Sirius had left his sword in the boot and had yet to replace many of the guns that had been taken off him at the facility. Guns were generally pretty useless against a dragon though. All he really needed was a knife.

  He hated to hurt the dragon but the truth of it was that a dragon who had learnt to hunt like this was a dangerous dragon. It was a dragon that would likely eventually turn its attention toward towns and cities. The reason dragons didn’t hunt in packs as much as they had once done and the reason that cities and towns rarely saw attacks anymore, is that the sort of dragons that did those things were the sorts of dragons that society had agreed were okay to hunt.

  Dragon breeding programs had hyper focused on creating species that were more solitary in nature. Younglings that displayed a high level of affection toward their litter mates were often culled and sold in parts. Territorial behaviour was encouraged up to a point. It created a natural limiting factor on the number of dragons in an area, and made it easier to keep track of what was where. Some places, like the Dragon Mountains however, had been largely left in peace. As such, occasionally, the dragons got smarter and more coordinated.

  They could be trained to be passive and avoid people but that was harder and so man had picked the easy option. Amanda hated it and so on several occasions she’d put work into taming a dragon others might have not let live. This dragon, however, was too old to be retrained and much too wild.

  Sirius knew that it was mainly the car it was interested in. He figured the others would move away from the wreck eventually. Right now that wasn’t what mattered though. Right now he needed to find a way to warn the second car.

  With his knife drawn he poked his head up over the edge of the lip to see where the dragon was.

  He almost missed it. It blended in so well with the rocks on the other side of the road. No wonder it had done such a good job of surprising them. The other dragon was more obvious. It crouched right above the tunnel opening, several hundred metres away.

  Sirius had sussed out a line above the grey dragon and was just about to make his move when the roar of an approaching engine filled the valley.

  Sirius froze. The sound of the engine was getting rapidly louder and by now he was certain it was coming from the tunnel.

  Suddenly, a car burst out from below where the red and black dragon waited. Sirius considered leaping up and waving his arms to warn them but he doubted there was enough time and Cat’s warning echoed in the back of his mind.

  He ignored it. At the very least, perhaps he could distract the dragon.

  Just as the red and black one jumped onto the road with a loud thump and growl, Sirius climbed the last hump to the road and stood, waving his arms. He yelled, “Over here you big grey lump!” at the grey dragon.

  It worked. Half way through its movement onto the road it paused and turned its head to look at him with one large golden eye.

  The car swung successfully around the outstretched claw and headed straight for Sirius.

  Kass had seen the grey dragon the moment they’d emerged from the tunnel. It’s unusual shape was immediately recognisable to she who had hunted white rabbits in snow with a rifle. She’d seen Sirius too, standing there on the edge of the road just beyond the shadows cast by the nearby rocks, his black coat flapping in the wind. Most importantly, she’d seen the ever-so-slight change in colour of the road, the glossiness that indicated black ice.

  She hadn’t time to stop before the dragon but there was a gap, just big enough for the car to swing around. She didn’t notice the one behind them but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was what lay ahead. The ice complicated things. For once, Sirius didn’t. He stood at the edge of a cliff, one she really didn’t want to go over. So she focused on the ice and hitting that line, something she’d practiced many times. She placed all her attention on that and she tuned everything out.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Amanda didn’t notice Sirius at all. She was too busy looking behind them at a beautiful red and black beast who was starting to open its mouth. It’s markings were so unique that up this close she couldn’t help thinking about how much a dragon like that would fetch at market. She didn’t wonder for long though. It was about to strike with fire.

  Amanda didn’t have time to open the sunroof this time and so, taking a risk, she summoned her fire through the body of the car, right as the dragon sunk down low and breathed out.

  Its flames caught them and surrounded them. All Amanda could do was keep them at bay. Beside her, a wide-eyed Arianna was muttering something. In the front seat, Zephyr was repeating, “Oh gods, we’re all gonna die.”

