Free bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled by sam cheever

looking at the results. But we need to get out of here right now.
    Glynus shot to her feet, obviously relieved to be sprung from the...er...festivities. Thank Him, mother halfling! I thought I’d never get out of here.
    We headed for the door. The Slayer was leaning against the archway cut into the rock wall that formed the entrance to the cavern where the dinosaur “tea” was being held. He suddenly jerked upright, one hand shooting toward the sword he wore in a scabbard at his hip.
    It was the only warning I got.
    I turned and shot a power arrow into the massive red dragon descending on Glynus, enormous claws outstretched in attack.
    Not wanting to start a war unnecessarily, I’d kept the voltage low. The result was that the enormous female staggered back a few steps but wasn’t seriously harmed. She caught herself with a single flap of her huge wings, and surged back toward Glynus, ignoring me as if I were a pesky bug.
    She hit my dragon in the chest and the two massive creatures flew backward, slamming against the wall directly beside the Slayer. He dived away, barely missing being crushed by the two grappling dragons as they rolled sideways.
    I advanced on them, unsure what to do. I couldn’t exactly shoot a power arrow into the rolling mass, for fear of hitting Glynus. I reached for her with my mind, worried for her safety.
    She was half the size of the dragon trying to kill her.
    Can you get away from her so I can zap her?
    Glynus chuckled in my mind. You always try to ruin my fun, mother halfling.
    Glynus roared and clamped her massive jaws over one of the red’s wings, flipping her head to wrench the wing from the other dragon’s body. She created a sizeable gap at the top of the red’s wing.
    I blinked. Go Glynus!
    The other dragon stumbled backward with a roar of pain. I covered my ears and dived away from the twin jets of fire the red was spewing in her anger. Rolling across the floor, I ended up next to the Slayer.
    He looked down at me and winked. “You’ve done a good job with her.”
    I grinned. “Thanks.”
    He nodded, reaching for my hand. “It might be wise to make our escape now though.” He turned his gaze to the room, where the other tea party goers had shaken off their surprise and were advancing on the two combatants. It wasn’t immediately clear where the other dragons were leaning as far as taking sides...but it was a pretty good bet they’d go with their fellow red over the future queen of their rivals, the black dragons.
    Glynus sported a long, jagged slash in her creamy belly, but she had all four sets of claws buried in the big red’s torso and was driving her backward by pounding her wings hard on the air.
    Hey Tadpole, I’m thinkin’ we might want to make our escape pretty quickly here. The troops are getting a bit restless.
    Glynus gave one last pound of her wings and roared, bathing the red in fire from her flaring nostrils. As the red brought her fireproof wings up to protect her snout, Glynus turned away and flew toward us. Whatever you say, mother halfling.
    She slowed enough for the Slayer and I to each grab a wing and catapult ourselves onto her broad back, and then flapped her wings and took off toward a high window in the side wall of the cavern. Behind us, the sound of several sets of powerful wings filled the cavern and I knew it wouldn’t be long before we had unwanted company in our flight.
    Glynus was heading directly toward the window. I’ll let you do the honors, mother halfling .
    Glad to.
    I lifted a palm toward the huge window and sent a power arrow into it, shattering the glass and sending it toward the ground.
    Dragons and humans alike scattered away from the deadly rain of glass, Glynus used one wing to briefly shield her face from the spray of particles, and the Slayer and I hid our faces, ducking down behind Glynus’ massive head. A moment later the sun burned brightly against the tops of our heads and fresh air swept us, washing away the cloying