"Yes, your honour."
"You understand the conditions of meeting this request?"
She nodded sadly.
"Very well. Gag her and bind her," the judge ordered. Two uniformed guards carried out the order, which was not resisted.
"Young man, come forwards," the judge ordered, but speaking kindly.
Perak ushered Malick forwards, bringing him into the centre of the court. They both faced the judge.
"Do you the accused freely admit your crimes, and that you deserve your fate, and that we have mercifully granted your last request?"
She nodded, looking at Malick with tears running down her face. Perak knew what request she had made, to see Malick, but he wouldn't know, and he wouldn't have been able to understand why she looked at him the way she did.
"Now, as dictated by the wish of the relatives, you who murdered children and must be executed by a child."
Perak stepped forwards, brandishing a long knife coated in a sticky, black liquid. The prisoner met his eyes, which were cold and empty of emotion. Her own eyes were filled with dread, trembling at the sight of the weapon.
He stood a metre away from her, staring at her with loathing before he turned to face the judge, the prisoner now to his left. He held out the knife in front of him before turning to Malick. "Do it now," he said quietly. "Quickly, as we agreed."
Malick suddenly ran forwards, taking the knife from Perak's outstretched hand and plunging it into the prisoner's stomach, glaring up into her face where she met his glare with a mixture of surprise and utter despondency. He let go of the knife and stepped backwards, looking confused by her expression. Perak put his hand on his shoulder.
"You did well," he whispered, pulling him back. The prisoner dropped to her knees, putting one hand on the ground for support.
"But she's still alive," Malick replied.
Perak shook his head. "She's dead already; her body just hasn't realised it yet. The knife was coated in poison. It will kill her slowly, and very painfully."
Malick looked at the prisoner, who was still looking at him, tears flowing down her face.
"If it's so painful, why doesn't she scream?"
"She can't," Perak replied. "Even without that gag. A side effect of the poison. Come, it will get very unpleasant. You won't want to watch."
Malick shook him off. "That's where you're wrong. She's a monster and deserves what she's getting. You told me that, remember?"
Perak smiled and nodded. "That's right, I did. Let us watch together."
The prisoner collapsed on the floor, straining against her bonds, her face twisted by silent screams.
"What was her name?" Malick asked.
"Oh, Anna," Perak replied. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," Malick replied. "She looked at me as if she recognised me, that's all. Is that possible?"
Perak shook his head, trying to suppress a cruel smile. "No, she was no one to you. You are one of us, remember?"
Malick nodded. "That I will never forget. Thank you, brother, for giving me this honour."
Chapter 38: Hiding
The six of them—Seth, Arthur, John, Crystal, Jenna and Daisy—all huddled together, hidden underneath the roots of a fallen tree and pressed against the earth. They could hear the Blue Dragons flying above them, circling and calling to each other and trying to find them.
"This is crazy," Seth whispered. "They'll find us!"
"Not from the air they won't," John replied. "They'd have to land to look under here."
"And then what? We'll be sitting targets and unable to defend ourselves. We should transform now!"
"We can't fight them, Seth," Crystal argued. "They're trained soldiers. We've had a handful of lessons in ground combat. And none of us are that good."
"Shame Jerome or Kal didn't come. They'd have been useful now," Seth commented.
"Although one of us would have killed Kal by now if he came," Crystal retorted.
"Be quiet!" John hissed. They all fell silent, straining to hear the Blue Dragons. Crystal closed her eyes, thinking how less than ten minutes ago this whole situation would have seemed impossible. She had led them to a favourite spot of hers, near a beautiful lake she had visited many times, a place that held many fond memories for her. Memories now forever tarnished by this nightmare. She had taken them not far from the lake to a spot famous for the flowers that grew there in the spring, and that's when they saw. Blue Dragons. Of course, at first they hadn't realised what they were. Seven men, running in single file through the woods, their hair hidden by close-fitting caps and their blue skin disguised by make up; at least that was what she had presumed. They had been just as surprised to see them as the children had been to see the men. The men had stood there staring at them, momentarily frozen, and Crystal and the others had sensed something was wrong, but only John recognised them for what they were. Before the Blues had enough time to transform and attack them, John had cried out, "run!" For once, even Jenna had obeyed him and they had fled just as the Blues began to transform, giving them enough of a head start for them to lose the Blues in the trees. If the Blues had pursued them on the ground instead of taking off, or Arthur hadn't seen this hiding place, they'd have been caught.
