“Jump upon my back, Crach, the moon is full tonight. I will save you from the long walk home and pay my respects to your Master at the same time. We have prophecies and dwarves to discuss. Come along, be not afraid. Climb up.” The great dragon lowered his gigantic head, bending one of his front legs, then flushed out a gill. I scrambled up his leg and used the bony nodules on the gill as a ladder, enabling me to climb with ease up onto his back, where I sat ‘betwixt huge scaled shoulders. “Are you as comfortable as you can be sat upon a dragon?” His voice boomed.
“I am ready, I think!” I replied with some trepidation, my feet never having been so high in the air before, let alone on top of a dragon! As an honest dwarf, I must tell you that I was petrified. I shook from my toes to the tips of my fingers, but he knew that!
“Hold on tight, Crach!”
Suddenly, great wings stretched slowly outwards before his whole body tensed as muscles prepared to spring into action, then with one great flap, his enormous body swept upwards, swirling and turning as we flew higher and higher up through the tunnel above his lair. Hanging on to his gills, a hand on each, my knuckles white with fear, gripping on for my very life. I looked up and could see the full moon in a clear night sky looming in front of us and within the wink of an eye, the entrance to the cave tunnel was far below. We flew higher and higher across the face of the moon. With my fear now gone, I felt the wind blowing through my hair and clothes, as if I hung upon a line to dry. I now dared to look down and could see so much. Looking at the beauty of our mountains from such a height was magical.
Lazarus Carpenter - Author 