Erik And The Dragon ( Book 4) by Sam Ferguson Page B

Gorin grumbled.

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Tu’luh’s wings ached with each beat of the cold wind. Sulfur and ash filled his nostrils and the air grew thick with dark clouds and pillars of smoke. The great beast swooped down low, veering left and narrowly avoiding a jagged, obsidian peak that jutted up spearing the sky. As he broke down below the blanket of smoke he breathed in deep. A feeling of warmth overcame him as he looked down and spied the familiar river of lava that coursed through Verishtahng.
    He stretched his wings out, soaring over the lava and gliding along, mimicking its curves. The black and brown earth below vented smoke and shot embers into the air around him. A few of the hot speck s collided with him, sparking wildly as they shattered against his scales.
    A pair of wyverns squealed below as they caught his approach. The pair scattered off to the south, dropping the ridgebacked mouse they had managed to catch. Tu’luh hung his left foreleg down and scooped the ridgebacked mouse up in its claw and then flipped it up into the air and snapped his jaws around the animal. It wasn’t nearly a large enough meal to sate his appetite. The ridgebacked mouse was only slightly smaller than the average house dog, with bony plates that jutted out over its spine and gave it its name. It would take scores of the creatures at a time to come close to filling Tu’luh’s stomach, but it had been so long since he had tasted of the beast that he could not pass up the opportunity to snatch the kill from the skulking wyverns. Had they not been so quick to escape, he might have eaten them too.
    His stomach grumbled as though great boulders slid and ground against each other in his gut. His nostrils flared and he caught the scent of something much bigger. He turned to the north, abandoning the lava flow and ascending back to the clouds of smoke above. The smell of sulfur grew more intense as he neared a hot spring. Occasionally he would drop his head below the smoke to peer at the ground below. He saw a pair of gorlung beasts, but he passed them by. He was after much larger prey.
    He flicked his tongue out into the air before him like a snake, tasting the humidity that hung in the air in the northern areas of Verishtahng. He knew he was close. The trumpeting sound of great animals blasting each other with water sounded from below and the great dragon dropped from the clouds like a mighty eagle. He pulled his wings in close, allowing the air to course by him as he aimed for the bull water mammoth bathing itself near the bank of the hot spring. A herd of ten cows surrounded the bull, with some calves hiding near their mother’s legs.
    None of them noticed his stealthy approach until it was too late.
    Tu’luh struck with his rear talons, piercing the bull through the back near the bull’s neck and driving it down into the water. The water mammoth gasp ed and snorted as it was crushed down and Tu’luh created a massive splash of searing hot water. The nearby cows trumpeted their warning and started galloping away in all different directions, but Tu’luh was faster than all of them. He swept out with his massive tail and drove his spikes through a cow’s neck. The animal crumpled down, tripping over its trunk and head before Tu’luh leapt over her and took two more with his front talons. A blanket of fire poured out from his open mouth, catching several of the cows and dropping them on the burnt, crisp ground. He reached out like a snake and snatched another cow in his massive jaws, ripping her from the ground and shaking her violently to snap her spine. Blood coursed into his mouth and woke his hunger to new levels.
    The dragon devoured the cow, bones and all in only a few bites and then he turned to the others. From the rest of the cows he ate only the legs and the massive flanks. Then he turned lazily and stalked toward the half submerged bull. He saw the gathering crocodiles, but they kept their distance, waiting patiently for