by Cody Hyde
Everything became a blur.
Charlie found himself holding on for dear life to (the dragon’s tail?!) as he passed through the portal in hopes that it would bring him home, and with Rocky and Sheila at his side.
He could taste the dust from the castle floor as he shot through a tunnel of nothing but a black hole….
He soon caught a whiff of the smell of fresh dirt and grass as the dragon broke through what was some sort of ground before him.
Then everything went quiet.
Charlie slowly opened his eyes. In front of him was a statue of a lion. The town library.
I’m home, he thought.
The dragon must have been too big to fit through the portal in the well that they had somehow managed to break out of the ground in front of the building instead.
“Rocky, Sheila, are you guys alright?” called out Charlie to his friends as he slowly got back up on his feet, regaining his consciousness.
Then the sound of the dragon’s roar broke his attention from his friends.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Charlie said under one breath.
There was the dragon, climbing to the top of the library.
Charlie watched it as it made its way to the top. The lion statue crumbled apart on its way up.
A hand on Charlie’s left shoulder from behind assured him that Sheila was okay. He turned around and noticed both Sheila and Rocky standing behind him.
Rocky appeared to be no longer wearing the armor he took earlier from one of Dultona’s castle guards. It must have broken off of him on their way through the portal.
It was great to know that they were both okay after all of this trouble, and now this.
They watched together as the dragon spit fire from atop of the library, as if claiming a new home. Or a town to rampage over.
Charlie’s jaws were dropped. “We have to kill the dragon,” he said under one breath.
Screams were then heard in the distance.
Sheila immediately spread her wings and shot up into the sky to find out what the screams were about.
In the distance, not far from the library, Sheila could make out the figures of not just the people of the town, running and fighting for their lives, but the inhuman, gray-skinned, horrifying and demonic horned figures of the undead.
Sheila brought herself back to the ground. “The whole town’s in trouble,” she informed Charlie and Rocky.
“What?” responded Charlie.
“It’s been taken over by what appear to be... creatures of the undead.”
“You mean, like, zombies?!”
“No. They’re different. Someone’s already got their hands on the book.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We need to trace down the Book of the Underground if we can.”
“If we can?! It could be anywhere!”
“Charlie, I hate to say this, but...your father used to admire the undead.”
“My father? He is dead!”
“But we can’t be so sure.”
“His body’s buried in the town cemetery, I can show you!”
“Charlie, there are ways to come back from the dead when it comes to the Underground.”
Charlie went silent after these words. He had just remembered what the ghost of his father had told him. Now that he had read the Awakening chant, it had already happened. Just like his father had said.
Suddenly the dragon broke their attention as it took off towards the center of town, wings spread, to join the chaos along with the undead army. Now there was no time to stop and think.
Then Rocky announced bravely, “Let’s fight!”
Sheila grabbed Charlie without warning and took off with him into the night sky towards the next battle ahead.
Rocky followed, charging past the library, through the trees, and down the main street, roaring out a mighty war cry. It was time to fight the undead.
Chapter 30