Dragon Cave Mountain (The Everstone Chronicles Book 1)

  Dragon Cave

  Mountain

  Book 1 of The Everstone Chronicles

  Scott Ferrell & Anéla Ferrell

  MysticPhysh Publishing

  Find out more about MysticPhysh Publishing here.

  www.mysticphysh.com

  Copyright © 2018 Scott Ferrell & Anéla Ferrell

  Find out about the authors by going to these sites:

  http://www.munboy.com

  https://www.facebook.com/a.munboy

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Art: Matt Akin

  Cover Design: rebekacovers

  Interior Art: Scott Ferrell

  ISBN: 1984384430

  ISBN-13: 978-1984384430

  Other Books

  by Scott Ferrell

  The Subject 624 Series

  Subject 624

  http://amzn.to/2E1h0PV

  The Gatekeeper Trilogy

  The Gatekeeper

  (The Gatekeeper Book 1)

  http://amzn.to/2GIqAbx

  Gate City

  (The Gatekeeper book 2)

  http://amzn.to/2Ee8pw0

  Gates of Delicia

  (The Gatekeeper Book 3)

  http://amzn.to/2ED1p9w

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Dedications

  Acknowledgements

  Scott Ferrell

  Anéla Ferrell

  Chapter 1

  Angry shouts pierced the night. They rang across the valley and into the forest where Zookie hid. He crouched just inside the trees, staring out with yellow eyes at the flickering torches. The flames bobbed up and down at the top of the rise across the field of new corn stalks. He imagined the humans’ small eyes looking his direction and hunkered further into the trees that shadowed the quarter-moon’s light.

  Hounds howled and barked. Zookie was sure the dogs would pick up his scent, but he couldn’t make himself move. His mother was back there somewhere. He couldn’t leave her.

  Zookie was young and couldn’t fly or breathe fire yet, but his talons were sharp. They dug into the ground. Anger made him eager to bound across the field and chase off the humans threatening his mom, but the rush of emotion was gone as soon as it washed over him.

  He pushed further back into the line of trees. The humans’ angry shouts scared him. He wasn’t quite ready to admit that to himself, though. His mom had told him to stay out of sight. He insisted to himself that was the reason he held back.

  The sounds of the dogs’ barking changed. It went from low and questioning to high-pitched excitement.

  “Here! It’s here!” one of the dogs yelled, its bark carrying easily across the field.

  “We get reward now!” called another. “Bacon!”

  “It’s huge!” yipped still another.

  “I thought we were chasing a squirrel!” barked the first.

  “Biggest squirrel ever!”

  Zookie lost track of which voice was which.

  “It’s not a squirrel, you furry dunce.”

  “It almost got me! It almost got me! It almost got me!”

  Zookie watched the small, dark form of a dog run back towards the human town, yapping the whole way.

  “Way to go, Mom,” he whispered, feeling his spirits lift. Even if he couldn’t help, he knew his mom could take care of a few humans and their dogs.

  The human voices rose as they ran towards their baying hounds.

  “They have the beast cornered!”

  “I think it hurt my hound!”

  “Kill it!”

  Cornered? Zookie snorted. Mom will just fly away.

  “Look,” yelled a human, “there it is.”

  Zookie lifted himself off the ground just a little to get a better look. All he could see from across the field were dark shapes with hideous faces illuminated by the torches they carried. He couldn’t see his mom at all. He hadn’t developed the full range of his nightsight yet and her slick, black scales made her almost invisible in the night.

  “Fly, Mom,” he whispered. “I can get away now.”

  The humans shook torches and pointed sticks at a dark spot near the thick line of pine trees growing too close together for a dragon his mom’s size to be able to fit through. That had to be her.

  “Why isn’t she flying?” He stepped further out from his hiding spot. He lifted his long neck higher to get a better look. “Why isn’t she fighting back? Why isn’t she doing anything?”

  “You ain’t so tough!” barked one of the dogs.

  “Yeah!” another agreed.

  “Yeah! Yeah!”

  The dogs’ barking grew more confident—more vicious—with the support of their humans.

  Zookie took a few more steps into the field. Wisps of smoke curled out from between his bared teeth, the only thing he could accomplish. He wanted to take to the air and blow fire everywhere to help his mother but couldn’t. He was nothing but a useless, little dragon—just like all the other dragons said. They told him over and over how useless he was. All the other dragons his age could fly and blow fire. Why couldn’t he?

  His talons scratched deep grooves in the field as frustration settled on him. This was all his fault. He was the one who had run away because the other dragons teased him. His mom was in trouble because she came out looking for him. He wouldn’t let her get hurt because of him.

  He dug his front paws into the earth and lifted his head. He filled his lungs with air, readying to let loose the loudest roar he could manage. If he distracted the humans and dogs, his mom could get away.

  Before he could make a sound, his mother’s voice slipped into his mind. “Run, Zookie.” Her voice sounded low and slow like she was sleepy. “Can’t fly. Can’t get away. Don’t know…what’s going on.”

