"Will you do it?"
"If and when it becomes worth the effort. Now kindly cease your questions. It’s unbecoming of a servant to ask about things.”
The monster surfaces near the edge of the island, closer than before. Its head rises several feet above the waterline while muddy currents rush around its neck. A long tongue flicks through the rain. The thing is looking at us. Not generally in our direction, but right at us, like a hunter examining prey.The realization sends a cold sensation down my spine that has nothing to do with being soaked.
Clyde presses against my ankle.
Vyrathion sighs. The sound contains all the exasperation of a man interrupted while reading the sports pages. "I was hoping it would display better judgment."
The creature suddenly lunges. Water explodes upward. The enormous head surges toward the bank, jaws opening wide enough to swallow a horse. Mud and roots fly through the air as the island shudders beneath the impact.
I stumble backward. Before I can fully react, Vyrathion is already moving.
He crosses the distance in a blur. One moment he's standing beside me. The next he's on the riverbank.
The creature snaps at him in a flash of a hundred teeth the size of my thumbs. Vyrathion catches the upper jaw with one hand.
For an instant everything seems to freeze. The river continues roaring. The rain continues falling. Yet the monster's charge simply stops.
The creature thrashes violently and its tail smashes through the water. Waves crash against the island. Trees spin past in the current.
And yet, Vyrathion doesn't move. He plants his feet in the mud and glares directly into the monster's eyes. "You've made a very poor decision."
The creature roars. The dragon roars back. I don't think I've ever heard him raise his voice like that before. The sound cutsthrough the storm, and I know that no human throat could make a noise like that.
For a brief second the jungle itself seems to go silent, and even the rain stops hissing.
Then Vyrathion twists. The monster's head slams sideways into the river hard enough to throw up a wall of muddy water. The entire creature disappears beneath the surface. Several enormous shapes roll through the flood. Then nothing remains except churning currents.
Vyrathion brushes mud from one sleeve. "Well. That was disappointing."
I stare at the river. "Is it dead?"
"I doubt it. It’s a tough thing and I didn’t actually try to kill it. "
I like that answer more than if he had tried to kill it. There’s more strength in letting that monster live, when Vyrathion could clearly have killed it. "Will it try again?"
He shrugs. "Why are you asking me about the intentions of these grotesquely inferior creatures? How can I possibly know? And now I shall entertain no more questions."
A minute passes. Then another. The creature doesn't reappear. Rain continues hammering the island. Water continues rising, and still the whole scene manages to feel almost serene.
Eventually I let out a slow breath. "Please tell me that's the end of it."
Vyrathion follows the current downstream with his eyes. “I suspect it's intelligent enough to reconsider. Unfortunately,intelligent enemies tend to become more dangerous after they begin reconsidering."
I groan. The dragon looks around the island, taking stock of the mud, the rain and the steadily shrinking dry ground. For the first time since we arrived, his expression shifts from irritation to reluctant acceptance.
"We require shelter. Well,youdo."
I blink. "You know how to build shelter?"
Vyrathion's face takes on the look of a man who has just been deeply insulted. "No! Of course not! Despite this shamefully pitiful body, I am in fact a dragon. I don’tbuild!I don’tmake!I take what others have made or I command them to make what I need or desire in any particular moment! Never suggest anything else."
I pull back a couple of steps. He’s so easy to make furious! “All right. Sorry. I won’t ask anything else.”
He brushes a leaf off his pants. “See to it that you don’t.” He fixes his silver eyes on me and manages to make them fiery. “And if you ever tell anyone else about this, for as long as you live, I shall murder you with great force and greater relish.”
“I won’t,” I squeak, panic welling up in me.
