Escape from Oz (The Falken Chronicles Book 1)
Page 22
Oh, fuck.
The dragon hit Murrisen at frightening speed, hurtling in from behind the boy with wings outstretched, plowing through the mushrooms to strike him square in the back with its hind legs. The sheer kinetic energy of the attack lifted Murrisen bodily and hurled him across the bowl. He smacked into the base of Falken’s boulder with a sickening crunch.
Falken winced, but stayed rooted to his spot, his body held still. Below him, Murrisen rolled over onto his stomach, groaning. His right leg was mangled and his back was bleeding from the deep claw gouges, but he managed to push himself up off the ground, balancing on his left leg.
In the middle of the bowl, the dragon landed neatly on its hind legs, then leaped up off the ground. It covered the distance to Murrisen with a single, sharp beat of its wings, pouncing and landing on top of the boy, slamming him into the ground. The claws on its powerful hind legs sunk deep into Murrisen’s chest, pinning him to the stone with all of its weight. The creature gave a shriek of triumph, lifting its long snout into the air to make a loud, ululating sound.
Murrisen screamed in terror, but the dragon snapped at him, a quick, surgical bite on the hapless boy’s face which quickly silenced him. Then it bit again, opening its jaws wider this time, and with a flick of its neck, it tore Murrisen’s head off his shoulders.
Well, now I’m definitely the last one alive, Falken thought.
Below him, the dragon remained bent over the boy’s carcass, its leathery head bobbing as it tore into its meal. Falken risked a single step backward. When the dragon didn’t react, he took another. On his third step, the edge of his pants brushed, ever so lightly, against a small fungus growing near the ground. The dragon’s head snapped up immediately, its large ears held high. Falken froze.
Bloody jaws hanging open, the creature extended its long neck out over the rocky shelf, toward Falken. The dragon’s eyeless head swept back and forth, ears swiveling, searching. Falken could see the animal’s gill-like sensory organs opening and closing along the length of its neck. Its face was mere inches from his own now.
Hide in the silence, Falken thought, willing himself to remain still.
The seconds stretched. Then, at last, the dragon retracted its head. With a shake of its neck, it turned back to Murrisen’s body, and continued eating. Falken counted to ten in his head, and then took another step backward, being careful to step around the mushroom this time. Three more steps, and he felt his heel reach the edge of the outcropping behind him. Falken pivoted slowly, forcing himself to turn his back on the predator.
He found himself face to face with another dragon. It stood twenty feet tall, nearly twice as large as the first. The new dragon spread its wings wide, towering over Falken as it roared its triumph.
You sneaky fuck, Falken thought.
He leaped off the rock, diving toward the dragon’s undercarriage, rolling as he hit the hard rock. He felt a breath of wind on the back of his neck – the dragon had struck, but missed him by inches. The beast flapped its wings, rising back up into the air to get a better angle on Falken, but he was already up and running, dodging past a thick, muscled leg. He juked to his left suddenly as he ran, sensing another imminent strike, then dodged right. A split second later, the dragon landed heavily to his left, its knife-like claws tearing white scars in the rock. It snorted in frustration, snapping at him with its jaws. Falken felt teeth sink deep into the flesh of his left shoulder, but the skin tore, and he was free a moment later, still running.
Another bellow from behind him, and a rush of air as the huge wings flapped. Falken turned suddenly, hoping to dodge the next inevitable strike, but he lost his footing on the lichen-covered rocks. He slid down a steep embankment, hitting the bottom with a bone-jarring crash. Falken grunted and pulled himself to his feet again. He couldn’t hear the dragon behind him anymore.
Don’t look back. You look back, you die.
Ahead, he caught a glimpse of clear water coursing through a rocky ravine.
The river!
Falken sprinted toward it; when he reached the rocky bank, he leaped into the air, sucking in a deep breath, steeling himself for the ice-cold water.
But the water never came. Instead, he felt a set of iron talons sink into his torso from behind, and abruptly, he was being hauled upward, higher and higher into the hazy sky. One of the talons had penetrated his back fully, and was poking through his chest, as well. Falken twisted his neck to look over his shoulder. The big dragon hung over him, its shoulder muscles rippling as it lifted them both higher into the air with each thrust of its wings.
Is it taking me to the aerie?
Then the dragon stopped, and Falken felt the claws in his back twist, the creature’s grip on him loosening. Suddenly, he was free, and falling rapidly toward the ground far below.
Ah, shit.
Escape from Olympus will be out soon! To be the first to hear when it’s released - and get a free ebook! - please sign up for my newsletter, here:
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After his escape from the prison colony Oz, Sirio Falken has found a new life as a safari guide on the planet Olympus. There, he helps tourists navigate the planet’s exotic ecosystem, which is dominated by a single apex predator: a long-lived and sightless avian species called dragons. With exceptional hearing, the dragons are feared for hunting down anything that moves, including Falken and his guests, if they’re not careful. But unknown to Falken, criminal elements have plans to use him to plunder the planet’s resources, whether he’s willing to help them or not. He’ll have to keep the lethal dragons at bay long enough to unravel a growing conspiracy … and escape from Olympus.
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Text copyright 2017 by Piers Platt
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35