Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2)

by E. G. Foley

  Magnificent and terrifying.

  He couldn’t see much of the creature shadowed in its cave, but its snout was resting on its crossed front feet, and clouds of smoke or steam rose from its nostrils with each peaceful snore.

  The dragon’s scaly hide was a greenish black, the color of moss and forest shadows, perfect for helping the huge beast blend into its environment. Jake stared in awe at the claws as big as threshing sickles protruding from each knuckle on the sleeping dragon’s front feet.

  That’s right, have a nice dream, Smokey, old boy, Jake thought with a shiver. He could see why his mentor, Guardian Derek Stone, had a particular fondness for dragons.

  The creatures were spectacular. Of course, if that thing woke up, Jake mused, they were all probably doomed. Then, through the circle of the telescope, he saw the first contestant creeping towards the cave.

  Jake held his breath. How the giant prince forced himself to keep going toward the dragon instead of running away from it, he could not fathom.

  Kaia had to be impressed by this show of courage.

  “He’s in!” Jake reported to the others in excitement.

  King Olaf turned curiously. “How can you see so far?”

  “The dwarves have a device,” Snorri said.

  “What of the dragon?” someone asked.

  “Sound asleep.”

  The other warriors sighed with relief.

  Barely a bird sang in a tree. The woods were deathly silent as they all waited for the first prince to return.

  “C’mon, Jake, it’s my telescope, let me have a turn! Quit hogging it.”

  As he handed Archie back his spyglass, an object in the sky caught Jake’s attention. He looked up and saw the Gryphon soaring toward them, circling lower.

  He frowned but dared not risk waking Old Smokey by shouting at Red to go back to Snorri’s cottage, where he had left him.

  With his eagle-eyes, Red quickly spotted his master, and a moment later, glided down onto the branch beside him.

  “Be-caw,” he complained at being excluded.

  “What are you doing here?” Jake exclaimed in a whisper. “I told you to stay put!”

  The Gryphon lowered his head a little at the scolding, but Jake suspected that, left alone at Snorri’s cottage, Red had been tempted to eat one of their host’s beloved sheep.

  That would not have gone over very well.

  Still, recalling something Derek had told him once, Jake was worried about having Red so near a dragon’s cave.

  Gryphons and dragons hated each other, according to Derek.

  It had to do with both mythical beasts’ connection to gold.

  Gryphons could locate veins of gold in the earth, and on rare occasions, when certain people earned their trust, they would show their human friends where these precious mineral deposits could be found.

  That was how Jake’s family had come to own their goldmine in Wales centuries ago. One of his medieval ancestors, a humble young squire called Reginald Everton, training to be a knight, had chanced to save a large, mysterious, golden egg from destruction.

  The egg turned out to belong to a mother gryphon, and inside it, waiting to be born, was baby Red. Whether Reginald knew it or not, gryphon eggs were extraordinarily rare and quite priceless, but he did not hesitated to give the egg back to its parent.

  Because the young squire had proved he was pure of heart and could be trusted, Red’s mother, in gratitude, had shown the lad to the location of a glittery vein of gold in the rugged mountains of Wales.

  Young Reginald had rushed home to tell his father about it—at that time, the one-day powerful Earls of Griffon were but humble yeomen farmers. The boy’s father journeyed to confirm his son’s tale, then raced back home and sold the family farm in order to buy the land on which the otherwise-secret stash of gold awaited.

  That was how the Everton family became rich, and stayed that way, when most other wealthy families lost their fortunes within a few generations due to foolishness.

  In any case, because of the people they occasionally befriended, gryphons could appreciate the backbreaking work that went into mining the gold, the craft and care that went into melting it down to purify it, and molding it into something beautiful, and above all, the wisdom it took to own it without becoming corrupted.

  Dragons on the other hand…

  Well, after all that effort by humans, dragons had no qualms about swooping down out of the sky and stealing the finished golden objects, just to horde them in moldy old caves, where they were of no use to anyone. Dragons never shared; they always kept accumulating more as if by compulsion; and they’d kill anyone who tried to take their trinkets.