They had been in this hole for a few minutes already, the hope of escaping discovery slowly ebbing away as the Blues methodically searched for them, getting closer by the minute. Directly above them they heard the sound of wings flapping, now very close and they all crouched down even lower.
"I really don't like this," Daisy whispered nervously. "They're going to find us."
"She's right," Arthur agreed. "They seem to have a pretty good idea of where we are. What will we do when they land?"
"We will hear them when they land," John pointed out. "They can't move through these woods without making a lot of noise."
"True, but we need a plan for what to do when they do land," Seth insisted. "I say we fight."
"If it comes to a fight we will all die," Crystal stated. "They'd see us before we even managed to finish transforming."
"Maybe not all of us," Seth argued. "And we might take some of them with us."
"Can we have a plan where most of us live? If not all of us?" Jenna whispered frantically.
There was a long pause before John spoke up. "Here's the plan. I'm the fastest in the air, and fastest at getting into the air. I have a good chance of avoiding them on my own and then drawing them after me. I'll run out, transform, take off and once I'm up, make sure they hear and follow me. I'll lead them away from you all. It's our best hope."
The group paused for a few seconds to consider this suggestion. "There's plenty that could go wrong with that plan," Arthur said. "They might not all follow you. Or they might catch you straight away."
"I don't think it's likely. I'm pretty fast. Either way, I need you all to agree to stay put. You can't help me if I do get caught."
"That's a bad plan, John," Seth replied. "You won't stand a chance on your own and you might not get off the ground. I hate to tell you this, but your ground combat is terrible. You may be good in the air, but on the ground, you're even worse than Daisy."
"Hey, I'm a good fighter," Daisy objected. "I bet I could beat you!"
"I'm your dreams," Seth replied confidently.
"It doesn't matter," John replied. "You wouldn't reach me in time. You would just watch me die, and then be caught yourselves."
"So what do we do if you do get caught?" Arthur asked.
"If I get caught," John replied, "then you have to move to plan B."
"What's plan B?" Seth asked.
"That's for you to work out," he replied. "I'll be dead."
"Fair enough," Arthur agreed. "We don't have any other ideas."
"No, hold on," Seth responded, frowning. "This doesn't feel right. There's no way you'd leave Daisy or Crystal in a situation like this. What's the real plan, John?"
Not far away from them they heard a loud cracking of branches; the Blues had begun
to land so they could search on foot.
"Look, there's no time to discuss," John whispered urgently. "Please, just promise me, whatever you hear out there, you'll stay in here until I return or until it gets dark. You're right, Seth, I wouldn't put Crystal, Daisy or in fact any of you in more danger than possible; my plan will work."
"What if they find us first, John?" Jenna asked nervously. "What then?"
They heard the cracking of twigs nearby and shrank lower in the hole.
"Just trust me, please. I've not let you down before. Promise you'll stay in here, whatever you hear."
The others glanced around and heard another Blue Dragon land nearby, noisily crashing through the branches.
"Alright, just go, John. I'll keep the others here," Arthur promised him.
"Please be careful!" Daisy urged. John merely nodded and turned and crawled cautiously out of the hole. They could see him crouched outside of the hole for a second, and then he was gone, and they could see nothing but the bushes around them.
