by H. M. Gooden
JAKE HAD BEEN RIGHT, they were close. It was only about a half hour before they arrived at a sheer wall of rock that stretched into mountainous proportions. They both had a more powerful sense of smell than the average human, even when they weren't in dragon form, and Mai could see a darker depression about half way up, from which the smell of fear seemed to be emanating. She looked at Jake, who had a fierce scowl on his face, nostrils flaring. She touched his arm and she could see him trying to breathe, but knew it was hopeless to even attempt to relax. These were children that Jake knew, including one that had likely been in his house many times as his little sister's friend. She couldn't imagine what he felt, but knew how upset she'd be if it was someone that she cared about who'd been taken. The way she'd felt when the Nyk had abducted Jake had been awful, even though it hadn't lasted long.
Jake turned to look at her, gesturing silently with his head over to the right side of the rock face. When she looked, she noticed a rough set of stairs hewn into it, hardly visible to the naked eye. That must have been how the children had been taken up there, she realized. She looked around for another entrance, but couldn't see one. It didn’t bode well for a fast escape with children.
Mai tugged on Jake's arm, attempting to make hand signals indicating they should search for another entrance. Jake looked confused at first, then pointed to the entrances and held up two fingers, cocking his head as though asking a question, and she pointed.
Yes, was there another entrance?
He shrugged then made walking motions with his middle and pointer finger on his right hand, suggesting that they circle around.
Mai nodded. Good idea, she thought, gesturing for him to go first. He started walking again.
Careful not to make a sound on the loose rocks, they slowly picked their way around the face of the mountain, but it seemed to go on forever. They stopped and Jake shook his head. It looked as if this was their only choice to enter the cave. Mai once again felt her stomach sink. Nervous butterflies tried to crawl up her throat, but she pushed them back down.
It's not about you, silly, she scolded herself. There are some frightened kids in there that are going to be a meal if you don't do something. You're a dragon, for goodness sake!
She remembered the time she'd accidentally eaten someone and smiled. After all, it wasn't like she was completely helpless or anything. She felt her courage return and saw that Jake was waiting for her to follow him. She steeled her resolve and her expression hardened. Jake’s eyes lit up with pride before he gestured for her to follow him.
The two dragons climbed up the mountain path, well disguised in their weak human hiker guise. Hoping against hope that they wouldn't encounter any trolls before they found the children, they nevertheless kept their guard up and their eyes open. They waited at the mouth of the cave for a few minutes while their eyes adjusted. During that brief moment, Mai could smell too many things. Fear, urine, and something that smelled as though it had been decaying for years.
She was alarmed at the thought that it could be one of the kids, but Jake grabbed her wrist insistently and made her look at him. He held his nose before doing a pantomime of a big lumbering giant and she choked back a nervous laugh, nodding in relief. If she understood him correctly, he was telling her that trolls always smelt awful.
Entering the cave slowly and silently, Mai continued to follow Jake. He didn't know where he was going, but he'd told her earlier that one of the old men from the village had heard stories as a child about the way trolls live. He'd then passed the information on in the hope that it helped them to navigate their way through the mountain.
So far, so good.
The entrance to the cave was faintly lit by the thankfully strong daylight, enough for Mai to see that the cave appeared empty. There were two tunnels she could see leading off in either direction. She knew this meant that they'd have to go deeper to explore, which wasn't something she was excited about. Reminding herself for the umpteenth time that she was a freaking water dragon, Mai squared her shoulders and kept her eyes and ears open.
She faintly heard the muffled sound of someone crying. Tugging on Jake's arm, she drew his attention to the place she thought the sound was emanating from. He nodded, having heard the same noise, and tilted his head in the direction Mai had indicated. She nodded and they took the doorway to the right.
The smell became stronger and Mai felt her stomach churn with the odor. Whatever it was that caused trolls to smell that way was certainly unique, but not in a good way.
The ground became rougher the further they went and the ceiling extended higher above them. Mai wondered just how big trolls were, but wasn’t excited about the possibility of finding out. Suddenly, they emerged into a large open area lit with the faint glow of strange green lanterns along the wall. She wasn't sure what the light was from, but it definitely wasn't coming from a normal fire.
Mai stopped, choking back a gasp, pointing as Jake looked at her sharply. He followed her outstretched arm, then had to hold back an exclamation of his own.
Tucked into the far end of the room, surrounded by what appeared to be a heap of old bones and garbage, was a small cage. It hardly looked big enough for two people, but inside it, they could clearly make out the slumped forms of several individuals. At first, Mai thought they were all dead, but then she again heard someone crying, which seemed to be originating from the cage itself. Searching the room they saw no one else, so they crept forward cautiously. By the time they reached the cage, the noise had stopped. Mai knelt down, touching the shoulder of the person closest to her. Their skin was warm, but felt damp, as if they'd been dunked in water. She felt the person move slightly underneath her hand and quickly pulled it back. They sat up, looking at her with a defeated and fearful expression until recognition dawned.
"Hvem er du?"
