Page 53 of Escaping my Dragon

We exited to find the aforementioned stranger looking towards the mountain. A man wearing way too little clothing considering the temperature outside. Trousers, a sweater and a leather jacket, not even zipped up. Shoes on his feet rather than proper boots. No hat or gloves. He should have been freezing.

The stranger turned at our arrival, his features handsome enough, if you didn’t mind sharp edges. He offered a cool smile. “Evening, and sorry to disturb. You are Velma Jenkins?”

“Yes. And you are…”

“Alistair Graham.”

“Where did you come from?” Noah didn’t bark, but the query didn’t emerge very polite either.

“Originally Scotland, but I made a few stops to gather some companions before flying here to stop the coming calamity.”

“I think you’re too late. The volcanoes already blew,” I verbally pointed out while hugging my upper body.

“Even if they hadn’t, I’m not sure it would have mattered, given he’d already awoken. It was only a matter of time before he managed to free himself.”

Before I could think of formulating a reply—and stop playing ominous violins in my head—a mighty rumbling drew our gaze to the mountain. Rock tumbled and exploded as the entire ridge shook. A cloud of dust and snow expanded outward and obscured the range but not the terrifying noises it made.

“What’s happening?” Joslyn murmured, stumbling from the station.

I pointed to the mountain. We stared without speaking, waiting… Would a tidal wave of snow and ice race forth to crush us? Had another volcano exploded? As the haze dissipated, Veron exclaimed, “Does anyone else see what I’m seeing?”

Kind of hard to miss the movement of something massive rising from the debris. Tall enough for us to see more than a hundred miles away. It stretched its arms to the side, like I often did after a good nap.

My blood turned to ice and through numb lips I whispered, “Fuck.”

Looked like my alien nightmare had broken free.

Chapter Seventeen

The thing that emerged from the mountain—the alien that truly did fucking exist!—windmilled its arms, lifted its legs and stamped them, and even from this distance, I swore the ground rumbled. The clouds wreathing it from the neck up spared us a glimpse of its head.

Movement drew the eye as its tail whiplashed back and forth. A tail big enough to sweep an entire street clear of houses.

Joslyn uttered a heartfelt, “Holy fuck, it’s Godzilla.”

“No, it’s a dragon,” I murmured as I saw wings unfurling from its back. Wings so long and wide they cast a shadow despite the midnight sun.

“Dragons aren’t real?” Vernon stated and questioned at once.

“Oh, they’re real all right and not very good at listening,” Alistair said. Then, in a louder voice aimed at the sky, he shouted, “I told you to wait!”

I raised my gaze and gaped at the colorful bodies swooping in from above.

I screamed, ducked, and covered. Don’t laugh. What would you do if you saw a whole bunch of dragons coming right at you?

Noah threw himself on me, probably mentally cursing the fact he didn’t find a gun anywhere in the station. Not surprising. Antarctica had a treaty forbidding firearms, and it wasn’t as if there were any meat-hunting predators on the continent.

I waited for us to get torn to shreds only to hear a deep sigh and Alistair apologizing.

“Sorry about that. My companions are a bit excited, but they won’t harm you. Right?” A comment not directed at me, I realized, as Noah removed himself as a shield and I uncurled from my balled shape. Before getting to my feet, I took in the situation. To my left, Vernon clung to Joslyn, who, for once, had nothing to say. Noah stood to my right in a half crouch, fists partially raised.

As to who Alistair addressed…

I swallowed hard as I beheld a quad of dragons ranging in size and color. The biggest possessed scales of glossy black with a pair of impressive horns. A pink dragon, her fuchsia-hued scales limned in pale pink, stood by the ebony’s side. On his other, a pearlescent beast, hinting blue one moment, mauve and silver the next. The fourth was a slightly smaller, orange dragon who hopped on clawed feet, exclaiming, “The big one is mine.”

The threat had me gasping, “You are not eating Noah.”

“Eat?” I swear its orange snout wrinkled. “Ew. No. I want him as a servant. He seems rather capable and courageous. Although, I do wonder about his intelligence. Who fights a dragon with his bare hands?” it chortled.