extra two hundred just for her.” Buck entered the pen and got the dragon halter on her, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the tails of the others. As he was leading her out, Karposh motioned one of his boys to go get his saddle. Then Buck saddled her—and attached only the mouth-ring reins. “Here ya go.”
With the help of two of his attendants, Karposh climbed aboard and got a four-toed, taloned foot in each stirrup. He flicked the reins and tentatively spurred her. (Terullians don’t wear spurs because they have natural spurs on their heels similar to those of roosters.) The little red dragon responded by walking out and turning when urged. With a little more encouragement from Karposh she went into her smooth trot.
“Oh, ssshe isss fine, my Buck. You tell truth.” Then he kicked her up into a lope and then a gallop—and then she took it up another notch on her own. Karposh sawed frantically on the reins, but to no effect. The dragon got her head up, worked her wings, and lifted off the ground. She rose to about thirty feet and commenced her roll, just as she had done with Buck. But, being yet immature and inexperienced at flight, she miscalculated and came crashing back down—with Karposh under her.
When she started to roll, though, fat Karposh had let his left foot slip through the stirrup and lost his right stirrup completely. They all saw it. So when she came down, the dragon crushed Karposh’s left leg under her, the one hung in the stirrup.
They rushed toward the downed dragon and the trapped Terullian. As they ran, Buck yelled, “Skeet, Snort, git her head!” Skeeter grabbed the dragon’s snout and twisted it over her shoulder while Snort grabbed a nose ring and twisted hard. The red dragon lay still, quivering.
Buck bent over the moaning Karposh so he could speak directly into his ear. “Okay, you lizard-lookin’ bastard, you got two choices. You make me a promise . . . or we’ll let this red bitch up. And if we let her up, she won’t stop till she gets back to the Serulian Mountains where she came from. And what that means for you, my friend, is that you’ll have your lizard brains battered out and scattered over two thousand miles of desert. How does that suit you?”
“No! Don't let her up.”
“Or you can promise to do what I ask.”
“Yesss, yesss, I promissse—anything.”
“I thought so. Karposh, you’re gettin’ smarter already. Now, here’s what I want. You promise me you’ll stop this trade in human flesh and you’ll let all those girls go.”
“No—yesss . . . you beggar me, Buck. But . . . yesss, I promissse . . . no more girlsss.”
“All right, then. Give me the security code to the laser fence around your compound.” Karposh gave it and went back to moaning. Buck got up: “Stay put, boys. And make sure ol’ Karposh don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” Buck walked back to his sky truck chuckling to himself.
He returned with a hunting knife and a hack saw. At first, Skeeter thought Buck was just going cut the dragon-saddle girths to get the dragon off Karposh. But he soon saw that Buck had something else in mind.
So Skeeter watched with a look of open-mouthed horror while Snort smiled grimly as Buck set to work amputating Karposh’s left leg just below the hip. He cut through the flesh and then sawed through the bone with the hacksaw. Karposh gave one sibilant scream and then passed out. Really, though, Buck did a pretty neat job.
“Okay, boys, let ’er up.” They did, and the little red dragon took off at a run, left the ground, gained good altitude, and was gone. She was trying to get away from Karposh’s left leg dangling from the stirrup and banging against her side.
Skeeter couldn’t speak. He just looked, open mouthed and wide eyed still, from Karposh on the ground to Buck, who was still holding the bloody saw, and back again. Snort burst out in uncontrollable laughter, slapping his knees, crying, and then holding his stomach. “Snort, it ain’t funny. Buck just cut his leg off. I never woulda thought Buck could do somethin’ like that.”
Finally gaining some control, Snort said, “Skeet, don’t you know he’s half lizard. He’ll grow another leg in few weeks. And it’ll be better than the old one ’cause it’ll be younger.”
Still slightly incredulous, Skeeter finally spoke: “Well . . . I’ll be . . . I never thought of that.” He shook his head as Karposh’s attendants carried off their unconscious, one-legged leader.
Buck chuckled a little at this exchange and then took charge of the situation. “Well, come on, boys, let’s go get those girls out of there and get ’em to some place more civilized than this. They deserve it after all they’ve been through.”
Pulling up the rear because he was still a little wobbly in the knees, Skeeter asked, “Buck, does this mean we’re gonna have to find us a new dragon-breaking job now?”
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