The Princess of Planet Xeronis

Dragon Slayer

It was only momentary but Ben was unconscious from the fall. In his unconsciousness, he stood in a dream that recreated the gorge and the rocks that surrounded them. So Ben was gliding from rock to rock in a dream body and he only stopped as he saw the dragon that attacked them flying the other way obscured in the mist.

"Marsmodo!" Ben uttered and his hand flew to cover his mouth. What was that? What did it mean? Why had he spoken gibberish? Then his hand moved on its own and pointed at the dragon, "Marsmodo," the words forced themselves out again.

Ben opened his eyes as he regained consciousness with the ending of the dream. He picked himself up to look around. They had crash-landed on a smooth and wide ledge of the gorge. He hurried to Nancy who lay on her belly; she was unconscious.

"Nancy...?" he searched for a pulse in her neck and he dared not move her. Then Spot came to them.

"She'll be okay," he assured the puppy.

"Ben, the dragon... I don't think he's far."

Ben looked at the flying bike which lay on its side. He moved to it and touching it sent electric current coursing through his veins. He jerked backward and shook his hand from the pain.

He looked at the gorge wall and saw a rising path that disappeared into the mist above. He looked at the puppy, "Stay here with her."

"Don't leave us."

"Trust me," then Ben ran to the walls and began to make the ascent. Before long the mist turned red as the dragon descended to inspect his kill. Ben did not stop running up.

Spot was now barking furiously. As the dragon neared, as its towering shape silhouetted against the misty sky, Spot went dead silent and tucked his tail, and whimpered. 

Ben stopped and picked a rock, and he looked down below. He then hurled the rock which went spinning down till it hit the dragon on the head, drawing its attention upward.

"Hey, pick on someone your own size!"

The dragon roared ferociously at him and then it came back up and flapped its wings to hover before Ben. Ben moved back to the walls - the dragon was really large.

The dragon threw its head back but Ben was not going to wait to be roasted alive. Then the dragon blew a spray of flames from its mouth, a spray that moved upwards with its embers leaping at him as he ran up, and raised rocks that came between them shielded his hide... but not for long.

The dragon hit immediately in front of him with its ten horns that stuck on his head like a crown. Chunks of rocks fell as the passage upward was destroyed.

Ben meant to turn back but the dragon's tail destroyed the path again, leaving him standing on a raised platform and unable to escape.

Nancy opened her eyes and she sat up straight. She then looked around and upwards and then her heart raced. She got to her feet and ran to her bike. She pushed it over and mounted while calling Spot who ran up to her.

Ben pressed hard against the wall as he looked the dragon in the eyes. The dragon growled and grinned as it came closer to the platform.

"Where is she, human?" the dragon spoke and its voice was a bass that rumbled from deep within its belly.

"Where's who?"

"The princess!" the dragon thrust his hand and held him firmly against the wall with his claws. The force dazed Ben a little.

"You reek of her."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"You lie," then the dragon loosed his flames on the rock not far from Ben's right so that he writhed away from the heat.

"Where is the girl?" the dragon demanded.

"I don't know..." then another breath scorched the rock and began to turn it red. Ben began to groan and then moan in pain as his skin began to hurt.

"Where is she?"

Ben looked at the dragon defiantly. It made to breathe again but he spoke, "Wait... wait... I'll show you to her."

"Where?" the dragon hissed.

Ben hesitated, "Inside the tunnels."

"Why do you lie for her? You don't even know her."

Then the dragon took Ben into his right hand to bring him closer to his face. Ben hung limp in his grip because he trembled with fear, and the red serpent eyes of the dragon were not helping. He was like a little doll in the arms of the beast. This was indeed a strange new reality. Never did he imagine before that there was another world he could go to and talk with dragons face to face.

He did not know how to be brave in such a reality and now he was sure he was going to die. He clutched onto the dragon's scaly fingers and held on because of vertigo; he had no idea how far the depths dropped but his body was convinced somehow that they were pretty high up. The dragon clutched onto the face of the rock wall like a bat.

"Would you die for a person you just met?" the dragon spoke in a deep bass.

"How do you know that?"

"I know everything! She is a naive little girl who doesn't need someone as great as me to put her out of the picture. Soon enough her reckless escapades would have brought her to her own ruin."

"Why do you want to kill a princess? Did someone send you? Whatever they are paying, she can triple it," Ben tried to negotiate since he had failed to loose himself from the firm hold.

"Do you think someone can buy me?"

"Everyone has a price."

"You clueless simpleton! This is blood for blood. Her fathers reigned terror upon this planet when they came to build colonies here when their star system burned out two thousand years ago. They built kingdoms and took over what was not theirs. But now their time has expired. We hid for so long... forgotten... but now we rise again."

"There are more of you?" Ben was just now stalling. He hoped Nancy had disappeared now because this dragon meant business.

"Enough! Let's finish this," then the dragon leapt off the walls and he hovered and looked around, "Oh princess!! Come out, come out from wherever you are," he teased.

But Nancy had been close all along. She was hiding behind a large rock boulder and peeping over to Ben and to the dragon. Ben could not free himself.

"Come out right now or he is putty in my hands."

"Don't listen to him or we are both toast!" Ben cried out to her.

"Silence," the dragon told him but Ben would not listen.

"Flee to your people and don't look back!"

But Ben suddenly started groaning in pain. The dragon had begun squeezing his hand and was crushing him. Then Nancy heard him scream out and beg the dragon to stop. It ate her inside.