  Dragons, in short, went against everything gryphons stood for.

  Which explained why Red was scowling in the direction of Old Smokey’s cave, having caught the giant reptile’s scent. That warlike gleam sprang back into his golden eyes, and his feathers had begun to bristle, especially around his neck.

  “No,” Jake ordered, laying a firm hand on his shoulder. “You need to keep calm. You’re not even supposed to be here.”

  Red growled low in his throat, but obeyed, sitting on his lion haunches on the branch beside the boys.

  “That’s better. Thank you, Red. I know you hate him, but we’ll be done here soon.” Jake patted his agitated pet on the withers, then turned to Archie. “Any sign of the prince yet?”

  “No… wait, yes. There he is! I see him! He’s coming!” the young inventor announced. “He’s made it out alive!”

  And sure enough, he had.

  The first prince returned, ashen-faced and soaked in a cold sweat, but unscathed. He put his offering for Kaia—a jeweled necklace—on the table by the Master of Ceremonies, and then went to pass out after his ordeal.

  The second fellow went, then the third, and the fourth, and each brought back gifts of gold for the princess. The second, a magnificent goblet. The third, a beautiful dagger. The fourth, a jeweled shield fit for the daughter of a warrior king.

  And now it was number five’s turn: Snorri.

  He put on his horned helmet with a resolute look. As he buckled the strap under his chin, he fumbled with it a little, his giant fingers trembling with fear.

  Watching him, Jake thought back to his first sighting of Snorri and how terrified he had been of him.

  There was a lesson here, he thought in a philosophical mood. Things were not always what they appeared.

  Always good to keep that in mind when dealing with Loki the Shapeshifter, too, he decided.

  “Dear Odin, don’t let me get eaten,” Snorri mumbled.

  “You’ll be fine. If these blokes can do it, so can you,” Jake assured him.

  “You can do it, Snorri!” Archie chimed in.

  “Just remember, this is for Princess Kaia and your people. Fix your mind on what’s at stake.”

  “Right.” Snorri nodded firmly and gathered up his courage.

  Then the boys watched anxiously as their unlikely champion trudged off into the woods.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  One False Move

  Princess Kaia wrapped her arms around herself, looking frightened, as Snorri disappeared into the trees.

  But thanks to Archie’s spyglass, the boys were able to watch their friend’s progress at least as far as the cave’s mouth. Snorri’s movements in the woods grew stealthy. He darted from tree to tree, hiding as he moved closer.

  Maybe the tension was making him giddy, but Jake found it just a wee bit hilarious watching a giant, of all creatures, try to sneak.

  “Dragon’s still asleep,” Archie reported.

  Jake listened for all he was worth, but a moment later, he couldn’t take it anymore. “I can’t stand it, let me look!” He snatched the spyglass from his smaller cousin.

  “Hey!” Archie protested. “You see this, Red? The way your master behaves?”

  Red pecked Jake as if to say, Give it back.

  “I will, just a second…”
Jake’s heart pounded as he held the spyglass to his eye. He could see Snorri tiptoeing towards the entrance of the cave, just like the others had. Come on, come on, just pick something and get out of there, you lump…

  Snorri disappeared into the cave, and to Jake’s relief, still, that dragon showed no signs of waking.

  A minute passed.

  Two.

  Five.

  “What’s taking so long?” Archie whispered. “Do you see him coming back yet?”

  “No.”

  “You know Snorri. Probably got lost somewhere in the dark,” Gorm joked while they all waited.

  Princess Kaia glared at him, then clasped her hands in prayer, and gazed desperately at the sky. “Oh, Father Odin, please don’t let him die. He shouldn’t have been forced into this in the first place. He’s just a gentle giant.”

  The warriors snickered at her prayer, but just then, Jake saw Snorri through the spyglass. He held his breath as the shepherd tiptoed past the sleeping dragon’s huge snout. Old Smokey’s head alone was nearly as tall as Snorri’s shoulder.

