Dragons – WIPpet Wednesday

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog-hop where writers throw open their Work in Progress to give you a sneak peak into their writing life. I had promised to post something about dragons this week – so here is 10(ish) paragraphs from the prologue of The Legend of the Kings (Book 3). (Please remember this is very much a first draft).

The golden dragon fell from the sky like a meteor, wings back, head flat and extended; her gaze locked upon the large grey slab marking the Boundary. This close to the stone the noise was unbearable, filling her head with a sharp crescendo of pain and blurring her vision. She tried to focus. To remember what was at stake. But the ground was coming up too quickly, and her wings wouldn’t respond.

She hit at speed, her breath knocked out of her as she pitched forward and slid across the dirt. The sound was everywhere now, slicing at nerve-endings; sapping her strength. She longed to let go. To let the white blanket of oblivion overtake her. But she pushed on – she hadn’t come far enough.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flicker of movement. Adrenalin flooded her system, and she struggled to her feet before she realised it came from the wrong direction.

It wasn’t him. 

A man ran towards her, brandishing a sword. Foolish. He had to know it was useless against dragon scale. She saw the glint of metal as the blade fell, and glanced off her side. Irritated, she whipped her head around and swatted him away like an insect.

She was almost there. Beyond his reach.

“No!”

Was it too much to hope that she might have been able to slip away quietly? She’d chosen this place because it was remote and for other reasons too. Reasons tied up in another life. Yet another figure appeared at the tree-line, a younger man, red-gold hair flaming in the sunlight as he ran sword-in-hand, towards his friend’s unmoving body. The desperate grief on his face mirrored her own.

A savage roar, erupted from somewhere behind her. Her frayed nerves causing her to lurch forward and stagger sideways, clipping the youth and sending him sprawling as she sought to get away.

She could barely keep her eyes open now, as the noise raged. Stealing her strength. Her hope.  Her vision was blurring, the earth tilting dangerously beneath her feet.  Struggling to stay upright, her legs gave way and she came crashing down beside the youth.

Not far enough…

Well there you have it. If you’d like to participate, post something with some relationship to the date (10 lines, paragraphs, from page 10) and head over to this linky to add your link and see what everyone else is working on. Many thanks as always to K.L. Schwengel for hosting!