forward. Thunder roared at them. But it was not the aggressive roar he used in battle. It was something else. The other dragons all stopped and listened, their attention now solely on him. He roared again. All the dragons lowered their heads, something I had seen My dragon do when he was showing respect or submission to someone. Thunder roared once more, as though telling the other dragons You’re free. Some of the dragons began to fly away in various directions. Others shuffled forward like shy dogs. I reached out my hands to them and a few touched their snouts to my fingers, or even licked my palms before flying away. As more of the dragons did this, I could feel the pain in my burned hands ease. I glanced at Thunder. "You never told me Dragon spit has healing powers." He only huffed at me in response. When all the dragons had finally left, I felt better, but still tired. "A little sleep I think." I said to Thunder. "Then we will go back and finish what we started." *** At dawn the next morning, Thunder and I began the return journey to the Dragon King's castle. Even from the air, we could hear the battle before we could see it. Beneath us appeared the fierce fight between Liam and his men and the soldiers of the Dragon King. Thunder and I dove into the thick of it, lashing out left and right with claw and sword. Before our might, the soldiers were wavering. A sudden flash nearly blinded us all. Blinking hard, I saw a wide circle of men and soldiers who had fallen. Above us, the Dragon King was leaning out from his balcony. It looked like he was chanting and conjuring lightning in his hands. Another bolt flashed to the ground nearby. It seemed the mad monarch no longer cared if he was killing his own soldiers to hurt us. Liam shouted in our direction "Get up there and finish this! We'll be ok down here!" Calling to my dragon, I got on his back and we took to the sky. As we flew upwards, the Dragon King sent out another flash of lightning. Thunder dodged to the left and the bolt missed us by inches. But for a second it was hard to see, and we crashed into one of the peaked roofs below the tower. I was thrown off Thunder’s back and skidded a few feet along the tiles. Fearing being struck by magical lightning if I stayed still too long, I quickly got up and ran along the roof. On the other side of the roof peak, Thunder was pacing me. Hearing a shout from above, I jumped toward him and landed on his back, a bolt of lightning striking where I had been a moment before. Thunder gained altitude and flew around behind the tower. As we came around again, Thunder sent a jet of flame toward the balcony, but the Dragon King was gone. Thunder flew over the roof of the tower and I repeated what I had done two nights ago: climb down from the roof onto the balcony. The moment my feet touched the stone, a shadow stepped out of the door itself. It had no features but looked like the shadow cast by a heavily armed guard wielding a huge axe. I took a defensive stance and waited for the shadow to attack. I dodged its first two swings with ease, but on the third I miscalculated, and the axe blade grazed my chest. Glancing down I saw blood turning my tunic red.
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