Free The Erth Dragons Book 1: The Wearle by Chris D'Lacey Page B

hunting pack. If they saw him with the pupp they would ask no questions, they would simply kill. All he could do – or hope to do – was leave it outside, then hide until nightfall, assuming the mountain didn’t take him first, though its rage, for now, had largely blown out.
    Folding down the pupp’s wings, he crept quietly forward. Never had a light been less inviting or shadows more difficult to find. But the task itself was simple enough: get as near to the outside as possible, wait until the skies were clear, then put the skaler out on the mountainside. They would see it soon enough (or more likely hear it), and the job was done.
    The first part was easy. In the wall at the very brink of the opening was a natural recess, deep enough to take Ren and the pupp. He got there just as a skaler flew past. He pressed himself into the shadows, holding tight to the youngster so it wouldn’t flap. Breathing slowly, he closed his eyes. Ten breaths later there was still no hint of wings outside and the youngster had settled quietly in his hands. All he had to do was step into the open, stand near to the edge and release the pupp. But as he rehearsed the action in his mind, his thoughts lit up with more pictures of the mother and her dazzling eyes. What did she want of him? Why did this feel like a terrible betrayal when all he was doing was giving the skaler back to those who could care for it?
    He broke cover and ran for the light. It was almost the end of them both. The rocks at the brink of the cleft were smooth and weathered, but unevenly layered, eager to trip a careless foot. Ren stumbled to his knees, opening his hands as much to save himself from falling as to let the skaler go. Its wings paddled the air but made no flight. It hit the slope with an awkward splat, slid down on a gaggle of stones and pitched forward onto its back. The noise it made was unbearable, such an indignant squeal that Ren was tempted to bound down the mountainside and immediately retrieve it, as though it had all been a terrible mistake. But the air was trembling to the pulse of wings and a shadow had just swept over the hill. Ren scrambled back into the cleft and made himself as thin as possible. The pupp – still out in the open – squealed fearfully and not without reason. A huge skaler had just come down to land.
    It was so close it ate up most of Ren’s light. Moving nothing but his eyes, Ren tried to see it. It stretched its sinewy neck and a ripple of colour ran down its scales. Green , Ren thought, but then most of them were, darkening a little towards the head. He stilled his breathing, expecting that he wouldn’t need to hold the air for long. All the adult had to do was pick up the youngster and fly it to safety. Ren’s heart wrenched at the thought. He’d cradled the thing for less time than it took to scratch his rear and yet…
    He let his chest down and filled it again. Outside, the big skaler was doing the same, moving the air like approaching thunder. A clatter of rocks suggested it was struggling to hold its position. Ren risked another look, pulling back quickly as the skaler turned its head. It seemed to be scanning the sky for some reason. Why? What was it waiting for? What help did it need to lift up anything as small as Pupp? And why hadn’t it made a call to the others to say the youngster was alive and found?
    The reason soon became chillingly clear. One of the beast’s short limbs came into view. Set among its claws was a large stone.
    ‘No,’ Ren mouthed.
    Too late. The skaler thumped down with so much force that the rocks zinged and sparks flew. Ren could not believe what he was seeing. The adult snorted, apparently in annoyance, opened its jaws and raised the stone again.
    This time, Ren screamed openly, ‘NO!’
    By rights, it should have been the last word he spoke. But at the very moment he’d opened his mouth another skaler had skriked in the distance, drowning him out. The skaler on the ground gave a