The Frozen Sea (Dragon Games #2), page 1
Contents
Title Page
Map of Imperia
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Sneak Peek of Dragon Games #3
About the Authors
Copyright
“Luca, Yazmine, and Zane. Come to my desk immediately!”
Luca sat up with a jolt. He had completely zoned out. Had Ms. Long noticed? Probably. She was the kind of teacher who always seemed to know exactly what was going on. But surely Ms. Long would understand why Luca was distracted. After all, how often did you discover the imaginary place your teacher always talked about—Imperia—was not imaginary at all?
He’d found this out when he, Yazmine, and Zane were suddenly transported to Imperia! In Imperia, Luca had turned into a flying, fire-breathing dragon. Zane had become a beast—one that was super big, super strong, and super fluffy. Yazmine had stayed in human form but had the power to become invisible.
At school, the three were not friends. In fact, they barely spoke to one another. But in Imperia, they’d become a team. Their first task had been to battle with a massive lava snake called the Magma Mamba, and safely deliver the Thunder Egg into the Crown of Fire—in a volcano!
They’d been through a lot. It was hard to go back to normal after such a big adventure.
As Luca stood up, he glanced over at Yazmine. She shrugged, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. She did not look worried. In fact, her eyes sparkled with excitement. Luca’s heart thumped as a new thought crossed his mind. Maybe they weren’t in trouble. Maybe they were going back to Imperia!
They had completed the first task. But where there’s a first task, there’s always more! Luca knew there were two other Thunder Eggs to return. That meant two more rounds of this dangerous game they were playing.
Luca, Yazmine, and Zane all arrived at Ms. Long’s desk at the same time. It was clear from the grin on Zane’s face that he, like Yazmine, was confident they weren’t in trouble.
“So, Ms. Long,” Zane said, grinning as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Have you got a task for us? Is there somewhere special you want us to go?”
Zane was either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish to speak to Ms. Long like this. It was sometimes a little hard to tell with Zane.
Ms. Long fixed Zane with a stony stare that made him wilt.
“Yes, Zane,” she said. “I do have a job for you three. I need you to go to the gym and clean up the equipment room. The gym teacher tells me that your class left it in a terrible mess.”
Ms. Long turned back to the rest of the class.
“What?” Zane protested. “That’s not fair! We—”
Yazmine grabbed Zane by the arm and pulled him out of the classroom. Luca followed close behind.
“We dealt with that snake in Imperia,” Zane grumbled. “And we beat Dartsmith at his own game. She should be treating us like heroes! But no. We’re being punished!”
“Don’t you get it?” Yazmine asked, leading the way down the empty hallways toward the gym. “We’re probably going back to Imperia right now. I bet when we open the door to the equipment room, we’ll be transported back there!”
Zane went quiet. Luca felt a rush of adrenaline. What Yazmine said made total sense!
The gym was empty when they arrived. The trio made their way over to the equipment room at the back.
“Let me open it!” Zane said. He made a face at the others as he turned the door handle. Slowly, the door pushed back, revealing …
A very messy room full of sports equipment.
Luca’s heart sank. Zane looked crushed, too. But Yazmine just shrugged. “No use getting upset about it.”
Even so, Luca could tell she was disappointed as well.
In the back corner stood a metal cage where all the balls were kept. There were footballs and soccer balls, volleyballs and basketballs. But the trapdoor at the front of the cage was open and the balls had spilled out all over the floor.
Yazmine waded her way through them and shut the metal trapdoor. “Let’s get this job done,” she said, pushing up her sleeves and bending low.
They quickly got a good rhythm going. Luca scooped up a ball and passed it to either Yazmine or Zane. Yazmine dropped the balls in the cage. Zane, being Zane, used it as a chance to practice his basketball skills. He jumped as high as he could to toss the balls into the cage.
As the room started to clear, Luca noticed funny marks on the floor. There was something about the shape they made …
“Hey!” he called to the others. “Does this look familiar?”
