Gareth Thornwood's Arc

Chapter 8 of 5

They walked into a clearing where the gray trees thinned. Evangeline held Gareth's sleeve. His dragon flew ahead, wings open, the road clear. Then the ground shook. A green shape rose from behind a fallen trunk. It was a wyvern, huge, its scales the color of old moss. Its yellow eyes fixed on them. Something had woken it. Gareth thought of the sorcerer moving ahead, stirring the wilderness as he went. "Down," Gareth said. He shoved Evangeline behind a boulder. The wyvern opened its jaws. Fire rolled out in a wide plume. Heat washed over the rock. Leaves curled and blackened where they had just stood. Gareth pressed low until the flames passed. The beast swung its head, hunting them. Its tail dragged through the ash. Gareth knew what it would do. It would find Evangeline. She was spent. She could not run. He stood and stepped into the open. "Here," he shouted. He waved his arms. "Look at me." The wyvern's head snapped toward him. It liked the moving target. It stalked forward, claws tearing the dirt. Gareth backed away from the boulder, drawing it wide, keeping it turned from Evangeline. "Gareth." Her voice was quiet and hard. "No!" "Stay behind the rock," he said. The wyvern lunged. Gareth dove under its neck. He had his Elven machete,and he drove it down into the its foot. The blade sank deep. Hot blood ran down his wrist. Gareth scrambled clear. He put his body between the wyvern and the boulder. The beast took flight, furious. Its wings beat the air, preparing its vengeance deep in its throat. Right before an enormous jet of flame spews from the creature’s mouth, Evangeline leapt forward in front of Gareth, holding her ancestral blade, enchanted generations prior to deflect dragonfire and kill dragons, wyverns and related beasts. The fire is directed away from them both toward a substantial lake in the distance.