AabiLynn’s Test Of Dragons, Test Of Swords #3 The Mangiatore, One Who Devours Dragon Nests

By Kristie Lynn Higgins

Type: novella and the word count is about 32,400 words
AabiLynn's Test of Dragons, Test of Swords follows Cara-AabiLynn's adventures after AabiLynn's Dragon Rite series. If you haven't read the Dragon Rite series, you can start it by reading AabiLynn's Dragon Rite #0 Dragon's Brood.

ATOD3: In the third story of the series, Cara and her dragon hatchling deal with a disconnect as a new deadly foe arrives. Read this dragon and magic story where the bonds of family and friendship are more powerful than sorcery.

AabiLynn's Test of Dragons, Test of Swords fantasy action adventure sword and sorcery novella series
ATOD1: The Birth Of A Dragon Queen And The Birth Of Sorrows
ATOD2: Dragon Hearts And Nightmarish Times
ATOD3: The Mangiatore, One Who Devours Dragon Nests

If you love stories with dragons or stories about dragons like Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern, Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon, or George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire a.k.a. Game of Thrones, you’ll love this series about a bond of friendship and family like no other. Cara-AabiLynn and her dragon hatchling pair have completed their Dragon Rite and move forward with their training as dark forces march in to destroy all dragons.

A girl is dragon bound and has become a young dragonrider who is not a typical dracowoman. Cara faces adversity alongside those she loves and faces dangers and hardships. This dragon books series is full of action and adventure and fans of fantasy will enjoy this charming story of courage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristie Lynn
• Release date: Mar 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463056523

Kristie Lynn Higgins

You can also check out my author page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/author/kristielynnhiggins

Book preview

AabiLynn’s Test Of Dragons, Test Of Swords

#3

The Mangiatore, One Who Devours Dragon Nests

Kristie Lynn Higgins

© 2020

Smashwords Edition

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

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AabiLynn’s Test Of Dragons, Test Of Swords

#3

The Mangiatore, One Who Devours Dragon Nests

Chapter One

Falling To Her Death

All was confusion for the girl…  Cara had accidentally unfettered from Black Fire and plummeted toward the ground.  They had been very high up, and it would take her minutes to hit the surface so there was still time… time for her pair to swoop down and save her.  Cara thought he would be immediately upon her, but Black Fire flew on without her, flew on as if he didn’t hear her desperate screams for help.  He flew on as if he didn’t sense the disconnect between them.

The moments leading up to the unfettering were unsettling.  She heard Black Fire’s muddled thoughts, and they were full of confusion and doubt.  His doubts grew and grew, and they were focused on… they were about their… connection and… something about being a second rate pair.  His insecurities increased and forced their bond apart and caused a fracture that cultivated discord until the disconnect formed.

Now… she was falling to her death, and her pair was ignoring her pleas for help.  Black Fire finally turned and looked for her below him, but she had fallen some distance back and was no longer beneath him.  Cara screamed for him again as the air whipped about her hair as if to pull it out.  He still didn’t look in her direction as if he couldn’t hear her or sense her.  They were always connected by their bond but something was wrong with their connection, and she couldn’t sense him.  Cara could see him, but it was like she was invisible to him.  Black Fire finally spotted her and frantically dove for her.  He dove faster and faster, gaining sky on her, but then she felt a very hot wind come up below her.  Cara turned her gaze to the ground that she had purposely ignored and spotted the Mangiatore below her with its giant mouth opened to swallow her whole.  She screamed all the more as she neared her death.  Cara sensed that her pair was desperate to reach her as desperate as she was to be saved by him.  Black Fire was nearly upon her but then... a blur of gray grabbed her and wrapped her up in its wings.  She thought she would be carried away by this creature, but her momentum forced the two of them to continue to fall right into the Mangiatore’s mouth.

The outside air around them became increasingly hotter as they continued to plummet.  The hot air did slow their descent.  She didn’t understand at first what had happened, but Cara guessed what must have happened.  One of the three things, the weird blind creatures that had come out of the Mangiatore’s mouth, had grabbed her and was dragging her deeper into the mouth of the mountain-sized monster.  All Cara could see was the wings of the little beast that completely obscured her view of what was around her.  She still felt a sensation of falling as if the little beast still hadn’t pulled out of the free fall and tumbled end over end through the seemingly bottomless gullet of the Mangiatore.  The wing of her captor parted enough so that Cara could see the dark and yet illuminated world of her enormous burial chamber.  It was pitch-black in there and yet there were these eruptions of what looked like neon-green lava that erupted sideways and brightened patches of the throat all around them.  Some of this digestive-lava sprayed upon them but Cara was never hit by the spray safely tucked in her captor’s wings.

