine replies and advice etc. I always appreciate those.
The eighth part of Dusty's 8th Adventure.
“That sounds complicated,” Dusty said.
“You’re not wrong!” the dragon said. “And because I heard we’ve got a new, temporary Master of Dragons, and I’m too young to have seen one before, I decided to come and take a look.”
The Phoenix and Nightshade fled and the Fire Imp flew under her jacket. Dusty wondered what they were running away from.
A screech filled the air and Dusty put her hands over her ears. The sound was terrifying and deafening.
The dragon ducked down low as though expecting to be plucked from the ground and taken away.
Dusty looked up. Above them, the purple, white and ice-blue dragon that had taken Drake to his treatment hovered. Then the down-draft of the beat of its massive wings arrived and almost flattened Dusty to the ground.
It dropped from the sky like a missile. Dusty shielded her eyes from the dust storm whipped up by the wings and the earth shook as the dragon landed.
“Why are you up out of the crevice, Blackamoor?” the massive dragon rumbled. Its voice was smooth and kind, even though it made Dusty’s body vibrate.
“I was coming to see the new Dragon Master,” Blackamoor said.
“I’m not the Dragon Master,” Dusty said. “If anything, I’m more like a Dragon Janitor.”
The dragons both laughed and the sound lifted Dusty’s heart. It was such a genuine and humorous sound, she couldn’t help grinning at it too.
“Demon halfling, you are, to all intents and purposes, the Dragon Master. You are here to protect us and care for us and you hold the staff that Drake gave you. You have his trust and you have our loyalty,” the massive dragon said in the lowest voice it could manage.
Dusty reached into her coat and took out the Fire Imp. She placed it on the head of the other dragon and went right up to the ice-dragon who bowed its head down to her height.
Dusty whispered in the ice-dragon’s ear. “My name is Dusty,” she said.
“I know that,” the dragon whispered back. “Your fame has reached even down here. Impundulu is still bemoaning his lot. He wanders the Ash Desert complaining to anyone that will listen about his beautiful lover and how she was snatched away from him by two half-demons. I made it my duty to find out exactly who you were when Drake told me he had to go for his treatment. He waited until I was happy with his choice before he asked you.”
Dusty stepped back and took a good look at the dragon. “Oh,” she said.
“Lost for words, little one?” the dragon said.
“For once, yes,” Dusty said.
“Modest too? I think you and I will get on like…”
“Like a house on fire?” the Fire Imp chimed in. “I didn’t know you were a Halfling. I thought you were human.”
The dragons laughed at the Fire Imp’s analogy.
“No, I don’t mention it usually,” Dusty said.
Nightshade came back and intertwined his lithe body through Dusty’s legs in a constantly moving figure 8.
Dusty looked down at him and he looked up and slow-blinked.
“You’re a beautiful chap and no mistake,” Dusty said to him.
“Thank you,” she heard inside her head.
She took the conversation into her headspace then.
Do the dragons know you can talk? she said.
Nightshade slow blinked and stared up at Dusty. Pick me up, she heard.
She bent down to pick him up and he sat upon her shoulder like a furry parrot.
The dragons know. The Fire Imp doesn’t. You don’t trust that Fire Imp, do you? Nightshade said in her mind.
No, there’s just… something, she thought.
Keep hold of that mistrust, Dusty, Nightshade said. I think you’re going to need it.