The voice hardly made a whisper and sounded so young that Mai felt her heart crack with pain. The face belonged to a small boy with white blond hair, now extremely dirty and caked with mud, but still visible in the dim green light.
Not trusting herself to speak, Mai nodded with a lump in her throat before looking at Jake.
"What should we do?" Mai mouthed the words quietly, still not making any sound.
Jake had fire shimmering in his eyes and Mai knew that he was far from being immobilized by heartbreak. Instead, he was ready for battle. She watched as he took a quick look around the room and at the cage, then held up his hand for her to back up, which she did.
As Mai watched, he transformed into a dragon and grabbed a firm hold of the door in his strong jaws and yanked, tearing it off its hinges in one smooth motion. Mai waited until he'd put the door down on the floor, being careful to make as little noise as possible, then she entered the cage and touched each of the bodies that she saw, six in total. One by one the children roused. While they appeared thin and terrified, Mai was relieved to discover that none of them seemed to be seriously injured, or even particularly surprised at the presence of a dragon in the cave.
The children moved slowly, their muscles cramped from being kept in such a small space without moving. Mai helped them as much as she could, but kept trying to encourage them to hurry. She continued to look nervously over her shoulder with a feeling of impending doom, but it didn't help.
Suddenly, the thud of heavy footsteps reverberated off the walls as something large lumbered down the hall from the opposite side. Mai froze, looking at Jake with alarm. Still in dragon form, Jake motioned for her to go in front of him. Most of the kids were now safely out of the cage but Mai grabbed the last one, a child who looked to be about four, and lifted her over her shoulder while shooing the others to move faster in front of her. One of the older girls, who looked to be about the same age as Aud, took the lead. The other children followed, with Mai bringing up the rear, trying to push them to move faster into the light of the entrance.
They'd almost reached the doorway when Mai smelled the foul odour of troll intensify. At the same moment, sh
e heard something cry out with a guttural, rasping screech. She put the child down, pushing them behind her protectively as she turned around to face the noise. Jake stood in front of her in dragon form, looking impressive with his golden brown scales shimmering in the dull light, his tail twitching irritably like a cat about to pounce. The troll stopped a few feet from him and roared again.
Mai shuddered at her first sight of its disgusting green and brown teeth through which saliva spewed. While she had no idea what the troll was saying as it bellowed, she could guess it wasn't a happy greeting, as their winter meal was exiting the storage room right in front of them.
Mai knew that they'd have to fight to escape. She glanced back at the kids behind her, relieved to see that they'd now reached the mouth of the cave and were helping each other pick their way down the steps to the outside world. Mai backed up, guarding their retreat, and stood her ground a few feet behind Jake.
"How many do you think there are?" she asked, not even trying to be quiet anymore. "Should I change too?"
Jake kept his eyes on the troll, watching for movement.
"Usually there are at least two trolls, but less than five. They live in small family units, since they can't even get along with each other without trying to kill each other. Units are usually a mother and son, or a father and daughter."
Mai nodded resolutely. "Check. So what do you think this one is?"
Mai couldn't tell from the body shape, although it was wearing only a pair of pants, which made her suspect male, if the pants covered the same parts as they would on a human. It seemed to be youngish one, if she could go by its hair color, which was a muddy brown.
Jake shook his head, not looking away from the oncoming threat.
"Male, maybe. It's the females you really have to watch, like with most species." He briefly glanced over his shoulder at her and she could see a glimmer of humor in his eyes.
She snorted and felt her mood lift. Just then, the troll rushed at Jake, obviously thinking that he was distracted and ready to be taken. Jake ducked and the troll tripped, flying over his head and sprawling on the floor beside Mai.
She took a step back, feeling her heart beat faster as the troll stood up. She watched as it seemed to go up, and up, and up, until the troll stood almost nine feet in height with its head touching the roof of the cave. It growled at her and began to shuffle forward. As it bent over to crush her with its arms, Mai saw an opening and slid between the troll's dirty, warty knees, turning as she slid through to kick it square in the backside. At the same moment, she saw another troll enter the room and reach to grab Jake.
"Jake! Watch out!" Mai shouted out a warning while still lying on the floor, before jumping back to a crouching position.
Jake whipped around, his tail spinning almost the full diameter of the room. Just as the creature lunged at him, Jake roared his own battle cry, and using his massive jaws, bit down on the troll's arm.
Mai looked away, remembering her own adversary, to see the troll teetering precariously on the edge of the cave's entrance. She wasted no time and quickly changed into the azure dragon form in which she had more strength. She pushed, hard. She watched as the troll fell backward over the ledge then dashed over. Luckily, the children had scrambled out of the way of the falling troll. As she continued to watch, she could see that the old tales were true. When trolls were exposed to sunlight, they turned to stone. There, at the bottom of the steps, children surrounded the pieces of the troll she'd just pushed.
"Look out!" Mai shouted at the children, waving for them to get out of the way. While they'd avoided being hit by this troll, she wanted them back out of the way in case Jake's battle didn't end as neatly. She wasn't sure if they all understood English, but they could tell from her tone that it was urgent, and the older children moved the younger ones back further out of the fall zone. Turning back into the cave to see what was happening with Jake, Mai saw him locked in close combat with the remaining troll. Jake still had his jaws clenched tight around one of the troll's arms, but the troll had the other one around his neck and was squeezing.
