Page 15 of Ensnared
“I don’t want you to work for him,” Sammy says from under the dining table. “I don’t like him, and Mom’s already gone.” He’s crying, and I don’t have the time or skill to make him feel better.
“Guys, I know things are scary right now, but I need you to be tough for me, okay? Grab your bags, stick clothing in them, and put in some food.” I have no idea what kind of food there will be in a dragon’s den. I really hope it’s not dead humans. The idea makes me want to hide with Sammy. “Grab whatever essentials you think you’ll need. You have ten minutes.”
Axel grunts.
“Five?”
He frowns, but he doesn’t argue. I race to my room first, noticing that Axel thankfully didn’t follow me. I peel off my disgusting, ruined clothes and toss them in the trash. I splash water on my face. Then I throw a few changes of clothing into my largest backpack, along with lots of underwear and some toiletries. I slide two pocketknives and a bottle of ibuprofen in there, too. I also take thirty seconds and scrawl a note, which I leave on my counter, saying that I’ve been ensnared by an earth dragon, just like Mom was with an electro dragon. I say I’m stuck following Axel to the dragon’s main dwelling. Probably no one will ever see it, but if anyone comes looking for me, I ought to leave them all the information I have in this moment, at least.
I rush to the kitchen the second I’m done. Luckily, my siblings love granola bars and other packaged junk I can’t eat while I’m training, which means we have lots of it. I toss antibiotics, more painkillers, bandages, Neosporin, and some sleeping pills in my bag too, just in case one of the kids gets injured.
With the last minute I have to spare, I grab Sammy’s backpack that’s covered with llamas. “Alright, dude. What did you—” But when I open it, I find that he’s stuffed Legos, bags of Skittles and powdered sugar donuts, his blue blanket, and his stuffed sloth inside. That’s it. No clothes. No real food of any kind. “Sam, Legos? Really?”
“I’ll feed and clothe them,” Axel says. “It doesn’t matter what they bring. Let’s go.”
I have no idea what Coral and Jade packed, but they’re both waiting in the family room, wearing backpacks, with their favorite sneakers all laced up. I have no idea what I’ve gotten us into, and I worry that they would’ve been better off hiding here alone, waiting for Dad to get home.
But the deal’s already struck. I have to hope it’s the best one.
“Hey, what’re your names?” Sammy asks. “You didn’t say. I’m Sammy.” He smiles.
“It’s best if you just don’t talk to them at all,” I say.
“I’m Axel,” my new boss says. “That one,” he points at the ruddy-faced man, “is Gordon, and that one,” he points at Blondie, “is Rufus.”
“Wow. Those sound like human names.”
“You’re a pretty smart kid,” Axel says. “Nothing like your sister.” He smiles. “They’re translations of our dragon names. That’s the closest we could get.”
“I like your name best,” Sammy says. “It sounds tough.”
Axel smiles as if he cares what Sammy thinks. “It’s time.” He nods at Gordon and Rufus. “Change.”
They walk outside, and I follow. An unaccountable sorrow grips me. I’ve lost my mom already today. It’s not like our house was anything special, but we’ve lived here almost all my life. I played ball with my dad in the driveway. I swam in a crappy little blow-up pool in the back yard. Our heights are marked on the wall in the kitchen. Leaving now—it feels like I’ll never be back. The world’s upside down, and we’re being forced out of the one safe place we had.
The kids are looking back too, and I wrap an arm around both girls’ shoulders. Sammy presses his face against my stomach.
The dragons have moved away from the house a few dozen feet, and Gordon grimaces. Then there’s a sound like the tearing of fabric. I can’t look away as everything on his body seems to turn inside out, his back splitting open, his arms exploding. Thankfully, it all disappears in a swirl of brown smoke as a monstrous creature rises upward. It’s made up of coils—so many coils. Coils full of deep, shining brown scales that are as varied in color as the backs of dead oak leaves. They even rustle as he moves. I finally realize that Gordon does have legs, but they’re small. Much too small for his size, it appears. His head’s shaped in almost a triangle, like a snake, and his eyes are slitted. His tongue slides in and out like he’s tasting the air.
“You too,” Axel says. “Let’s go.”
This time, the sounds of Rufus shifting fill the air, like rocks being crushed, and almost the same thing happens to him, except instead of turning into a brown, snake-like dragon the size of an ancient elm, he splits and expands into what looks an awful lot like a lizard on steroids. His scales are greenish yellow, and his legs are much larger than Gordon’s.
“They’re dragons,” Coral says. “But they looked like humans before.”
“He’s one too,” Jade says. “Isn’t he?” She’s staring at Axel. “And he’s their boss.”
“Correct,” Axel says. “Your siblings really are brighter than you.”
“We’re going to follow them,” I say. “And let’s be quick and quiet about it, no matter how far it is.”
“You’ll carry the little one,” Axel says, staring right at Gordon. “Be careful with him—he’s very small. Rufus will take the two females.”
“We have names too,” Sammy says. “Remember? I’m Sammy, and this is Coral.” He points. “That’s Jade.”
“Rufus, you take Coral and Jade.”
“We can walk,” I say. “Or we could also follow you in a car.”