They continued to fall towards the Mangiatore’s massive gut which was a giant pool in the distance made of the same neon-green belly juices.  Stomach acids lifted in a hue of green burning mist.  The wings of the little beast protected her, for the most part, from the acid, but it still burned her eyes, throat, and nose.

Cara saw glimpses of the strange world around her.  It was mostly dark with patches of bright to fading neon-green light, depending on how long ago an eruption occurred, and it was very hot with an updraft that ruffled her hair even within the protective wings of her captor.  She heard the calls of many of the little beasts as they flew around the Mangiatore’s gigantic stomach below them as if it was a vast cavern.  More little beasts clung to the sides of the Mangiatore’s throat as if the throat was part of the little beasts’ nest.  They also seemed to know when an eruption was about to occur for they would fly away moments before the acid spray shot out sideways.  She glanced down again and saw the pool of bubbling goo below them... only moments away.  Cara guessed that the little beast, the one who was her captor, would soon drop her into the stomach acid.  She screamed one last time as she knew there was nothing she or Black Fire could do.  Cara was terrified because she could no longer sense her pair as if she had already died… or… she shuttered at her next thought.  It was as if Black Fire had died.

Cara took her arms and wrapped them around the little beast as they were nearly upon the pool.  She held her breath as if she would be jumping into a lake for a refreshing swim.  Cara wanted to believe it was only water to make her horrible last moments bearable.  She wondered if she should exhale.  Maybe it would be better to drown than be eaten by acid.  A new color, one of blue, engulfed her, and then blackness surrounded her and then the azure color engulfed her again and then blackness once more.  This was it… she was about to hit the pool.

Chapter Two

The Moment It All Went Wrong

Earlier that night trek…

Black Fire and Cara were still within Firedrake.  They left Wyndfree and HuntMa and snuck out past the fighting pair guards.  Their objective was to fly out to the Mangiatore and lead it away from their nest and their family.  Black Fire had overheard the conversation Cara had with Bold.  He was shocked to learn that Bold, his nemesis, was actually Cara’s first pair and not him.  Black Fire also learned that Bold could still be Cara’s pair and if those things were true, where did that leave him?  Doubt crept up on the hatchling as if it was a predator and he was helpless prey.  Uncertainty dug into his hearts as Black Fire wondered where in Cara’s heart he belonged.  Ortus, his sister, was also one of Cara’s pairs but that fact never bothered him as he believed he would always be Cara’s first pair.  Bold rejected Cara on the Middle Ground and therefore he had the only claim to her.  The pale hatchling couldn’t have his pair.

Black Fire and Cara flew for some time, leaving Firedrake and nearing the terrifying Mangiatore.  The hatchling had a mission to focus on, but Black Fire was having trouble freeing his mind of the thoughts that plagued him.  He increasingly believed that he was somehow less in Cara’s eyes.  He was only her second pair.

We should fly higher than the Mangiatore, she said, pulling him from his worries.

Black Fire again had to put an effort into focusing on their mission.  It was hard not to think about his doubts.  He aimed higher and soon they were flying hundreds of feet above the Mangiatore.

The mountain of a beast paid no attention to them as they approached.  The infant in a humongous monster’s body still rested with its eyes closed.  They were safe for the moment.

The Mangiatore opened its eyes and grumbled, and then it released three of the pale-gray winged creatures.  The KoKites, who had no eyes, flew out of the Mangiatore’s mouth and headed for the pair.  KoKites hunted for the Mangiatore for they not only fed off the nutrient-rich stomach acid within the mountain of a beast, but they were also carrion-eaters.  They would feed on undigested rotting flesh within the cavern-stomach of the Mangiatore.  The KoKites immediately spotted the pair and targeted them.  The pale-gray winged creatures were the size of a normal hatchling, so Black Fire was much larger than them.

Dragons? Cara questioned.

Black Fire turned his attention to them and then projected, I do not think so but either way, we should treat them as our enemy.

"Our