Jerry Mouse's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The gold-scaled creature filled the pantry floor. Jerry froze at the gap, half in, half out. The cheese wheel sat on the high shelf beyond the beast. To reach it, Jerry had to pass the creature. If it saw him, it would eat him. The creature lifted its head. Black scales ran down its back, marked with lines of gold. Wings folded against its sides. It was a dragon, small enough to live in a cupboard, large enough to swallow a mouse whole. Its eyes swept the dark. Jerry pressed flat against the wood. He held his breath. The dragon sniffed. Its nose turned toward him. Then a voice rang out from the shelf above. "Beast! Turn and face me!" Jerry looked up. On the second shelf stood a tiny figure in gold armor. A knight, no taller than Jerry himself. His helmet shone. His cape hung down his back. He held a sliver of metal like a sword and pointed it at the dragon. The dragon swung toward the shelf. Its tail scraped the floor. It had forgotten Jerry. "You woke it, didn't you?" the knight called down. He grinned, not afraid. "Ted Goldsworth doesn't run from dragons. Get your cheese, mouse. I'll keep its eyes on me." Jerry stared. He had never met this knight. But the words were plain. Ted would risk himself so Jerry could reach the wheel. The dragon roared and struck at the shelf. Ted leaped aside. He jabbed his blade at the dragon's nose. The beast flinched back, more surprised than hurt. Jerry moved. He ran along the wall, past the creature's clawed feet. The floor shook under him. He did not look at the dragon. He looked only at the shelf where the cheese sat. The dragon snapped at Ted again. Ted dodged, but his foot slipped on the edge. He fell to the floor between the dragon's paws. His blade skittered away. Jerry stopped. The cheese was close now. But Ted lay pinned under the dragon's shadow. Jerry did not run for the wheel. He turned back. He grabbed a dry bean from a spilled basket and hurled it at the dragon's eye. It struck. The dragon jerked its head. In that instant, Ted rolled free and scrambled up a jar to the shelf. "Fast paws!" Ted shouted, laughing. "You just saved a knight." But the noise had done its work. The dragon reared. Its wings snapped open and swept the shelves. Jars crashed. The high shelf tipped. The cheese wheel rolled off the edge and dropped past Jerry, past the gap, and out into the dark kitchen floor beyond the pantry. The dragon's head whipped around. Both eyes fixed on Jerry now. Jerry ran. He dove through the gap, under the propped panel, into the open. Behind him the dragon's claws raked the wood. He was out. He was alive. But the cheese wheel had rolled somewhere loose in the kitchen. And a hungry dragon now knew his scent.