Chapter 10
“S hould we run?” Paige asked, her voice an octave higher than normal.
“That’ll just egg him on. They’re like bulls,” Dewey said. “And you’re like a tasty red cape being waved in front of his face.”
“Oh, great. Well, what do we do?”
Dewey wrinkled his nose, his horns wiggling. “Prepare for our last moments on Earth?”
“Any suggest–” Paige began, turning to her side to find Devon missing. “Where’s Devon?”
“Took off. The coward.”
“Dewey, we need a plan, quick,” Paige said as the orange dragon scraped his paw along the ground, smoke rising from his nostrils. “Maybe we can try to hide?”
“Where? These nests are probably filled with dragons. There’s nowhere to–”
Devon charged from a side street with a branch in his hand. He raced toward the dragon with a yell.
“What is he doing?” Paige asked, crinkling her brow.
Dewey lifted his chin. “He’s saving us. Run, Paige. Hide.”
“What? He’s going to get himself killed saving us. He’s attacking a full-sized dragon with a stick.”
“I didn’t say it was smart. Selfless, maybe. Definitely not smart, now hide!” Dewey said.
Paige shook her head as she stood motionless in the street.
“Paige! Go before we lose our–”
The dragon whipped his head back before slinging it forward. A slimy green substance spewed from his mouth, covering Devon from head to toe and stopping him in his tracks.
“Oh, gross,” Paige said. “What is that?”
“Slime,” Dewey answered. “Obviously. He’s a slime dragon.”
Devon twisted to face them as he wiped the goo from his face. “He slimed me.”
“What does it do?”
“It’ll paralyze him in a few seconds,” Dewey answered.
Paige’s jaw dropped open. “What?” She flicked her gaze from Dewey to Devon, who started to turn away and raise his stick. His body shuddered like a defective robot before it froze.
“See,” Dewey said.
“OMG!” Paige squealed as the dragon’s forked tongue licked the slime dripping from his lips. He reached out a clawed hand and snatched Devon’s stiff form, thundering away from them.
Paige stood with her jaw agape in stunned silence as he trotted off with a paralyzed Devon.
“Aaaaand that’s our cue to leave,” Dewey said, with a pat on her head.
“Are you kidding me? We have to help him.” She offered Dewey a horrified glance. “Unless he’s dead. Is he dead?”
“No. He’s alive and fully conscious. He just can’t move.”
Paige hurried to the crossroads and peered around the hut. “Can we restore his movement, or is the paralysis permanent?”
“There’s an antidote. Pretty standard. It should cure him in minutes.”
“And is it readily available here, or is it made from unicorn tears or something?”
Dewey rolled his eyes. “Yes, it’s made from unicorn tears, and all dragons hoard gold. Sometimes, Paige, sometimes…”
“Well, I don’t know. Until today, I didn’t even know slime dragons existed.”
“Any respectable slime dragon keeps an anti-slime on hand for accidents.”
“Accidents?” Paige asked as she hurried as noiselessly as possible down the quiet side street.
“Sometimes they’ll sneeze some slime out and accidentally paralyze a pal.”
Paige waited for the dragon’s tail to disappear around another hut before she sprinted to it. “Ew, that’s nasty.”
“What do you expect from slime dragons,” Dewey said, with a bobble of his head.
Paige shifted her gaze to him for a second, raising her eyebrows.
“What?” he asked.
She shifted her gaze back to the dragon trundling along between the rows of huts and shook her head. “Nothing.”
“That was a look,” Dewey said, while Paige crept down the road, trailing behind the dragon.
“Not really,” Paige answered.
“It was so. What was that look for?”
“Nothing just seems like you don’t like slime dragons.”
Dewey scoffed. “I hate slime dragons. They’re disgusting.”
“That’s kind of…harsh.”
“It’s not. Firebreathers and slimers do not get along. It’s just the natural order of things. It’s like saying lions and gazelles can be friends. It’s only a matter of time before one of them eats the other.”
Paige studied the dragon as he slipped into a hut down the street. “Who eats who?”
“What?”
“Who would eat who in a slimer versus firebreather matchup?”
“The slimers. Violent buggers. We firebreathers are peace-loving dragons. We wouldn’t hurt a fly. Not unless provoked. These jokers will attack a tree branch if it waves the wrong way.”
“Good to know.”
“He’s probably going in to take a nap. I’m surprised he was awake at this time. So, we have half a chance to save dummy Devon.”
Paige reached the massive hut the dragon had disappeared in moments ago. “Cut him some slack, he was trying to help.”
“Falling for those dashing good looks again, I see,” Dewey murmured.
“I am not. But he did help us jump out of a plane, and he tried to save us from the harpies.”
“And he failed both times. And now we have to rescue him.”
