The Shield (Part Two)
They waited for fire. Instead, it was quiet.
Have you read part one? Read it here.
The lack of guns and ammo was why they made pikes and a shield. They wished for swords. Hadn’t Saint George defeated a dragon with only a sword and a shield?
The dragon was nearer, flapping its red bat wings with a gothic severity to slow its flight and land within yards of the tree line.
The boys, shaking with energy and fear, dragged their flexing shield out of the trees and roughly 30 yards into the field bordering the woods on its western side. The dragon, spotting movement, now veered in a corkscrew descent to land opposite the boys and their flimsy, wavering courage. With one hand, each steadied the shield. With the other, they picked up a roughly hewn pike.
The dragon landed, its rear claws digging into the soil and kicking clouds of earth in an arc toward the boys. Dirt hit the shield like machine gun fire, but Jude and Abel withstood the barrage. Their breathing was heavy. An unnatural quiet suddenly split with a shrieking roar that hit the shield with the force of a gale. The boys tightened their grip until trickles of blood ran from their palms through their fingers.
Jude held the sharpened tip of his pike past the shield’s edge. Instantly, like the explosion of a star, fire surrounded them, pushing the shield against them, blistering their hands and shoulders where they touched the metal. The exposed tip of the pike in Jude’s hand was aflame like a torch, and he threw it away from him to the ground to burn itself out.
Both boys, weakened by the heat and ferocity of the assault, were resigned to the nearness of death. They heard the deep breathing of the dragon, only feet away. But its rasping grunt seemed smaller somehow. Instead of faltering, their courage grew and intensified with their resignation to die and their humble attempt to stand as a bulwark against this destroyer. Abel grabbed a pike and threw it over the shield—a weak struggle against the serpent. The wild throw was far short of the dragon and landed on the ground with the hollow, woody ring of a broomstick.
With a short, crackling breath, the dragon sprayed fire again.
They gripped the shield tighter, put their shoulders against it, and leaned forward with their legs supporting them. Their hearts beat violently, and their chests shook.
With a short, crackling breath, the dragon spewed fire. It hit the shield with a violent kick but only crashed against it like the surf hitting a seawall. An impotent wave of sparks curled back toward the dragon.
A screeching roar made the boys shudder, raise one shoulder to an ear, and cover the other with their free hand. The flapping of leathery wings pushed air around them, breaking over the shield. The beat of wings increased and kicked dirt and torn grass into the air like the whirling blade of a helicopter.
They waited for fire. Instead, it was quiet. Jude held out another pike. Abel threw his over the shield again and listened as it hit the ground with the strange music.
“Should we run?” Abel mouthed.
Jude shook his head no. Then, he whispered, “Where to?”
With the caution of a burglar, Jude looked around the side of the metal shield to see the dragon slowly climb into the dull sky, heading back toward the smoldering destruction in the west.
Jude and Abel pushed the shield over in front of them. It landed in the charred, dead earth with a soft thud. They fell back on a small swath of cold and brown grass in the blackened soil. The trees behind them smoldered, saved from ravaging destruction by the recent winter rains of the past months.
Both lay on their backs and watched the dragon shrink in the sky. Their blisters throbbed with short pulsing pains tearing at their nerves with each drumming heartbeat. They only waited, watching for the light of a star to flicker on in the glowing blue light of the night.
“We did it,” Abel said. “We’re still here.”
“We are,” Jude answered breathlessly.
They looked like shadows in the quiet now as soft as velvet. Neither spoke. They watched the stars glow overhead like embers, waiting for tomorrow with a growing confidence that was better than mere words.