Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth by - (best books to read for self development TXT) 📕

“But we can try,” Mark asserted.

Tristan didn’t have a better idea, so he nodded.

Mark cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. “Uh, hello—“

The dragon roared. He tried several times to climb to his feet, sending bird bones scattering with every movement, but eventually collapsed back down. His head lay on the ground, but his spinning silver eyes never left them. He looked hungry. And desperate.

Mark took a slight step closer. “We’re here to help you. We know that you’re an Immortal. We know that Caine imprisoned you here, and we can free you, if you’ll let us.”

The dragon neither moved nor responded. He just watched. And waited.

Mark inched forward.

Tristan looked between the druid and the dragon’s chain. “Not too much closer or he’ll reach you.”

“He can’t even get up,” Mark said, frowning.

“For a meal, he can.”

Mark paled a bit and nodded. “Do you understand us? Can we help you?”

Still, the dragon said nothing.

The druid inched forward, and everything happened at once. The dragon shot toward him, and Tristan yanked him back, far out of the dragon’s reach.

He roared, massive teeth snapping. Drool rolling from his mouth as he struggled against the chain, flinging his body over and over toward them.

Tristan patted Mark’s shoulder. “He is a beast now and nothing more.”

A second later, they heard something behind them.

Surcy gasped. “What have they done to him?”

“The bastards tortured him,” Daniel muttered.

“And now he’s lost to his primal side,” Mark explained, sounding hopeless. “Tristan may be able to break the chains, but we can’t get close enough without it killing us.”

“So then, let’s feed it,” Daniel said, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

They all turned to the fire mage as one.

He shrugged. “The best way to gain an animal’s trust is to feed it and show it that you won’t hurt it. We won’t rescue him quickly, but we can rescue him.”

Mark smiled. “You’re a freaking genius!”

Their plan was harder said than done. Surcy teleported away and appeared back on the ledge below. Tristan plucked her off of it, brought her back to the dragon’s cave, and they threw the dragon whatever meat Surcy had bought. They spent the afternoon doing nothing but feeding the dragon, but even so, it continued to stare at them, waiting for more.

And yet when Tristan moved forward, the creature was always watching, ready to make him his next meal.

They left in the evening and came back each day for seven days. And each day they sensed a change in the dragon. He seemed… less angry. He didn’t roar at their approach, and he didn’t snap when they got closer.

He wasn’t ready yet, but Tristan felt confident that soon he would trust them.

On the seventh day, as they sat at the cave entrance, waiting for the dragon to finish, they heard a strange sound from the back of the cave.

The dragon stiffened and turned slowly, staring into the darkness.

They tensed. Was it Caine’s angels? Or something even more dangerous?

And then, three haggard people appeared at the entrance to a small tunnel. The dragon lunged at them, and the people cowered back, but his chain took him nowhere near them.

One of the people, a woman with long, tangled black hair and a dirt-streaked face looked at them in shock. “We thought… we thought we heard voices.”

Tristan could not take his eyes off of her. She looked as thin and filthy as the dragon. Was she a prisoner here too?

“We’re here to free the dragon,” Surcy said, her voice hesitant.

The woman’s eyes widened, and she looked between them and the dragon. “You won’t survive that.”

“We have to try.”

For a long minute, tension sung between them. At last, the woman spoke, “I’m Winter. This is Autumn and Spring. And that dragon,” she said, pointing at it, “is Summer. We are the Immortals of the seasons, and Caine has trapped us here longer than we can remember.”

More Immortals?

“Is there no other way out?” Surcy asked, although they all already knew the answer.

Winter shook her head. “Only past Summer. And he’s no longer himself… just a mindless dragon.”

Surcy stood, and they followed her suit. “Well, we’re here to save all of you from Caine.”

Winter nodded. “I don’t think you’ll succeed, but you’re the first ones to try.”

The man named Autumn took a step closer to them. At one point, his long hair was likely the color of fall leaves, but now it was covered in dirt and grime, so much that the color was a muted brown. “We’ve been surviving on the bugs and rats we find in the tunnels. I’m all for anything that might get us out of this hell. That fucking bastard Caine, leaving us down here like animals, knowing we’ll starve but not die.”

Mark spoke, his words soft. “I’m so sorry he did that to you. But we have a plan, we’re feeding him. We’re going to try to calm him enough to remove his chains. And once he can shift, he should regain some of his mind.”

Autumn looked at the dragon. “Sure you don’t have any dragon tranquilizers?”

Daniel laughed. “If only.”

Spring moved forward. Her hair fell down to her ankles, hair that had once been blonde. And her skin was pale. Dead flowers sprouted from her hair, and her expression was that of hopelessness. “You should know there is another reason why we emerged from the tunnels today.”

Tristan frowned. This doesn’t sound good.

“This is the day the angels come. They give us scraps of food and ask us if we have forgotten the outside world yet.”

His heart sped up. Angels? If they came, there was evidence everywhere that people had been here. The bones of all the meat they’d been feeding the dragon littered the floor, and the creature no longer looked nearly as starved and crazed.

“If they come, our plan is doomed,” Tristan said, low enough so the Immortals wouldn’t catch his