  As soon as the shepherd was a few feet past the mouth of the cave, he broke into a run, barreling toward them.

  The boys cheered as loudly as they dared when Snorri was back safe. Kaia looked so relieved that Jake wondered if a mighty Norse giantess could ever faint.

  “Well?” Gorm sauntered over to the gift table with his usual obnoxious smile. “Let’s see what you brought back for Her Highness. Took you long enough.”

  Gasping for breath, Snorri presented his offering. “I had to find the right gift.”

  When he laid it reverently on the table, Gorm’s bushy eyebrows shot upward. “What. Is. That?”

  The knights and princes stared at Snorri’s gift in shocked silence, and then suddenly, they all burst out in uproarious laughter.

  The Master of Ceremonies tried to shush them. “Quiet! Are you mad? You’re going to wake Old Smokey!”

  But they couldn’t help themselves.

  “A book! By Loki’s beard, what is she going to do with that?!” the first prince bellowed with humor.

  Gorm wiped away a tear of laughter. “Oh, Snorri, this time you have really outdone yourself. A book, of all things!”

  “It’s not even a nice one! It’s old and moldy from the damp of the dragon’s cave!” another warrior mocked him. “It’s practically falling apart!”

  “Might as well use it for toilet paper!”

  Snorri hung his head.

  The handsomest of the knights, with long golden hair, turned arrogantly to Kaia. “Oh, Princess, this so-called present is practically an insult. Shall I thrash him for you?”

  Kaia’s blue eyes were as icy as the North Sea when she glanced up from the book, which she had opened carefully, though it looked like a miniature in her hands. “For your information, you fools, this is an illuminated manuscript, and I am very happy to have it.”

  “Aw, what a lady she is to tell this pretty lie,” Gorm drawled.

  “Kindhearted of you, Highness,” the handsome one said with a patronizing smile.

  “It’s all right,” Snorri mumbled to Kaia. “You don’t have to pretend you like it. I just thought—”

  “Shut up, Snorri,” she ordered. Sweeping them all with an angry, regal stare, she fluffed her cape over one shoulder, pivoted, and went to sit down grandly in her chair.

  Gorm, of course, was not about to be outdone, especially not by Snorri. He bowed to the princess. “Your Highness, we all know you are too much of a lady to show your disappointment in this buffoon. But it’s my turn now, and I will make it up to you, bring you back a present worthy of you. You’ll see. Back in a trice!” He drew his sword and turned to face the woods, pausing to pose like a proper hero, glancing about dramatically before striding off into the shadows.

  “I hope he gets eaten,” Archie muttered.

  “I don’t think he’d taste very good, even to a dragon. Don’t let him get to you, Snorri,” Jake added.

  Their exhausted friend went to sit down on the grass. Snorri took off his horned helmet and downed a swig of water from his canteen, still looking a bit like he had just seen his whole life flash before his eyes.

  Judging by his expression, Jake could tell that Snorri was still feeling embarrassed about his choice of gifts and the way the other giants had made fun of him.

  But he shouldn’t have worried. While King Olaf, the Master of Ceremonies, the other contestants, and the boys waited anxiously to see what would happen to Gorm, Kaia was examining the ancient book in fascination.

  It must have belonged to a human, Jake thought, for although it was a large tome as thick as a Bible, it looked tiny in her hands. Delicate patterns of gold and silver filigree sparkled in its old leather binding as she opened the cover. Using only her fingertips, she carefully turned the miniature-seeming pages, yellowed with age.

  Archie, meanwhile, monitored Gorm’s progress through his telescope. “There he is,” he murmured. “That was fast. Goes to show how much thought he put into it, just grabbed any old thing. Wait…” Archie paused. “What’s he doing?” he murmured to himself.

  “Can I see?” Jake asked.

  “I’m not sure what he’s up to. See what you think,” Archie said, sharing his spyglass with him once more.

  Jake lifted it to his eye while Red scratched an itch behind his ear with his hind foot. “Hold still, you’re shaking the branch! I’m trying to look, you glocky feathered mumper!”

