Dragon Eyes

Chapter 8.

The Dragon’s Cave.

As soon as the children had seated themselves on his back, the dragon lifted his wings and took off from the ground. Lynwood looked down a little uneasily, and then lifted his face to the sky. He was flying! The only thing that really spoiled this first flight was the fact that he was flying on the back of some unknown dragon, and he wasn’t sure where this dragon was taking him. Higher and higher they flew up the Great Mountain. Lynwood was sure they were higher than any man had ever climbed. They got to a place where the trees became bare and the rocks became large. Here at one point the dragon descended and they saw they were headed to the mouth of a large cave.

“He’s taking us to his cave!” Sofia whispered, delight and wonder in her voice.

“I noticed,” was Lynwood’s dry response.

The dragon flew inside, then rested his feet on the ground and began walking. The cave looked more like a tunnel; it just went on and on. There was little light, and it became darker and darker.

“Ooooo it’s spooky here.” Sofia shivered a little. “It’s a good thing we have a dragon with us to protect us!”

“Ummm right,” Lynwood muttered. “This has got to be the weirdest thing that is happening to me!” He shook his head. “I must be dreaming, I must be, this just can’t be real!”

“It’s very real, Lyn,” Sofia smiled. “Cause I think it would be very odd if both you and me were having the same dream.”

“Stop calling me Lyn!”

“Sorry.”

At last the dragon stopped. Lynwood climbed off his back and helped Sofia get down and the two of them took a look at their surroundings. They were at the end of the cave, a little light coming in from cracks on one side. The light was dim, the sun had just about set and the few rays that managed to get through the cracks would all but disappear soon. On one side was a large pile of hay, twigs, pine needles, and moss. To the left of the cave was a clear mountain pool, other than that the cave was bare and grey.

“Did you notice something wrong about this cave?” Sofia was frowning.

“Wrong?” Lynwood raised his eyebrows.

“Yes, look around, what do you see?”

“I, uh,” Lynwood turned his head this way and that way. “I uh, well I see dragon in the cave.”

“And besides that?”

“Besides that, there is this pool, and rocks, and over there is a nest of some sort, and of course there’s you.”

“Yes, yes, but besides that.”

“Besides that, well, nothing.” Lynwood shrugged. “What is all this leading too Sofia?”

“There is no treasure in this cave!” Sofia sighed with frustration.

“And...”

“Oh Lynwood, come on, everyone knows that dragons always keep treasure in their caves. It’s in all the stories; the large cave, filled to the brim with treasure of all sorts! but look, there is none here, none at all.”

“I guess the stories were wrong.” Lynwood shrugged again.

“But that’s not fair then! It is a well accepted fact that dragons always breathe fire and keep treasure in their caves!”

“You know, Sofia, just because something is considered a well accepted fact, won’t necessarily make it true!”

Sofia was silent for a moment; then looked at Lynwood a little annoyed. “You know what, you just contradicted yourself!”

“I did, in what way?”

“You said that because something is considered a well accepted fact doesn’t necessarily make it true.”

“Yes.”

“Now remember back in the woods you were asking why he hadn’t attacked us, saying that it is a well accepted fact that dragons will always attack humans. Well you answered your own question. So if one fact about dragons is not true, how do we know that all of them are?”

Lynwood stubbornly shook his head, “but all the books...”

“Lynwood, have you ever stopped to think that the books could be wrong? After all, books about dragons were written by men. I should think that if a dragon were to write a book about dragons, it would be a whole lot different.”

Lynwood pondered all that Sofia had said. Could it really be true? Could everything he had ever known about dragons be wrong? No, how could that be? It just didn’t make sense.

“Oh I don’t know,” he said at last. “And at this moment, I really don’t care.”

Sofia sighed and nodded her head, the two of them sat by the pool in silence. The sad reality of their situation once more came crashing down on them.

“I suppose we are stuck here then,” Lynwood finally said.

Sofia nodded, and glancing up, looked over at the dragon who was eyeing them curiously.

“Why does he keep staring at us?”

Lynwood only shrugged in reply.

“I wonder if it’s really a ‘he’; maybe it’s a ‘she’.”

“It’s a he!”

“How do you know?”

