“Yes sir.”
“Good! Because with the power vested in me as the Dean of WarWings I hereby forbid you to ask my daughter Runcita to be your Queen for EggHarvest! Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Gork?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good! Because take my word for it, if you so much as even glance at my daughter Runcita I will have you marched out to the campus quad and I will blast you with a firestream and reduce your sorry tail to a pile of ash! Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Gork?!”
Somewhere in the lair I hear that same creature whimper and drag its chains across the floor.
Now it feels like my shrunken heart is made of glass and the Dean’s tirade is a hammer smashing my heart into a thousand little pieces.
Then Dean Floop belches up a thunderous firestream which shakes the lair and makes the walls quake. I have to raise my tail to keep from getting thrown off my webbed feet.
“Yes sir.”
“Good! Because in terms of a mating partner you are nothing but a liability and a laughingstock! If I weren’t so disgusted by the sight of you I’d be laughing my head off right now at the thought of you possibly mating with my daughter! Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Gork?!”
By this point I am just busy trying to keep myself from crying.
“Yes sir. May I be dismissed?”
“What?!”
“By your leave, sir?”
“Dismissed!”
Then as I turn and head for the door, this demented dragon Dean Floop fires his parting shot. “And tell your meddlesome grandfather it doesn’t matter how far he runs or where he hides because he is a fugitive in the eyes of the WarWings Council of the Elders and I will bring him to justice! Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Gork?!”
“Yes sir.” I’ve stopped and turned to face the Dean while he speaks to me, per WarWings regulations.
“Good! Now be gone, Gork, and I never want to see your stinking beak or your retarded-looking horns again! If I ever have to see you again, it will be right before I blast you with a firestream and execute you! Although come to think of it, why bother putting off the inevitable?!”
Then this scaly bastard Dean Floop cocks his long green neck and flips his wings out and blasts a mega firestream which flashes at me like a bolt of lightning. But I’m already crouched on my haunches with my tail whisking around behind me. And I dive out the door with the flames from the Dean’s firestream heating up my scaly backside.
And as I dive out the door, I can’t help thinking:
Yeah so what if they call you Weak Sauce. And yeah so what if Runcita’s father wants you dead. Well at least you’re not being carted out of the Dean’s lair as a pile of ash in the janitor’s dustbin! And no matter what they say or what names they call you, you’ve got WILL TO POWER, Gork.
You really do.
Now you go do what you gotta do.
[ 38 ]
THWACK-THWACK
Thwack-thwack.
By this point, there is no time to lose.
Thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack.
I flap my wings and fly down dark fiery corridor after dark fiery corridor after dark fiery corridor. I flash through the air in a blur.
Go, Gork, go.
I am crushing it.
I am rocketing to the gymnasium. Because according to that luscious blademaster Metheldra, this is where I’ll find Runcita. And the Dean’s words are still echoing inside my scaly green head. And my backside is still a little warm from the Dean’s firestream I dodged only minutes ago.
Glance down at powerstaff. FLIGHT SPEED at 269 MPH.
Whoa.
I am in TURBO FLIGHT mode.
Feels good.
Now the wind cutting across my black beak is screaming for mercy.
The corridors are crowded with flying cadets zooming around.
But then when one of these fool dragons cuts in front of me I just whack him out of the way with my leathery wing.
Another flying dragon up ahead swerves into my PROJECTED TRAJECTORY PATH and I open my beak and blast a firestream into his backside.
“Hey what the—?!” he cries, rubbing his backside with his talons.
Don’t even give him a look.
I shoot onward.
Now the reason I am rocketing to the gym is because I have to try and get to Runcita before the Dean puts the word out to his goons that if I’m spotted anywhere near his daughter then I am to be apprehended. My pride is a little wounded by the Dean’s words. That stuff about how as a mating partner I was nothing but a liability and a laughingstock.
Who does that bastard think he is, anyway?
Thwack-thwack.
And if you want to know the truth, it kind of pisses me off.
Now I feel a whole new level of WILL TO POWER coursing through my scaly green ass and I chalk it up to that chick Metheldra’s swordupuncture and the way she gave me a royal case of heart shrinkage.
If that sonuvabitch Dean Floop wants to try and stop me from getting his daughter Runcita to be my Queen, then I am just all the more determined to get his precious daughter to lay my eggs, thank you very much.
Now I can really feel the WTP blasting throughout my system.
And my heart has shrunk to the point where the sound of it beating in my chest is like a tiny castanet clacking underwater.
Barely audible.
For the first time ever, my heart is something I can ignore.
Feels great.
Dragons flying around up ahead scramble to get out of my way at the last second.
And when one of them is a little slow on the uptake, I whack them out of the way.
I whiz by them.
Now as I fly along, my toe claws keep shooting out and retracting.
Where is my Queen?
[ 39 ]
RUNCITA
A few minutes later, I fly through the gym’s entrance.
I close my wings and drop and land in a crouch on my green webbed feet. I scope out the area. And there she is. My sweet luscious dragonette in all her glory. Just like Metheldra said she’d be.