Zane stared at the squiggly lines on the floor. “It’s just like the map that was on the blackboard before we went to Imperia last time.”
“You’re right! There’s Wisdom Mountain,” Yazmine said, pointing to a toothlike shape in the middle. “And there’s the inn and the Crown of Fire. All the places we went to! But hang on … what’s this?”
Yazmine kicked aside a basketball near the top of the map. Luca squinted at it. Was it a house? A palace? It was surrounded by dots that looked a bit like snowflakes. Or insects? Luca shivered. Maybe they were Dartsmith’s army of insect drones. They had been hard to battle last time.
Luca bent down to pick up another ball. The moment he touched it, he knew it was special. It was oddly shaped, and its surface was rough.
“Guys,” he said, holding it up. “I think I’ve found a Thunder Egg!”
“Can I look?” asked Zane. He took it from Luca and inspected it. “It’s not the same as the last one. This one’s smaller and lighter in color. Maybe it’s a different type of dragon? And it’s cold.”
“I’m not surprised it’s cold,” Yazmine said. “It’s covered in snow.”
Luca and Zane stared at her. “What are you talking about? There’s no snow on it. How could there be? It’s the middle of summer!”
“You can’t see it? How very interesting.” She stretched out her hands. “Zane, pass it to me?”
Zane did as she asked. The moment Yazmine’s hands touched the egg, the sports equipment room—and everything in it—vanished.
The ground fell away and Luca began tumbling head over heels. The air swirling around him grew colder and colder. But the strange thing was, the longer Luca plummeted through darkness, the less the cold bothered him. Perhaps he was getting used to it. Or maybe dragons didn’t feel the cold?
Luca squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for a hard landing like last time.
But instead of a thud, Luca landed softly. He opened his eyes but immediately closed them again. The darkness had been replaced by blinding brightness. He needed sunglasses!
He heard Zane’s voice. “Luca? Is that you?”
Luca opened his eyes just a crack, letting them adjust to the glare. There stood Zane. But he hadn’t turned into a beast like last time. In fact, Zane looked exactly like he did in class. The only difference was his clothes. He was wearing leather pants and heavy boots. Slung over his broad shoulders was a thick jacket made of fur. Across his chest was the strap of a bag.
“Of course it’s me,” said Luca. His voice sounded strange. Kind of growly. “I wonder why you’re not a beast?”
Zane smoothed his hair. “Looks like our roles are a different in this round. Hey, I wonder what my special power is?”
Luca wasn’t listening. That’s because a golden dragon loomed behind Zane. Its whole body glittered in the sunlight. When it breathed, sparkling droplets of ice formed in the air.
Luca stared in awe. Even though he had been a dragon before, he’d never actually met a real one. Had this dragon hatched from the Thunder Egg they’d returned on their last quest?
The dragon fixed its gaze on Luca. There was something familiar about its eyes.
“Yazmine?” Luca gasped. “You’re a dragon, too?”
A million thoughts leapt into Luca’s head all at once. The first one was that he was kind of annoyed. It was cool being the only dragon last time! He’d been the biggest of the group, and the only one who could fly.
But then Luca started to see the upside of Yazmine also being a dragon. It would be fun to have another dragon to fly with. And they could take turns carrying Zane on their backs.
The golden dragon looked down at itself. “Wow! I guess so.”
It was definitely Yazmine’s voice. Just louder and more fiery! She stretched out her wings and roared. Golden flames billowed from her jaws. She was a very impressive dragon!
“How weird,” the Yazmine dragon said. “I thought we’d always take on the same forms in Imperia. But this time, Zane is the human, I am the dragon, and Luca, you’re—”
Luca cut her off. “Wait, I’m not a dragon?”
Even as he said it, he half knew the answer. He felt strong, but in a completely different way from his dragon strength. And when he tried to flap his wings, there was nothing to flap. Slowly, he looked down. Last time he had been covered by shining scales. This time he was covered in thick white fur.
