But by and large I was getting the worst of it. And I knew if I didn’t do something quick then I’d be dead. I was bleeding from all those puncture wounds in my belly, and my right wing was hanging off my wingjoint in tatters. And I was still suffocating under all that fur as they tore me to shreds and it dawned on me then that these bastards wouldn’t stop until they’d gnawed every last bit of flesh off my bones.
So after blasting countless firebolts to the point where my throat was raw and shredded, I finally managed to twist out from under and leap away from the pack and start running through the snow on my hind legs. I lit out of there in a flash.
The pack of wolves instantly set off after me. As I ran I could feel their hot raging breath closing in and could hear the terrifying clack sound of their jaws snapping shut right on my heels. They were howling and snarling and lunging at me and yet still I kept running with no thought in my head but that of sheer terror.
My little webbed feet were flying.
This was all new to me. I was bleeding out of the dozens of puncture holes in my belly and could hear my tattered wing flapping behind me as I ran. I left a bright red blood trail right there in the snow under the moonlight, and my lungs were heaving so hard it felt like they were going to pop.
And then there it was.
The clear door.
I don’t know how I did it, but I’d somehow managed to race all the way back to the shiny chamber with the pack of wolves hot on my heels. I could see the clear door right there in front of me, maybe twenty feet up ahead, and I was shooting toward it at full throttle. But as I raced forward I realized with a sinking heart that there was just one problem. I couldn’t afford to stop and open the door, on account of even that one split second it’d take to stop and slide open the door would mean certain death. Because the wolves would instantly be upon me and tear my scaly green ass to shreds.
Well I was scared out of my mind and didn’t know what to do. I figured for sure I was done for. As I flashed forward I decided right then and there that I’d rather die on my own terms than those of these beasts snarling at my backside.
So without much hope I lowered my head and kicked in the afterburners and launched forward, a green blur shooting right at the door. I reckoned it’d be better to die by ramming my head straight into the clear door. Because at least that way I wouldn’t be alive as the wolves gorged themselves on my flesh.
But at the last second, as I prepared to meet my maker, well that clear door suddenly slid open in a flash.
I shot across the threshold. The door flew shut. And I crashed into the far wall of the chamber. Suddenly there were thirty enraged wolves howling and repeatedly lunging at the clear door and slavering foamy drool all over it. I leapt up off the floor, still not quite believing I wasn’t dead.
Then as I crouched there gasping on the far side of the chamber and watched the wolves attack the door, a loud noise exploded inside the chamber.
Poof!
I watched in shock as two gigantic green webbed feet materialized out of thin air right in front of me. And these two webbed feet had deadly-looking toe claws protruding out of them. My nostrils instantly flared. Because my snout detected a new foreign scent there in my lair.
The wolves were still howling and slavering and lunging at the door.
Then I heard a tremendous screeching sound which threatened to crack my fool head in half. I peered up and saw one massive claw slowly scratch a deep groove on the inside of the clear door. Instantly the wolves outside stopped and sat back on their haunches in the snow, panting and studying the groove in the door. Then I heard a snap sound, and all the wolves whirled and raced off yapping and howling back into the woods.
I slowly tilted my scaly head up even further and that’s when I saw him. This creature that had just now materialized in my lair.
He wasn’t even looking at me. He was staring out the door at where the wolves had been just a second ago. Snow was falling hard out there now, tumbling down sideways in big flakes under the moonlight. You could hear the wind through the door.
He was standing upright on his powerful green hind legs and he was like nothing I’d ever seen. The hooded yellow eyes and the giant leathery wings and the thick tail with spikes running along the top of it.
He was massive but he was so much more than that. He was regal. Downright majestic. Even with my stupid beast brain, I could tell this creature had an air of the supreme about him. Like no matter where he went, he would be the Ruler of that place. He wore a white tunic and a red cape, and in one talon he casually held what I’d later learn was his gold powerstaff.
I stood looking up at him with my beak hanging wide open.
Then I felt something pop on my scaly head and I heard a clattering noise at my green webbed feet. I looked down and it took me a second to realize what I was staring at there on the chamber floor.
My horns. They’d fallen out of my head and onto the floor. There they lay.
At the time, I didn’t understand these were my baby horns and that it was perfectly natural for them to fall out. Necessary, even. So my adult horns could grow in. And looking back, I’ve often wondered if it was the screeching sound of his giant claw scratching the groove into the clear door that made them fall out. How else to explain my baby horns coming loose at that moment?
“Sir,” boomed a female voice, echoing throughout the chamber. “Thank you for responding so quickly to my distress signal! As you can see, sir, he lives in constant peril. If I hadn’t opened the door just now, the wolves would’ve got him for sure.”
“You should not have opened the door for him just now, ATHENOS!” growled the massive scaly creature. “If I see you coddle him again, I will not hesitate to unplug you. It sickens me to see a young dragon pampered. I’m warning you. It won’t mean anything to me if I have to unplug a piece of machine trash like you.”
“You would kill me, sir? Because I saved his life? But he is your grandson, sir!”
“You let me be the judge of who is or is not my grandson!” He peered down at me, narrowing his yellow reptilian eyes. “His condition is much worse than you described. He looks like a common filthy beast. No hint of sophistication or culture. Perhaps not even I can fix him. I wonder if you haven’t wasted my time by summoning me here. I should probably feed him to the wolves and be done with it.”
“I did the best I could, sir. My auxiliary power was out for several months. And when I came online, I found him here, sir. But I was too weak to contact you. I had to wait for my power to regenerate. Even now, I’m only at 6%, sir.”
“It’s despicable, really,” snorted the creature. “One of our kind, all alone here on this tiny backwater planet. And raised by a machine, no less.” He shook his head disgustedly. “Raised by a machine! The very idea. It’s revolting.”