Book 4: Chapter 49
Book 4: Chapter 49
Prika lay on her back with her wings spread. She was floating above the ocean with her lower legs and tail drooping into the water. In her front paws, there were two squids. Both of them had bitemarks on them and clearly missing pieces. Prika chewed a few times and sighed. “Where, oh where do the dragons be? Oh where, oh where is my mate?” She sighed again and swallowed before taking another bite out of the squid in her paw. A jet of ink squirted out of it, but Prika didn’t notice. “All I want is a really hot mate. All I want is to go on a date.” Another sigh escaped from Prika’s mouth. She opened her mouth to continue singing, but a burning pain stung her back. “Ouch!”
The squids fell from Prika’s paws as she whirled around. There was a patch of black scales on her back. She stuck her head into the water and glared. In the depths of the water, where there shouldn’t have been any light, there was a tiny shining speck. Prika’s brow furrowed, and she squinted. The shining speck got larger and larger. Before Prika could react, her vision was covered by a blinding light, and a scorching pain struck her forehead. The water around her heated up, and boiling bubbles floated to the surface of the ocean.
Prika roared, sending a shockwave through the water. She flapped her wings and struggled out of the water, ascending into the sky. There was a burnt section on her forehead filled with black scales. She touched her head with her front paw and frowned. “What the heck was that?” Her lips spread into a frown, and she stared at the surface of the water. The ocean was pretty large, and she hadn’t explored much of it, but she hadn’t encountered any dragons or anything that could hurt her. Now that she wasn’t looking and relaxing while floating around, she was suddenly attacked by something?
Prika’s eyes turned red, and steam drifted up from her scales as the seawater on her evaporated all at once. She roared and plunged into the ocean like a burning meteor. Bubbles surged to the surface as the water vaporized upon contact with her scales. Another speck of light appeared in the depths of the ocean, and Prika swerved to the side. The light flashed by, and she got a clear look at it. It was a laser beam, similar to the ones Kondra spat out, only smaller and more condensed. Her eyes narrowed, and she flapped her wings, diving even faster. She swerved left and right, weaving through a wave of laser beams despite her large body size. The pressure on her increased as she got deeper, but it didn’t bother her at all. As she got closer to the source of the specks, a faint layer of light appeared in her vision.
The bottom of the ocean was supposed to be pitch-black or slightly orange if there were a few spots of lava leaking out, but the light in front of Prika was white. She dove faster, still evaporating all the water as she went, cooking the poor lifeforms that happened to get too close to her. The white light grew brighter and brighter, and soon, a giant white shell of light appeared in her view. It wasn’t the dragon she suspected to be shooting at her. Instead, it was like a giant oyster that was even larger than her? Rays of light bubbled out of the light and flew towards her in the form of laser beams. She was too close to dodge, so Prika braced herself and charged forward instead. She didn’t believe she’d lose to a shiny oyster! Seven laser beams struck her scales, burning her, but she ignored it. She raised her front claw and slashed down, striking the oyster’s shell with the tips of her claws. Like paper, the shell of light was torn, revealing an otherworldly scene behind. However, in an instant, the light repaired itself.
Without hesitation, Prika roared and flapped her wings, accelerating at the shell. Right before she was about to crash into it, she curled up into a ball and rolled, letting her butt strike the layer of light first. There was a loud sizzling sound, followed by a thundering thump. Prika yelped and unfurled her body, rubbing her burnt butt a few times with her front claws as she stood on her hindlegs. To her surprise, she wasn’t underwater anymore. Well, she was, but there wasn’t any water inside the oyster. The ocean was suspended over her head, and a bunch of metallic and glass buildings rose up to her knees from the ground. There was also the screams of some humans.
Prika blinked and tilted her head. There were humans living at the bottom of the ocean? Their buildings were a lot fancier than any of the ones she had ever seen before. There were even carriages that were moving without horses, but they seemed much sleeker than the ones the dwarves had made. They could even fly in the air, floating right by her head. And they could shoot lasers too! Prika roared as a round of lasers struck her scales, and she spewed a breath of flames at the floating vehicles. To her surprise, they were unaffected, and another volley of lasers struck her, causing her to wince. She swung her tail and smashed the vehicles out of the sky. After a few bounces, they wobbled while floating back into the air. Prika wrinkled her snout and lunged forward, snatching as many vehicles as she could. Then she pressed them into the ground, grinding and grinding them until they turned into bits of flattened metal underneath her leg.
Without warning, more lasers struck Prika’s legs, coming from the buildings. Luckily, they could only make her feel some pain without seriously harming her. Unluckily for the buildings, Prika didn’t like feeling pain, so she tore the buildings down and flattened the whole place. When she was done, the barrier of light above the advanced city dispersed, and a surge of water flooded in, washing away the broken remains. Prika snorted and let the current take her away. Now that the things shooting her with lasers were gone, she could finally relax and snack in peace again.