Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) Read Online Free Page A

a mound of fur. Then after the flash he could see nothing as his eyes tried to readjust to the sudden return of darkness. Listening intently Veer could hear the sounds of small movements and he expected that any moment he would hear the growl of a wolf or of a hill lion. Veer sat pointing his knife before him listening intently but no growl came to him just small shuffling sounds which he could barely hear over his own pounding heart and the storm outside.
    Another flash out in the storm let Veer catch site of the creature again, and it had not moved any closer to him. Veer racked his thoughts to figure out what to do. He could slowly back out into the stormy night or he could lunge into the dark and hope that he killed whatever animal was at the back of the cave. Neither the thought of fighting an unknown animal in the dark nor that of going out exhausted and cold into a violent storm seemed very promising to him. As Veer sat and thought about what to do he realized that whatever was in the cave with him hadn’t attacked like a wolf or a lion would have done. Maybe it was something else, something not dangerous at all. Veer started to edge his way toward where the packs were left near the mouth of the cave. Careful to keep his knife pointed into the darkness toward the sounds, he felt his way among the items that he had earlier spilled out around he saddle bags. He found the tinder box with a flint and wad of wool which would catch a spark and flame up long enough to light twigs for a fire. If he only had some dry wood for a fire. Wait, he thought to himself as he began to feel around among the stuff from the packs and then his had felt a small candle. “I knew, I had seen this,” he said and was answered by the sound of something shifting in back of the cave. He tightened his grip on his knife and remembered Mum telling him that he shouldn’t talk to himself. A pang of loss came to him as he relived his entire day in a moment. Keeping his knife pointed to the back of the cave he tore off a small piece of wool and held the flint so that he could use the false edge of the knife to knock off sparks into the wool. After a few strikes the wool caught from a spark and he held the small flaming bundle to light the candle. As the candle caught fire the wind blowing in from outside made it flicker and Veer realized that his light would not last long. Veer quickly scanned the cave to see what animal he was sharing this shelter with. What he saw was a pile of the bones of some small animals which something had dragged into the cave - most likely to eat them. And huddled there in the back of the cave were puppies - a bunch of little glowing eyes looking at him.  Veer also noticed that there were small sticks, and pieces of wood and forest refuse which animals had dragged into the cave over the years. Not much wood but enough to fuel a small fire for a short time. Darkness returned as the candle guttered out but Veer was no longer afraid.
    Veer spent the next few minutes feeling around and gathering together the sticks and leaves from the cave floor and struck a few sparks from the flint to light them and soon had a small fire going. There was enough light for him to see the puppies clearly. They were just mutts - not wolf pups or anything special - just the pups of some old dog who had decided to use this cave as her nursery. There seemed like a lot of them for one litter but he didn’t bother to count them. The puppies looked just old enough to have been weaned and they kept a wary eye on Veer but also kept looking at the deer. “You’re just hungry and afraid to come near me,” Veer said to the puppies. “Someone should eat this deer, why not you.” Veer took his knife and stripped away some of the skin of the deer and began to cut off small pieces and toss them to the puppies who began to eat the pieces of meat. “There’s plenty,” Veer said to the puppies as they began to fight over the pieces and Veer began to hasten