Chapter 51

Bartz turned to his party. “We have to get off the path.”

“That very well might be the understatement of the eon,” Falca said.

Bartz thought for a minute while he surveyed the surroundings. Not much to choose from, just rocks and dirt.

“The rocks will give us some protection!” Bartz said, and paused. “Okay, on three, Nata lower the shield, I’ll throw Adres to the dragon, and we all dart to the LEFT side of the road,” Bartz jerked his head to the right. “Okay?”

Nata, Tomas, and Falca stared at Bartz for a second, all three of them slowly nodding.

“One,” Bartz said. “Three!” he shouted and yanked Adres with him off the right side of the path, the others close on his heels.

The dragon was a bit slow on the uptake. He fired a burst of fire at the path but missed.

“I should have known humans would have trouble counting to three and telling their left from their right!” the dragon roared.

The heroes (and Adres) lay in hiding behind a huge bo