The Trials (The Elite Series) (6 page)

The landscape changed drastically. There was a huge portion of land that had been cleared of any tree or shrub
. The dirt looked like it had been churned or trampled. In the middle of this pocket was a large hole about a quarter mile long and four or five feet deep. But none of this shocked Connor more than what he found in the crater-like hole.

Dozens of dark green-scaled creatures lounged, slept, and wandered about the area. They ranged from the size of a baby horse to the size of a building. The noise they made came in short grunts or staccato teeth snaps. Just like in the book Morrigan had lent him, they had long tails, short necks, and a small pair of wings that lay prone on their muscular backs.

For a second
, Connor was an eighteen-year-old boy again. He lay mouth open, soaking in the scene. Anyone who grew up imagining that dragons did exist or that dinosaurs still existed would kill to be in his position. The child inside of him had to fight to be heard, but the Judge reminded him why he was here.

Connor was mesmerized
and would have probably spent longer observing the animals had he not felt a light tug at his leg and crawled backward, once again beside Miyanda. “What did you see?”

“There are so many of them. How are we going to capture one?”

Miyanda’s dark eyebrows shot up. “We? Listen, Connor, I don’t want to seem like I’m not a team player, but you’re the Judge. I was just supposed to take you here. I wanted to see how YOU were going to do it.”

“Great.” Connor’s brow furrowed in concentration.
Connor’s mind ran through a dozen possibilities before he turned to his companion in a whisper, “Miyanda, you and your people have been protecting these creatures your entire life, you must know something. Do they have any weaknesses, anything I can use to my advantage?”

Miyanda bit her lip.
“There is one thing. There’s no way you could outmatch the dragon for strength, but if you can escape their initial burst of speed, they’re not built for long distance running. I know it’s not much, but maybe that will help.”

A plan s
tarted to form in Connor’s mind. “Yes”, he smiled. “That does help.”

His mind turned to his mother, to Laren, Katie, Morrigan
, and the race he was now charged with protecting. This was just one step he needed to take in the journey to insure the safety of those he loved and those he was destined to protect. Now weaponless and about to try and capture a creature the size of a trailer with nothing more than his wits, he turned on his will, his inner strength, hoping it would be enough. His vision turned red.

Bursting through the foliage that had acted as cove
r against the behemoths of the Amazon, Connor jumped into the shallow crater and crouched, every muscle tense and screaming at him to move. But he couldn’t yet. He needed to find his target. He needed to find the biggest dragon he could.

A multitude of piercing yellowish brown eyes swung in his direction, first surprised
, then angered. Roars erupted from deep throats as the dragons shifted from their comfortable arrangements. The noise was ear shattering as the host of monsters yelled defiance at their would-be attacker.

Connor still stood
, tensed, searching the crowd, and then he saw him. Over to his right was the largest dragon in the herd. Its dark green scaled body contrasted the brown earth beautifully and his large claws pawed the ground as he approached. The creature was roughly the size of an eighteen wheeler. The dragon was built like one, too. Long and stout, it stood, king of the herd.

Half shaking and not taking his red eyes of
f the target, Connor reached to the ground and found a rock the size of a football. Launching the missile at his chosen target, it struck the dragon between the eyes. The animal looked stunned. Connor hadn’t done any serious harm, but the animal looked surprised something so small would stand up to him.

The dragon
shook its large head and let out a roar, as if to say, “This one is mine.” As he approached, the noise sounded like a thousand furnaces heating up and an army shouting in one voice. The beast was at a run now, murder in his eyes. Less than thirty yards away and closing quickly, Connor reached down to the dirt floor for another rock, but his hand met something long and smooth instead. It was a bone, an arm of some forgotten warrior long dead, no doubt killed by the dragons, but it wasn’t the remains of the skeleton that caught Connor’s eye, it was the shiny metal that was hidden by the dirt next to the body. Gripping the metallic object, he pulled it free from its grave. It was an axe.

B
efore Connor could examine it further, he checked on the progress of the dragon. It was bearing down on him, just a few feet away. The ground shook with its weight. One thought and one thought only crossed Connor’s mind…
run.

Reaching for that drive inside
, he let it consume him and he ran. During every track or sporting event Connor had ever participated in, every coach had told him never to worry about his opponents or look behind him. All he was supposed to do was look ahead and concentrate on how fast he could go and the finish line. Today, aided by the Elite gene, he did just that. Axe still in hand, he raced across the dragon’s dark brown crater of a den, bounded up the side of the shallow hole in one jump, and reached the jungle within seconds.

