Free Tail of the Dragon by Craig Halloran

even returned and brought back the first one he’d encountered. There were seven in all. The father went first, being the biggest, and the mother, going down to the sons and daughters being the smallest. With a heart full of sadness, Nath dug into the soft dirt. His powerful hands scooped out the dirt and rock and pushed it aside, and the first grave was made.
    This hurts.
    He had thought these days were done. That there would be peace on Nalzambor for a long time. He slung a pile of mud aside.
    This shouldn’t be happening! Why can’t everyone and everything behave themselves?
    He kept digging, taking his time about it. And he started singing, a sad and ancient tune. It was one he had learned from his father when he was a boy. The other dragons used to sing it as well. It was about the first dragons who had fallen during the first dragon war.
    Their scales were cherry, the fairest of their kind.
    They drank deep of the waters and flew high in the air.
    Fire came. Lightning struck. They tumbled through the sky.
    It was the end of the crimson dynamos and the beginning of Nalzambor’s despair.
    There were hundreds of segments to the song, but Nath only made it as far as fifty. He’d finished his work, laid his kin in the graves one by one, and started covering them in dirt.
    When he lifted his sagging head, a change in his surroundings caught his eye. He was encircled by the creatures of the wild. Mighty elks with curled horns. Chipmunks and rabbits with tiny bright fairies riding on their backs. There were owls in the branches. An old and aging centaur woman too. The woodland creatures closed in and began pushing the dirt into the graves as well. Beavers and pixies. A pair of bears bigger than Brenwar. In moments, the dragon graves were covered and new grasses and flowers were planted.
    “Thank you,” Nath said to them all.
    Quickly they were all gone, leaving Nath alone in the rain.

 
    CHAPTER 18
     
     
    Nath scoured the area for leagues. He did it in the air and on the ground. The scent of the wurmers was strong. Flying through the sky, he caught a distant flicker of movement down below. There was a clearing on a hillside. Its peak was covered in rough stone and loose shale. A plume of smoke rose into the air and dissipated.
    I’d better check that out.
    Wary eyed, he glided down and landed soft as a dove on the ground. The shale squeezed up between his clawed toes. He spied a faint series of caves in the light of the dusk. They seemed to breathe with life of their own. Warm yellow smoke oozed out of them. There were no other signs of life nearby.
    Could be a lair.
    Head low, Nath crept in for a closer look. His nostrils widened as he took in a deep draw of air. The yellow smoke smelled like acid. It was like the Lakes of Sulfur farther south, which had been formed by the lava rivers. They made great places to hide for dragons, who could handle the heat, much more so than men.
    But this was different. This was in the forest.
    Strange.
    He inhaled again. There was more than sulfur or acid. The wurmers’ scent was there, mixed in with the pungent cover.
    Hah! I have them now!
    The tufts behind Nath’s earholes fluttered. He could smell them but not see them. The mouths of the caves were too small for his great girth. He climbed behind them, hung his head over the lip, and listened for any sound. There was a roar of wind that whistled through the jagged rocks. Deeper, he could hear something else. In a part of the world deep in its bowels, there was a groaning. Something flowed. Beat. Pulsed.
    Nath rubbed his razor-sharp claws under his lip.
    Hmmm … can’t help but be really curious. Perhaps I should change so I can go down there and check it out. No. Now is the time for patience. He envisioned the broken bodies of the yellow streak dragons. Soon I’ll have vengeance.
    Nath focused on blending in with his environment. His body became one with the natural surroundings. Part of the rock and soil. His thoughts