  Beside her, Lily squealed and grabbed her around the waist.

  In the driver’s seat, Kass made not a single sound.

  Then the car skidded sideways. It swung in a wide arch. The sudden move shut everyone up and silence replaced a temporary heat that had threatened them only moments before.

  The fire was left behind them, soon vanishing into nothing.

  The grey dragon roared and turned on its younger companion.

  The passengers in the car were swung violently to one side but the car remained on the road. It sailed smoothly around the bend, straightened up, and then began to slow down, the latter much to Amanda’s confusion as well as almost everyone else in the car.

  “Why are we stopping?” Arianna asked in a panic.

  “Sirius was back there?” Zephyr replied. His tone was filled with confusion, like he didn’t believe what he’d seen.

  “I think they ran off the road,” Kass finally answered. “There were tyre tracks that went over the edge...”

  Amanda didn’t wait to hear the rest of it. Despite being in the middle, she climbed past Lily and was out of the car before any of the others and off running down the road to the place where the tread-marks left the road.

  She stood at the edge and stared down into the valley. She could see a wreck lying upside down against a tree and people nearby, but none of them were Sirius.

  Her heart leapt into her throat. Where was he?

  “Amanda.”

  She spun and threw herself into his arms. Then she saw what was behind him.

  Two dragons, and they were fighting. Or at least they had been until a short moment ago. Now both were standing side by side, eyeing up Amanda and Sirius.

  The dragon started straight toward them.

  Sirius pulled Amanda into a run. They took off toward where Kass had just parked. Amanda half expected to be dragon food. She didn’t think she could handle two dragons.

  But only the red and black dragon followed them and it wasn’t going for them. It ran right past them, legs thundering either side of them, belly swinging right over their heads. It went straight for the car Amanda had just come from. Meanwhile, the grey one thundered over the edge and down into the valley right towards the crash site.

  Two dragons. Two targets.

  Amanda made a choice. It was an easy choice. Up here was their one working car and it was also the one that contained a child.

  She summoned fire, a condensed ball of it, and hot enough to sting. She thrust out her hand and sent it flying toward the red dragon.

  She didn’t wait to see if it reacted. She sent another and another.

  It turned with a growl of pain.

  It hurt her to see it hurting. Such a beautiful creature. But she needed its attention. And now she had it.

  Behind her she could hear Sirius yelling at those down the hill. She paid them no mind.

  The red and black dragon was looking at her. It looked confused. Then it looked back toward the car. Then back at her, like it was trying to decide which one to go for.

  Amanda could see Zephyr, Arianna, and Lily running off into the bushes and away from the car. Kass meanwhile, was lying on the road. In her hands was a sniper rifle.

  Amanda winced. There was no way a bullet would drop a dragon. She wanted to yell at Kass to use her telekinesis instead, but Amanda knew how unstable that was and they were too spread out. There was too much risk.

  Amanda worked on creating a fire dragon, one which could scare this one off. It would take a little time though.

  The fire before her pulled together and grew into a shape. She could feel the energy this one required. She hoped she didn’t need to do too many more of these. She was already close to spent. This one would take some time to get right.

  But the dragon was not an indecisive dragon. It made its choice. He turned toward the car and Kass.

  Amanda wanted to tell Kass to run but she couldn’t spare the energy or focus. She needed to work on controlling her flames. Out of the fire stepped a beast but it could not roar and she needed a way to get the other dragon’s attention. She needed a way to get close to it without hurting Kass. But it was too close to the car now.

  And still Kass hadn’t moved from her spot. She had however, shifted into a crouch.

  The dragon reared up. Pulled its head back. Opened its mouth. It sucked in the oxygen.

  Sirius ran past Amanda and toward the dragon.

  There was a pop of a gun being fired. A subdued sound, silenced and suppressed but still more than audible.

  Kass reloaded.

  The dragon froze in midair, another pop, then, a moment later it dropped right at Kass’s feet.

  The dragon was dead.