Night Dragon An Epic Fantasy Adventure - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,29
uncertain, but unsettled. All of this troubled the ice dragon in some way.
“What do you think is here?” Jason asked.
The dragon rumbled softly. “I do not know.”
Distantly, he could feel the earth dragon, though he had not seen him again.
“Do you think this some sort of trap Lorren set?” Jason asked.
He felt into his pocket, feeling for the dragon bones that he had gathered from the last place they had visited, but had a hard time thinking that there would be some sort of trap.
He could feel the warmth coming from the dragon bones and recognized that there was something else like it nearby. That was what he was supposed to find.
It was the dragon bones.
He held onto the smaller one, the one that was most like a finger, and let the heat radiate through it, flowing into him. It wasn’t enough that he could feel it. It felt as if there was some part of that bone he needed to utilize.
The trees were close together, close enough that the ice dragon couldn’t go any farther.
“You can stay there,” Jason said. “I can find what’s here.”
“You should not do this alone,” the dragon said.
“Who said I was doing it alone?”
He was faintly aware of the dragon rumbling, the steadiness that was coming from someplace deep beneath the ground, and near enough that he could feel it.
He trailed through the trees, and then he saw something.
It was nestled in the combined roots of two large trees and he strode forward, reaching the trunk, glancing back to see the ice dragon straining to get between the trees. If Jason didn’t do anything, the dragon would attempt to push his way through, and might even try to blast his way through the trees. He would knock down the trees and leave a path for others to follow and know that they had been here.
“You can wait there,” he said and turned to the earth dragon. “You brought me here. What is it that you wanted me to see?”
“Come,” the rumbling of the dragon said.
His voice was low, producing a deep and painful sort of rumbling, and as it echoed out, Jason realized that there was more than just an uncertainty from the dragon. There was more than just the energy within the dragon. There was something else.
And it was that something else that he needed to help find.
The dragon rumbled, guiding him forward.
And as he did, he led Jason toward the massive trunk of the tree, and from there…
Jason crouched down. He could feel heat radiating. There was warmth, only a bit, and nothing more than that.
Dragon bones. He was certain of it, though why?
He held out his hand, probing, reaching into the tree, trying to feel for something that was here, to understand just what Lorren would’ve been after, but even as he stretched forward, Jason couldn’t feel anything more.
“What is it?” he asked softly, trying to get the earth dragon to share more with him.
Only, the dragon did not.
There was only a faint rumbling. He reached forward and came across something warm. As he grabbed it, he realized that it was another bone.
It was different than the others. Longer. At first, Jason had even believed that the bone was not even a bone but a branch. Warmth radiated off it, making it clear what it was, though it looked discolored.
He pulled it forward and rested it on his lap.
The heat coming off it was diminished a little bit, certainly diminished compared to what he had felt from the other bones.
Why would that be?
He needed the earth dragon’s help.
“What is going on here?” he asked.
“Him,” the earth dragon rumbled.
“Him? You’ve showed me two places now, and in both places, there are bones.”
“There are,” the dragon rumbled.
“Why do you need me to see this?”
“For you to understand,” the earth dragon said.
“This is something Lorren had been after, but what was it?”
The earth dragon rumbled, but there was no further answer.
That was what Jason needed to know. He needed to understand what Lorren had been looking for. That was the only way he was going to find it.
He probed the bone.
Something about it felt off, though Jason wasn’t entirely sure what it was. He could feel the heat radiating off it and he recognized that there was some energy there, though he had no idea what it was or why he should feel it.
He needed the ice dragon.
He crawled through the trees, feeling the earth dragon trailing after him, saying nothing. When he reached