Free Dragon Tears by Nancy Segovia Page B

shrieks and the snarls sound even louder. He clenched his fists to his sides, wanting to do something to help Rat, but knowing there was nothing he could do. He glanced at the wizard and saw a frown of frustration crease the man’s brow.
    The screams, snarls, and hisses seemed to be moving farther away for Patrik couldn’t hear them as clearly as before.
    “Do you think she’ll come back?” he asked.
    “If she survives.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She’s never encountered her own kind before, and she’s only half Highland prowler to start with. Even though she’s as big as one, she doesn’t have the fighting skills of one that has been raised in the wild.”
    Patrik collapsed back under the lean-to, drawing his knees up to his chest. Although Rat irritated him like an itch you can’t reach, he knew he’d miss the animal if she disappeared. More than that, though, he didn’t want her to come to any harm. It was one thing for her to leave and join her own kind. It was another to think of her injured and dying all alone in the forest.
    “There’s nothing we can do, boy,” the wizard said, sitting down beside him. “We have to wait and see what happens.”
    “I hate waiting.”
    “Most people do.”
    They didn’t have to wait long for the dragons to return. A flurry of wings announced their arrival, and they created their own windstorm that threatened to blow away the lean-to once again.
    Patrik gathered the soaking firewood, and it wasn’t long before Redwing had a blazing fire lit in spite of the drowning rain. “Where’s Rat?” she asked as she turned from lighting the fire.
    “Out there,” Patrik replied, pointing in the direction the cat had taken. “A Highland prowler came around, while you were gone and she took out after it.”
    “That’s not good, is it?” Larkin asked.
    “No, it’s not,” Patrik said, shaking his head.
    “Can we help?”
    Patrik looked at the wizard, who slowly shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Unless you can track them through the dark.”
    “Of course we can,” Redwing replied. “Our sense of smell is much stronger than yours. Show me which way they went, and I can follow them from there.”
    “I’m coming with you, then.”
    “Now, boy…” began the wizard.
    “I’ll be safe. I’ll ride on Larkin’s back. No animal, not even a highland prowler is going to attack a dragon. And if she’s injured, she will need my help. What if they find her, and she can’t jump onto Larkin’s back? Or what if she’s bleeding? She’ll need someone that can patch her up.”
    In the dim firelight, Patrik couldn’t tell what the wizard was thinking. He held his breath waiting for the man to make up his mind. “We need you to stay here, in case she circles back around,” he added.
    “All right, get going. But use your head, boy. Don’t follow the trail into a cave, or a blind canyon, or any other place where you could be attacked without warning. By my beard, if anything happens to you, you’ll wish you were never born by the time I get through with you.”
    Patrik swallowed the lump in his throat, knowing that the wizard’s threat was not just idle talk. He climbed onto Larkin and the three of them set off.
    Riding the back of a dragon on the ground wasn’t anything like riding them in the air. Up in the sky, they soared and glided as graceful as any bird. On the ground, they lumbered like a cart with a lopsided wheel, heavy, awkward, and slow. Larkin’s great tail flopped back and forth like a beached sea creature jerking his body with every step, his great shoulders heaving up and down with each jolting step.
    Patrik tried to hold onto the dragon’s neck ridges with hands that were slippery with rain. Time and again, he readjusted his position trying to find some place to sit that wasn’t hard and bony. The saddle designed for flying was useless on the ground. Its stirrups and harnesses, which prevented him from falling off in the air made this