Here's the next chapter. I'm afraid it's just a tiny one. Enjoy.
Stayne had been with the bloodriders when he'd discovered dragons were extinct. That was a hard lesson for any boy to learn, no child could grow without hearing tales of dragons. They were built into Underland's racial memory. They were so well known he expected even Overland must have caught a whisper of them.
When he was a young child even before he lost his family and became a criminal he was by no means heading in the direction to be a knight like in the stories, he knew he would be rescuing no maidens and uncovering hidden magic treasure but it was still a blow to hear they were no more.
It was hard to look at this dragon and comprehend it was real, in the flesh. He'd seen monsters in all shapes and forms, more monsters than he could name in both Underland and the Outlands. But of all the monsters he'd seen nothing came close to this.
He half wished a prophecy driven hero like Alice was here, if she could deal with a jabberwocky maybe she'd stand some chance against a dragon. When fate was on their side people seemed to be able to pull off just about anything.
Thankfully they could take advantage of this particular monster's slumber and slowly began edging their round its body which was large beyond reasonable comprehension.
As they neared its scaly head on a long lizard-like neck furnished with two large horns they hardly dared breathe. Its own breath stank of death and Stayne shuddered to think what unfortunate Outland creatures had been snatched up in those jaws.
It was puffing smoke in its sleep too, soft churns swirling towards them heating up the air making their eyes sting.
It was impossible to say whether it was the smoke, the smell, the heat or just really bad luck that from in Jonathan's arms Ethan's eyes flickered and he looked up with a moan.
Stayne and Mirana whirled round, Jonathan looked down and in the same moment all three knew exactly what was about to happen and that they had no time to stop it.
As expected Ethan's eyes widened as he saw the monster mere meters from him. On cue he let out an ear piercing scream of sheer terror that echoed throughout the whole chasm, throughout the whole Outlands.
They all turned as one gigantic, golden eye opened.