Bonzai, the Dragon Slayer excerpt
Wicked Witches, Devils & Dragons
© Paul DeThroe 2016
As
his thoughts wandered, Bonzai was jolted back to reality by the ghastliest
sound he’d ever heard, and one he’d never forget. It sounded like an onrushing
train and was so loud that it drowned out the relentlessly pounding thunder
that was still shaking the ground like a mad timpanist in a deranged opera.
He turned around and saw a massive funnel cloud bearing
down on him. Without thinking twice, he dove into the hole of the splintered
tree. The fit was tight and he had to wiggle his way through the mouth of the
hole, but once he got his hips past the ingress, he fell straight down. He
tried to slow his fall by frantically grabbing against the walls, but his
efforts were futile because he was falling too quickly. As panic overtook him,
he barely noticed that the sounds of the powerful tempest were growing quieter.
For a split second he couldn’t hear a thing. Then he hit bottom.
The landing had been what he’d dreaded the most during
his long fall, but when it happened it wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it’d
be. It felt like he’d landed on a huge pile of downy feathers. When he gathered
himself, he saw that there was a dim light illuminating the bottom of the hole
and realized that what he landed on was a massive growth of moss. How it grew
underground was a mystery to him.
He stood up and looked around, attempting to make
sense of his surroundings. He reached for his sword stick but then felt
sickened when it wasn’t in his makeshift scabbard. It must’ve fallen away when
he leapt into the hole. Feeling confused and defenseless, he could sense that
he was in the lair of one of the evil leprechauns. If discovered, they’d most
likely torture and kill him. He wasted no time finding a hiding spot.
He ran down a dark hallway and into the first door he
saw, which turned out to be a large chamber full of treasures. There were
literally thousands of pieces of precious gems, and gold and silver coins,
scattered in piles all about the room. Bonzai was so awestruck that he very
nearly forgot about his perilous situation. He was just about to dive head
first into one of the piles when he heard a sound so frightful that his
instincts kicked in, freezing him dead in his tracks. As the floor shook
beneath him, he realized he was hearing the snoring of a giant reptile.
At first Bonzai was unsure of what kind of reptilian
creature he was dealing with, but when he saw smoke pouring from the nose of
the sleeping beast, he had no doubt it was a fire breathing dragon. Bonzai knew
that if he woke the monster, he’d be served up as a tasty treat. His level of
dread grew as he fought to keep from succumbing to all-out panic. Instead of
losing his nerve though, he slowly mastered his runaway emotions. Once calm, he
began silently surveying the huge amount of treasure that was horded there.
The way Bonzai figured it, there had to be at least a
billion dollars’ worth of gold, silver and gemstones in the room. It’d be more
than enough to set him and his family up for life. It might even be enough to
get his parents to stop working so much and spend more time with him, which to
Bonzai, was worth more than all the money, gold and jewels in the world. The
problem was, figuring out how he could get all this treasure out without forcing
a personal cataclysm.
Just as he was starting to daydream about what he was
going to do with all the treasure he was planning to steal, he heard a groaning
sound coming from outside the room. It was just a matter of seconds before the
groaning turned to full-fledged shouting. Someone else was in the underground
fortress and that someone was very angry.
“My God,” the voice exclaimed, “our fortress has been
destroyed! That annoying boy that lives on the surface must be responsible.
When I get my hands on him, I’m going to make him pay with his miserable,
worthless life!”
When Bonzai heard the footsteps of the angry man
coming closer, he knew he was trapped. Unable to come up with a better plan, he
dove behind the largest of the many treasure piles in the room. It turned out
that he hid just in the nick of time, because the angry rant had stirred the dragon
awake. Coins and jewels rattled as the dragon began to move sluggishly about. Bonzai
gasped in awe as the dragon stretched to full length. The beast sniffed, turned
his head towards Bonzai, and glowered at him hungrily.
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| $6.66 @ Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/1543010792/ |
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| Paul DeThroe http://pauldethroe.com |
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