Sir Ronald nodded. “If that. Probably shorter.”
Leonard patted Taddy on the side of his neck. The huge dragon visibly relaxed at the dragonfriend’s touch, sighing and sitting heavily on the tunnel’s rocky floor.
Leonard continued to run his hand down the side of Taddy’s neck, each stroke calming him even more. “There, there, Taddy, you have nothing to be concerned about,” said Leonard, a soothing tone to his voice.
Taddy gave one last sigh before relaxing completely. “I don’t know what came over me. How embarrassing. I’m a dragon. We’re not supposed to be afraid of anything!”
“We all have our little quirks, Taddy,” said Merlin, shaking a stone out of his boot. “My bugaboo is mermaids.”
Leonard raised his eyebrows. “Really? I’ve always imagined that they were rather pretty.”
“And they are! I’ve got no problem as long as I stay focused on the human part, but if I happen to catch a glimpse of the fish part?” Merlin clutched his arms and shuddered.
“What about you, Leonard, does anything really, really scare you?”
Leonard scratched the back of his head. “Well, I’m not really sure . . .”
“I know what scares you,” said Merlin.
Leonard shot him a glance. “You do? What?”
“Those giant slugs that attacked you on the Vine going up into the Cloud Kingdom.”
“No.”
“Yes! You were trembling and crying like a little baby.”
“That wasn’t me. That was Hubert. He was petrified of those things. I just thought they were grotesque.”
Merlin frowned. “Oh, yes. That’s right. Then what are you afraid of?”
Leonard shrugged. “I don’t know. Nothing comes to mind at the moment, but I’m sure there’s something.” He gave Taddy a big pat on the neck and smiled. “And when I think of it, Taddy, you’ll be the first to know.”
Taddy rubbed his head against Leonard’s shoulder and almost knocked him over. “Thank you, Leonard.”
Merlin slipped his boot on and stood. “What do you say we get on with our journey? Sir Ronald, please lead the way.”
“Gladly, Merlin.” Sir Ronald floated to the front of the group and turned. “One thing, When I was headed toward the back of the white spider’s cave, I hit an area of what can only be described as ‘strangeness.’ Everything went black, and I was in a realm of complete nothingness.”
“How odd,” said Leonard.
“Indeed. I wandered for quite some time before I stumbled out of the nothingness and ended up here.”
Merlin set his pack on the ground and began to root through it. “What you experienced, my dear Sir Ronald, was the point of transition between two worlds. In your case, the transition between Niflheim and our world, or, as the Northmen call it, Midgard. Obviously, we’ll be travelling in the other direction. Ah, here we go.” Merlin lifted his hand out of the pack, revealing three necklaces with what looked like three small pieces of ordinary wood dangling from them. “Behold, pieces of the sacred World Tree, Yggdrasil!”
Leonard, Taddy, and Sir Ronald stared blankly at Merlin and his necklaces. “I know you mentioned it back in Eater’s cavern, but could you please explain the Tree again?” asked Leonard.
“Fine. Yggdrasil is the Tree of Life. The nine worlds of creation are spread out in between the top and the bottom, hanging like fruit from its branches.”
“Now,” said Merlin, placing one of the necklaces around Leonard’s neck, “this talisman will not only grant you free passage through the zones of transition, it will, more importantly, allow you to come back through. Without these pieces of Yggdrasil, we’d run the risk of being bounced around for an eternity. It is the reason why Sir Ronald had some difficulty transitioning. It is only because he is a ghost that he was not affected that greatly.”
“Which is good because one of those necklaces would slip right through me,” said Sir Ronald.
“Correct,” said Merlin, placing a talisman around his own neck.
Taddy cleared his throat. “What about me? Don’t I need one?”
“No. I’m afraid you’ll be going back in the stone, Taddy. It’s the safest way for you to traverse the void.”
Taddy grunted and stamped his feet. “Aw!”
“Don’t worry, good dragon, I shall wait until the very last moment before asking you to go back inside.”
“Promise?”
“Promise. Oh, and while I shouldn’t have to say this, I will anyway . . . don’t lose your necklace, Leonard. Right?”
Leonard quickly nodded. “Right.”
“Good. Let us proceed.”
Chapter Eight
The Strange Beast
M erlin led the way, the bright light from his staff casting deep, ever-changing shadows on the stones and skeletal remains that littered the tunnel floor. Some of the bones were recognizable to Leonard’s eye—birds, deer, forest pigs—others were unlike anything he’d ever seen. They had strangely-shaped horns or tails with clubs or nasty-looking spikes at the end of them. Some of the bones were arranged in a way that looked like the creature they belonged to had calmly gone to sleep never to reawaken. Most of the others, however, were scattered and broken, covered with bite marks that showed they’d been gnawed on by something with sharp teeth.
Leonard glanced at Taddy who swept his head from side to side and sniffed the stale tunnel air. “What do you make of all of this, Taddy?”
“There’s something out there—something with a scent unknown to me, or, rather, several known scents piled on top of each other.”
Leonard recoiled, and his hand instinctively went to his sword when a pain-filled squeal, followed by barking from a pack of wild dogs, reverberated throughout the tunnel. In the distance, what sounded like wild boar was being viciously attacked. The desperate squealing went on for several moments before it abruptly stopped.
Sir Ronald quietly cleared his throat. “Is that what it sounded like, Merlin?”
“It can’t be,” whispered Merlin. “It vanished years ago.”
Leonard glanced around nervously. “What vanished? It sounds like dogs, lots of them.”
“It does, but it’s not,” said Merlin, a note of disgust in his voice. “It’s a single creature with the head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, the hooves of a deer . . . and the bark of thirty dogs. It’s called the Questing Beast, Leonard, a vile monster that plagued our lands for a time, then disappeared.”
Leonard frowned. “The body of a leopard and the head of a snake? Sounds like this creature was invented by the mind of a small child. What’s it doing here?”
Merlin shrugged. “Hunting, possibly. Maybe it followed its prey through a portal and was trapped here.”
The barking returned. This time it was closer . . . and behind them.
“It draws nearer,” said Leonard, quietly.
“We must leave this place,” hissed Merlin, turning and hurrying ahead.
“I’ll defend you,” called Taddy.
“The beast will give a dragon wide berth, Taddy. It’s going for weaker prey . . . Leonard and me!” called Merlin over his shoulder as he ran. “To the portal! Now!”