Green bushes
and vines slapped at him with violent speed as he willed his legs to run faster. The scenery around him was a blur of bright greens and dark browns. He passed by more trees and a small cliff to his left. He could still hear his pursuer behind him. The dragon snorted his rage and roared as he crashed through the forest behind him, obliterating trees and turning the vegetation into mulch under its strong legs.

Chest heaving
, Connor zigzagged through the forest, zoning out everything now and letting his mind be consumed by only one thought, the thought of escape.

Just like Miyanda had counseled
, after a mile or two the dragon seemed to tire. The sound of pursuit behind him grew fainter and fainter until it was almost non-existent. Lungs crying for air, Connor decide to stop. Picking a resting spot behind a large dark brown tree, he took this opportunity to examine the axe.

The two-handed axe he held was surprisingly light for its size. One side of its grey head was large with a sharp blade, the other side boasted a long point, like the pickaxe he had used to kill his first Elite, what seemed a lifetime ago.

Could the Catskill incident really have happened just a week ago? It didn’t seem possible. The past days’ events came at Connor like a flood, drowning him in memories.

Connor shook his head and made
himself focus on the task at hand. There would be time to reminisce about the last few days’ events later, now he had a dragon to catch.

It was time for phase two of his
insane plan. A plan so crazy Connor thought it just might work. Connor steeled himself and forced his legs to walk back in the direction of the dragon and the small cliff. Every muscle and fiber in his body was protesting, urging him to turn and run in the opposite direction. Connor wasn’t sure if he was sweating due to his sprint, the sun over head, or his own nervousness. Regardless, the perspiration trickled down his strong neck and onto his muscular back.

Step by step
, Connor closed the distance between himself and the creature. Loud shallow breaths could soon be heard—the dragon was close, and tired. Peering through the trees, Connor could make out the cliff. If this was going to work, his timing would have to be perfect and fate would have to be in his favor.

The breathing became louder and louder until Connor could see the dark scaled skin of his prey glistening with sweat.
The large reptile’s body heaved in and out, catching its breath from the run.

If I am the Judge, if I was destined to save my people
, then this has to work, it has to.
With a silent prayer that all of Lu’s and Zuna’s talk about fate was true, Connor let the intensity wrap and consume him again. His vision red, fangs protruding, his chest heaved with excitement and power. Axe in hand, Connor sprinted the last few yards to the lone dragon, and with the broad flat side of his axe, hit the giant behind its left front leg near the knee joint with as much power as he could muster. The blow made a large
SLAP
sound and sent reverberations down Connor’s hands and arms.

The dragon
, still shocked, howled with pain and anger. Narrowing its reptilian eyes, it charged at Connor, who was now making his way to the bottom of the cliff. Connor had seen the cliff from a distance as he traveled to the dragon’s nesting spot with Miyanda and had gotten a closer, although much briefer look, at it as he ran away from the dragon.

The cliff was a nearly straight wall of
hard-packed earth and solid rock. From top to bottom, the cliff rose forty feet from the ground. Approaching the pile, Connor knew he had one chance, one go at this before the dragon would catch him. Bringing the axe in a wide swing pointed end first, Connor struck the hard rock surface with so much force his arms tingled again. The axe bounced off the rock face, leaving a deep gash in its surface, but no more.

Frantically
, Connor swung the weapon over and over again, hoping to dislodge even a few rocks, weakening the base enough for the side of the cliff and the large boulders that rested on top to avalanche down, but it wasn’t happening. Turning to find the freight train of muscle and anger bearing down on him, Connor was out of ideas and out of time. The dragon hit Connor at blinding speed, sending them both into the rock surface. The dragon’s bulk, along with the already weakened rock face from Connor’s axe blows, couldn’t take the added ton of weight and crumbled under the pressure, burying both hunter and hunted.

M
iyanda had followed Connor and the dragon at a safe pace and arrived at the scene just in time to see the creature tackle Connor and the two buried by the buckling cliff and the avalanche of rocks that now covered their bodies.

Dirt and dust filled the air
around Miyanda, making her hold a hand to her mouth and nose as she waded into the fog-like air. The scene in front of her was almost beyond belief. More than half of the rock cliff had come down on both hunter and prey, although now who was hunter and who was prey was a blurry realm of grey. Connor was nowhere to be seen and only half of the dragon’s body was visible under the aftermath of the rockslide. From mid-section to tail, the dragon was pinned under the avalanche. His large reptilian body twitched and eyes lolled stunned.

Keeping her distance from the dragon, Miyanda began moving large slabs of rock in vain
. “Connor! Connor, can you hear me?”

Nothing. Then a rock the size of a Volkswa
gen Beetle budged ever so slightly. Miyanda ran to the rock, and tapped into her own Elite strength, eyes shifting from a subtle violet to shocking orange. She braced her knees and put her shoulder into the rock. It slid free, revealing the left arm and grinning head of Connor Moore.

