Tongue Tied - Episode 2

Tongue Tied - Episode 2

J.E. Thompson

Drake felt sharp teeth poking into his chest like so many nails when he woke up. He found himself dangling out of a dragon's mouth, face down, staring at the earth impossibly far below.

His first instinct was to get the scrum out of there. He tried to wriggle free. The dragon clamped its jaw tighter, but didn't bite down. Then it tilted its head so Drake was head first toward the ground.

"If it were me, I wouldn't struggle," Grant's voice said from somewhere. "Bessie's a good girl, and she's promised to do her best not to bite you in half. But you go and make her mad, and--Whooee, she can get a bit testy. You wouldn't like that." Drake strained to see where Grant's voice was coming from. He finally saw Grant perched in a saddle on the base of the dragon's neck.

"Let me go, you lunatic."

Grant looked down over the edge of the dragon. "I honestly don't think you'd like it much were Bessie to let you go," he said. "It's a far piece from here to where you'd stop. You might want to reconsider your request. Not that I'd mind. The price on your head is the same whether you be dead or alive. I just find it easier when I don't have to carry no dead body into the Columns." Grant held onto the pommel of the saddle with one hand, and rubbed his stomach with the other. "Rather have you walk. Last desperado I had to carry gave me a hernia, and that weren't no fun at all."

"Look," Drake said. "I'll give you my share of the money. You put me down nice and easy, and just say you never found me. I got it hid, but I'll tell you where it is if you let me go."

"That's a might tempting offer," Grant said. He used his free hand to pull a pouch of tobacco out of his shirt pocket.

He held onto the pommel with most of one hand, used the thumb and forefinger and his free hand to roll a cigarette. He put it in his mouth, and struck a match along the dragon's scales. He lit the cigarette, took a deep draw. The smoke trailed out of his mouth and disappeared into the wind.

"Yep, might tempting. Excepting for one thing."

"What's that?" Drake asked.

"You aren't exactly known for keeping your word—or leaving partners alive."

Drake's head drooped. The blood rushing to his head made him dizzy. "At least tell this beast to don’t keep my head pointed down."

Grant leaned forward and stroked the dragon's neck. Bessie bent her head toward him and he whispered to her.

Bessie flipped her head like dog worrying a bone and readjusted Drake in her mouth, his neck between her teeth on one side, his thighs on the other, and his feet dangling in the wind.

He felt her wet tongue against his side. "Is this thing tasting me?"

(Want more? Here's the link to Episode 3)
(Did you miss Episode 1? Click here)