"Do you hear his screams? I can do this all day until you come out."

"Don't you dare... come... out," Ben managed and cried again as the dragon squeezed him again.

"He is a noble one. He doesn't even think about his own life. Will you not save him? Will you let him die?"

"I have had worse," Ben said taking a break as the dragon had stopped crushing him to speak.

But Nancy had made a choice.

"Wait! Don't hurt him," she hovered on her flying bike out in the open. The dragon grinned in victory.

"There you are. Now you die!"

"No!" a cry escaped Ben's lips as the dragon took a deep breath and Ben could see flames gather inside him through the translucent skin of the beast's throat. Nancy raised her hand to cover and brace herself.

'She can't die. No, not now. She is my ticket out of here!' Ben was thinking fast. Wasn't there anything he could do to save her?

"Marsmodo!" he just blurted out.

This seemed to work because the dragon stopped.

"What did you say?"

It was gibberish sure but Ben pointed at the dragon just as he had done in the dream, "Marsmodo."

The dragon brought him up close to his face so he could look at him closely, "You know my name?"

Ben wished to say that he was just as confused. His dream earlier, if he could still call it a dream after this, only provided him a name and that was all.

"Who are you?" Marsmodo asked.

"I am nobody."

"I will question you properly after I am done with her."

Ben was so not looking forward to that. Then Marsmodo gathered his flames again and he would not be distracted further.

Wonderbee shot out of the mist in the nick of time just to save them. She came ramming into the bigger dragon with her horns and the impact drove them in a trajectory and sent flames flying everywhere. The black dragon released Ben in free fall and Wonderbee quickly dived after him. Ben looked helplessly at the spinning world as he fell but Wonderbee came and snatched him into her embrace... then she opened her powerful wings which pulled them up again before they could crash against the rocks that came up quickly below them.

Marsmodo had recovered quickly and he came grabbing Wonderbee and swinging her into the gorge wall. Wonderbee left Ben lying safely on a platform then she turned around in rage at whoever had threatened her friends. She answered his attacks by belching out flames and loosing them upon him. He recoiled in an attack with his tail.

Ben looked helplessly as the two dragons lashed at each other not very far from where he stood trapped.

Wonderbee dashed and sank her teeth in the throat of Marsmodo who roared in pain. He grabbed her and fell with her into deeper parts of the gorge, a gorge that descended without end. The two soon met a ledge that finally resisted their shock but shook the whole gorge. Wonderbee let go and flames scorched her.

"Hop on!" Nancy cried and Ben was called out of his trance. Nancy hovered above the platform. Ben looked at her and then back down into the gorge. Wonderbee hoped into the air to fly after them but Marsmodo grabbed her tail and pulled her in a tug. She could only cry after them, "Go! I am right behind you! Go!!!" Then she turned for Marsmodo and began biting him furiously.

"Ben, come on," Nancy said and he had to obey.

The flying bike then shot away.

Then they were leaving this misty barren land. An odd and sad silence hung over the air on which they rode. Nancy was shaking terribly.

"So stupid!" she cursed as tears flowed down her cheeks. A lot had been going on in her mind as well. She slowed down to a stop as distant roars echoed after them. Wonderbee was not coming and this frightened her.

'She said she is right behind us but where is she?' She could only think to avoid a looming despondency.

Ben felt a tingling in his right hand so he looked at it thinking of the electric shock he had received from the bike earlier. The bike had an excess of electricity and he had not been paying attention to the first dream he had when he came here to Xeronis. He had dreamt a terrible dragon whose name he was given, and he had dreamt high voltage electric arcs. Surely there was a connection to this flying bike.

"We need to turn back," Ben said, "He is going to kill her we need to turn back now. We cannot just run away."

"But I don't know what to do. I'm scared."

Ben held her hand and squeezed hard as he looked in her eyes, "It's okay. I am scared too and terrified, and my body is weak and I am trembling out of control. She is fighting alone against a bully and I want to help her… because she is your friend. I am here with you now and I want to help you," he said as calmly and soothingly as he could muster, hiding his own terror. But his words calmed her and she became brave. She felt she could trust Ben, who would not give up her location to the dragon, and she felt she could trust him with all her heart.

"Let's go show that beast that we are not push-overs. Doesn't this thing engage? Is it armed with a defense mechanism of some sort?" Ben asked.

"I haven't had a need to use it."

"Now you have," Ben said placing his hand on her shoulder.

Wonderbee was sent crashing and cracking the ledge floor. Marsmodo roared triumphantly as she failed to rise.

"Hey!"

Marsmodo had to turn to look at who would address him with such authority.

"Eat this!" Nancy said as she placed her palm on the imprint on her bike and there was a powerful electrical discharge that connected with the dragon and electrocuted him continuously.

The dragon rose into the air and knocked himself into the walls with hopes of losing the current but Nancy kept them connected.

"More," Nancy said and the voltage increased, illuminating the air. Then she released the dragon with a final thunder like that of lightning, and then Marsmodo fell into the depths... fell into the mist and disappeared, never to emerge again.

They had just slain a dragon.

Nancy set the bike down and they all hurried to Wonderbee. Ben stood back a little as Nancy knelt before her. Wonderbee turned to look at them and she smiled.

"You are a very brave girl," Nancy said, "Are you okay?"

Wonderbee then looked at Ben, "I'm okay now. Let's get out of here," she said staggering to her feet.

"I was just about to say the same thing," Spot said.