“Did it work?
It worked, didn’t it?” Most of his body was still buried under rock, and blood was running from a deep gash in the left side of his head.

“Connor
, forget the dragon. Are you all right?”

“Uhhhh… I think so. Did we get him?”

“Yes, you crazy American, we did. Now come on, let’s get you out of there before the rest of this cliff comes down on you.”

Miyanda and Connor worked like coal
miners, tossing boulders and rocks to the side until Connor was able to stand and escape his stone tomb.

He was filthy
, covered with rock dust from head to toe. He was hiding more pain than he let on, though the blood on his head and extremities told another story.

“I’m fine,” Connor insisted with a grimace.

“You must be the Judge, Connor Moore, to survive that. Even for Elites this is a rare feat.”

Connor shrugged h
is shoulders with another wince. “Come on, let’s see how our friend is doing.”

The two approached the trapped beast. Eyes open now
, the dragon glared at them and clawed the air, trying to free himself from his pinned position. A few minutes passed with roars and teeth snaps before the dragon realized he wasn’t going to be able to get out. He whimpered and whined in agony and frustration.

Connor saw fear and pain in the dragon’s eyes for the first time
and knew this was his opportunity to act.

“Listen
,” Connor said to the dragon, lowering his axe and approaching the beast slowly. “I’m not sure if you can understand me, but I’m not here to hurt you. I can help free you, but you have to let me help you. I’m not going to be able to free you if you’re going to fight me.”

To some extent the dragon must have understood because it just looked at him as he approached.

“Can it understand me?” Connor asked over his shoulder to a wide-eyed Miyanda. Miyanda stood a safe distance away observing.

“It doesn’t speak English
, if that’s what you mean. It may be able to sense your tone and body language. My people have protected the creatures but we do not interact with them much.”

Remembering what was written in the book Morrigan had lent him about these dragons being the smartest of their kind
, Connor decided to continue to speak to the creature whether it could understand him or not. “Listen, big guy, I can get you out of here. I can help you. Are you going to let me help you?”

Now almost within reach of the creature
, he paused to see if it would lunge for him again. It didn’t. Instead there was a shift in the rock pile as another boulder fell from high on the cliff and slammed into the pile of rocks already on the beast. The dragon whimpered again. Its large yellow eyes, once filled with hate and rage were now filled with panic and fear.

Connor took the beast
’s pitiful eyes as an invitation to help. Edging forward, he made his way beside the dragon to assess the damage. The Dragon’s dark green skin was visible till about halfway down his torso before it was lost under the dark grey stones and slabs of rock. One large boulder in particular seemed to be pinning the beast. If he could get that boulder off, Connor thought the dragon might be able to shake free. The only problem was the rock was the size of a small boat.

Wiping
the mixture of blood, sweat, and dirt from his face, Connor approached the rock. His eyes where back to his normal dark brown and his teeth were as straight as a line of synchronized dancers, but they wouldn’t stay like that for long. They couldn’t if he was going to free the dragon. He searched for the power once more. For what seemed like the umpteenth time in this trip, he searched for the rage. He was tired and so was his drive.

One more time
,
he said, talking to himself in a whisper.
One more push, don’t let me down now.

And his
Elite gene, that one strand of DNA that made him different, kicked into gear. It bounded toward him like a lion and wrapped him once again in its raw ferocity. Eyes red once more, Connor’s bloody hands searched for any type of handhold, any type of grip on the huge rock. Squatting, his hands found room for a grip just under the rock and he bent his body, his will, his beast toward the task.

His legs quivered,
his arms shook with the exertion. Connor’s black hair seemed to vibrate on his head as he felt the blood rush to his face. A roar started to form deep within his chest, a rage that wasn’t his own. The dragon must have sensed Connor’s plan, because it too planted its front paws firmly on the ground and began to push its back toward the sky. As one, both dragon and Elite grunted under the weight, and the rock moved. It wasn’t much, but the rock shifted a few inches, enough for the dragon to squirm free.

Connor released his grip on the boulder and collapsed on the
pile of rocks, heaving for breath, his body felt as though it would break, but he—they had done it.

Eyes shifting from blood red back to his dark brown
, he looked for what he hoped would be his new friend and ally.

As uncharacteristic as it seemed
, the dragon was jumping around and shaking his tail like a dog. He seemed to have forgotten Connor as he ran in circles.

For the second time that day
, Miyanda reached a helping hand to Connor, lifting him from the ground. “So that went well, what are the odds he still tries to kill us?”

“Well
, we’re about to find out.”