Page 30 of Drakhana's Secret
Baba even gets to work setting up what we now call her mobile hospital. There are still dragons that need to recover from severe burns and injuries. The young ones immediately hop off the carts and run toward the water.
Their laughter and splashing instantly lightens the air around us. The adults breathe a sigh of relief and the elders stretch tired muscles. I keep close watch on everything as the camp starts rising along every available piece of flat land in the glen. I give instructions to use the carts to form a perimeter around the camp to keep the wild animals out and show the young ones a perimeter that they can’t cross.
When the camp seems to settle and everyone has found a spot, including myself, I wander around the area along with a group of scouts. Our mission is to make sure that we are in a safe portion of the forest. I don’t want us to forget that we are still in danger.
Using my new found connection with Mother Earth, I reach out with my senses, which seemed to have become more sensitive of late. I scan the area and am led toward a mound of rocks. The overgrowth around the area makes it seem nothing out of the ordinary, but my senses tell me there’s something more here.
Concentrating, I gather the power of the earth. With a flick of my hand, I move aside the rocks. An opening is revealed that doesn’t look natural. Soon, I realize that the mound is actually the entrance to an old tunnel system that goes on for miles.
I touch the smooth wall and confirm that this was dug out and formed. The elder was right. This is the old earth dragon settlement that has long since abandoned.
The relief that goes through me is instantaneous. I hurry back to camp and share what I have found. I bring several of my advisers and a few of the warriors with me.
When we arrive at the entrance, the elders do confirm what I have suspected earlier. They all rejoice as the warriors light torches. They all enter the cave and start exploring the tunnels. I expect that by the end of the day, we’ll have a better idea of how we can use the space to our advantage.
As I wait for reports from inside the old settlement, my mind wanders to Gallant. Being busy doesn’t mean I had stopped thinking about him and his quest to rid the city of the fire and ice dragons there. I haven’t heard anything from them.
Not that they could have sent us word since we have already left our original location. At the same time, I couldn’t spare any of my other dragons to let them know where we are. Maybe after we are settled in these tunnels will I consider sending word into the city.
For now, I can only pray that everything is going well. That they are still alive. And that not many of them have been seriously injured.
Twenty
Gallant
Every day, I teach the earth dragons more and more about harnessing the powers of Mother Earth. They learn how to make the ground shake, which is nothing new for San Francisco since earthquakes always happen here. They also learn how to fling boulders and make quicksand out of the soil—the last part is harder when you’re in the city. It only really words in an open field.
The harnessing of our powers is what helps us turn the tide. We have fire and ice on the run with their tails between their legs. But what I had been afraid of soon came to pass.
Reinforcements arrived into the city within days of each other. There are more dragons in the city now than ever. Short of leveling San Francisco to the ground, which will involve a lot of human casualties that we cannot afford, we needed to form a different strategy. We need the city intact after all of this is over.
So, we limit the use of our powers and set our sights on pitting fire and ice against each other. They hate each other more than they hate the earth clan, which goes in our favor because I’d hate to see what we’d have to do if they end up working together against us. We pinpoint where two forces are about to come together then we instigate the fight and then let them duke it out. We finish off any stranglers afterward.
Branson calls it letting them do all the heavy lifting. We only move in to take care of the rest when they’re all tired and spent. That way we don’t even really need heavy firepower against them.
The strategy helps dwindle their population in the city while at the same time keeping my forces intact. Since shifting to these new rules of engagement, we’ve only suffered one major loss and that involved negligence and cockiness on our part. One of my brethren thought the fight was over when in reality it had just begun.
Cornered dragons are the most dangerous of all because they tend not to care who they take down with them. It resulted in an explosion that killed three of my guys. I oriented everyone on being more careful after that incident. Let’s say everyone learned their lesson.
One of the ways we’ve kept up our defenses is to keep fire and ice guessing. We use our knowledge of the city to our advantage. They never know where we will come from, and we take care not to lead them back to our home base.
With the new powers that I have been using, I’ve become their new favorite target. In their minds, take out the head and the body will crumble. Well, I don’t plan on going down that easily. In fact, I don’t plan on going down at all.
Branson’s been mother-henning me since. He’s appointed himself my personal nanny for the duration of this battle. It can get annoying, but I know that he means well.
We’ve organized several skirmishes that will keep the ice and fire dragons for a while. We plan on tiring them out until they are sick of being in San Francisco. They will not see any victory in sight, and that’s what will ultimately drive them away—no matter how many reinforcements they bring.
While Branson is busy organizing our troops and briefing them on our next steps, I sit down with a group of young earth dragons that are adept with our business pursuits. They had been out of jobs since this attack started. I believe it’s time that we change that.
“Fire and ice are sufficiently busy with each other that I think it’s time to restart our business ventures within the city,” I declare while sitting at the head of the table.
The young dragons nod.
“I’m sure you all understand that for us to sustain what we are doing here, we need to amass money and resources,” I continue, again to agreement around the table.
“I have been speaking to stores about carrying out products,” one of the dragons says. “I’ve sent them samples and a few of them are eager to carry our products for human consumption.”
“That’s good.” I nod at him in approval. “That means we need to ramp up manufacturing.”
