Free Gold Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham

per se, nor did they seem to have bones or organs. They were just … stone!
    “They’re some kind of guard, I think. Sandon, get down!” A clang of steel against stone punctuated Kine’s warning, and the soldier shouted a primitive battle cry. Sandon jerked his head around to watch the fight.
    Kine’s sword clanged again from the side of the one nearest him, making a tiny chip in the solid stone. “Sandon, try to get past me. The grappling hook’s still on the ledge, and the rope’s attached to my backpack. If you throw it over, you can climb down.” Kine’s words were clipped and brisk as he wove about just outside of the reach of the slow-moving rock creature.
    “I can’t leave you, and even if I wanted to, I don’t even think I can get to it—that monster’s between you and me.”
    “I’d be a pretty bad guest if I let you get turned into applesauce,” the soldier growled. “Do as I say!”
    Sandon ignored the order—it was too late anyway. The creature shuffling toward Kine had already gotten between them, and any attempt to get to the ledge would mean running right into the creature’s stony fists. Beneath the cracks in the odd-looking arms, Sandon could see shining copper cogs and twisted wires. The stone part, however, ended in fists like sledgehammers that rained blows down on the stone floor of the cavern. He jumped back with a yelp as one of those fists nearly smashed him flat.
    Kine dodged to the side again as the boulder’s fist punched forward like a piston, slamming with massive force into the floor. When it lifted again, the rocky earth where it had struck was spiderwebbed with deep cracks, and chips of stone skittered away from the motion.
    “What is that thing?”
    “I think it’s here to guard the dragon’s body.” Sandon ducked again as a fist passed over his head.
    Kine ducked under a second punch and swung, his sword again clanging against the boulder that made uphis opponent’s massive form. Kine was faster than the guardian creature and far more nimble, but he couldn’t get past it into the room, and with Kine’s back toward the ledge and open air, that meant the soldier was running out of space as the creature advanced.
    By this time, the second of the two boulder guardians had reached the dragon’s head and was looming over Sandon. The boy yelped and jumped to the side, scrambling to his feet to avoid the guardian’s uneven tread. Unlike Kine, Sandon had been on the side of the dragon closest to the large cavern, and he had plenty of room to move about. Between that and the stone guardian’s awkward slowness, Sandon felt confident he could outmaneuver it for hours, dashing here and there around the big internal room.
    He backed farther toward the big pillars that held the cavern ceiling aloft. It’s not like I can go anywhere, Sandon thought, so eventually—hours, maybe days—it’ll catch me. At least Kine can get away. That is, if he could get the grappling hook placed on the ledge again, or if he could fly …
    Brave like a knight was one thing, but brave like a crazy person was another. Sandon wasn’t planning on going anywhere—least of all over the ledge to his distant doom on the rocks below. He gulped.
    The stone guardian’s fists pounded the ground to either side of Kine, forcing the soldier back again. The man was like a bulldog, refusing to give up even against a much larger and stronger opponent. Sandon tried to take heart. If Kine could stand up to these things, so could he. He watched the soldier slip to the side, avoiding the stone creature’s blows, but Kine couldn’t get past the monster to the main room. Cursing, Kine continued to strike back when he could, trying to find joints, cracks, any weakness at all in the guardian’s rock armor. Kine ducked and dodged, jamming the end of his sword where the guardian’s arm had split from the body of the rock, and Sandon winced as he heard the bitter ring of metal on metal.
    “They’re hollow