“Well, according to the books, male dragons have horns. Look, see, on his nose, there is that large golden horn, so I’m guessing it’s a male. I know the books were wrong about a lot of things it seems, but this is one fact I am guessing is true. It would make sense, don’t you think?”

“I suppose so,” Sofia said. “I wonder how old he is.”

“Dragons are said to live for a very long time, much longer than people, but I have no idea of how to determine his age.”

“Is he older than we are?”

“A great deal older; he’s a very large dragon, and his eyes are very wise. Something tells me he’s lived up here in this cave for a long, long time.”

After a moment of silence, Sofia abruptly turned to her brother. “Lynwood, I am simply starving!”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, Sofia, but I have don’t know where to get you some food.”

Sofia sighed. “Does that mean we are going to starve to death?”

“Maybe.”

“Lynwood!”

“What?”

“You should try to find some solution to this problem, we can’t just accept fate the way it is, we have to do something.”

“Well then, do something!” Lynwood barked at her. “I’m trying to figure out how I am supposed to take that letter to the nephew of the king.”

“Is that all you can think about?” Sofia was shocked and her voice clearly showed it. “Your own sister might be dying of hunger and all you care about is some letter to some nephew of some king!”

“You’re not dying of hunger.”

“I might as well be.”

“Oh for goodness sake, Sofia,” Lynwood stood up. “Father gave me a job to do!”

“But that doesn’t mean that you should turn away from you responsibilities!” Sofia shot back.

Lynwood narrowed his eyes. “Where do you think I’m going to be able to get you food from?” He nearly shouted at his sister. “Do I look like I have any? You think I can just magically make food appear out of nowhere?”

Sofia bit her lip and tears came to her eyes. Lynwood sighed and getting up walked over to where she was sitting and put his arm around her.

“I’m sorry Sofia, I hadn’t meant to yell. I’m hungry too, but there is nowhere for us to get food right now. The past events have happened so quickly and have been so strange. We are in a rather tight situation and we’ll just have to be brave and face it the best way we can.”

Sofia nodded a little and put her head on Lynwood’s shoulder. The two of them sat very still of a long while, both were exhausted, it had turned out to be a very tiring day for them. The dragon had been looking at them for a long time. He had watched how Lynwood had lost his temper, then how he had gone to apologize and how the two of them still looked so sad. He concluded something terrible must have happened to them to make them both so sad. He was also tired and exhausted. It had been a wretched day for him as well. He was hungry, but far too tired and in pain to go and hunt something. At the same time, he felt so sorry for the poor little humans, their clothes and hair were still damp from the drizzle that was outside. He went over to his nest and motioned to it with his head. Lynwood looked up and noticed.

“I think he is telling us that we can spend the night in his bed,” he said, nudging Sofia.

“You think so?” Sofia asked.

Lynwood nodded. “Yes, he’s motioning to the nest but isn’t getting into it himself, I think that’s his way of telling us we can sleep there.”

“Oh how kind of him!” Sofia exclaimed as she crawled into the heap. “Come on Lynwood, it is very soft and comfortable.”

Lynwood turned to the dragon; haltingly he reached out and gave the dragon a little awkward pat, then he climbed into the nest next to Sofia. Pulling his blanket out of the bag, he covered the two of them.

“Lynwood, tell me something. When did you have time to pack all this? You have a blanket and a flint and all that other stuff in the bag!”

“Oh,” Lynwood gave a small, sad laugh. “I was planning to run away from home, so I packed my things.”

“RUN AWAY FROM HOME!!!! Whatever for?”

“Father and I had an argument and I was all angry and upset.”

“So you decided to run away, were you really going too?”

“Of course not,” Lynwood sighed. “I would probably just go for a long hike, realized what a silly fool I was, calmed down, and come straight back. Where would I have gone? I was just angry so I wasn’t thinking straight. Anger is a dangerous thing Sofia; it can make you do so many stupid things you will later regret.” Lynwood grew thoughtful from his own words; then he sighed and looked over at the dragon who was watching him and Sofia.

“Thank you,” he said with a soft smile. “Thank you for letting us stay the night here. It would have been cold and unpleasant if we would have had to stay out there in the woods.”

The dragon smiled back. Dragon smiles always look a bit odd, and to some they may even look funny, but they are very sweet none the less. Then the dragon lay down beside the nest. Within a few moments dragon and children were fast asleep.