Leo

“Then the brave pilot grabbed the dragon under his arm and continued down the tunnel,” Leo whispered in the dark and cramped tunnel. “The brave pilot would not, never ever panic, even when wiggling through a claustrophobic crawl.”

Something protruded from the rock wall of the tunnel which barely fit his scrawny, old body. Roots, maybe? Or big fat, alien worms with scaly outsides and who ate scared starship pilots for lunch.

“I am scrawny. Just bones and dry skin clinging on them. Nothing tasty here. Walk away with your dignity intact, alien worms,” Leo announced to the world inside the tunnel.

Something wet ran along his arms, it couldn’t be his own blood, could it? No, it probably belonged to the young, purple dragon under his arm, which Beth had launched at him at the last second before the cave entrance collapsed. Another thing that happened as the cave collapsed, he was cut off from the mental channel Tern had established. Did the magical alien communication channel actually need line of sight? A bit archaic. Archaic, that was a nice word. He noted it and shoved it in the back of his mind. This situation was suboptimal for starting to tell stories, but if he pulled through it would be a great one, maybe even his best.

Something rumbled outside the tunnel, or on top of it. The battlefield, he crawled underneath it, if this tunnel was going in a horizontal direction. It was difficult to tell without proper equipment or even some light. His hand terminal had shattered during the crash. But there was a slim light at the end of the tunnel.

“Goddamn,” Leo whispered. “As the Capt’n would have said. This really shapes up to become something.”

Or he was dead already. The cave entrance could have collapsed on top of him and broken his neck. Because this was what they told it would be. A long dark tunnel with a comfy and inviting light in the end, and if he reached it he would fall dead. People who had been close to dying, had failed to mention the injured and bleeding dragon, the fierce rumbling battle overhead and the potential for hungry alien worms.

If he used his feet to push and wiggled his shoulders a bit, he gained some forward momentum, and the movements were not aggravating the dragon under his arm. Not yet, at least. It had not bitten him or splashed liquid fire on him. Yet. He felt it, it was just a matter of time before it happened.

The light grew stronger as he neared it.

Leo sniffed the air, it smelled of rotten eggs. The lovely scent of dragon’s breath. Stupid alien space dragons.

A rumble went through the rock around him, shaking the very thing. Dust and pebbles rained over him. The tunnel risked collapsing on him.

“A goddamn ruckus,” Leo whispered.

He tried being brave in front of the little dragon, but he was scared shitless. At least he had not wetted and shit his pants. Not yet. He leaned into his wiggle. Get to the light before the tunnel collapsed, since that surely meant death, if he was not dead already.

The tunnel narrowed once he neared the light source. He moved his arms in front of himself and shoved the purple dragon out first. Its purple scales glimmered in the light. There was a slight squeal and a soft thud as it hit the ground. He pulled himself forward and popped his head out, but his shoulders got stuck.

A chamber, small compared to Rahgon’s private rooms, but hell of a lot bigger than the tunnel. There was a dead dragon in one corner, red blood pooled around it, a huge gash along its neck which probably was the reason for its current state. But then he turned his head to have a look to the other side of the room.

A green scaled dragon, closer to Rahgon’s size, was lying in the corner. The purple dragon looked happy to see it. But something inside and down Leo’s gut suddenly turned cold.

It was Wyrhgon.

Rahgon’s sneaky and smartly worded brother.

“Arse,” Leo said. “As Diego would have said.”

Wyrhgon turned his gaze towards him. There was something scary about those yellow and large dragon eyes, how they seized him up. The green dragon snarled at him, lifting its lips to show its great rows of teeth. Those fangs could cut up the hulls of starships. Leo tried wiggling back into the tunnel, but he was surely stuck.

“Oh hell. I am not dying, stuck like this and eaten by the vilest, meanest dragon,” Leo said, trying again to wiggle free, but nothing happened.

Wyrhgon noticed something, maybe a smell or sound, but Leo was unable to pick it up. The shape of a person flew past, outside the chamber, but didn’t look inside it. It had looked like the person had been flying. One of Saif’s vanguard, it must have been. As if Leo’s day had not been bad enough.

Wyrhgon scuttled forward, slow and limping. The green dragon was injured, one of its front paws had been sliced off and several gashes went along its snout and at its chest. Many of its scales around its supposedly shoulders looked broken and blood dropped from the jagged edges. Wyrhgon moved forward slowly, but surely. The purple dragon walked beside Wyrhgon and used its body to stroke the bigger one, it looked relieved to have met some of its own kind.

Leo tried wiggling loose again, but his situation didn’t change. Wyrhgon was going to bite his head off, chew it and then swallow it. He was scrawny, but he might serve well as an appetizer.

“As I told the potential worms or roots, or whatever they are or were. I am just bones and skin. I probably lack the very nutrients you are seeking, great alien space dragon. Please, Prince Wyrhgon, I don’t want to die,” Leo said. Stupid alien space dragon was more like it, but when one tried gaining the trust and maybe survive for another minute, being nice had its advantages.

