Chapter 6

Belkio gasped for breath as the icy wind knocked the air out of his lungs. He had not known the snow up here was any colder than down there, but obviously there was a huge difference in temperature. Centare seemed not to notice though, at least not as much. Jerru, on the other hand, had fallen way behind and was shivering uncontrollably. For five minutes they flew through the blinding snow, working themselves- slowly but steadily- up the mountain. Centare was squinting into the snow, muttering to nobody in particular, "WHERE is it? It HAS to be here SOMEWHERE. WHERE is that castle? WHERE?" he ended his complaints with a mighty roar that echoed through the snow and was lost among the falling whiteness. For an hour they struggled helplessly against the fierce winds that pushed them and shoved them every which way, the cold biting their noses and freezing their wings so that they couldn't even feel them, and for a moment, Belkio thought in horror that maybe he wasn't even flying at all! Even Centare looked beaten, but was still peering among the snowflakes as they whizzed by at top speed. All of a sudden, Jerru gave a excited roar, and stretched his neck, pointing to the left. Belkio and Centare stared where Jerru had pointed. But Belkio couldn't see anything but the snow. Then he did see it. It was a blue dragon, gliding through the storm as if it were a sunny day. Belkio gaped at him, then closed his mouth, realising it was rude- and his saliva was freezing. The blue dragon motioned to them to follow him, and started off into the blizzard. Jerru however, was so cold and tired he sunk down into the snow and closed his eyes. "Jerru! You'll freeze to death!"Belkio cried. Centare snapped his head around. "He is too tired to move." he survied carefully. "We will have to carry him." Belkio nudged his shoulder under his friend, and lifted him up with Centare. Then they follwed the blue dragon.
*** Belkio's heart fluttered with relief when he finally saw the castle. It was grand, made out of clouds with a banner of the cloud king fluttering on top of a turret, and a huge misty moat made of fog. Centare and Belkio dropped Jerru at the door and waited as their escort knocked a code on the huge ice door. Then the ice slid up and there, inside, was the biggest, the grandest, the most powerful dragon he ever saw. "Come inside. I've been waiting for you." Brostiff rumbled.