  It was the first time she’d used MindSpeak with him since he was a baby dragon when he needed calming. He couldn’t speak back to her, though. Only the most skilled of adult dragons could master the skill.

  “Run, Zookie.” Her voice in his head took on a note of fear. “He’s coming. Run.”

  A human-shaped form glided toward the gathered mob surrounding his mom. It was like the color black itself moved, swallowing light and color as it passed. Even the torches bent away from it as it neared the mob.

  “Run!”

  The force behind his mom’s command turned Zookie around where he stood. He kicked up dirt as he took off running into the woods. He might not be able to fly, but he was the fastest of all the dragons his age when it came to running. He should have been proud of that fact, but it only served as a reminder of his inability to
fly.

  Still, he put his speed to great use. He dodged trees without slowing, hopped over roots and rotten logs, and put as many miles between him and the humans as he could.

  He didn’t know how long he ran. He only stopped when he couldn’t run anymore and his sleek body shook with weariness. He wanted to flop on the ground and rest, but he had to stay alert. The angry cries of the humans and excited dog barks had faded away long ago, but he couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t follow.

  Through his breathing, he listened to the forest around him. All was quiet. He looked around. The moon, no more than a rounded slit in the sky, cast enough light to leave shadows on the forest floor. They moved and writhed as a breeze blew through the trees.

  Zookie moved away from the shadows, eyeing them wearily. Silence pushed in around him like an unseen physical pressure. It prodded the young dragon to the point of panic before the forest erupted with sounds. Bugs clicked and chirped. Frogs yelled loud croaks.

  They were all normal night sounds, but Zookie was scared. More scared than he had ever been. His doubleheart thumped inside his ribs. He tried to look everywhere at once, swinging his long head around this way and that.

  A shadow slipped toward him at the edge of his vision. He whipped his head that direction but saw nothing. A frog croaked loudly to his right. He jumped and stumbled away from it on his weary four legs.

  “Mom?” he said out loud, hoping to hear her voice in his head again.

  A branch cracked behind him. That was the last straw. He jumped and ran. He found the biggest tree and bound onto its trunk. Digging his claws into the bark, he climbed quickly.

  Once he was high in its branches, well above the lower tree canopy, he found the sturdiest one and settled on it. He twisted his tail around it for stability and lowered his head. His eyes twitched toward every moving shadow below until they watered with the strain.

  He looked off in the distance. He thought he could see the field of corn and the human village from that vantage point but it was only his imagination. He folded his front legs on the branch and laid his head on them. He felt tired but knew he couldn’t sleep. He had to wait for the sound of his mom’s voice in his head. He knew she would speak to him once she got out of that mess.

  Zookie’s inner eyelids slid over his eyes as his outer lids drooped. He was so tired, but he had to stay awake. He didn’t want to miss his mom’s voice.

  Before he knew it, though, sleep rushed in to claim him.

  Chapter 2

  LT prowled the forest. He made sure every creature he saw got a good view of his large teeth as he passed. If he were hungry, one of them would have been his lunch. Or was it dinnertime? He couldn’t remember how long it had been since the sun had woke him. He hadn’t eaten yet, but he just wasn’t hungry.

  He found it easier to ignore the rumble in his stomach by admiring the way his stripes helped perfectly camouflage him in the forest’s shadows. He loved to imagine how he looked prowling the forest. His prey would never see him coming. That was why he let the forest creatures live—so they could witness what the ultimate predator looked like.

  A loud crack above his head startled him. He jumped, spun, and landed with his paws splayed and claws digging in the ground. His tail stood out straight and he bared his teeth.

  It didn’t occur to him to look up for the source of the noise until it was too late. Something heavy landed on his back. Before he could yelp in surprise, his muzzle was flattened into the ground.

  The weight on top of him groaned and shifted. LT wiggled out from under it, swiped at the dirt in his eyes, and growled. Well, he tried to growl. Instead, all that came out was a whimper. When he was younger, his tiger growl snapped when he accidentally backed into a thorn bush and howled so loud it just broke.

  When LT could see again, he was surprised to find a giant green lizard with gold horns backing away from him. The creature glanced around with blurry eyes. “Are you okay?” it asked.

  The tiger bared his teeth. “Are you making fun of me?”

  The lizard looked surprised. “No. Why would I do that?”

  “Everybody else does,” LT snapped. “I’ll bite your tail if you do! I will.”

  “Well, I wasn’t,” it muttered.

  Satisfied he had intimidated the larger creature, LT assumed a pleased look. “Why did you jump on me, anyways?”

  “I was sleeping up there,” the lizard said.

  “Sleeping?” LT said. “It’s kind of early to be sleeping, don’t you think? Talk about lazy,” he added under his breath.

  “Early?” the lizard asked. He glanced around, looking surprised to see the long shadow of a fading day. “I slept most of the day, I think.”

  “Lazy,” LT muttered again.

  “Anyways, I was asleep and I think I fell out of the tree. I didn’t jump on you.”

