Dragon Chase

• Tayla Harvey, Grade 11, Boonah State High School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Beyond Words 2015' competition

I woke in a daze, the surrounding area bright and blinding. There were the faintest traces of clouds, just skimming along the icy blue of the sky. I realised I was laying down, so I turned my head to the side, and saw golden grass, albeit with little seed heads. Where am I? I raised an eyebrow and picked at some seed heads close by me. Then I realised where I was.
A field. More correctly, a wheat field. I sat up and got to my feet, looking in all directions. There were no paths, no animal tracks and all I could smell was the mustiness of the wheat beneath my feet. Wheat meant a farm. Perhaps if I went to this farm if it were nearby, and asked for help, I’d be right. I scanned the wheat field once more, in search of the farm, if there even was one.
I fell quiet as a monstrous roar filled the air. It wasn’t like the roar from a jet engine, nor that of a tiger or a large cat. The sound was that deep set, it reverberated across the land, making the branches of the oaken grove to my imminent right shudder. To me it felt like a large truck was speeding past, but I was sure it wasn’t a truck making the noise. My eyes turned skyward and I crouched in the wheat, scanning the sky for the source of the noise. Then a strangely familiar scent caught my attention.
Smoke.
Wait…smoke? If there’s smoke, there’s fire. If the fire is anywhere near me, I’m in big trouble. Why? I asked myself. Duh, because you’re in a wheat field silly, and what happens to wheat when it’s exposed to fire? It burns! The little voice in my head snapped at me for my silly blonde moment. With a stronger gust of wind, the smoke became stronger, so I turned tail and ran, through the knee deep wheat, my footfalls carving a straight line through the crop.
My legs were beginning to feel like jelly and then my foot snagged a large stone. I went head first into the wheat once more and I landed on my right hand. As I hit the ground, I heard something snap. As I writhed around in agony on the ground, clutching at my crushed wrist, I froze as a large obsidian scaled object flew overhead, with a head the size of a small car, a neck and tail as wide as a hotdog cart, its chest the width of the Statue of Liberty’s big toe, four wings the size of two stretch limousines and hellishly long claws that could carve stone into tiny precise pebbles. My eyes widened drastically, as I realised I was being preyed upon by a dragon of a gargantuan size. It landed in front of me, and fixed its ruby eyed gaze upon me and I knew that it was all over. The head drew back and it’s mouth opened, and then all I felt was pain.