Frantically, Mai looked around the cave for a weapon. She recognized something that looked like a cudgel resting against a wall and picked it up. Turning back into human form, she circled around behind the troll and swung the cudgel at the back of its head. A satisfying crack rang out and the troll went limp, allowing Jake to throw it out of the cave and over the ledge, to join the other troll in pieces at the bottom of the cliff.
Jake looked at Mai with a raised eyebrow, giving her appearance a once over, and she shrugged. Her clothes hadn't made the transition as nicely as she had, with all the rolling and fighting, but for the most part, they still covered the important parts of her body.
"What do you think your’s are going to look like?" she asked, crossing her arms. "I was skidding on the ground a fair bit."
Jake chuckled with a deep purr, then sniffed the air.
"I want you to go and wait with the kids. I'm going to take a quick look through the cave to make sure no one was left behind."
Mai hesitated, but Jake shook his head at her concern.
"It's fine. I don't smell the stench anymore and if there were more trolls, they'd already have joined the battle. Trolls might be slow and stupid, but they never turn down the chance to fight."
Mai nodded and reluctantly went to the cave entrance, turning once more to glare at him warningly.
"Hurry up. If you aren't back in five minutes, I'm coming in after you."
Jake blew her an awkward dragon kiss and lumbered back to the interior of the cave. Mai picked her way down the steps to meet dazed children, who all swarmed her with hugs the moment she reached them. The youngest child looked as if they were only about four and the oldest was a girl who could only be Aud's friend.
She was the first to speak. "Thank you for saving us. How did you know where to find us? I was sure we were going to die."
She spoke English, impressing Mai with her fluency.
"We got directions from some of the village elders. For the most part, Jake knew what to expect. We were just lucky we were able to get to you in time."
The girl gave Mai another big hug.
"My name is Freya. I can never thank you enough. They were planning to butcher us, soon, I think. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but when we arrived they were finishing off something else. I think they were arguing over what to do next. They were just getting together their tools when you arrived."
Mai let out her breath, sending out a prayer to whatever god had kept the children safe until she and Jake arrived and had given them a sunny day on which to kill the trolls with. If they'd shown up even a day earlier, she wasn't sure if they would have been able to defeat the trolls due to their sheer size. The one she'd killed had been pretty much because of dumb luck and the proximity of the edge of cave. Looking down at her watch, Mai shook the kids off gently.
"I have to go back and check on Jake. He's been gone too long."
Mai headed toward the steps with fear beginning to rise in her chest, until she saw a slightly tattered and filthy figure emerge from the cave doorway and give her a crooked smile. She waited on the bottom step until he descended the stairs before she jumped into his arms with a big kiss.
"That wasn't five minutes, you jerk."
Mai punched him harder than she'd intended and winced apologetically, before rubbing the spot for him. "Oops, sorry. You worried me, just a little."
Jake gave her a kiss on her forehead, before letting her slide down to the ground. They turned to face the kids that they'd so hastily ushered out of the cave.
The children appeared to be in varying degrees of shock. All of them were dirty and bedraggled, but other than the expected emotional trauma they saw on their faces, they seemed to be reasonably healthy. Mai was amazed, based on where they'd found them and the fact that it had been several days since the children had gone missing. Luck was truly in their favour. The children watched Ma
i and Jake in quiet anticipation.
Mai turned to look at Jake, moving slightly farther away so that they could talk quietly.
"So? What's the plan? We're still a fair distance from town and I'm not sure if they're up for a long trip. Is your phone working?"
Jake took it out of his pocket before shaking his head.
"No. I only have one bar and it keeps flashing in and out."
Mai frowned. The weather was nice and they still had at least a few hours of daylight left.
"Is there another way of contacting anyone? Coast guard? Any park rangers or anything?"
Jake shook his head again.
"Not that I know of."
Mai glanced at the kids. The older ones didn't look too bad, but the little one didn't look strong enough to make the trip under his own steam.
"I'm worried about the little guy," she said. "What if we carried the smaller ones? We could maybe take them on our back as dragons. And that way, it's less likely that anything will disturb us. Do you think it would be too scary for them, after everything they've been through?
Mai bit her lip as she looked at them. Jake simply shrugged.
"I recognize most of these kids. Many of them have...interesting...family trees of their own. Actually, Freya has another form with wings, so she could likely carry someone as well."
Mai looked back at the girl with surprise. Freya noticed and came closer to them.
"Do you want me to help? I'm more than willing, if there is something I can do."
Jake smiled at her. "It's great to see you safe, Freya. We were just looking at the smaller kids and trying to decide the best way to get everyone home."
Freya laughed. "Of course. Well, I wouldn't worry about scaring them after what they've been through in the last few days. I can carry one and so can Erik, if you need more help."
Freya pointed at short, awkward looking teen that Mai eyed dubiously. Freya noticed her disbelief and smiled.