Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) by Robert Barton

her off.”
    “She did look kind of beaten up and ruffled when she got back.” Veer said and then he gave Shira a quizzical look. “Your dragon?”
    “You know what I mean.” She glared at him. “You can’t tell me that you don’t feel that tha t biggest dragon isn’t yours’. You feel it when it’s hurt. Why do you think that you felt it when the wolf bit the dragon?”
    “What do you mean?” Veer asked.
    “It’s like the old stories tell. Somehow when those dragons saved us from dying of the poison they bonded to us, just like in the legends.”
    “That’s silly, people don’t really bond with dragons. It’s just tales and stories. Besides all the stories say that only really evil people bonded dragons in ancient times,” said Veer. “I’ll be glad when we leave them all back at their cave and go. Then no more dragons or anything strange like that.”
    “Well, it’s almost midday so let’s just load everything onto the horses and get going I wan t to find these strangers. Shira said as she climbed down and started to load more packs and the two baskets onto the pack horse while Veer saddled his horse and prepared to move.
    When all was ready Veer went over and gently picked up the now awake smaller injured dragon and said. “I’ll carry this one to the cave and you can lead the horses. Then we can leave the dragons there and get going.” Then he started walking in the direction of the cave. Shira gathered the horses and followed.
    The way back to the cave was short and by midday Veer and Shira had returned all of the young dragons to their nest. Veer gently placed the small injured dragonet on the ground and the two other baby dragons which had been caring for her took up their positions to help her. Shira looked around the shallow cave and saw all of the egg shells broken and scattered about and said. “What do we have, ten baby dragons? Nine here and Green Eyes out there somewhere.”
    “Yeah, so?” Veer responded.
    “So, look at all of the shells. That has got to be more that ten dragon eggs worth of broken shells there. I don’t know how many eggs a dragon lays in a clutch but from the looks of it there have to be more baby dragons around here somewhere.”
    Veer looked appalled. “Maybe there are. Maybe there are lots of them out there all looking like puppies or squirrels or birds and ponies. I just hope that they stay far away from us. Let’s get going while we still have half a day.”
    Both young people went outside to where they had left the horses and they mounted and started to ride across the stream with Veer leading the pack horse. As they crossed the stream Veer pointed into the trees and said. “They went through there after the fight. There will be no tracks but I know of a trail that is just through there and I know that it leads deeper into the hills and then mountains.” 
    T hey started to ride forward again and they heard a fluttering sound behind them and turned to look back and saw six dragons crossing the stream following them. Two of which were a little larger than the others and who had human eyes and four more following along behind. Veer responded to this with. “Damn, just what we need. Go back!” He shouted as he urged his horse toward the dragons in a threatening manner. Then one of the dragons bristled and spread its wings and the horse stopped and refused to go any nearer as though the horse had just figured out that this wasn’t a puppy in front of it. He wheeled the horse around, rode back to where he had dropped the lead for the pack horse and set off at a gallop with the pack horse following and Shira right behind on her horse. “See how long it takes them to get tired and go back.”
    “They have wings.” Shira called to his back. “I don’t think that we are going to get away that easily.”
    “Just ride! Oh great! Look up, even Green Eyes is following us,” Veer said in frustration as he pointed toward the little dragon flitting along the