Dragons of Summer Tide (The Dragons of Hwandor) by Robert Barton Read Free Book Online Page A

girl who still lay between him and the embers as though she were dead. Veer waited for the attack which he knew would come when he heard another draconian scream as the first wolf broke through the brush and leaped. His arrow took the wolf in the throat and quenched a snarl as surely as a bucket of water would drown a torch. As the first wolf collapsed several more followed out of the forest and Veer knew that his bow had done all that it would do and that blades would be where their protection would now be found. Throwing his bow clear of the area Veer stooped and grabbed both his sword and his knife from the ground and raised them to point at the wolves now starting to fill the empty space between he and the forest.
    He had chosen the camp site well with the stream at his back so there was little space for anything to get behind him and with the bed of embers closing off one line of attack he could position himself so that the only way a beast could get to Shira was to pass his blades. He could not count how many wolves were in front of him as they moved for position but he could see that it was a large pack of the beasts. With snarls , two wolves leaped, one directly at Veer while another tried to pass by him to get to the stricken girl. He lashed out clumsily with the point of the unfamiliar sword toward his opponent. It was not a very effective strike and at the moment when Veer knew that he could not win this battle the air around him filled with the shrieks of two small dragons. There was a streak through the air as a dragon far smaller than a wolf slammed into the beast attacking Veer and a similar streak intercepted the second wolf before it could reach Shira. As both wolves went down in tangles of lupine and dragon Veer managed to get the point of his sword into the chest of a third wolf that came leaping toward him. The force of the airborne wolf still drove the boy back as it died with his sword buried in its heart.  The sword was pulled from his hand by the falling beast which had the blade embedded though bone. Veer brought his knife up to meet the onslaught of four more wolves leaping to attack. Veer resolved that he would not be driven away from his friend and then he felt the jaws of a wolf lock onto his thigh. As he felt the tearing pain of the bite to his leg four more streaks in flight slammed into the leaping wolves and they all went down each locked in a struggle with a dragon much less than half its size but with a twisting serpentine body that writhed with surprising strength and speed for such young animals.
    With a moment to see the battle unfolding Veer watched the remaining wolves leap back into the forest. The dragon which had been watching Shira was literally standing on the girl as it finished its battle with its dying opponent. The human eyed dragonet pulled away from the body of his wolf, Veer just knew that this little dragon was a he, and crawled to stand in front of Veer hissing into the forest after the fleeing wolves. Two of the battling wolves freed themselves from their little enemies and fled to the forest with the rest of their pack. The remaining two wolves died as wounds or poison ended their lifelong hunt. Of the six dragons at his feet Veer noticed that two had already moved to start trying to pull the body of one dead wolf off of another dragonet who had battled the animal and an been pinned under the beast as it fell. The dragon which had defended Shira was draped across the chest of the girl trying to raise its head weakly as it seemed to be bleeding a green ichor from several bites.  At his own feet struggling to stand was the human eyed dragon which was also bleeding from a serious bite to its leg.
    Of the dead wolves Veer saw that one had actually died across the legs of Shira and another lay on top of a twitching dragonet as two other dragons tried to pull the wolf away to free their sibling. One wolf lay on the ground with a sword still lodged in its chest. Though he