Excerpt from Stones of Abraxas
After more than an hour of trudging in the hot sun, David found himself growing bored with the unchanging scenery. There was a hill off to their left, and David realized it resembled Lakeview Mountain. He knew it could not be Lakeview Mountain, though, because this empty prairie looked nothing like the crowded suburbs that surrounded the hill near David’s home.
David turned his eyes upward to watch the birds flitting by. He saw sparrows, cardinals, and grackles -- the same types of birds that visited Mom’s backyard bird feeder.
As he watched, a new bird came into view in the distance. The way it moved was unusual; it seemed to soar on the air currents more than the other birds he had spotted so far. Thinking it might be a hawk, David directed his full attention to it.
David pointed. "What does that look like to you?" he asked.
Amanda cupped her hand over her eyes to block the sun. "I don't know. It sure is big. What kind of bird is that big, Mom?"
"Look at the size of that thing!" Mom said, using her newly improved eyesight to get a good look at it. "It's like a pterodactyl."
When the last word left her mouth, David felt his heart skip. That was almost exactly what he had been thinking. But to David, this did not resemble an extinct beast, but one that had never existed.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say it's a … a ... dragon," David said with some embarrassment.
Amanda looked away from the creature to scowl at her brother.
"Dragon?" she said. "Right, and we're in some magical land where dragons fly with the robins."
"And where water cures zits," David returned, briefly taking his eyes from the sky to look pointedly at his sister.
David and Amanda turned back to the flying beast. It was already huge in the sky and still growing. Its wingspan was wider than the Stanhopes' garage. The creature's head was small and attached to a long neck, and a snake-like tail trailed behind the beast. Its body was colored in shades of green that rippled in the light, like the scales on a fish.
Any lingering hope that this was just a big bird was erased when the Stanhopes saw it had four legs, all ending in long, sharp claws. This was a dragon. And it was coming right for them.
Standing with gaping mouths, the family was rooted to the ground while the great beast closed in. David yelled, "Get down!" and all three threw themselves into the grass. With a rush of putrid air, the dragon passed only a few feet over their prone bodies. They looked up to see the dragon make a graceful circle in the air and head back for another pass. As it approached, the beast's yellowed teeth shone in its drooling mouth.
Amanda screamed and covered her head. Mom draped her body over her daughter and grabbed for David, but could not reach him. David had stood up and was facing the dragon. Mom shouted for him to get down, but he did not hear her. All he could hear was the rushing sound of the dragon coming toward him and the furious pulse of blood through his ears.