"So," Seth whispered. "What's plan B…"
Outside, John had only moved a couple of metres away from their hole. It was an excellent hiding place, and they couldn't be seen unless you were very close, but the Blue Dragons would find them eventually. He could see a Blue Dragon not far away, facing the other direction but too close for comfort. He could see other Blue Dragons: two standing together not that far away and a fourth that was further away from the rest of the group and on the other side of him. A fifth was near the first, and was slowly coming towards their hiding place. A shadow passed overhead; at least one if not two were still in the air. Seth and Jenna were right. The plan he'd described wouldn't work; they'd catch him as he took off, and the ones on the ground would be able to work out where he had taken off from and locate the others.
Fortunately, this was not the real plan.
John crouched as low as he could before beginning to transform. This transformation was going to be slower than usual—a risk he had to take. His eyes flashed through the colours of the rainbow before settling on a dark green, not the usual red colour. Dark green scales began to spread over his body, but no wings emerged from his back. Instead he began to grow rapidly, much more than normal. He stayed low to remain hidden for as long as he could, but that would soon be impossible. His neck grew rapidly, his head moving further and further from his growing body. At the other end a long tail emerged, tipped with a cluster of vicious-looking spikes. He dropped to all fours, straightening his arms to support his increasing weight before they began to transform into legs, slowly developing into massive pillars that supported his colossal body. He stretched out his neck and his head rose high above the tree tops, as the transformation was now complete and he was utterly fearsome to behold. The form he had taken was that of one of the extinct great dragons: the mighty Teradon, only ever seen now when a Golden Dragon assumed the form.
For him the transformation felt very slow compared to his lightning fast transformations into Red or Golden Dragons, but it was still too fast for the Blues, who did not see him until his head emerged above the tops of the trees. He rose to his feet and took one giant step forwards, crashing through the trees and bushes, and the thud of his footstep drew the attention of all of the Blues. The two nearest dragons screamed in rage as they turned to face him, but did not move, paralysed by the shock of seeing him. John lunged forwards with his huge head, jaws agape, and seized the furthest one with his teeth, engulfing its entire body in his mouth. He crunched it twice between his jaws before dropping its ruined body to the ground. The second took to the air, shooting fireballs at his body, which smashed into John's chest, exploding spectacularly but leaving John completely unharmed. Before the Blue could gain any height, John merely stepped forwards and swatted it out of the air with his foot before pinning it down with his other front foot and crushing it into the ground and grinding the life out of it.
The other Blue Dragons were now very aware of the danger he presented, but the three on the ground were in thick trees and didn't have enough room to take off. John wheeled around and lunged forwards again with his long neck, the thick trees and bushes not slowing him in the slightest. He snatched one of the Blue Dragons from the ground and killed it quickly with a single, powerful bite before tossing it aside. The other two were now behind him, having scampered out of his way and surged forwards to attack his rear, oblivious to the danger posed by his powerful tail. He swatted them like flies with swift flicks of his tail, leaving one lifelessly impaled on the long black spines.
One of the two airborne dragons launched an attack from behind, catching him unaware and striking his long neck, slashing with his claws as he passed. What would have torn a Red Dragon's throat in two did little more than tickle John, and he turned to face his attacker and let loose a mighty stream of blue fire, which engulfed the flying dragon and knocked it out of the air. John rushed towards where it lay on the ground, knocking over trees in his path, before stamping on the badly burned dragon, cutting short its agonised screams.
The last Blue shrieked in rage, circling high above him and out of his reach. John looked up and aimed a second stream of hot blue fire at him, but his intended target veered out of its path and rose higher out of range. Alone, and without any chance of success, the last Blue Dragon shrieked angrily once more before heading east, back to from where it came.
