Island of Dragons (Unwanteds #7)(74)
She was looking at Panther but talking to Aaron. Or at least that’s what Aaron thought. “I’ll try not to let you down,” Aaron said.
“Even if she kills randomly,” muttered Florence, “she’s got an eighty percent chance of getting a pirate.” Florence helped Aaron down with his bundle of vine creations, then picked up Panther and set her beside him. “I’ll go with you. We could really use a big distraction to give our people a minute to breathe.”
They went around the mansion. Panther began to shake with excitement at the activity on the lawn. She clearly recognized this place.
“Stay with me, Panther,” said Aaron, and he began talking softly to her as they entered the fight scene. People moved out of the way when they saw them coming. Aaron dropped all the spiders at his feet except for one, and stroked Panther’s neck at the same time. And then he started singling out the biggest, meanest pirates. He wound his arm back and let the first spider soar through the air, hitting a startled pirate in the shoulder with it.
“Attack!” he cried.
Panther needed no further urging. She took three powerful bounds and leaped at the pirate, shoving him to the ground. Her giant jaws opened wide, and her gleaming teeth dripped with saliva. It was lights out forever for the man.
“Panther!” Aaron commanded. Panther came bounding back with the spider daintily in her mouth and set it at Aaron’s feet. He threw another spider at a pirate, commanding Panther to attack her. And another, and another, and another. With no one daring to come near him, Aaron realized he could probably play this game for as long as his arm held out.
By the time Alex noticed what was happening, Panther had taken down nine pirates, the little dog had terrorized the entire top deck of one of the Warbler ships and had headed belowdecks, and the dropbears were having a terrific lunch on board Queen Eagala’s ship. By the time the enormous rock burst out of the jungle and rolled into Artimé, Alex was dashing into the mansion with an idea of his own.
The rock moved over the lawn toward Aaron and Panther, and several pirates ran in the other direction, holding their fighting to see what was happening this time.
“Aaron,” said the rock, barely opening his mouth, “I brought a jungle friend to help.”
Aaron’s eyes widened. He tried to think of other creatures he’d met in the jungle, but his brain was fuzzy from lack of sleep. He shook his head dumbly. “Who is it?”
“It’s the scorpion.” The rock was clearly pleased with himself. He opened up his mouth, and there in the cavernous space was an enormous orange scorpion, tail swishing, pinchers waving. And with the rock’s mouth open, it saw its chance for escape. The scorpion darted out and jumped down onto the lawn, squirming and charging unpredictably.
Screams resounded, and Aaron yelled louder than anyone. “FLORENCE! SIMBER! HELP!” Valiantly he threw himself on the poisonous tail and held on, trying to avoid the deadly stinger and keep it from hitting anyone from Artimé. It didn’t take long for the scorpion to buck Aaron off and send him sailing. Panther chased after him.
Florence came running and jumped on the beast’s back. They twisted and fought over the torn up lawn, rolling over bodies and flipping through the air. The scorpion’s tail slashed and struck out as Florence tried to pin the thing to the ground.
Simber swooped in, Florence rolled the scorpion on top of her, and Simber grabbed it with his claws and lifted it into the air. He flew straight out over the water to a ship that hadn’t seen any exciting creatures yet and dropped it on board, just barely dodging the swinging catapult arm that all the ships had ready, like giant flyswatters, to keep Simber from getting too close.
A moment later, on the next ship over, an enormous mastodon statue appeared on deck, completely still, crushing the ship’s catapult with his weight. Alex came running out of the mansion as Simber was returning to shore, and Simber, anticipating what was happening, swooped in low over land.
Alex jumped on the cheetah’s back, and with barely an explanation, Simber knew exactly what to do. He landed on top of the mastodon. Alex slid off him and crouched low on the stone beast to avoid the sleep darts that were being blown at him. The world watched, straining to hear what was happening.
Whispers of “It’s Ol’ Tater!” went around the lawn. Within seconds the mastodon came alive and began stomping around on the pirate ship. Simber grabbed Alex by the robe collar before he could get flung off Ol’ Tater’s back, and they cleared the area, flying over to Artimé’s ship and pausing on board for a moment to see what would happen next.
In a mad rush from the four vessels nearest Artimé, pirates and Warblerans began to abandon ship at a remarkable pace. Once in the water, many of them cried out for help because they couldn’t swim. The pirates on the lawn stopped fighting and watched what was happening, and as the sun set behind the ships, they began running for the small boats on shore that hadn’t been crushed by Simber. Shoving off in a panic, they retreated to their ships to rescue their drowning people.
? ? ? ?
The Artiméans would sleep that night.
But the ships didn’t go away.
Death Be Not Proud
When all the pirates had retreated, Aaron caught his breath and decided he’d pushed his luck with Panther about as far as it could go. As the other Artiméans moved slowly back to the mansion, Aaron made the trip back to the jungle with her. And with his arm aching and no longer fit to throw endless amounts of vine spiders, he thanked her and said good-bye, promising he’d visit again when the war was over.