“I’m a beast, aren’t I?” he growled.
“You sure are!” Zane grinned. “A very nice one, too. And when I say nice, I mean repulsive.”
Yazmine snorted two perfect, golden smoke rings from her nostrils. “Don’t listen to him, Luca. You’re a perfect beast. I wouldn’t sa
For the first time, Luca took a good look around. There was snow as far as the eye could see. To their right were woods, the dense trees capped with snow like a scene from a winter fairy tale. To the left were majestic mountains, also covered in snow and glinting in the sun.
“Better than the stinky equipment room, hey, Zane?” Yazmine laughed, a small flame leaping from her mouth. “Zane?”
They both turned in circles. How strange! Zane had been right there. Now he was gone.
“Maybe his power is invisibility, like yours was?” Luca suggested.
There was a sudden whir of color. Was blurry vision a beast thing? The whirring thing stopped. Luca blinked.
Standing there was a snowman. Zane was beside it, looking pleased with himself. “Not a bad self-portrait, is it?”
Yazmine’s huge dragon eyes grew even wider. “You built that fast. Hang on—is your special power hyperspeed?”
Zane grinned. “Yup, you got it in one. Much cooler than invisibility.”
“No way!” Yazmine said, but there was a smile on her dragon-y face.
Something about the surroundings seemed familiar to Luca, and he finally realized why. “Ms. Long talked about this area just this week.”
Luca had always loved listening to Ms. Long’s stories about Imperia. But since learning that Imperia was a real place, Luca had been listening even more carefully. Her stories probably contained useful hints for future visits.
Yazmine nodded. “North Gelida, right? It’s one of the most dangerous areas of Imperia. How did Ms. Long put it? There’s a lot of competition for food, so the creatures here are always on the hunt.”
Luca gulped. It was hard to imagine anything more dangerous than the Magma Mamba, but maybe that monster would end up seeming like a cute pet.
An even more worrying thought hit him. “The Thunder Egg!”
“Relax.” Zane tapped the bag slung over his shoulder. “I stowed it in here.”
Yazmine’s eyes narrowed. “How about I look after it? Or Luca?”
Zane shook his head. “I am the only one with any real ball skills. This thing’s going to be safest with me, believe me.”
“It’s not a ball, Zane,” Yazmine said in her deep dragon voice. “It’s an egg. And inside is one of the three future dragon rulers of Imperia.”
“I haven’t forgotten the prophecy,” Zane said. “But I also haven’t forgotten that this is a game. We’re in a competition with that Dartsmith guy, remember? And when it comes to games, I’m your go-to guy.”
“That depends on the game,” Yazmine retorted. “There are games that Luca and I are better at.”
Zane folded his arms. “Yeah? Like what?”
Before Yazmine could respond, a high, sharp sound pierced the air.
Luca clapped his paws over his ears. “Ouch! What is that whistle?”
“I can’t hear a whistle,” Yazmine said, “but I can hear a rumbling.”
The whistle stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Now Luca could hear rumbling, too.
They all turned to the mountain range, where a mass of snow tumbled toward them at an alarming speed.
“Avalanche!” Luca cried, his heart pounding.
Zane shook his head. His confident smile had faded. “That’s no avalanche. That’s something much, much worse.”
A sinister howling echoed around them.
Luca’s beast ears twitched with the sound. “What is that, Zane?”
Zane had a good memory for the many monsters and beasts in Ms. Long’s Imperia stories.
“It’s an Avalanche Wolf,” Zane said grimly. “The main predator in North Gelida. And it’s heading this way.”
Luca stared at the huge bank of snow plummeting down the mountain. His beast eyes were very sharp. As he watched the avalanche, he saw multiple wolf heads rise up, then disappear back into the snow. Hang on, did that mean more than one beast was coming?
Then he realized: All those heads were attached to a single, massive wolf body! That was way worse!
As the monstrous thing galloped closer, the heads stretched up above the snow, baying ferociously. Great clouds of ice billowed in all directions.