Wyrhgon raised its paw.

“Alright, then.” Leo closed his eyes. “Final Sight, I will see you in the next life. Fly free, my friend.”

The rock around his neck and shoulders crumbled and he fell forward. With a soft thud he landed on the rock floor.

The small, purple dragon stepped up to him and stroked him with its body. Blood seeped out from one of its wings, but it was not actively pumping out. The alien seemed glad to see him. So weird. He got up on his feet. Wyrhgon’s sliced front paw on the other hand bled much. The blood squirted out as if an artery had been nicked.

“You should get that checked out,” Leo said. “My friend Diego would have done a wondrous job with it.”

Leo stepped forward, to at least have a look on the Wyrhgon’s sliced off paw. It was the smallest of gestures he could do to his savior. But the green dragon turned around before he got close enough, and slumped back down into the corner. By putting his weight on top of the sliced off paw, the bleeding slowed down quite a bit. At least the alien was not that stupid.

“Have it like that, then. But you are bleeding out,” Leo said. “I think.”

There was an exit out of the chamber. Maybe it led to the dragon hall and the mountain’s blessing, and which in turn led up to his friends.

He stepped out of the chamber, but stopped. He would not be able to fly out the mountain’s blessing without Wyrhgon’s strong wings.

“Cunt,” Leo said. “As Beth would have said.”

Leo turned back into the room. “Wyrhgon, we need to leave. We can find my friends, they always find a way out of messes just like this.”

But the green dragon didn’t notice him. Right, the mental channel was down. None of the dragons would understand him.

“Be like that. I will solve it myself,” Leo said and left the two dragons in the chamber.

He passed junction after junction, chamber after chamber. But not far off, he found the large dragon hall. He poked his head inside it, but regretted it immediately.

Saif.

He pulled back and pressed himself against the stone wall, making himself as thin as possible as he tried controlling his breathing.

Saif was there and not even thirty meters away, but Leo had not been detected.

Leo could not continue down this path and instead backtracked through the corridor until he found another junction to go down.

Surely, if Saif’s power worked normally inside this mountain, the perverted mind controller would have detected Leo, but he had not. It could be something about these walls and stones. Leo wouldn’t be able to figure it out, so he left the matter aside.

-

Milo would have been able to transform into his lightning form and escaped up the mountain’s blessing. But Leo had no such powers or wings. Wings would have been awesome. He toyed with the idea of being able to fly without the use of a starship while he walked down the corridor.

The few other dragons that flew over him, gave him no attention. They probably scrambled their belongings and loved ones. The battle was lost.

A sound.

A rumbling sound.

Leo stepped into the chamber and looked around. There was a tunnel in the end, but it was wider than the one he had crawled through and it looked not even a third of its depth. But was that not the sky he saw? He made his way across the room. Maybe this tunnel led to the slopes. If he made it to the slopes, he would be able to join up with the others. Dark figures climbed and walked over the opening, giving it no attention. Boulder creatures and flesh amalgamations making their way up the slopes.

He crawled through the short tunnel, but the end was too small for him to fit through and it was made out of solid rock. No way he dug his way out. But he could stick his head out.

He hesitated. Leopold ‘Leo’ Ryan was not that stupid. A battlefield raged on out there.

Something round and metallic came to a halt just outside the opening. It’s spherical nature was familiar. The object was black in color and it looked like someone had crunched it together with giant hands. It was an omf. He pulled back. It might be one of Beth’s victims and he couldn’t be sure it would stay dead.

“Help,” a voice crackled inside his head.

No, it was talking to him. He turned and exited the short tunnel.

“Help,” the voice squirmed.

As he was about to step out of the chamber he froze. What if? Could it really be?

“Leo, please,” Tern said.

He turned around and ran back to the opening, he didn’t stick his head out but instead reached with his hands. He moved quickly and pulled Tern’s crumpled sphere into the mountain’s protection.

“Tern. What happened?” Leo asked.

“Saif,” Tern said.

“Goddamn,” Leo said, turning the orb in his hands. “You must feel awful, this must be painful for you.”

“Food,” Tern said. The omf’s voice was growing weaker by the second.

Wait. Wait. This conversation was mentally, Tern had re-established the mental channel. He could speak to Wyrhgon and the purple dragon.

“Food?” Leo paused. “Yes, just like Beth told me once. You want a corpse, so you can regain your strength. I know how it works. And I know of a corpse.”

Tern leaned at him. “Yes. Quickly.”

Wait. If they shared a mental channel, then they would be able to talk to Beth.

“Tern, can you include Beth or Birgitta in this mental channel?” Leo asked.

“No. Mountain blocks me somehow,” Tern said.

“Alright. I have a corpse in mind, but the living dragons in the room will not be happy about it,” Leo said and started to make his way back to Wyrhgon and the purple dragon.

“Then the brave pilot grabbed the alien sphere and rushed through the corridor in order to save its life,” Leo said.