But a female Dragon didn’t just die; she exploded!
Mavis had finished her introductory journey and now everything in an instant went black. The visions of the Dragon’s Cavern-World suddenly cleared, like smoke swept away by a gust of wind. They were once again sitting in the dim cavern, deep under the Smoking Tree.
They were back in their own space and time, and once more in their usual bodies. Mary was once again aching and hurting, and Roger, tired and weary. And they were still trapped, deep under the ground and far from home. And still all alone with a wounded Dragon!
Roger sat in stunned silence for a few moments and then gently asked the Lady Dragon.
“What do you m-m-mean, Mavis? They explode! Are you talking about yourself?”
Roger gulped and looked meaningfully at Mary, who now took his hand into hers.
“It’s all true,” Mary said aloud, now uncovering the object she’d been keeping carefully concealed for ages, wrapped up under her coat. “Yes. Mavis is about to self-combust too; She’ll explode once this night is over, she thinks; But we have to help her, Roj - that’s why, that’s why we’re here; we have to get her last Egg safely away before she explodes!”
There, in Mary’s lap, softly glowing like a huge, beautiful gem, lay the Dragon’s Egg.
“And it’s going to happen very soon!” Mary cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Yes, Children; Truly, I will meet my ancestors very soon, much sooner than I had planned for,” Mavis rumbled somberly, but soothingly, deep within their minds. “But my hatchling here, he must somehow be taken to the surface; I am unable to continue, as I ... I am damaged and I have a missing wing. Thus, I have been forced to turn to the Great Forest Powers for aid. And thus, you are both here… by the will of the venerable Tree-King of Lundun himself,” she sighed heavily, now sounding very tired and world-weary indeed.
And she had a very good reason so to be. For there were yet further dark and evil forces gathering nearer, and fully intent on the destruction of herself, Queen Sivam-Sivad of the ancient Sivad Dynasty of ruling Dragons, as well as that of her unhatched son, the Royal Prince and the one and only Heir to the True Dragon’s Under-Erf Kingdom. The last hope of all the worlds within the World… of all the Under-Erf and Over-Erf together!
The children sat quietly huddled together on the floor as Mavis explained her plight, and this time, Roger reached out for Mary’s hand, and they sat, hand in hand, in somber silence, both enthralled and appalled, at the wonderful visions and the incredible knowledge that Mavis had brought to them, as their Spirits flew united with hers.
“My son will be named ‘Regor Yram,” Mavis continued, "and he will eventually become the most powerful True Dragon in the History of all Dragon-kind!” She finished, breathing more painfully now, as she rapidly blew gusts of blue-grey smoke from her flaring nostrils.
“Oh, it’s just not fair!” Mary cried out, feeling very distressed. “Isn’t there anything we can do, Mavis? Isn’t there some way to save you, any way at all?” she asked desperately, looking longingly and sorrowfully up into the Dragon Queen’s large and wise, amber eyes.
“My fate is sealed child. But my Eggs’ is not! He must go to the surface and must be kept somewhere cool, damp and safe; far away from our enemies, as well as the all-consuming fires of my death and my re-birth!” She answered enigmatically.
“Wh-what do you m-m-mean?” Roger stammered out, startled and confounded as to what Mavis actually meant by that. “What d-d-do you mean your death and re-birth, are you coming b-b-back from your death, Mavis? Are you t-t-talking about some sort of reincarnation or something?”
“Yes, in a manner of speaking, I am Roger,” sighed Mavis, “but… only in a manner of speaking, for I will then be with my ancestors and I will be flying free forever, in the great Fire-Dance of the Dragon Souls. I will be re-born as pure potential of spirit, my wings as good as new, and my colors of magic as bright as ever; But, my dear, I will not be as you know me now,” she sighed mysteriously, but with a bright gleam shining in her amber eyes.
“Ooh, I’d like to know more about the Fire-Dance of the Dragon Souls!” Mary told her.
“Yes, so would I!” Roger agreed, but also wondering what it all exactly meant.
“You will, oh, Human children of the endless sky, you will, but not for some while yet!” Mavis quietly replied, breathing a soft warm breath into the children’s faces and somehow meaning much more than she was saying, with her penetrating, but gentle telepathic thought.
“Now attend to me,” Mavis continued, “we must now fulfill your basic education and you must speedily find a way from this Cavern to the surface with my Egg; I will show you what you…!”
But then without warning, Mavis was suddenly cut off from any further communication as a huge explosion, along with much violent shuddering and shaking, resounded all around them. The whole of the cavern floor writhed and buckled like a storm-tossed sea.
Several more explosions occurred, each in rapid succession, and then great, gaping cracks started to appear across the cavern’s floors and walls. The whole place was being shaken and seemed to be breaking into bits!
Several of the stalactites came spearing down through the dust, sending great billows of grey smoke high into the air. Clouds of choking smoke whirled about the noise-filled cavern, like crazy coils of cream, spinning in a huge coffee cup.
Roger clutched Mary tightly in his arms, as the sudden and mad vortex of dust and smoke swirled madly about them; Soon to suffocate them in its relentless stranglehold of death if it didn’t quickly subside.
The cracks were splitting up the sides of the cavern walls and Roger could see that large chunks of jagged rock were sheering off from the cavern roof above them too, threatening to fall on them and crush them like little bugs under a large brick.
“Oh, my Saintly Sagan!” he cried out, aghast, “I think we’re really done for now, Mary!”
CHAPTER 14:
ATTACK OF THE TRYDRA
Mavis however, had seen the danger they were in and had reacted as quickly as she could by at once unfurling her one, surviving wing and covering them from the very worst of the falling rocks and the swirling dust cloud. At the same time, she blew a torrent of blue flame from her flaring nostrils, enveloping them in a translucent bubble of pale blue flame.
“Keep close to my side,” she ordered, “as long as we are protected by the magic of the blue flame, we will not be harmed; But we must stand our ground and be ready to fight. The Minions of ‘The Enemy’ approach even now!”
“Wh-wh-what Enemy; What m-m-Minions?” Roger cried out in alarm.
“That you will soon know, but first, you must arm yourself, with whatever rocks you can find; The Minions of ‘The Enemy’ are worms who will try to surprise us and steal away at least one of you humans, along with my precious Egg of course!”
The thunderous echoes of the explosions were now dying away, and the tremors of the quake were doing the same, too. The acrid smoke and the grinding dust still swirled about them. Roger saw that barely a foot away from him, just beyond the rippling surface of the bubble of blue fire, the Dragon’s magical shield surrounding them all, the manic winds of dust and debris swirled and whirled about its globe of shimmering blue-safety.