Excerpt: Age of Adventure Book 2: The Gathering Storm

He sat on the plank bench of his dory, and scraped his rough tongue along his parched mouth. Water, water, everywhere… He didn’t know which way to even try to paddle. The Sky Valiant was probably somewhere buried beneath the waves waiting for him. Would it be better just to stand up, leap into the waters and join his comrades and Barok in the sea?
His stomach rolled and pitched against the rocking of the dory on the slow bending waves. He lay his face on the gunnels. There was something he couldn’t quite identify. Something that was deep inside of him, perhaps ignited by Kyann or was it Helen, that wouldn’t let him take such an easy end. The thought was one of the desperate. It was the cold bitterness of despair, and he never could stand the taste of it in his mouth even a little. Wiping the salt from his eyes, Will swallowed hard. He would conserve his strength in the sunlight. Keep as cool as possible in the water, all the time looking for a single shadowy coastline to head towards. At night he would paddle. He would think of Belmont beside him, chuckling that they were on a grand adventure to pull a Kingdom to them and not the other way around, and he would spin the entire world if necessary to find dry land.
Will took a slow breath. The memory of Belmont gave him strength. The thoughts of Kyann gave him courage, and his reflections of Helen gave him hope.
They were all the friends he needed on this boat trip, he told himself.

Almost as if in punctuation of his determination he saw a geyser burst from the starboard bow just scant feet from his dory. The spray rained down from a good ten feet plume on him and he protected his head before he realized that there were no such things as “sea geysers”. A moment later, the author of the spout broke the surface of the water, and rose and rose.
A coronet of horns rose first, green like aged jade. Like two warped tusks they drew down the water streamlined and shadowing a thick coiled neck. Where the horns fastened across a rumpled sleek forehead and down a snout like that of an alligator, where the beast more than sixty feet in length, and with a slightly raised almost triangular edge along the crest of its nose back to its mouth. Beyond its neck, a great scaled back with a huge fin that began to stretch in the air like a giant sail, the skin stretching in bright green with mottled blue colours along a golden carapace mast. Water dripped along the scaly steps down the back that thickened and grew wider the higher the creature rose.
Will’s chin rose, as he tried to follow the beast’s ascension from the ocean and found his head drawing further and further back until he lost balance and fell against the gunnels on the opposite side of the dory, that rippled in the waves that boiled up from the rising creature.
It’s own chin rose blowing mist from two cannon sized nostrils and its mouth widened, the leathery skin tightening gauntly as the jaws expanded, and a series of vicious razor like teeth with an almost ghostly blue sheen flashed in the light.
How large would this beast be? It’s neck now towered an almost fifteen feet above him, angling like a swan and taking in the tiny dory, with speckled eyes as large as dinner plates that blinked behind dark lids. On either side of the body of the beast, where legs might emerge, two other great fan-like fins protruded outwards. The presentation of its natural skin reminded Will of pictures of Chinese Junks making their way across the Asian waters to a far off land. That was it. The ornate colours of a great oriental dragon like he had seen in storybooks, but one that had learned instead to course the seas and not the skies.
Will felt transfixed as the head drew down towards him. He could feel hot feted breath like pungent steam ruffle his soaked clothes. The orbs tinged red and glowered.
Will closed his eyes, promising himself that while he could not help cringing, he would not scream. The monstrous head drew back and the jaws snapped even as it snaked downwards towards the tiny boat.
The snout of the creature splashed below him, tearing the planks apart and scattering the battered dory to shivers. The buckling wood tossed Will into the air. For a dizzying moment, he braced for the impact of teeth or the slap of the ocean’s surface as gravity drew him unerringly back.

He landed hard, his fingers gripping rough wet scales. He looked down to the rippling surface and clung on to the serpentine neck, closing his eyes. There was a an almost unworldly grunt from the beast that sounded like a hiss that trumpeted through its nostrils and with a start its head lashed like a whip first down and then up towards the sky. Will felt his perilous grip break and again he was soaring in the air spinning out of control. But this time he crashed directly on top of the neck, just below the beast’s head. He blinked half-stunned by the aerial acrobatics and held on to the two tusk-like horns that shadowed its skull. The beast did not shake him any further. In fact, it appeared to remain almost motionless as Will got his bearings. Will was wishing he had his sword or the bow that the Lord Talcher had given him, even though he was in no position to have his hands free. But the dragon had not tried to shake him free. In fact, it had slowly begun to descend again, moving partially below the waves. Only the top of its back with the great sail-like wing remained visible with its neck and head leaning forward like the prow of a ship. The wind caught the wing, and the great beast’s hind legs began paddling, thrusting it and Will forward through the waters leaving a great wake behind them.
In little time, Will was shivering, his fingers almost bone white as the wind whipped against him, his clothes flapping, hair flowing, the tusks raising and falling in rhythmic strokes as the creature seemed to continually raise in speed. His teeth began chattering when he realized that the monster was not going to eat him, at least right now. Was it taking him back to its lair where it would eat him in relative ease? What would happen if he just let go of the horns and relaxed his knees from around the creature’s neck and just fell into the sea? Will turned his eyes down and saw that he could stretch and dip his toes into the surface of the water as it rushed past. He knew what would happen. The current would draw him under and he’d be bashed by its tremendous legs; dashed senseless to drown. Where ever they were going he knew he had no choice but to be the passenger on this voyage. He leaned his head down against the back of the head of the creature. Without a weapon he had no way to even injure the beast if he wanted to. Will had to admit, that while it had capsized his boat, it had not harmed him. He closed his eyes and held on tightly. He was so tired, worn, and he knew he simply had to hold on to come to the end of this.