I grabbed Dad’s arm, and we slipped through the barn door.
A fire smell, like after something burned, irritated my nostrils. I froze as I stared at a heap of a beast taking up half the barn. My heart pounded in my chest.
“Elena!” Dad ordered.
The beast looked majestic. Like he truly was royalty. Long vertical scales, thorny ones, round ones and diamond shaped ones covered his entire body. His nostrils stood straight on top of his snout. Scales turned into long horns that laid flat on top of his head. The burned smell came from him.
“Elena,” Dad said again and my wide eyes flickered to him. “Breathe.”
I took a deep breath as my body slightly trembled at the sight of the beast. His enormous tail fanned at the end. It laid like the size of a tree-stump next to him.
Paws with sharp claws tugged neatly underneath his body. One talon was like the size of a long dagger.
My eyes flickered to the beast’s feline-shape eyes. Scales covered his eyebrows. It sort of protruded over his eyes, protecting them.
The beast spoke in a deep, raspy voice.
Robert translated. “Emanual can hear your heartbeat. He wants you to relax. He won’t hurt you.”
My eyes scanned big wings that protected the side of his torso.
He was lying on the floor. I struggled to imagine his size when he stood on four paws.
Dad spoke in Latin, and he replied, making everyone around me chuckle as the dragon stared at him, snorting through his nostrils.
Dad spoke again with a slight rasp in his voice, and then the dragon opened his mouth.
Sharp teeth lining his upper and lower jaw with a mother of a tongue. My feet didn’t want to move, and a slight tremble ran down my body.
“Elena, come,” Dad said.
Is he insane!My feet betrayed me and made me walk closer to him.
Dad spoke in Latin again, and he closed his mouth as the others chuckled.
I never thought Dad was the funny type.
He touched the dragon as his other hand gripped mine. I tried to pull away, but Dad didn’t let me.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
I nodded.
He took my hand and placed it on the dragon’s skin. It was warm, like the warmth that came from standing too close to a fireplace, or freshly ironed clothes. My hand moved with his breathing.
His skin was rough like hard rocks and glass. I kept staring at the horns on his head.
“He is King Helmut’s dragon. He is a very noble dragon and from what Robert told me, the fastest in Paegeia at the moment.”
The dragon spoke something, eliciting more chuckles.
I looked at Dad.
“He said he doesn’t know for how long. The Rubicon is gaining on him.”
The Rubicon again?
“You okay?”
