Wyrd: Book One of the Witch War Trilogy - WATTYS 2018 WINNER!

Chapter 15: Where Will Gets a View of Htrae

Will stared up at the clouds above him in awe and terror. For the second time in one day, he was amazed at what was flying towards him.

Laina and Will had said their goodbyes to their mother, and they were now standing by the water on the Institution property in Barrie next to Ollie and Sky. Sky had mumbled something about their ride being 'on its way', but before Will could enquire further, a tiny green speck, silhouetted by the afternoon sun, had begun to grow larger and larger.

Will blinked. And blinked again. He tried to wipe imaginary fog away from his vision with the back of his hand. There was no mistaking what was swooping towards them once it got closer. Will was looking at an honest-to-goodness dragon. It was majestic, incredible, and every bit as terrifying as you'd suspect a dragon to be. Its wingspan was easily an impressive twenty-feet. As abnormally strong as Will had felt lately, he'd been hoping for a least a little training before he had to take on a dragon.

Holy shit! He thought.

Everyone else seemed to be standing there, waiting. Will looked frantically about for something – a fallen tree branch perhaps – that he could use as a weapon. Sky was looking towards the beast expectantly and his grandfather was smiling up at it with a decidedly toothy grin, while Laina simply stood there, intrigued. None of that seemed right.

"Run!" Will yelled. "Get behind a tree. Do something. Why are you all standing there? It's a freaking dragon!" Will had managed to find a stick about the length of his body, thick around and made of a dense and heavy wood. He hoisted it over his shoulder like a baseball bat and ran forward in front of them.

Sky looked over at him, alarmed.

"No! Put that down. You'll scare him."

"I'll scare him?!" Will bellowed back.

"That's our ride! He's come a long way. Don't be rude."

Will scuttled backwards and took cover behind a large tree stump, cradling his stick to his body... just in case. The beast came in for a cramped landing, his tail and back legs splashing the water and sweeping the grass in front of him, as he batted his colossal wings backwards in an attempt to slow his momentum. Once he was successfully hovering in the air above the ground, he landed on his haunches, and lay down.

Will peaked out from behind the wood barrier he'd put between them, coming out slowly, cautiously, his tree-bat now a walking stick that could double as protection at any moment if necessary. "You want us to get on the back of ... that?" Will asked, incredulously. It was a dragon, and a rather hungry looking one at that. It had green-scaly skin, glossy eyes that were staring at him perniciously, and a forked tongue that kept tasting the air. Its wings were now securely tucked at its sides while it lounged lazily, but Will wouldn't make the mistake of thinking it was domesticated.

Will weighed his next words very carefully. He didn't want Sky to think he was a coward. Yes, he hated heights, the idea of being hundreds of feet in the air made him want to vomit, but even more than that, some instinct was shouting that this was his enemy. "Are you ... sure that's a good idea? I mean ... aren't there better ways of getting to Htrae?"

"He's kind of cute, in a funny way," said Laina, moving up tentatively with her hand outstretched to let him sniff her. Will knew better. He jumped in between his sister's hand and the monster, moving her backward. That's how you got bitten by dogs, Will thought. What would a dragon do to you?

"Don't get in front of the dragon's face Wish! He might roast you."

Sky laughed. "Wyvern," she said. "And he has no fire. This one's not even a third the size of a dragon, are you boy?" Sky said, as she walked towards him and gave him an affectionate head scratch. He rolled on his back, exposing his belly as she moved to give his tummy a rub. His leg twitched, and he batted the air with his rear talons, contentedly.