Luca watched in horror as trees and boulders were crushed beneath the beast. The terrifying calls grew ever louder.
Fear shot through Luca. “Yazmine, you’d better try flying. It’ll take a bit of time to work it out. Don’t feel bad if—”
Yazmine gave her wings a flap and rose smoothly into the air. “Thanks, I think I’ve got it! I picked up some tips from watching you last time. Hey, this is fun!”
“You forgot Zane!” Luca called as Yazmine flew higher.
Bloodthirsty wolf howls ricocheted off the mountains.
As the avalanche thundered closer, Luca saw the enormous beast was like a writhing bank of snow but with countless legs and snarling heads. Luca had read about Cerberus, a mythical dog with three heads. But a massive snow-wolf avalanche thingy, with more than ten heads? It was the stuff of nightmares.
Now Luca could see its creepy, pale eyes. Its many fangs, pointy as icicles, gleamed in the sunlight.
Yazmine wheeled in the air overhead. “Sorry, Zane!” she called. “I’ll fly back to you!”
“No need,” Zane called over the noise. “Just swoop down over there. I’ll catch up with you.”
Zane streaked across the ice to meet Yazmine. She flew lower as he leapt into the air. A moment later, Zane was safely sitting on Yazmine’s broad dragon back.
“This is the best special power ever!” whooped Zane. “If I could move like this on the football field, I’d be unstoppable.”
“Nice work,” Luca cheered.
“Luca, watch out!” Yazmine cried.
Luca swung around. The Avalanche Wolf was much closer than he’d realized! It was tearing toward him in a blizzard of snow, its giant paws pounding hard. The monster was constantly shifting and changing. One moment the thing had ten heads, the next it had fifteen.
But it didn’t matter how many heads the monster had. The real issue was that all of them were snarling at Luca! Drool fell like ropes from the many enormous jaws as the beast drew closer by the second. Dread churned in Luca’s stomach. He felt like a huge wave with teeth was about to crash over him.
Luca heard the others bellowing at him. “RUN!”
Luca did not hesitate. He turned and ran. He hadn’t run in his new beast body yet—he really hoped he was fast! Luckily, he was well-equipped for the snowy terrain. His wide, flat feet didn’t sink into the thick snow. He half glided across the surface. Running as a beast was almost like skiing!
All the same, Luca could feel the Avalanche Wolf closing in on him. The sound of its slobbering breath and thundering paws grew louder. Its angry barking filled his ears. Squinting through the brightness, Luca saw a shape up ahead. It was some kind of hut. His heart leapt. If he could just make it that far, maybe he’d be safe!
He turned to check where the wolf was. It had arrived at Zane’s snowman. Luca’s stomach lurched as the snowy, snarling beast flattened it without slowing.
All that was left was a single broken twig arm sticking straight up.
The wolf surged after him. Through the frenzied barking, Luca thought he heard something else. Words. Hungry! So hungry!
Luca gritted his teeth. Stay focused, he urged himself. Don’t start thinking the monster is talking to you! Luca half ran and half skated on his broad beast feet.
The last time Luca was in Imperia, he had been with Yazmine a lot of the time. They’d figured out things together. But with Yazmine and Zane in the air, Luca felt entirely alone. He had to get through this by himself.
As he neared the hut, Luca saw that it was made of stone. It was clearly abandoned, but it looked sturdy. Phew! Luca looked up to see Zane riding on Yazmine’s back. He was leaning over the side.
“The multi-headed snow mutt is almost on you!” Zane yelled.
“I am aware of that, Zane!” Luca growled back.
He concentrated on the wooden door of the hut. It was only a few feet away. Would it be unlocked? It had to be!
When he arrived at the door, Luca didn’t slow. He leapt at it, kicking with his huge feet. The door opened easily and Luca crashed through, tumbling onto the floor. Scrambling up, Luca closed the door and leaned heavily against it. He took one gulp of air, and then another.