Paige peered into the darkened space through the open door, trying to make out any details. “This is hardly surprising. I’m shocked he pulled off that car accident, to be honest.”
“He seems so suave, but when it comes right down to it, he doesn’t really have any field experience.”
“Everything’s probably gone his way,” Paige said, pulling the fronds covering the door aside and scanning the interior.
“I don’t see him. They must be upstairs.”
“Great,” Paige groaned. “He couldn’t have left him downstairs?” She slipped into the massive hut, searching for stairs.
Her shoulders slumped as she caught sight of them. “You’re kidding me.”
She approached the wooden steps that rose from the back wall to the second story. She stood in front of them, craning her neck to see the top of the first one.
“These are huge.”
“He’s a dragon, Paige.” Dewey shook his head.
“Fly up there, and get Devon,” Paige said.
“No way, uh uh. We stick together.” Dewey fluttered off her shoulder and landed on the first step. “Come on. You can do it.”
Paige shook her head, wrinkling her nose as she closed the gap between her and the step. She leapt in the air and latched on to the edge with her fingertips. She struggled to climb up, bracing her feet against the riser as she pulled her top half onto the tread.
She scrambled up onto the platform, rolling onto her back and puffing with effort.
“Good job,” Dewey said, with a fist pump. “Only five more to go to the first landing.”
Paige slid her eyes closed and groaned before she pulled herself to her feet and climbed up the next step. By the time she reached the first landing, sweat dripped from her face, and her glasses continued to slide down her slick nose.
“Eight steps to the next floor,” Dewey announced.
“Ugh,” Paige said as she covered her face with her hands and collapsed onto her back.
“You wanted to save him, Miss Nicey-Nice.”
She pulled her hands away from her face, flinging them out to the side. “We can’t leave him.”
“I mean, we could .”
“Okay, fine, Mr. Pedantic. We shouldn’t leave him.”
“‘Should’ is such a tricky word,” Dewey said, with a wrinkle of his nose.
“Is it? Is it really? I mean, he should have left us to die with the harpy. He should have jumped out of the plane himself. He should have let me die from Ivy’s bite.”
“He shouldn’t have kidnapped you. He shouldn’t have marked you.” Dewey shrugged and tossed his arms out.
Paige wrinkled her nose.
“You’re blinded by the good looks. You’re chasing tail.”
Paige let her head thunk against the stair tread. “I am not chasing tail. He doesn’t even have a tail. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.”
“That was lame. Worst joke ever.”
“Best I’ve got under the circumstances.” Paige pushed herself up to sit. “Eight more. I hope I have it in me.”
“Well, Devon hopes you have it in you,” Dewey said as she climbed to her feet. “He’s up there, even more chiseled than ever.”
Paige leapt up and latched onto the edge of the stair tread. Her tired muscles protested the movement, stiff and sore from her previous efforts. “He really owes me for this.”
“He’s racking up quite the bill.”
“Tell me about it. This deserves at least a coupon for a massage.”
Dewey arched a fleshy eyebrow as she clamored up the second step. “Are you sure you don’t want the massage from Devon?”
“Please,” Paige said with a roll of her eyes as she squatted and rubbed her hands together, preparing to leap onto the next step. “You know, I think you’re in love with Devon. I think his chiseled features are making you melt.”
Dewey scoffed. “Oh, please. Don’t be ridiculous, Paige. I can’t stand the guy.”
“For not standing him, you certainly talk about him enough,” she said, climbing up another step.
“Because I hate him.”
“Thin line between love and hate,” she groaned, making it halfway to the top.
Dewey fluttered in the air, with his arms crossed. “You’re talking insane. He’s slime.”
Paige winced as she shimmied up another step. “Close. He’s slimed.”
“Also, slime. He is the scum of the Earth. He tried to kill you, then tried to marry you.”
“I thought you said that was normal behavior?”
“The kidnapping bit, sure. But the kill-to-thrill bit? That’s kind of creepy. And now this whole thing with your mom. Just weird.”
Paige heaved in breaths as she paused at the foot of the sixth stair. “Yeah, what’s up with that? What kind of guy brings up your dead mom and tries to convince you she’s alive?”
“Slime,” Dewey answered.
Paige crawled across the tread of the next stair up, heaving breaths. “I’m not going to make it.”
“You can do it, Paige.”
“I can’t. I can’t do it. I’m going to die.”
“Wow, you’re out of shape,” Dewey said, with a shake of his head. “It’s that sedentary lifestyle.”
“Sedentary? In my time as a librarian, I have barely sat down. I have been chased, attacked, and nearly killed.” She grunted as she swung from another stair. “I have walked through a blizzard, climbed a thousand stairs of a pyramid, leapt past traps in Egypt.”
With another groan, she mounted the final stair. “I’d hardly call that sedentary.”
“Could still add some weight training to your regimen,” Dewey said.