  The tiger narrowed his yellow eyes in what he thought was a vicious look. “I think you tried to attack me. You were going to try to eat me. I won’t let it happen! I’ll bite your horns.”

  “I didn’t attack you.” The lizard rolled its eyes. “I’m too small to eat you, anyways. Can’t you see that?”

  “You are kinda puny.” He looked the lizard up and down. He chuckled. It built into a high-pitched laugh. He laughed so hard he rolled to his back, his paws kicking in the air and his tail twitching on the ground.

  “What are you laughing at?”

  LT wanted to answer, but he laughed too hard. He didn’t really know what was so funny. Maybe it was the image of the lizard trying to eat him. LT would bite his nose before that could happen.

  Something bopped him on the head, knocking him out of his laughing fit. He looked up at the lizard standing over him.

  “Are you done?” he asked the tiger.

  “Maybe,” LT answered, too scared to move.

  “I’m Zookie. What’s your name?” The lizard stepped back.

  The tiger rolled to his paws and stood as tall as he could. His stripped tail stiffened with pride. “Frankly, I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me. I’m known by sight around these parts. Haven’t you heard of the Lightning Tiger?” He turned to show off a stripe shaped vaguely like a lightning bolt on his left, front shoulder.

  The lizard didn’t look all that impressed. “No. I’m not from around here.”

  Maybe it hadn’t got a good look at his stripe. LT shifted to position it more in the sun slicing through the trees overhead.

  “I need to get home. I need my dad’s help,” Zookie added.

  LT knew he should probably ask what he needed help with but another thought outweighed all others. “How did you get to be such a big lizard?”

  “I’m not a lizard!” Zookie huffed. “I’m a dragon, dummy. I’m trying to get home to Dragon Cave Mountain.”

  “A dragon? I knew that,” LT said. Dragon Cave Mountain? He had never heard of it, but he felt like he should have. “You’re a long way from Dragan Cave Mountain. It’s that way, puny.” He nodded his head in a vague direction. He pushed his paws forward and lifted his hind quarters in a long, tail-quivering stretch. “Frankly, I don’t think a puny dragon like you could make it there alone.”

  Zookie snorted, puffs of smoke rising from his nostrils. “My dad is the leader of Dragon Cave Mountain. I know where it is and I can make it just fine.”

  The dragon turned in the direction LT had indicated. LT broke off his stretch to follow.

  “Wait, Little Dragon. I mean it. You’ll never make it there. There are things in these woods.”

  “For one thing, my name is Zookie,” he practically yelled. “And for another, I am going. I have to get help. Besides, I know how to fight.”

  The tiger walked beside the dragon. “I’m sure you can Little…er…Zookie, but the things out there could swallow you whole and not even have to gulp that hard to do it.”

  Zookie stopped and looked at him. “Come with me, then.”

  LT’s jaw hung open a bit. “Oh. Well. You know I could pro
tect you for sure.” He bared large, sharp teeth. “But, uh, you know. I have, uh, stuff to do.”

  Zookie smiled, showing off his own teeth. “You’re scared, aren’t you?”

  “What?” LT squeaked. He cleared his throat. “What?” he said again, trying to put some growl into the word. It didn’t work out as well as he had hoped. “The Lightning Tiger scared? Pepr…proper…propos…That’s crazy!” He pushed his sharp claws out of their sheaths in his paws. “I could tear anything apart if I wanted to.”

  “Then, come on,” Zookie said as he started walking again.

  “Did you bang your scaly little head on the way down that tree?” LT stepped closer to examine Zookie’s head for bumps. “I could have sworn I just said I had stuff to do.”

  “I’m not in the mood for jokes,” Zookie growled. “Are you coming or not?”

  “Of course, I’m not. Far too busy!” Still, he walked beside the dragon. After a moment, he added, “Besides, what business does a tiger have going to Dragon Cave Mountain?

  “But, I suppose I should go.” He fluffed his fur as he matched the dragon’s pace. “You’ll get yourself eaten by a mountain troll or something. If they could even eat you. I hear dragons are chewy. But, I don’t know if you could even make it that far without getting lost. To be honest, you’re pretty lucky it was me you fell—” The dragon swiped a paw across LT’s snout. “What did you do that for?” he demanded.

  “Hush. I heard something,” Zookie said.

  “Of course, I was talking.”

  “No, something else.”

  “Really?” LT lifted his head and sniffed the air. “What’s that smell? It’s horrific. Did you lead humans here?”

  Zookie ignored him and peered in the shadows behind them. His bright, yellow eyes widened. “LT, Turn around slowly and back away.”

  The tiger turned and squinted into the shadows. “What are you—” His voice trailed off as he saw a large, single eye peering back at them. “What is that?”

  “I said back away,” Zookie whispered, swiping a paw at LT to get him to back up. “I think it’s a cyclops.”

  “A…a what?” LT panicked. He spun where he stood, tripped over his tail, and sprawled on the forest floor. He scrambled to his paws and took off running.