John looked down at the chaos he had created. The whole battle had taken a matter of seconds, but the forest looked as if a tornado had passed through. The trees had been too closely packed to allow him to pass through them, so he destroyed many of them as he chased after the Blues. The Blue Dragons were all not only dead, but several were mangled beyond recognition. One was still impaled on his tail spines, dangling limply behind him. As quickly as he could, John transformed back to his tiny human form, the dead Blue dropping from his disappearing tail as the spikes shrank. He ran back to the fallen tree, which was further away than he had expected, and was now hidden by freshly fallen trees. Fortunately, he hadn't trampled the ground anywhere too near to their hiding place, which could have been fatal for them.
"Come out; it's safe now," he called to them, hoping they hadn't ventured out to see what was happening.
Arthur peered out of the hole cautiously. "Have they gone already? What happened? There was a tremendous noise. It sounded like an earthquake."
"It should be safe now. But we should leave quickly; they might return," John urged him, offering his hand to help him from the hole.
Arthur climbed out, covered in dirt. John offered his hand to Daisy, who was the next to emerge after her brother. "What happened? It sounded terrible from down there. We thought they'd caught you."
John helped her brush the dirt from her clothes. "I'm fine, but we should get out of here quickly. It's not safe."
"It is from this one!" Arthur shouted, pointing at the remains of one of the Blue Dragons. "What happened here? This thing has been more than killed; it's been utterly destroyed!"
"It felt like an earthquake," Jenna said as she emerged. "I'm covered in mud. Wow, what happened to that thing? It looks like it's been crushed!"
"Hey, there's another one," Seth called. "John, you can't have done this; it looks like it's been chewed up!"
John sighed, knowing that he had missed the opportunity to get away quickly. "Look, six are down, but one is still in the air. I think it's the leader. He may return with others and I suggest that we make sure that we're not here when he does."
"Come on, John. We can't just leave! Did you see what happened here? Something has completely destroyed these Blue Dragons! Can't you tell us what happened? A single Blue won't come back after taking this sort of a beating."
"Not on his own, but he might come back in much greater numbers. Look, the question we should be asking is what on earth they were doing here anyway. They never sneak in like this."
"John's right," Arthur agreed. "We need to warn people; there might be other groups of them."
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"What about whatever destroyed these Blues?" Seth argued. "John was only gone for a minute and now these Blues are obliterated. Something that can do this to six Blue Dragons is surely more dangerous than any number of Blues would be."
"In which case there's even more reason to be getting out of here," Jenna pointed out nervously. "Can we just go?"
"Don't you see? There's something he's not telling us," Seth argued, regarding John suspiciously. "He knows what happened. He must have seen what happened."
"What happened is that John promised he'd keep us safe, and all but one of the Blues are dead, and the other one has fled," Daisy pointed out. "You should be thanking him, not accusing him."
"Daisy, surely you don't believe John killed all of these Blue Dragons?" Seth asked incredulously. "Even you can't believe that."
"It doesn't matter what killed them," Crystal argued. "Just as long as they don't get us. Let's just get out of here."
"Come on Arthur; surely you see something is off here?" Seth argued.
Arthur nodded. "Of course. But there's nothing that we can do about it from here. Let's report it quickly; both the fact that the Blues were here and what happened to them. I can't see what you expect to achieve by waiting here. Do you really want to hang around to meet something that can do this to six Blue Dragons?"
John didn't wait for any more discussion on the subject and transformed right in front of them. He took to the air immediately and began circling above their heads. He could see that the girls all moved behind trees to do the same, and Seth and Arthur reluctantly followed.
Seth tried to press John for answers as soon as he took off, but John merely insisted that he had to fly high above them, circling occasionally to spy for any potential danger. However, he knew that Seth's suspicions were aroused, and that he wouldn't let this one lie. He had to think of a way to get out of this one…
Daisy never questioned John for a second. The only thing she was concerned about was getting back and raising the alert. There was a larger town not that far away, much nearer than Crystal's home, so they agreed to split up, with Arthur and Crystal flying to the town to report the incident while the others flew home. They hadn't been back very long before Arthur and Crystal returned.
Becoming a Dragon Page 41