  “Caw,” Red apologized and stopped.

  As Jake studied the situation, it only took a moment to figure out what Gorm was doing.

  Naturally, he was showing off, as usual.

  Out to prove himself superior, Gorm had gathered an armload of presents for the princess.

  It didn’t seem to matter what he took. Instead, he was grabbing everything in sight—all the shiny stolen treasures he could pile into his arms from the dragon’s horde.

  Gorm even bent to pick up one of Old Smokey’s shed dragon scales.

  Jake recalled Derek mentioning that dragon scales were wonderfully useful raw materials. They could be cut and shaped into deadly bladed weapons or formed into pieces of body armor.

  Unfortunately, as Gorm bent to pick up a greenish scale the size of a dinner platter, he was carrying so many prizes and pieces of stolen treasure, that one of the golden cups fell from his grasp and crashed to the cave floor right beside the dragon’s head.

  Its golden eye opened.

  Jake gasped. “It’s awake!” he shouted while Gorm broke into a sprint, fleeing the cave, racing back toward them.

  King Olaf jumped to his feet. “Readyyyy!” he shouted to his mighty Viking warriors, who drew out their lances.

  Both Kaia and Snorri also rose. The knights and princes drew their swords.

  Jake was riveted. Still gazing through the telescope, he did not notice the Gryphon’s response. Frozen, he could not stop staring in horrid fascination at the waking monster.

  While Gorm came racing back to the rest of them, Old Smokey stood up on all fours in his cave. He shook himself awake like a dog, his scales clattering together softly with the movement. Then he sniffed the air through his big, round nostrils.

  He must have smelled the lingering scent of intruders in his lair, for he suddenly blasted out a furious screech that echoed for miles around.

  Then he came charging through the woods, straight at their party.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Battling the Dragon

  With the angry dragon on his way, Jake and Archie cowered in the spruce tree, while the king’s men and all the knights and princes got into position to fend off the beast.

  All except for Snorri.

  “He’s running away!” Archie cried.

  “No. He’s taking the princess to safety!” Jake corrected.

  Sure enough, Snorri grabbed Kaia by her wrist and started dragging her up the forest path.

  “Well, what about us?” Archie exclaimed.
“He forgot to put us down!”

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got Red. He’ll fly us out of here,” Jake said absently, watching as Kaia dug in her heels, resisting Snorri’s efforts to protect her.

  It seemed the warrior princess preferred to stay behind and fight the dragon, too.

  Gorm burst into the clearing only a few yards ahead of the dragon, still carrying his armful of gold. “I win! I brought back the most!” he shouted as he dropped his stash of treasure on the prize table. “Now the fun begins! Ha, ha!” Gorm barely had time to turn and grab a weapon before the dragon was upon them.

  Jake and Archie stared in open-mouthed shock when the beast arrived in all its terrible glory: fangs gleaming, nostrils steaming, a wicked glitter of sun on its greenish-black hide.

  Old Smokey paused at the edge of the clearing, as though startled to find a bristling phalanx of armed giants waiting for him.

  The warriors were as still as statues, holding their position. Jake’s heart pounded.

  “It’s as big as a Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Archie breathed.

  “A what?”

  “I really need to take you to the museum when we get back to London!”

  “You mean if we don’t get eaten here?” Jake muttered.

  The dragon hesitated; spread its leathery wings and roared, as if it might just let them off with a warning.

  Jake could not take his eyes off the terrifying thing. Red growled beside him, but Jake held him back.

  “No, boy. This enemy’s too big for you,” he whispered. Not even Red could defeat that thing, Jake was very sure.

  Nevertheless, Derek had assured him that while dragons were indeed territorial, they were not the mindless killing machines that legend claimed. Some were even rather friendly, he had said. The one exception was when anyone touched their treasure.

  And so, as the dragon’s fiery eyes swept the scene before him, he spotted the table piled with gold from his horde, and that was that.

  The beast attacked. It launched into the clearing and began to do battle against the giant knights.